श्रीराम उवाच । इदंरूपमिदं दृश्यं जगन्नाऽस्तीति भासुरम् । महाप्रलयसंप्राप्तौ भो ब्रह्मन् क्वेव तिष्ठति ॥ १ ॥
śrīrāma uvāca | idaṁrūpamidaṁ dṛśyaṁ jagannā’stīti bhāsuram | mahāpralayasaṁprāptau bhō brahman kvēva tiṣṭhati || 1 ||
Translation
Rāma said: This world, of this form, this seen, this shining thing which, you say, does not exist: when the great dissolution has come, O Brahman, where does it stay?
Word by word
- idaṁ
- this
- rūpam
- of form
- dṛśyaṁ
- seen thing
- jagan
- (jagat) the world
- na
- not
- asti
- exists
- iti
- thus (you say)
- bhāsuram
- shining
- mahā
- great
- pralaya
- dissolution
- saṁprāptau
- when (it) has come
- bhō
- O
- brahman
- Brahman (a brāhmaṇa)
- kva
- where
- iva
- then
- tiṣṭhati
- does it stay
Meaning
The last sarga ended with the one supreme Śiva who remains when all the gods have come to rest (3.10.54). Rāma now asks about the world itself. The commentary fills in his picture: birds, insects, moths and the rest, a world of boundless extent, appearing with great clarity, made firm by perception and every other means of knowledge; you say it does not exist in Brahman, yet at the great dissolution, in what does it stay? Another commentary gives the thought behind the question: at the dissolution the world remains as Brahman, as general being; but in creation everyone experiences it as something distinct, so it should have a being of its own, and that being should go somewhere when the world withdraws from Brahman. Rāma's words carry the tension: "this form", "this seen", "shining", bhāsura, set against "it does not exist". The world is too vivid to be nothing, so it must be kept somewhere.