श्रीवसिष्ठ उवाच । एक एव न जीवोऽस्ति राशीनां संभवः कुतः । शशशृङ्गं समुड्डीय प्रयातीव हि ते वचः ॥ १८ ॥
śrīvasiṣṭha uvāca | ēka ēva na jīvō’sti rāśīnāṁ saṁbhavaḥ kutaḥ | śaśaśṛṅgaṁ samuḍḍīya prayātīva hi tē vacaḥ || 18 ||
Translation
Vasiṣṭha said: There is not even one jīva; how could there be heaps? Your words go off, as it were, flying on a hare's horn.
Word by word
- ēka
- one
- ēva
- even
- na
- not
- jīvō
- (jīvaḥ) jīva
- asti
- there is
- rāśīnāṁ
- of heaps
- saṁbhavaḥ
- the being
- kutaḥ
- how
- śaśa
- of a hare
- śṛṅgaṁ
- on the horn
- samuḍḍīya
- flying
- prayāti
- go off
- iva
- as it were
- hi
- indeed
- tē
- your
- vacaḥ
- words
Meaning
The commentary gives Vasiṣṭha's intention: our aim is to prove that only Brahman is; to that end it is simpler to imagine many on one ground, so we imagined a whole jīva and the individual jīvas limited by it; not to establish the reality of either, nor to teach the birth of jīvas. My son, when there is not one jīva, where is a heap of them? Your question is as if someone said the hare's horn flies off: where the hare's horn does not exist, to doubt its flight is laughable.