क्वाऽसंभवद्भूतजाड्यं पृथ्व्यादेर्जडवस्तुनः । कारणं भवितुं शक्तं छायायाश्चाऽऽतपो यथा ॥ १४ ॥
kvā’saṁbhavadbhūtajāḍyaṁ pṛthvyādērjaḍavastunaḥ | kāraṇaṁ bhavituṁ śaktaṁ chāyāyāścā’’tapō yathā || 14 ||
Translation
How could that which is incapable of being the dullness of the elements be a cause of earth and the other insentient things, any more than sunshine could be the cause of shade?
Word by word
- kva
- how, where
- asaṁbhavad
- (asaṃbhavat) incapable of being
- bhūta
- of the elements
- jāḍyaṁ
- dullness
- pṛthvy
- (pṛthvī) earth
- ādēr
- (ādeḥ) and the rest
- jaḍa
- insentient
- vastunaḥ
- of things
- kāraṇaṁ
- a cause
- bhavituṁ
- to be
- śaktaṁ
- able
- chāyāyāś
- (chāyāyāḥ) of shade
- ca
- and
- ātapō
- (ātapaḥ) sunshine
- yathā
- as
Meaning
The commentary asks how the cause is impossible, and answers: as sunshine cannot be the cause of shade, so Brahman, which is free of dullness, cannot be the cause of earth and the other dull things; that is, only the dull can change into the dull, and nowhere is a thing seen to change into what is contrary to its own nature. Another commentary: Brahman, the conscious, free of the dullness of the elements, how could it be the cause of insentient things? This is cause in the sense of material change (pariṇāma): milk turning into curd. Pure awareness cannot turn into dead matter as milk turns into curd, for that would be turning into its opposite. The next verse says what is left once that kind of cause is ruled out.