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Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana: Book 11: Chapter 3: Verses 12-20
Then, leaving his cosmic body, O protector of men, Brahma (the cosmic person) gets merged in the Unmanifest (Brahma), just as fire enters its unmanifest state (gets extinguished) when divested of fuel. Denuded of its (distinctive quality) smell by the wind, the earth is reconverted into the state of water; and, deprived by the same of taste, water is reduced to the state of fire. Deprived of (its attribute, viz.,) colour by darkness, fire gets merged into the air; and, deprived of (its quality of) touch by ether, the air merges into the latter (ether, its cause). Deprived of (its quality of) sound by God in the form of the Time-Spirit, ether gets merged into the (Tamasika) ego. The senses and the intellect, O king, merge in the ego of passion, and the mind with the deities born of the illuminated ego merges into the knowledge of the Self. The ego with its triple modification merges into the Mahat-tattva, which in its turn merges into Prakrti or the elemental Nature and this (ultimately) merges into Brahma. We have described (for you) the Lord's triple Maya (comprising of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas) which creates, sustains and annihilates (the creation). What else do you desire to hear ? The king (Nimi) submitted : It may (kindly) be pointed out (to me now), 0 eminent sage,
how men looking upon the gross body as their self may easily get over this divine Maya, (so) difficult to cross for those who have not been able to control their mind. ( Prabuddha replied : One must observe how human beings living in pairs (as husband and wife) striving to gain happiness and remove misery obtain only contrary results. What happiness can be derived from wealth, which is (so) difficult to obtain and can be earned only by means of constantly painful effort and which leads to one's death ? Or, what joy can one get from the possession of houses, children. friends or relations and cattle, transient as they are, and the fruit of one's actions ? Similarly one should realize that the heavenly regions are also transient (and full of misery), their attainment being the fruit of one's actions; (and there too as in this world) there is rivalry with the superior ones, mutual discord among the equals and hatred towards those inferior to one's own self and fear of a fall, as there is here among chieftains.
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