The Days and Nights of Brahma”– Selections from Theosophy’s Sacred Teachings in “The Secret Doctrine,” Part 2 of 2

The Days and Nights of Brahma “There are many kinds of pralaya (dissolution), but three chief ones are specially mentioned in old Hindu books. The first is called Naimittika ‘occasional’ or ‘incidental,’ caused by the intervals of ‘Brahma's Days’; it is the destruction of creatures, of all that lives and has a form, but not of the substance which remains in status quo (the current state of things) 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 remodeled 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 (Great Dissolution). When the Maha Pralaya (Great Dissolution) arrives, the inhabitants of Swar-loka (the upper sphere) disturbed by the conflagration, seek refuge ‘with the Pitris, their progenitors, the Manus, the Seven Rishis, the various orders of celestial Spirits and the Gods, in Maharloka.’ When the latter is reached also, the whole of the above enumerated beings migrate in their turn from Maharloka, and repair to Jana-loka in ‘their subtle forms, destined to become re-embodied, in similar capacities as their former, when the world is renewed at the beginning of the succeeding Kalpa.’”

“This is what we call in the Esoteric Doctrine a ‘Solar Pralaya.’ When the waters have reached the region of the Seven Rishis, and the world (our Solar System) is one ocean, they stop. The breath of Vishnu becomes a strong wind, which blows for another hundred (divine) years until all clouds are dispersed. The wind is then reabsorbed and ‘that, of which all things are made, the Lord by whom all things exist, He who is inconceivable, without beginning, the beginning of the universe, reposes, sleeping upon Sesha (the Serpent of Infinity) in the midst of the deep.”

“When the Universal Spirit wakes, the world revives; when he closes his eyes, all things fall upon the bed of mystic slumber. In like manner, as 1,000 great ages constitute a Day of Brahma, so his Night consists of the same period. ‘ Awaking at the end of his night, the unborn […] creates the Universe anew […].’”