Shaiva Upanishads (A Critical Study)
by Arpita Chakraborty | 2013 | 33,902 words
This page relates ‘The Parabrahman, the basis of dissolution’ of the study on the Shaiva Upanishads in English, comparing them with other texts dealing with the Shiva cult (besides the Agamas and Puranas). The Upaniṣads are ancient philosophical and theological treatises. Out of the 108 Upanishads mentioned in the Muktikopanishad, 15 are classified as Saiva-Upanisads.
7. The Parabrahman, the basis of dissolution
[...] Pañcabrahma Upaniṣad verse 22
Having caused the dissolution (laya) of the Pañcabrahmans of the character of Sadyojāta and others established in its own self, having destroyed the glories of its own Māyā (illusory powers) and having thereby become firmly established in its own peerless non dual existence (the Parabrahman) that transcends the characteristics of the Pañcabrahman, manifests itself as the infinite existence with radiance of its own self; manifests itself in all its glory, at the beginning, long before the phenomenal world came to be, at the end, at the time of the great deluge wherein all things apart from the Brahman have their dissolution, at the end of the Kalpa[1], at the intermediate duration (between the beginning and the end) and for all time, of its own accord and not through any other extraneous cause apart from itself.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Ibid verse 22-23.—Kalpa Kṛuta Yuga are Satya Yuga is calculated as 17,28,000 years.—Tretā Yuga 12,96,000 years. Dvāpara Yuga 8,64,000 years. Kali yuga 4,32,000 years. All this years together froms one Mahāyuga.—i.e. 43,20,000 years. A Kalpa is of thousand Mahāyugas.