Skandapurana 2.9.25

The venerable Nārāyaṇa said:

Now I declare to you the definition of dispassion (vairāgya), O best of sages;

it is described as an absence of relish everywhere for perishable things.

Indeed, all the bodily forms beginning from the Māyāpuruṣa

are destroyed by the power of Time of the Blessed Lord, subject to it.

Through direct perception, inference, and verbal testimony, discerning people

have ascertained the unreality of created things and the reality of the self.

This Time operates in the form of the constant dissolution, the occasional dissolution,

the elemental dissolution, and the ultimate dissolution.

These bodies of embodied beings, subject to transformation, constantly waste away,

wherein childhood, youth, and old age are seen in succession.

Yet because of its subtlety, it is not seen, just like the movement of a lamp's flame,

or like the continuous growth of fruit on a tree occurring at every moment.

In each and every stage, great suffering is observed;

and in the waking and other states, suffering recurs again and again.

Abundant suffering that is internal (ādhyātmika) and suffering caused by other beings (ādhibhautika) are seen,

and suffering caused by fate or supernatural forces (ādhidaivika) here exists for embodied beings—only suffering!

"Alas, alas, my son has died! Alas, my wife is dying!

A tiger devoured my father! My daughter-in-law was bitten by a snake!"

"Alas, alas! Today my great mansion, along with its furnishings, has been burned by fire.

How shall I support my family? Indra has not rained.

Alas, alas! My field, rich with crops, has been ruined by frost.

Cattle are being carried off by thieves; all my possessions have been plundered.

I was excessively fined by the king; alas, I was severely beaten by an enemy.

What shall I do, and to whom shall I speak? My mother is unfaithful.

I will drink poison! Alas, alas, today an enemy dragged away my wife.

Alas, my sister has been abducted by barbarians! Alas, alas, an enemy has struck a vital spot.

O beloved, from the intense pain of fever—alas, here are the messengers of Yama!"

Indeed, everywhere people are seen weeping aloud in this way.

Because of the states of the body, birth and death [occur] at every moment.

By those who experience their accumulated past karma in the course of time, suffering is endured.

At the end of accumulated past karma, the agony of death arrives, which is truly matchless.

And even having died, great suffering is experienced—the torments of Yama.

Then, in the wombs of viviparous, sprouting, sweat-born, and oviparous [creatures],

being born again and again in accordance with their karma, they die again in sorrow.

Thus the constant dissolution has been described to you from a subtle perspective.

That should be understood. Now, O sage, I will speak of the dissolution termed 'occasional'.

That which takes place on the occasion of the night of the Creator of the universe,

is declared to be the occasional dissolution; it is also [called] diurnal.

A thousand cycles of four yugas is a day of the Creator of the universe, O sage;

and his night is of equal length. That pair is called a kalpa.

In each day of his, fourteen

Manus appear, O brahmin, who are guardians of the barrier of dharma.

Among them, the first is Svāyambhuva Manu, then Svārociṣa,

Uttama, Tāmasa, and then Raivata and Cākṣuṣa;

Śrāddhadeva, Sāvarṇi, Bhautya, and after that Raucya;

one named Brahmasāvarṇi, and Rudrasāvarṇi;

then the one named Merusāvarṇi, and Dakṣasāvarṇi is the last.

These fourteen Manus are proclaimed in a single day of Brahmā.

The period of each Manu is seventy-one yugas,

and the duration of a [set of four] yugas is twelve thousand divine years.

When the very end of the fourteenth Manu has arrived,

the evening twilight of the Creator of the universe takes place, O best of sages.

At the close of the day, the cosmic soul withdraws the powers of preservation.

Then Rudra, whose self is the cosmic person, seeks to destroy the three worlds.

At first, a dreadful drought lasting a hundred years occurs.

Then creatures of weak constitution perish completely on the earth.

And the excessively fierce rays of the sun of the cosmic dissolution drink up

all the moisture upon the earth, quickly reaching down to Pātāla.

Having completely dried up the water of the lakes, rivers,

and oceans everywhere, that sun leads all the worlds to destruction.

Then the earth becomes devoid of moisture, with all immobile and mobile beings destroyed,

resembling the back of a tortoise, dried and severely shriveled.

Then Kālāgnirudra arises from the mouth of Śeṣa;

he burns the seven lower worlds, the earth, the mid-region, and heaven.

Having incinerated ten worlds, terrifying with whorls of flame,

having depopulated Maharloka, the fire of cosmic dissolution turns round.

The gods, their offices ended, dwelling in the atmosphere and heaven,

severely tormented by the flames of fire, go from Maharloka to Janaloka.

The seers of renounced action who have attained the state of perfection,

even they depart from the surface of the earth to Ṛṣiloka at that time.

Then dreadful clouds of cosmic dissolution rise in the sky,

resembling herds of great elephants, flashing with lightning, roaring loudly.

Some are smoke-colored, some yellow, some resemble the white lotus,

some resemble the juice of lac, and some resemble the feather of a blue jay.

