July 12, 2026
paramaṇḍaladaityāgnisuranāgavivasvatāṁ
nikuraṁbaṁ dadhadvyomni maśakānāmivoccayaṁ (24)
VASIṢṬHA continued:
At that time, the entire space was clothed in the ashes of destruction. These ashes were churned by terrible winds. Falling rain was making more dreadful noise everywhere, which sounded like the victory cries of the demons of dissolution. The winds were carrying away the burnt remains of the cities of Indra (the god of heaven) and other deities.
Thus the three elements, water, fire and wind, were completely out of control, alignment or harmony; and it looked as though they were fighting with each other. The tumult and the sound of this chaos were deafening. The torrential rain put out the fires, producing the sound “cham cham cham”. The mighty rivers that flowed down the mountains carried away other mountains, continents and cities. The planets and stars in the heavens were also falling out of their orbits. The great tidal waves were everywhere breaking down mountains and the wind was blowing these mountains away.
There was utter darkness everywhere as the rays of the sun were veiled by the rain and the clouds which were of dark blue colour. The very support of the earth had completely disintegrated and therefore the mountains were disintegrating, too. The tidal waves were picking up these mountains and were hurling them at the clouds. It appeared as if the three worlds were weeping and wailing aloud.
The gods and the demons were all subject to these dreadful calamities, and yet they were still flying at one another’s throats in interminable enmity.
Only the vital air or prāṇa which presides over the disintegration of material or physical bodies sustained these disintegrating objects and wafted them here and there. At that time the entire space was filled with flying cities, demons, fire, serpents and suns, which looked like so many flies and mosquitoes.
Even the deities presiding over the different directions were approaching destruction and there was confusion in those directions. The dust of destroyed creation was everywhere. The entire universe was filled with the debris of “temples” made of different precious stones and metals of different colours. It was difficult to see the universe.
Devoid of the veil of creation, that (truth or god) which remains after the total destruction of what is known as creation alone existed. Once again there was fullness, the fullness that becomes apparent when the diverse creatures are destroyed, the fullness that was there all the time. By this time, of course, the cosmic fires of destruction had been completely put out by the torrential rains from the cosmic clouds.