श्रीवसिष्ठ उवाच । वन्ध्यापुत्रव्योमवने यथा न स्तः कदाचन । जगदाद्यखिलं दृश्यं तथा नाऽस्ति कदाचन ॥ ४ ॥
śrīvasiṣṭha uvāca | vandhyāputravyōmavanē yathā na staḥ kadācana | jagadādyakhilaṁ dṛśyaṁ tathā nā’sti kadācana || 4 ||
Translation
Vasiṣṭha said: As a barren woman's son and a forest in the sky never exist, so the whole seen, beginning with the world, never exists.
Word by word
- vandhyā
- barren woman
- putra
- son
- vyōma
- sky
- vanē
- forest
- yathā
- as
- na
- not
- staḥ
- the two exist
- kadācana
- ever
- jagad
- (jagat) the world
- ādy
- (ādi) beginning with
- akhilaṁ
- the whole
- dṛśyaṁ
- seen
- tathā
- so
- asti
- exists
Meaning
This is the claim to which the sarga will hold. The commentary: as a barren woman's son and a sky-forest have no being in the three times, past, present and future, so this whole seen world, and all that is seen, has no being in the three times. The words "never", kadācana, are the point. Vasiṣṭha is not saying that the world vanishes at the dissolution and so goes nowhere; he is saying that it was not there in the first place, as a thing apart from Brahman, and so the question where it goes does not arise. The "whole seen" includes everything that can be an object: bodies, thoughts and the mind that perceives them.