Having extinguished the great fire, day and night for a hundred years,

raining thick streams, thundering, those dense clouds

fill the interior of the cosmic egg all the way to the Pole Star.

In the waters of that single vast ocean, that cosmic Person...

The Lord, consisting of Aniruddha, lies upon the serpent-king as his bed. (39)

Then the gods and seers under the sway of passion, purity, and darkness,

drawn by their own qualities along with Viriñca,

enter into his belly and sleep in a prolonged slumber. (40)

Those, however, who perceive the oneness of the Self with Brahman and have mastered the three qualities,

worship Vāsudeva solely through the path of cessation of worldly action. (41)

Having made their residence in the four worlds beginning with Mahar,

they dwell comfortably, praising that Virāj-person. (42)

Lord Nārāyaṇa, meditating upon the Supreme Self's

essential nature named Vāsudeva, indeed rests in yogic sleep. (43)

At the end of the night, all those who entered his belly, together with Brahmā,

are born again as before, qualified according to their past karma. (44)

Thus the occasional dissolution, marked by the destruction of the three worlds,

has been described to you; now I proclaim the elemental dissolution. (45)

Three hundred of such kalpas as described,

along with sixty more, is the time of a year of the Creator. (46)

Fifty of those is a parārdha; the lifespan of Brahmā is considered to be two of those. / When the period called para is completed, a great dissolution occurs. (47)

[Translates the second half of 47: When the period called para is completed, a great dissolution occurs.]

Dissolving his own cosmic body in the form of Rudra the destroyer,

the Virāj-puruṣa desires to return to his own supreme, attribute-free nature. (48)

Then, as before, a drought of a hundred years occurs,

and the fire of time belonging to Saṅkarṣaṇa burns the cosmic egg completely. (49)

Then terrifying clouds of cosmic dissolution rain down,

O sage, for a hundred years with torrents thick as pestles. (50)

The dissolution of the modifications beginning with the Mahat and ending with the gross elements—

of everything indeed—then takes place by the will of Vāsudeva. (51)

The waters first devour the quality of earth, which is smell;

deprived of smell, the earth is then ready for dissolution. (52)

Fire devours the quality of water, taste; then that [water] dissolves.

Wind devours form, the quality of fire; then that [fire] dissolves. (53)

Then space devours touch, the quality of wind;

the wind then subsides, while space remains uncovered. (54)

The origin of elements (tāmasa ahaṃkāra) devours its quality, sound, and space dissolves.

The senses then dissolve into the fiery ego (taijasa ahaṃkāra). (55)

The deities and the mind dissolve into the pure ego (sāttvika ahaṃkāra).

Whatever has arisen from something indeed dissolves back into that. (56)

Even the threefold ego dissolves into the principle of Mahat;

that dissolves into Pradhāna, that into the Puruṣa, and he then into the root Nature. (57)

This is celebrated as the elemental dissolution,

in which individual souls and their lords vanish into the Unmanifest by the will of Hari. (58)

And when Māyā, Puruṣa, and Time, in the splendor of the Imperishable,

disappear by His will, and the one Lord alone remains,

then, O Nārada, that dissolution is to be known as absolute. (59)

Thus, realizing through these four kinds of dissolution by the Lord’s power of time that everything is unreal,

disinterest towards it is called dispassion. (60)

Knowing the gods other than Vāsudeva to be subject to Time and Māyā,

and relinquishing attachment to them, the constant service to Him alone

with deep affection is sung as bhakti. (61)

Hearing, chanting about Him, remembering, serving the feet,

worship, bowing down, servitude, companionship, and self-offering— (62)

whoever serves Him with reverence through these nine dispositions,

with an undistracted mind, is indeed called a devotee. (63)

This bhakti endowed with the three [virtues] headed by one's own duty, O sage,

is declared as exclusive duty, and is also called the Bhāgavata [dharma]. (64)

Only from direct contact with the Lord and with such devotees of His

is this exclusive duty attained by mortals, never otherwise anywhere. (65)

There is no other supreme means such as this for those seeking liberation,

bringing the highest good to men and destroying all inauspiciousness. (66)

For the realization of this exclusive duty, one should be dedicated to practical yoga,

by which, O best of sages, a person attains freedom from the bondage of actions. (67)

This supreme truth, hidden in the Vedas and the Purāṇas, which destroys hosts of sins, has been proclaimed by me.

Having grasped it in your mind with a one-pointed, pure intellect and true faith, O great seer,

There is nothing purer than Vāsudeva; there is no greater auspiciousness than Vāsudeva;

There is no higher deity than Vāsudeva; there is no object of desire superior to Vāsudeva.

Whoever here, even unknowingly, utters his name but once, even at the end of bodily life,

Even an outcaste is swiftly released from the stream of worldly existence. Worship that Vāsudeva!

Thus ends the twenty-fifth chapter, named 'The Exposition of Dispassion and Devotion', in the Vāsudevamāhātmya of the second [section], the Vaiṣṇavakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand [verses]. // 25