Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Pralaya
Summary
Pralaya () is a concept in Hindu eschatology. Generally referring to four different phenomena, it is most commonly used to indicate the event of the dissolution of the entire universe that follows a kalpa (a period of 4.32 billion years) called the Brahmapralaya.
Pralaya also refers to Nityapralaya, the continuous destruction of all animate and inanimate beings that occurs on a daily basis, Prakritapralaya, the great flood produced by Prakriti (Nature) that ends all of creation after the completion of 1,000 Chaturyuga (four-age) cycles, and Atyantikapralaya, the dissolution of one's Atman (Self) due to its union with Brahman (Ultimate Reality). A concept that has been referenced in literature since the Upanishads, the concept of pralaya has been widely discussed in Hindu cosmology as well as philosophy.
Hindu cosmology posits an endless cycle of the periodic creation and destruction of the universe.
Nityapralaya refers to constant dissolution, the phenomenon that describes the daily entropy of the mind and the body of all living and non-living beings. Being created, all matter is subject to constant decay and destruction, and is often described to be a personal experience, leading to a temporary earthly death. The Skanda Purana describes the Nityapralaya to be the various negative experiences and losses that a human being experiences, such as being robbed, having one's wife stolen, the arrival of one's enemy, the onset of fever, as well as blight, all of which culminates in death, the most painful experience. Such mental anguish is stated to be the result of one's own karma. One's karma is also stated to determine one's rebirth as various lesser beasts, the actions of the being during such births in turn determining one's karma.
The Bhagavata Purana states that one kalpa (age), which consists of a thousand revolutions of the four ages, the Satya, Treta, Dvapara, and the Kali, and the reign of fourteen Manus, is one day in the life of the creator deity, Brahma. A pralaya is described to be an equal length of time, referred to as a night in the life of the deity.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.