Sree Krishna, the Lord of Love

by Baba Premananda Bharati

The Immortal Mārkandeya described this Pralaya (Dissolution) five thousand years ago to King Yudhisthira in the presence of Krishna and the assembled sages in the Kāmyak Forest. The following is a summary of his statement:

"O King! At the end the Kali Yuga (previous to this Pralaya), when the earthly days of all beings have come to an end, no rains will fall on earth for many successive years in consequence of which all beings on earth will die, owing to unbearable heat and hunger caused by drought and famine. Then will appear simultaneously in the heavens seven suns which will draw all the waters from all seas and rivers. Whether dry or wet, whatever grass or wood there is on earth, will be reduced to tinder. Then will spring up the Fire, called Samvartak, which, aided by the wind, will attack the sun-absorbed earth and, piercing its surface, will burn all there is in its bowels. Indeed, by this wind-helped Samvartak Fire all created beings from the gods to creeping things and all that now exists in the three worlds will be destroyed and transformed into one huge heap of ashes.

"Then will appear in the firmament wonderful-looking, lightening-bedecked clouds, arrayed as garlanded rows of elephants. These clouds are, some of them, of the color of the blue lotus, some of the color of the Koomood flower, some of the color of the golden heart of the lotus, some yellow, some green, some speckled gray, like the color of the crow's egg, some colored like lotus leaves, some are light brown, others look like large cities, others like hordes of elephants, others like the color of eye-cosmetics, others shaped like crocodiles. These mysterious-looking, deep-sounding rain-clouds, sent by God, spreading themselves over the sky, will send down rains in a continuous stream, like watery pillars descending from above, inundating all the ash-heaped mountains and valleys, and extinguish the fearful Samvartak Fire.

"O King of the Pandus! Thus, after these rains have fallen continuously for twelve years, the waters of the seas will rise in a flood and cover the earth, at which, the still solid cohesiveness of her mountains giving way, the earth will sink to the bottom of the sea. Then the clouds, driven by the powerful winds in all directions, will suddenly disappear. Then he of the Lotus-Abode and Lotus-born, the primeval god, Brahmā, drinking in the winds and the air, will fall into sleep at the close of his day."

The lower three spheres—Bhur, Bhuba and Swar—are thus dissolved and there is nothing in their place but one vast expanse of water. The upper four spheres, Mahar, Jana, Tapa and Satya or Brahmā, remain intact. The dwellers of the Mahar Loka, however, unable to bear the heat of the Samvartak Fire during the earth s destruction, leave it and go up to the Jana to live there during the duration of the Pralaya.

Now, the question may be asked, why these four upper heavens are not destroyed, and how can there be an ocean of water When the Water Element is destroyed along with the other Elements?

The answer is very interesting and instructive. There are two kinds or states of these Five Elements—Ether, Air, Fire, Water, Earth. One may be called Pure and the other Mixed. The Pure state of an Element means wholly unmixed by even the least touch or tinge of the other four elements. A mixed Element is made up of half part of one Element mixed with one-eighth part of each of the other four Elements. The Bhur, Bhuba and Swar are made of these five Mixed Elements which being destroyed by this Kalpa Pralaya, the three spheres are necessarily destroyed too. The Upper four spheres are made of the Unmixed Elements and hence they survive the Kalpa dissolution of the Mixed Elements. It is needless to say that dwellers of these upper realms are possessed of a physical body made of these Five Pure Elements, and in the highest realms the dwellers have no physical bodies at all and therefore no elements in their make-up. The bodies of some of them are formed of the Five Finest essences of the Elements—Sound, Touch, Form, Taste and Smell; and of others, the highest beings in the Brahmā Loka, of nothing but Consciousness and Ego and Ensouled Mind.

The water of the Watery Expanse, into which the lower three spheres are reduced by the Kalpa Pralaya, is this Unmixed Pure Water, which is invisible to our ordinary physical eye. The world is indebted to the Immortal Mārkandeya for a description of what remains after this Kalpa dissolution. Blessed, then, with the finest and purest Element-body, he alone hovers over this vast Watery Expanse. His experiences are recorded in that History of the Universe, the Mahābhārata, of which here are a few details:

Said Mārkandeya: "O King! In this, time of the Kalpa Pralaya, when all gods, asuras, elements, demons, men, animals, trees and the firmament, etc., all, all the mobile and immobile beings and objects, will be dissolved into one vast ocean, I alone will hover over that endless expanse of water and become sad-hearted on viewing this general destruction. After floating on it for a very long period of time I will feel extremely exhausted. Then, shortly after, a huge tree in the midst of that one-ocean will attract my eye. O King! Resting on the spreading boughs of that tree I will see seated on a couch of glory a lotus-eyed Boy with a face radiant like the light of the full moon. Instantly on seeing him I shall be extremely astonished and will say within myself 'How wonderful! Everything has been destroyed, how then is this boy resting here?' O Great King! Although I am blessed with the knowledge of the past, present and future, I shall fail to know who that child may be.

"Then that lotus-eyed Boy will thus speak to me in the sweetest voice: 'O Mārkandeya! I know thee. Thou art become very weary and wishing for rest. Therefore do thou enter my body and live there as long as thou mayest desire. I have been very pleased with thee.' O King! on hearing these words of the Boy I will be filled with the spirit of indifference to my manhood and long life, at which suddenly that Boy will open his mouth, and I will then enter into that mouth through some divine means.