धाराः पयोमुच इव शीकरा इव वारिधेः । कणास्तप्तायस इव कस्मान्निर्यान्ति जीवकाः ॥ १६ ॥
dhārāḥ payōmuca iva śīkarā iva vāridhēḥ | kaṇāstaptāyasa iva kasmānniryānti jīvakāḥ || 16 ||
Translation
From what do the little jīvas come out, like streams from a cloud, like spray from the ocean, like sparks from red-hot iron?
Word by word
- dhārāḥ
- streams
- payōmuca
- (payomucaḥ) from a cloud
- iva
- like
- śīkarā
- (śīkarāḥ) spray
- vāridhēḥ
- from the ocean
- kaṇās
- (kaṇāḥ) sparks
- tapta
- red-hot
- ayasa
- (ayasaḥ) from iron
- kasmān
- (kasmāt) from what
- niryānti
- come out
- jīvakāḥ
- the little jīvas
Meaning
The commentary: one must suppose the individual jīvas real and the whole imagined; otherwise, if the whole is said to give rise to them, as rain from a cloud, spray from the sea or sparks from heated iron, the whole would be impermanent, and there would be the fault of works lost and fruits unearned. Rāma's three images all take the jīvas as real pieces leaving a real source.