भूयः करोति भुवनानि वनान्तराणि लोकान्तराणि जनजालककल्पनां च । आचारचारुकलनामचलां चलां च पङ्काद्यथाऽर्भकजनो रचनामखिन्नः ॥ ३२ ॥
bhūyaḥ karōti bhuvanāni vanāntarāṇi lōkāntarāṇi janajālakakalpanāṁ ca | ācāracārukalanāmacalāṁ calāṁ ca paṅkādyathā’rbhakajanō racanāmakhinnaḥ || 32 ||
Translation
Again he makes worlds, lands within forests, worlds within worlds, and the fashioning of the net of peoples, and the fair arrangement of conduct, fixed and moving, untiring, as a child makes shapes out of mud.
Word by word
- bhūyaḥ
- again
- karōti
- he makes
- bhuvanāni
- worlds
- vana
- forests
- antarāṇi
- lands within (twice)
- lōka
- worlds
- jana
- of peoples
- jālaka
- of the net
- kalpanāṁ
- the fashioning
- ca
- and
- ācāra
- of conduct
- cāru
- fair
- kalanām
- arrangement
- acalāṁ
- fixed
- calāṁ
- and moving
- paṅkād
- (paṅkāt) out of mud
- yathā
- as
- arbhaka
- a child
- janō
- (janaḥ) person
- racanām
- shapes
- akhinnaḥ
- untiring
Meaning
The sarga ends in vasantatilakā (fourteen syllables a pāda). A child at play shapes toys out of wet clay, then breaks them and makes more, never tiring. So Time makes worlds, countries, peoples, and the order of conduct, the commentary says, steady in the first ages and unsteady in the later ones; and breaks them; and makes them again. The long description of Time closes on this image of a child at play. The reader, who has seen Time as devourer, hunter and dancer, is left with the plainest picture of all: everything that is made will be unmade, without malice, as children unmake their toys.