Yoga Vāsiṣṭha 1.32.17

Translation

abundant as a fall of snow, like heaps of pearl necklaces, like a garland of moonbeams, like a spread of the waves of the milk ocean;

Word by word

hima

of snow

vṛṣṭir

(vṛṣṭiḥ) a fall

iva

as

udārā

abundant

muktā

of pearl

hāra

necklaces

caya

heaps

upamā

like

aindavī

of the moon

raśmi

of beams

mālā

a garland

kṣīra

of the milk

ūrmīṇām

of the waves

ātatiḥ

a spread

Meaning

Four images of whiteness, one after another: snow, pearls, moonlight, the milk ocean. The commentary keeps them all. The heap of similes is itself a meaning: no single image is enough for what fell. The milk ocean (kṣīroda) is the sea from which, in the old story, the nectar was churned; the flower rain is as if that sea had risen in waves over the hall. The reader may remember the ocean of nectar of verse 3, in which the hearers rolled for a moment; now it is made visible.