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Pralaya and the disturbance of the Prak@rti Equilibrium

But how or rather why prak@rti should be disturbed is the most knotty point in Sa@mkhya. It is postulated that the prak@rti or the sum-total of the gu@nas is so connected with the puru@sas, and there is such an inherent teleology or blind purpose in the lifeless prak@rti, that all its evolution and transformations tike place for the sake of the diverse puru@sas, to serve the enjoyment of pleasures and sufferance of pain through experiences, and finally leading them to absolute freedom or mukti. A return of this manifold world into the quiescent state (_pralaya_) of prak@rti takes place when the karmas of all puru@sas collectively require that there should be such a temporary cessation of all experience. At such a moment the gu@na compounds are gradually broken, and there is a backward movement (_pratisancara_) till everything is reduced, to the gu@nas in their elementary disintegrated state when their mutual opposition brings about their equilibrium. This equilibrium however is not a mere passive state, but one of utmost tension; there is intense activity, but the activity here does not lead to the generation of new things and qualities (_visad@rs'a-pari@nama_); this course of new production being suspended, the activity here repeats the same state (_sad@rs'a-pari@nama_) of equilibrium, so that there is no change or new production. The state of pralaya thus is not a suspension of the teleology or purpose of the gu@nas, or an absolute break of the course of gu@na evolution; for the state of pralaya, since it has been generated to fulfil the demands of the accumulated karmas of puru@sas, and since there is still the activity of the gu@nas in keeping themselves in a state of suspended production, is also a stage of the sa@msara cycle. The state of mukti (liberation) is of course quite different, for in that stage the movement of the gu@nas ceases forever with reference to the liberated soul. But still the question remains, what breaks the state of equilibrium? The Sa@mkhya answer is that it is due to the transcendental (non-mechanical) influence of the puru@sa [Footnote ref 368]. This influence of the puru@sa again, if it means anything, means that there is inherent in the gu@nas a teleology that all their movements or modifications should take place in such a way that these may serve the purposes of the puru@sas. Thus when the karmas of the puru@sas had demanded that there should be a suspension of all experience, for a period there was a pralaya. At the end of it, it is the same inherent purpose of the prak@rti that wakes it up for the formation of a suitable world for the experiences of the puru@sas by which its quiescent state is disturbed. This is but another way of looking at the inherent teleology of the prak@rti, which demands that a state of pralaya should cease and a state of world-framing activity should begin. Since there is a purpose in the gu@nas which brought them to a state of equilibrium, the state of equilibrium also presupposes that it also may be broken up again when the purpose so demands. Thus the inherent purpose of the prak@rti brought about the state of pralaya and then broke it up for the creative work again, and it is this natural change in the prak@rti that may be regarded from another point of view as the transcendental influence of the puru@sas.