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Bhagavad Gita Chapter VIII Verse 20

But beyond this unmanifest, there is another unmanifest, eternal Existence, That which is not destroyed even when all beings are destroyed. (Bhagavad Gita 8.20)

The entire universe becomes unmanifest at the time of pralaya, or destruction, as we have seen. But, says Bhagavan Sri Krishna, there is another Unmanifest far beyond and superior to this unmanifest state of the universe. That is the eternal Existence, the supreme, Parabrahman, God the Absolute, which never manifests. That supreme Being is never destroyed because it is beyond time, space and causation, beyond the world-scheme. It is the Purusha. The first mentioned unmanifest is avidya (Prakriti) itself, the cause of the universe. The two extremes look alike. Both are unmanifest, but the one is Spirit and the other, matter in its finest state. The Spirit is unmanifest because it is not perceptible by any sense or faculty. Yet it is totally unlike and unrelated to the unconscious material cause of the universe, which will manifest in time like the seed, which contains the tree. The tree is not manifest, but it is there in the seed, ready to come out. The universe becomes unmanifest but it remains in seed form ready to come out again. But this higher Unmanifest, the Purusha, will never manifest. It will never be caught in the net of time, space and causation.

The mind of the sage and the mind of the child are alike, simple and pure. But while the saint’s will always remain so, the child’s mind will become a man’s mind with all its duplicity, impurity, passions, anger and fear. There is a difference of day and night.

‘I know this mighty Purusha, sun-like, beyond darkness. Knowing Him and Him only one crosses over death; there is no other path at all to go. Than whom naught is greater or less, than whom none more subtle or vast, like a tree He stands silent in shining space, in solitude. By Him, the Purusha, all this is filled.’ (Shvetashvatara Upanishad, 3.8-9.)