At the time of annihilation, the mortal body of the living being becomes merged into food. Food merges into the grains, and the grains merge back into the earth. The earth merges into its tan-mātra, fragrance. Fragrance merges into water, and water further merges into its tan-mātra, taste. That taste merges into fire, which merges into form. Form merges into air, and air merges into touch. Touch merges into ether. Ether finally merges into sound. The senses all merge into ahaṅkāra in rajas. O gentle Uddhava! This merge into the controlling mind, which itself merges into ahaṅkāra in the mode of goodness. Sound becomes one with false ego in the mode of ignorance, and all-powerful false ego, the first of all the physical elements, merges into mahat-tattva. The mahat-tattva, possessing qualities, dissolves into the guṇas. These guṇas then merge into the unmanifest prakṛti in due time. Time merges into the jīva covered by māyā. The jīva is embraced by me, Paramātmā, the unborn, who remains alone, without covering, from whom creation and annihilation are manifested. Śruti says: tasmād vā etasmād ātmana ākāśaḥ saṁbhūtaḥ | ākāśād vāyuḥ | vāyor agniḥ | agner āpaḥ | adbhyaḥ pṛthivī | pṛthivyā oṣadhayaḥ | oṣadhībhyo’nnam | annāt puruṣaḥ From prakṛti arose ether, from ether arose air. From air arose fire. From fire arose water. From water arose earth. From earth arose plants. From plants arose food. From food arose man. Taittirīya Upanisad 2.1 The destruction is now described in the reverse order to the creation. The body merges into food which nourishes it. The body merges after a hundred years or less. Then the food merges into its seeds, since all food is destructible. Seeds merge in the earth. Earth merges into fragrance. Dried by the saṁvartka fire and burned by the fire from the mouth of Saṅkārṣaṇa, earth remains only as fragrance. The senses merge into their origin, ahaṅkāra in rajas (sva-yoṇiśu). Why does rajas ahaṅkāra merge into the mind, an effect of ahaṅkāra in sattva? Ahaṅkaṛa in rajas is made of both knowledge and action and takes the form of the knowledge senses and action senses. The mind however is the controller (īśvare) of the knowledge and action senses. Thus it is said that the ahaṅkāra of rajas merges in the mind. Ether (ambaram) merges into sound tan-mātra. Sound merges into ahaṅkāra in tamas (bhūtādiḥ). Tamas ahaṅkāra and sattva ahaṅkāra merges into mahat-tattva. Mahat-tattva along with sūtra merge into the guṇas. The guṇas merge into prakṛti. When the guṇas give up their agitation they merge in prakṛti. Prakṛti is a state of the guṇas in equilibrium. The verse seems to say that prakṛti merges in time, but prakṛti cannot be destroyed for it is said: na tasya kālāvayavaiḥ pariṇāmādayo guṇāḥ anādy anantam avyaktaṁ nityaṁ kāraṇam avyayam That prakṛti is not subject to the six kinds of transformation caused by the influence of time. Rather, it has no birth, no death, no existence, no increase, no change, and no decrease. It is the cause of the universe. SB 12.4.19 In the description of destruction told by Antarikṣa in the story of Jāyanteya, [Note: The nine Yogendras were the sons of Ṛṣabha and Jayantī. Thus they are called Jāyanteya. ] destruction of prakṛti is not mentioned (SB 11.3.15). This is summarized later: layaḥ prākṛtiko hy eṣa puruṣāvyaktayor yadā śaktayaḥ sampralīyante vivaśāḥ kāla-vidrutāḥ The annihilation is called prākṛtika when the energies belonging to the Supreme Lord and prakṛti, disassembled by the force of time, merge together totally. SB 12.4.22 The sentence then means simply “At that time (kale) the guṇas merge into prakṛti (avyakte).” Material, conventional time which has been created (not the time element) merges in the jīva covered by māyā (māyā-maye), which is indestructible (avyaye). The jīva should not lose his svarūpa and merge like the other elements since he eternally exists as the taṭastha-śakti. Though it says that the jīva “merges” into Paramātmā, this means that the jīva with his undestroyed svarūpa is embraced by Paramātmā. Paramātmā remains without any upādhis (ātmā-sthaḥ) from whom it is seen that creation and destruction of the universe arises.