Srimad Bhagavatam — Prathama Skandha, Shloka 21
The Departure of Lord Kṛṣṇa from Hastināpura
स वै किलायं पुरुष: पुरातनो य एक आसीदविशेष आत्मनि । अग्रे गुणेभ्यो जगदात्मनीश्वरे निमीलितात्मन्निशि सुप्तशक्तिषु ॥ २१ ॥
sa vai kilāyaṁ puruṣaḥ purātano ya eka āsīd aviśeṣa ātmani agre guṇebhyo jagad-ātmanīśvare nimīlitātman niśi supta-śaktiṣu
They said: “Here He is—the primeval Purusha, the original Personality of Godhead, as we surely remember Him. Before the modes of nature were manifest, He alone existed in the undifferentiated Self; and in Him, the Supreme Lord, the Soul of the universe, all beings merge as if asleep at night, their energies suspended.”
There are two types of dissolution of the manifested cosmos. At the end of every 4,320,000,000 solar years, when Brahmā, the lord of one particular universe, goes to sleep, there is one annihilation. And at the end of Lord Brahmā’s life, which takes place at the end of Brahmā’s one hundred years of age, in our calculation at the end of 8,640,000,000 × 30 × 12 × 100 solar years, there is complete annihilation of the entire universe, and in both the periods both the material energy called the mahat-tattva and the marginal energy called jīva-tattva merge in the person of the Supreme Lord. The living beings remain asleep within the body of the Lord until there is another creation of the material world, and that is the way of the creation, maintenance and annihilation of the material manifestation.
FAQs
This verse states that the primeval Purusha existed alone before the material modes (gunas) manifested, showing the Lord’s transcendence over prakriti.
It indicates that at cosmic dissolution His external energies become dormant, while the Lord remains self-contained in His own spiritual being, not compelled by material activity.
By cultivating devotion and inner remembrance of the Lord, one can reduce the push of passion and ignorance and act from clarity, steadiness, and service-mindedness.