Shloka 26
Naimittika-pralaya and the Theology of Kāla: Seven Suns, Saṃvartaka Fire, Flood, and Varāha Kalpa
द्वीपांश्च पर्वतांश्चैव वर्षाण्यथ महोदधीन् / तान् सर्वान् भस्मसात् कृत्वा सप्तात्मा पावकः प्रभुः
dvīpāṃśca parvatāṃścaiva varṣāṇyatha mahodadhīn / tān sarvān bhasmasāt kṛtvā saptātmā pāvakaḥ prabhuḥ
諸島（ド्वीーパ）と山々、広大なヴァルシャ、さらには大海までも灰と化したのち、七重の本性をもつ主なる火は、プララヤ（大滅）の時に統べる力として立ち現れる。
Sūta (narrator) recounting the Purāṇic description of pralaya within the Kurma Purana’s teaching frame
Primary Rasa: raudra
Secondary Rasa: adbhuta
FAQs
By portraying all geography—continents, mountains, regions, and oceans—being reduced to ash, the verse emphasizes impermanence of the manifest world; the enduring reality implied in Kurma Purana’s theology is the transcendent Lord (Īśvara/Paramātman) beyond dissolution, into whom names and forms subside.
The verse supports vairāgya (dispassion) and pralaya-anusandhāna (contemplation of dissolution): meditating on the world’s perishable nature steadies the mind for īśvara-dhyāna, a key disposition aligned with Pāśupata-oriented restraint and inner purification taught in the Kurma Purana.
Fire as the cosmic dissolver functions as the Lord’s instrument: in the Kurma Purana’s synthesis, such pralaya-power is not sectarian but an expression of the one Supreme—spoken of through Vaiṣṇava (Kurma/Nārāyaṇa) and Śaiva (Īśvara/Rudra) idioms as a unified divine governance of creation and dissolution.