आकाश एव परमे प्रथमः प्रजेशो नित्यं स्वयं कचति शून्यतया समो यः । स ह्यातिवाहिकवपुर्न तु भूतरूपी पृथ्व्यादि तेन न सदस्ति तथा न जातम् ॥ ५४ ॥
ākāśa ēva paramē prathamaḥ prajēśō nityaṁ svayaṁ kacati śūnyatayā samō yaḥ | sa hyātivāhikavapurna tu bhūtarūpī pṛthvyādi tēna na sadasti tathā na jātam || 54 ||
Translation
In the Supreme, space itself is the first lord of creatures, who shines of himself forever, even as emptiness; for he has a conveying body, not one made of the elements: so earth and the rest neither are nor were born.
Word by word
- ākāśa
- space
- ēva
- itself
- paramē
- in the Supreme
- prathamaḥ
- the first
- prajēśō
- (prajeśaḥ) lord of creatures
- nityaṁ
- forever
- svayaṁ
- of himself
- kacati
- shines
- śūnyatayā
- as emptiness
- samō
- (samaḥ) even
- yaḥ
- who
- sa
- (saḥ) he
- hy
- (hi) for
- ātivāhika
- conveying
- vapur
- (vapuḥ) a body
- na
- not
- tu
- but
- bhūta
- of the elements
- rūpī
- made
- pṛthvī
- earth
- ādi
- and the rest
- tēna
- so
- sad
- (sat) are
- asti
- is
- tathā
- nor
- jātam
- born
Meaning
The sarga ends in a vasantatilakā verse, gathering up the whole, the commentary says, as a lion looks back over the way it has come. The Self-born lord of creatures, imagined in the supreme Brahman, is empty: the one supreme Self, of one taste, appears of itself as the unreal lord of creatures, for his body is made of mind, not of the five elements. Earth and the rest are only the resolve of a lord whose body is mind, so they too are unreal: as a hare's horn, never born, is not real, so they are not real. The creator himself is space; what he creates can be no more solid than he is.