Naimittika Manvantara or Naimittika Pralaya (Sanskrit: ";") from naimittika (occasional, unusual, due to external cause), from nimitti (occasional dissolution or manifestation). Refers to pralayas or manvantaras which are unusual or occasional because occurring at wide intervals, either of time or circumstance, especially those separated by Brahma's Days and Nights. A naimittika pralaya occurs when Brahma slumbers: it is the destruction of all that lives and has form, but not of the substance, which remains more or less in statu quo till the new dawn after that Night of Brahma. At the end of a Day of Brahma there occurs what is called in the Puranas a recoalescence of the universe, called Brahma's "contingent or naimittika recoalescence or pralaya," because Brahma is this universe itself.
A naimittika pralaya is thus similar to the bhaumika or planetary pralaya (cf SD 1:371-2, 376-7). As another example of its usage, when a human being through a series of high initiation casts off the chains of material existence although retaining sufficient attraction to bring about a return to such existence, this could be called a naimittika event.
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