English
After another long interval, a sixth sun is formed, when the earth and M6ru send forth smoke ; and there is thicker smoke, and still thicker, in succession. As when a fire is kindled by the potter to bake his clay, there is at first a little smoke, then more, until it rises in a great body ; so from the lowest sakwala rock to the mansion of Sekra, all that exists, including the earth and M6ru, sends forth one unbroken volume of smoke, which becomes thicker and blacker, the longer it continues to rise. There is then the appearance of a seventh sun. The earth and M6ru are burnt up. The flame reaches to the brahma-16kas. Pieces of rock, from 100 to 500 yojanas in size, are split from M6ru, fly into the air, and are there consumed. Thus the earth and M4ru are entirely destroyed, so as to be no more seen. Not even any ashes are visible. As when ghee or sesamum oil is burnt, the whole is consumed, so the whole earth, and all that is connected with it, is entirely destroyed ; there are no remains of it whatever. Yet after the seventh sun has been produced, the sakwalas continue to bum through many hundreds of thousands of years, during which all the elements of confusion and ruin exert their power ; whirling, roaring, bursting, blasting, thun- dering, until the work of destruction is perfect. From Awichi to the brahma-16ka called Abhassara, the whole space becomes a dark void. The brahmas, dewas, men, animals, all beings of every degree, disappear, and the space once occupied by a kela- laksha of sakwalas becomes a dark abyss* This destruction is called T^jo-sangwartta. A hundred thousand years previous to the destruction of the earth by water, a dewa appears to warn all the beings concerned of the event, as when it is destroyed by fire. A cloud forms at the same time in a kela-laksha of sakwalas, and after raining for a short time disappears. After an immense interval another cloud appears, and the rain called Khdrodaka begins to fall ; at first in small drops, but gradually increasing in size until they are as large as a palm-tree. This rain is so acrid that it dissolves entirely the earth and all things connected with it, after which I. THE SYSTEM OF THE UNIVERSE. 33 the body of water thus produced mingles with the water of the J&la-polowa, upon which the earth had previously rested ; but it is said by some, that though these waters are mingled together in one mass, there is still in that mass a separation of the two kinds of water, so that the one can be distinguished from the other. The rain goes on until the whole space between Ajatd* kasa and the brahma-ldka called Parittasubha* is destroyed, and the void pervaded by a thick darkness. All the beings in a hundred thousand sakwalas disappear. This destruction is called Apo-sangwartta. When the earth is destroyed by wind, there is a rain as when it is destroyed by fire or water ; and after the elapse of an immense interval, a wind arises, that stirs up the fine dust, and then the gravel ; and it then goes on to tear up stones, rocks, and trees, taking them into the air without letting them fall, grinding them, making a fearful noise, and reducing them to powder by the concussion, so that they entirely disappear. The wind called Prachanda arises from beneath the earth, and tears up rocks that are 500 yojanas in size, hurling them into the air, and destroying them. It next dashes earth against earth, Himi.la against Himala. Meru against M^ru, sakwala-gala against sakwala-gala dewa-16ka against d6wa-l<5ka, until the whole are destroyed. This destruction includes all places between the world of men and the ninth brahma-16ka, called Subhakimnaka, which is 10,123,400 yojanas above the earth. The jala-polowa is blown into the air, and entirely disappears. Finally, from the world of men to the tenth brahma-l(5ka, called Wehappala, is 13,320,600 yojanas ; and the whole space between Ajatakdsa and the tenth brahma-16ka disappears; it is abandoned by all beings, and becomes dark and void. The dew as are bom, through the ex- ercise of the meditative rite called bhawana, in the brahma-16kas that survive the destruction. The beings in the narakas, through the power obtained from their karma, or moral action, are born in the naraka of -some other sakwala; or in an dkasa, or aerial abode, formed by the same power. There are other beings that by the power of the rite called wdyokasina are born in the brahma-16kas ; or if still under the power of demerit, the merit * The Commentary on the sacred text sajs, " WbeneTer the kappo is destroyed by water, it perishefl by the water below Subhakinno.'*— Tumour's Annals, No. 3. 34 A MANUAL OF BUDHISM. they have received in births long previons exercises its power, and prevents them from going to a place of pain.* The de- struction produced by the agency of wind is called Wayo-sang- wartta. (Suryddgamariei'Sutra'Sanne,) Previons to the destruction by water, cruelty, or violence, pre- vails in the world ; previous to that by fire, licentiousness ; and previous to that by wind, ignorance. When licentiousness has prevailed, men are cut off by disease ; when enmity, by turning their weapons against each other; and when ignorance, by famine. In every instance, so complete is the destruction, that no remains whatever of the sakwalas are to be found, not even any- thing answering to the ashes of wood that has been consumed by fire ; the air above the earth, and that below, mingle t<^ther, as there is nothing to separate the one from the other.f Whether * At the end of the day of Brahma, a dissolution of the uniyerse occurs, when all the three worlds, earth, and the regions of space, are consumed with fire. The dwellers of Maharloka (the region inhahited by the saints who surrive the world) distressed by the heat, repair then to Janaloka (the region of lioly men after their decease). — Wilson*s "Vishnu Pur&na. t According to the system of the Srahmans, the ten lower worlds are par- tially destroyed at the close of every kalpa, equal to a day of Brahma, and renovated at the end of each succeeding night ; so that there are 86,000 levo- lutions of the world during one cycle of its existence. But at the dissolution of Brahma there is a maha pralaya, or complete destruction of the whole universe ; all things being utterly annihilated and reduced to entire nothing- ness ; or, if we adopt another idea, all things being merged in the deity, until Brahm shall awake and a new world be manifested. "That immutable power, Brahma, by waking and reposing alternately, re-vivifies and destroys in eternal succession, the whole assemblage of locomotive and immoveable creatures." — Manu. Inst. i. 57. " The Brahma-mimdnsa (or Y^ddnta) en- deavours to reconcile the existence of moral evil under the government of an all-wise, all-powerful, and benevolent providence, with the absence of free- will, by assuming the past eternity of the universe, and the infinite renewal of worlds, into wbich every individual being has brought the predispositions contracted by him in earlier states, and so retrospectively without beginning or limit." — Colebrooke, Miscellaneous Essays, i. 377. It is said to have been taught by Hermes, that the Governor of the world, " always resisting vice, and restoring things from their degeneracy, will either wash away the maUgnity of the world by water, or consume it by fire, and restore it to its ancient form again." The Egyptians supposed the world would be destroyed, partly by inundation, and partly by conflagration. Cud worth's Intellectual system. This idea was entertained by Pythagoras, and may have been received either during his residence in Egypt, or in his travels in Asia. It was the opinion of Anaximander, that worlds are con- tinually in the course of formation, and that they are as constantly re-dissolved into the infinity, to airitpov, whence they are derived. Empedocles and Heraclitus, and afterwards the Stoics, supposed that the world is generated, and then corrupted ; and that this is done again and again in revolutions in- finite. This phrase of Heraclitus had great celebrity, '' All is, and is not ; for though in truth it does come into being, yet it forthwith ceases to be." — Lewes, Biograph. Hist. Phil. i. III. Plutarch says, that the shaking of the I. THE SYSTEM OF THE UNIVERSE. 35 the medium of destruction be fire, water, or wind, it is equally complete. Bnt it is not to be s apposed that these effects are produced by any innate power of their own.