.
Matter in that state is unevolved (avyakta); the individual souls are
not joined to material bodies, and their intelligence is in a state of
contraction, non-manifestation (sa@nko/k/a). This is the pralaya state
which recurs at the end of each kalpa, and Brahman is then said to be in
its causal condition (kara/n/avastha). To that state all those
scriptural passages refer which speak of Brahman or the Self as being in
the beginning one only, without a second. Brahman then is indeed not
absolutely one, for it contains within itself matter and souls in a
germinal condition; but as in that condition they are so subtle as not
to allow of individual distinctions being made, they are not counted as
something second in addition to Brahman.--When the pralaya state comes
to an end, creation takes place owing to an act of volition on the
Lord's part. Primary unevolved matter then passes over into its other
condition; it becomes gross and thus acquires all those sensible
attributes, visibility, tangibility, and so on, which are known from
ordinary experience. At the same time the souls enter into connexion
with material bodies corresponding to the degree of merit or demerit
acquired by them in previous forms of existence; their intelligence at
the same time undergoes a certain expansion (vika/s/a). The Lord,
together with matter in its gross state and the 'expanded' souls, is
Brahman in the condition of an effect (karyavastha). Cause and effect
are thus at the bottom the same; for the effect is nothing but the cause
which has undergone a certain change (pari/n/ama). Hence the cause being
known, the effect is known likewise.

Owing to the effects of their former actions the individual souls are
implicated in the sa/m/sara, the endless cycle of birth, action, and
death, final escape from which is to be obtained only through the study
of the j/n/anaka/nd/a of the Veda. Compliance with the injunctions of
the karmaka/nd/a does not lead outside the sa/m/sara; but he who,
assisted by the grace of the Lord, cognizes--and meditates on--him in
the way prescribed by the Upanishads reaches at his death final
emancipation, i.e. he passes through the different stages of the path of
the gods up to the world of Brahman and there enjoys an everlasting
blissful existence from which there is no return into the sphere of
transmigration. The characteristics of the released soul are similar to
those of Brahman; it participates in all the latter's glor