महाकल्पान्तसंपत्तौ यत्तत्सदवशिष्यते । तद्राम न यथा शून्यं तदिदं शृणु कथ्यते ॥ ६ ॥
mahākalpāntasaṁpattau yattatsadavaśiṣyatē | tadrāma na yathā śūnyaṁ tadidaṁ śṛṇu kathyatē || 6 ||
Translation
What remains, being itself, when the great kalpa has ended: hear, Rāma, how that is not void. It is told now.
Word by word
- mahā
- great
- kalpa
- of the kalpa, the age of a cosmos
- anta
- the end
- saṁpattau
- when (it) has come
- yat
- what
- tat
- that
- sad
- (sat) being itself
- avaśiṣyatē
- remains
- tad
- (tat) that
- rāma
- Rāma
- na
- not
- yathā
- how
- śūnyaṁ
- void
- idaṁ
- this
- śṛṇu
- hear
- kathyatē
- it is told
Meaning
Vasiṣṭha takes the questions in Rāma's order, beginning with the first: why it is not void. He names what remains sat, being, and the commentary keeps the word: what remains at the great dissolution is being, and it is not void in the way Rāma imagines. A mahākalpa is the whole life of a cosmos, at whose end even the creator dissolves. The point of the verse is the word sat: what is left when every thing is gone is not nothing, because "being" is not one more thing among the things that went.