Rather, it undergoes periodic renewals: At the beginning of each period the world process starts with the emergence (
sṛṣṭi) of the universe from its hidden dimension into the state of manifestation; in the course of its duration (
sthiti) it evolves to a peak, followed by decline and end in universal dissolution into the unmanifest state (
pralaya) called cosmic night. After a period of latency, the whole process starts again.
The lives of individual beings proceed within this global framework from birth to adulthood, old age, death and rebirth in a never-ending round of saṁsāric existences. During the cosmic night they subsist in a kind of limbo or oblivion. Third, the concept of dharma also refers to the timeless and absolute reality beyond the manifested one; it represents the final goal of religious and philosophical quest equated with the ultimate truth. This truth is eternal, outside time, and independent of the changeable phases of the phenomenal reality manifested within time. The manifestation of the eternal truth or law within the universe dominated by time does not make the world everlasting in the sense of a lineal duration, but provides for its cyclic nature, its recurring rise and fall.
