सलिलान्तर्यथा वीचिर्मृदन्तर्घटको यथा । तथा यत्र जगत्सत्ता तत् कथं खात्मकं भवेत् ॥ २० ॥
salilāntaryathā vīcirmṛdantarghaṭakō yathā | tathā yatra jagatsattā tat kathaṁ khātmakaṁ bhavēt || 20 ||
Translation
As a wave is within water, as a pot is within clay, so where the world's being is, how can that be of the nature of empty space?
Word by word
- salila
- water
- antar
- (antaḥ) within
- yathā
- as
- vīcir
- (vīciḥ) a wave
- mṛd
- clay
- antarghaṭakō
- (antar ghaṭakaḥ) a pot within
- tathā
- so
- yatra
- where
- jagat
- of the world
- sattā
- the being
- tat
- that
- kathaṁ
- how
- kha
- empty space
- ātmakaṁ
- of the nature of
- bhavēt
- can be
Meaning
Two more familiar images, the wave in water and the pot in clay, and the conclusion drawn: that in which the world has its being cannot be a void. The commentary: as the wave is in the water and the pot in the clay, so the world's being is in Brahman, and how could that be empty? Kha is space, here in its sense of the empty: Brahman has been called like space (v. 17), and Rāma might take that to mean empty; it is like space in purity and in having no form, not in being nothing.