Pralaya

Pralaya is a Sanskrit word that means "dissolution" or "melting away" (from laya: "to dissolve" and pra "away"). In Hinduism it refers to a period where the universe is in a state of non-existence, a state of matter achieved when the three gunas (qualities of matter) are in perfect balance.

In Hinduism

Pralaya is of four kinds: a) Naimittaka or occasional, b) Prakrittika or elemental, c) Atyantika or absolute, and d) Nitya or perpetual.

The Vishnu Purana describes three kinds of pralaya:

a) Naimittika is described as the intervals of Brahma's days, when the sovereign of the world rests in sleep. This involves the destruction of creatures, though not of the substance of the world, occurring during his night.

b) Prakrittika or elemental is when the mundane egg resolves into the primary element from whence it was derived. It occurs at the end of Brahma's life.

c) Atyantika is individual annihilation or Moksha. Moksha is the exclusion forever from future existence. It is described as the absolute non-existence of the world, is the absorption of the sage through knowledge, into the supreme spirit.

The Bhagavad Gita describes a fourth kind of pralaya:

d) Nitya or the constant dissolution of all that is born. This is the imperceptible change that all things suffer, in the various stages of growth and decay, life and death. The various conditions of beings subject to change are occasioned by that constant dissolution of life, which is rapidly produced by the resistless stream of time, taking everything perpetually away.

In Theosophy

The Theosophical view of pralaya is similar in many aspects to that of Hinduism. Mme. Blavatsky explains:

There are many kinds of Pralaya, but three chief ones are specially mentioned in old Hindu books. The first is called NAIMITTIKA "occasional" or "incidental", caused by the intervals of "Brahmâ’s Days"; it is the destruction of creatures, of all that lives and has a form, but not of the substance which remains in statu quo till the new DAWN in that "Night". The other is called PRAKRITIKA, and occurs at the end of the Age or Life of Brahma, when everything that exists is resolved into the primal element, to be remodelled at the end of that longer night. But the third, ATYANTIKA, does not concern the Worlds or the Universe, but only the individualities of some people; it is thus individual pralaya or NIRVANA; after having reached which, there is no more future existence possible, no rebirth till after the Maha Pralaya.

In Theosophy the different pralayas are connected with the teachings about cyclic evolution through rounds and chains:

Occultism divides the periods of Rest (Pralaya) into several kinds; there is the individual pralaya of each Globe, as humanity and life pass on to the next; seven minor Pralayas in each Round; the planetary Pralaya, when seven Rounds are completed; the Solar Pralaya, when the whole system is at an end; and finally the Universal Maha—or Brahmâ—Pralaya at the close of the "Age of Brahmâ." These are the three chief pralayas or “destruction periods.” There are many other minor ones, but with these we are not concerned at present.

In the context of these teachings, naimittika refers to the minor pralaya of a globe that belongs of a chain, and is also called "obscuration."

Further reading

• Secret Doctrine vol. I, Section VII: "The Days and Nights of Brahma" by H. P. Blavatsky