"'"Vyasa said, 'I shall now tell thee how, when his day is gone and his
night comes, he withdraws all things unto himself, or how the Supreme
Lord, making this gross universe exceedingly subtile, merges everything
into his Soul. When the time comes for universal dissolution, a dozen
Suns, and Agni with his seven flames, begin to burn. The whole universe,
wrapt by those flames, begins to blaze forth in a vast conflagration. All
things mobile and immobile that are on the earth first disappear and
merge into the substance of which this planet is composed. After all
mobile and immobile objects have thus disappeared, the earth, shorn of
trees and herbs, looks naked like a tortoise shell. Then water takes up
the attribute of earth, viz., scent. When earth becomes shorn of its
principal attribute, that element is on the eve of dissolution. Water
then prevails. Surging into mighty billows and producing awful roars,
only water fills this space and moves about or remains still. Then the
attribute of water is taken by Heat, and losing its own attribute, water
finds rest in that element. Dazzling flames of fire, ablaze all around,
conceal the Sun that is in the centre of space. Indeed, then, space
itself, full of those fiery flames, burns in a vast conflagration. Then
Wind comes and takes the attribute, viz., form of Heat or Light, which
thereupon becomes extinguished, yielding to Wind, which, possessed of
great might, begins to be awfully agitated. The Wind, obtaining its own
attribute, viz., sound, begins to traverse upwards and downwards and
transversely along all the ten points. Then Space takes the attribute,
viz., sound of Wind, upon which the latter becomes extinguished and
enters into a phase of existence resembling that of unheard or unuttered
sound. Then Space is all that remains, that element whose attribute,
viz., sound dwells in all the other elements, divested of the attributes
of form, and taste, and touch, and scent, and without shape of any kind,
like sound in its unmanifest state of existence. Then sound, which is the
attribute of space, is swallowed up by Mind which is the essence of all
things that are manifest. Thus Mind which in itself is unmanifest
withdraws all that is manifested by Mind. This withdrawal of Mind as
displayed into Mind as undisplayed or subtile, is called the destruction
of the vast external universe.[892] Then Chandrama's having made Mind
(thus) withdraw its attribute into itself, swallows it up. When Mind,
ceasing to exist, thus enters into Chandramas, the other attributes that
are owned by Iswara are all that remain. This Chandramas, which is called
also Sankalpa, is then, after a very long time, brought under Iswara's
sway, the reason being that that Sankalpa has to perform a very
difficult act, viz., the destruction of Chitta or the faculties that are
employed in the process called judgment. When this has been effected, the
condition reached is said to be of high Knowledge. Then Time swallows up
this Knowledge, and as the Sruti declares, Time itself, in its turn, is
swallowed up by Might, or Energy. Might or energy, however, is (again)
swallowed up by Time, which last is then brought under her sway by Vidya.
Possessed of Vidya, Iswara then swallows up non-existence itself into his
Soul. That is Unmanifest and Supreme Brahma. That is Eternal, and that is
the Highest of the High. Thus all existent creatures are withdrawn into
Brahma. Truly hath this, which should be conceived (with the aid of the
scriptures) and which is a topic of Science, been thus declared by Yogins
possessed of Supreme Souls, after actual experience. Even thus doth the
Unmanifest Brahma repeatedly undergo the processes of Elaboration and
Withdrawal (i.e., Creation and Destruction), and even thus Brahman's Day
and Night each consist of a thousand yugas.'"'"[893]