अणुतेजःकणोऽस्मीति स्वयं चेतति चिन्तया । यत्तदेवोच्छूनमिव भावयत्यात्मनाऽम्बरे ॥ १९ ॥
aṇutējaḥkaṇō’smīti svayaṁ cētati cintayā | yattadēvōcchūnamiva bhāvayatyātmanā’mbarē || 19 ||
Translation
"I am a tiny spark of light": so it knows itself by thought; and what it is, it imagines in itself, in space, as if swollen.
Word by word
- aṇu
- tiny
- tējaḥ
- of light
- kaṇō
- (kaṇaḥ) a spark
- asmi
- I am
- iti
- so
- svayaṁ
- itself
- cētati
- knows
- cintayā
- by thought
- yat
- what
- tad
- (tat) that
- ēva
- just
- ucchūnam
- swollen
- iva
- as if
- bhāvayati
- imagines
- ātmanā
- in itself
- ambarē
- in space
Meaning
The commentary: though wide, it thinks "I am a tiny spark of light, like a spark of fire", and by that thinking knows itself as such, atom-sized. The Upaniṣad says it: "as tiny sparks fly from a fire, so from this Self all these selves go forth" (Bṛhadāraṇyaka 2.1.20). Then, whatever grossness the Self thinks of in space, it takes itself to be gross by that very imagining. The infinite becomes small by a thought, and large again by another.