Shloka 13
Nāgendra–Brāhmaṇa Saṃvāda: Praśna-vidhi and Dharmic Approach on the Gomatī Riverbank
भूतप्रलयमत्यन्तं शृणुष्व नृपसत्तम
vaiśaṃpāyana uvāca | bhūta-pralayam atyantaṃ śṛṇuṣva nṛpa-sattama |
Vaiśaṃpāyana sprach: „O Bester der Könige, höre den Bericht von der endgültigen Auflösung der Elemente. In jener uralten Zeit, als die Erde in die Wasser des einen kosmischen Ozeans einging; das Wasser ins Feuer; das Feuer in den Wind; der Wind in den Raum; der Raum in den Geist; der Geist in das offenbarte Prinzip (mahat); das Offenbare in die unoffenbare Prakṛti; das Unoffenbare in den Puruṣa—Īśvara, verbunden mit māyā—und dieser Puruṣa in das allgegenwärtige höchste Selbst, da war überall nur Finsternis. Außer ihr war nichts zu erkennen.“
वैशग्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
All compounded realities—starting from the gross elements and extending through mind and cosmic principles—are impermanent and ultimately dissolve back into subtler causes, culminating in the all-pervading Supreme Self. The passage encourages detachment and a perspective grounded in ultimate reality rather than transient forms.
Vaiśaṃpāyana addresses a king and begins describing the ‘ultimate dissolution’ (atyanta-pralaya): earth merges into water, water into fire, fire into wind, wind into space, space into mind, mind into mahat (the manifest), mahat into prakṛti (the unmanifest), prakṛti into īśvara/puruṣa, and finally into Paramātman—after which only darkness is perceived.