जीवाकाशस्त्विमं देहं यथा विन्दति तच्छृणु । जीवाकाशः स्वमेवाऽसौ तस्मिंस्तु परमेश्वरे ॥ १८ ॥
jīvākāśastvimaṁ dēhaṁ yathā vindati tacchṛṇu | jīvākāśaḥ svamēvā’sau tasmiṁstu paramēśvarē || 18 ||
Translation
Hear how the jīva-space finds this body. That jīva-space is its own self, in the Supreme Lord.
Word by word
- jīva
- the jīva
- ākāśas
- (ākāśaḥ) space
- tu
- indeed
- imaṁ
- this
- dēhaṁ
- body
- yathā
- how
- vindati
- finds
- tac
- (tat) that
- chṛṇu
- (śṛṇu) hear
- ākāśaḥ
- space
- svam
- its own self
- ēva
- just
- asau
- that
- tasmiṁs
- (tasmin) in that
- paramēśvarē
- in the Supreme Lord
Meaning
The commentary: having described the collective jīva through Brahman's general sense "I am the jīva", Vasiṣṭha now sets out at length the order of identification, through particular senses, from the individual jīva down to the gross body. My son, hear how the jīva-space comes to this body. The collective jīva-space, imagined in the Supreme Lord, is very wide; and yet, as the next verse says, it thinks itself very small.