Shloka 17
नैमित्तिक-प्राकृत-प्रलयवर्णनम्
Periodic and Elemental Dissolution; Reabsorption into Paramātman
अपाम् अपि गुणो यस् तु ज्योतिषा पीयते तु सः नश्यन्त्य् आपस् ततस् ताश् च रसतन्मात्रसंक्षयात्
apām api guṇo yas tu jyotiṣā pīyate tu saḥ naśyanty āpas tatas tāś ca rasatanmātrasaṃkṣayāt
Then even the very quality of water—its savor and liquidity—is drawn up and consumed by fire. When that essence is withdrawn, the waters vanish, for they depend upon the subtle principle of taste (rasa-tanmātra).
Sage Parāśara (teaching Maitreya)
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: How gross elements dissolve by withdrawal of their guṇas and tanmātras
Teaching: Cosmological
Quality: analytical, authoritative
Creation Stage: Primary
Concept: When the rasa-tanmātra (taste-essence) is depleted, the water-element cannot persist, showing that gross forms depend on subtler principles.
Vedantic Theme: Maya
Application: Practice viveka by tracing experiences back to their subtle causes, loosening identification with the gross body and senses.
Vishishtadvaita: Dependent realities (cit/acet) persist only through the Lord’s sustaining order; dissolution is not chaos but lawful retraction of modes into subtler states.
Vishnu Form: Para-Brahman
FAQs
This verse states that water persists only as long as its subtle basis—rasa (taste) as tanmātra—remains; when that subtle essence is depleted, the gross element (water) dissolves.
Parāśara explains a causal rollback: fire absorbs the defining quality of water, and once that quality is withdrawn, water itself disappears because it cannot exist without its underlying subtle principle.
Though the verse describes elemental mechanics, it supports the Purāṇic vision that all tattvas dissolve in ordered sequence under the Supreme Reality—Vishnu—into whom the cosmos ultimately resolves.