Verse 1.54 [The Great Dissolution]

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

युगपत् तु प्रलीयन्ते यदा तस्मिन् महात्मनि ।
तदाऽयं सर्वभूतात्मा सुखं स्वपिति निर्वृतः ॥ ५४ ॥

yugapat tu pralīyante yadā tasmin mahātmani |
tadā'yaṃ sarvabhūtātmā sukhaṃ svapiti nirvṛtaḥ || 54 ||

When this Soul of all things sleeps happy and contented, then all things become absorbed all at once in that Great Soul.—(54)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

This verse has to he explained by reversing the position of ‘when’ and ‘then’; otherwise, from what has been said in the foregoing verses, there would be mutual interdependence: it has been stated (in Verse 52) that when He sleeps then all things vanish [and if the persent verse is taken to mean, as the words suggest, that when the things vanish into the Great Soul, then this Great Soul retires to sleep, then we would have the vanishing of things dependent upon his going to sleep, as stated in 52, and his going to sleep dependent upon the vanishing of things, as stated in 54].

‘Sleeps happy and contented,’—Happiness forms the very nature of the Supreme Brahman; hence it is not meant that He is happy during sleep and unhappy at other times;—of what nature his ‘sleep’ is has already been explained;—as regards his ‘contentment,’ that is everlasting; consisting of pure bliss, this Supreme Soul is never affected by the waves of agitation that are set up in Nescience. Though (even with all this) it is possible for him to be the Creator of all things. In the ordinary world, a man retires from his household duties after having done that he had to do,—with the feeling, ‘I have earned all the wealth that was necessary for my family; I am free from troubles,’—and thus sleeps in happiness and contentment, without fearing any trouble to himself. To such a person is the Supreme Soul compared; this whole world being in the position of ‘family’ to him;—this being intended as his praise.

Or [in order to avoid the necessity of having to reverse the order of the words] the verse may be taken as referring to Primordial Matter: When Primordial Matter sleeps, then all things become absorbed into it all at once; that is, they become resolved into the form of Primordial Matter, being reduced to the position of their cause; that is, they are reduced to a ‘condition in which they cease to undergo modifications.’—‘All at once,’ all things contained in the womb of the three regions.—The ‘sleep’ of Primordial Matter, which is devoid of consciousness, can mean only cessation of evolution, and not inhibition of consciousness;—‘happiness’ also is only figurative, for the same reason that Matter is devoid of consciousness.—(54)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

Govindarāja and Kullūka make this out to be the description of the Mahā-pralaya, and the preceding verse of. the Intermediate—Khaṇḍa—pralaya.

Sarvabhūtātmā—stands for the Sāṅkhya ‘Pradhāna’;—according to the second explanation put forward by Medhātithi;—according to the other explanation, accepted by Govindarāja and Kullūka, the term stands for the Supreme Self of the Vedānta.