Prakṛtilaya
By Swami Harshananda
Prakṛtilaya literally means ‘dissolution into the prakṛti’.
In the Śāṅkhya and the yoga systems, out of the several attainments predicated for the sādhakas,[1] the state of prakṛtilaya is also the one. Some practitioners of yoga, who have developed intense vairāgya or detachment towards the world and its pleasures but who have not acquired the right type of viveka or discriminatory knowledge, meditate on the prakṛti or pradhāna, the fundamental matrix of the material universe.
By samādhi on it, they are able to merge themselves in it after death. This state called as ‘prakṛtilaya,’ though free from sorrow, is devoid of any consciousness or bliss. After being in this condition for a very long time, they return to sansāra or transmigratory existence, the cycle of births and deaths. The Sāñkhyasutras[2] of īśvara-kṛṣṇa[3] and the Yogasutras[4] of Patañjali[5] refer to this state.
References[edit]
- The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore