यम उवाच । न कदाचन जातोऽसौ न च नाऽस्ति कदाचन । द्विजः केवलविज्ञानभामात्रं तत्तथा स्थितः ॥ ३५ ॥
yama uvāca | na kadācana jātō’sau na ca nā’sti kadācana | dvijaḥ kēvalavijñānabhāmātraṁ tattathā sthitaḥ || 35 ||
Translation
Yama said: "He was never born, and never does he not exist. The brahmin is only the light of pure knowing, and so he stands.
Word by word
- na
- not
- kadācana
- never
- jātō
- (jātaḥ) was born
- asau
- he
- ca
- and
- asti
- does exist
- dvijaḥ
- the brahmin
- kēvala
- pure
- vijñāna
- of knowing
- bhā
- the light
- mātraṁ
- only
- tat
- so
- tathā
- as he is
- sthitaḥ
- he stands
Meaning
Yama answers by removing the premise. The commentary first says what was meant: Brahman is called space not because it is empty but because, like space, it has no parts; earth and the rest were called unreal not because they are nothing but because an effect has no being apart from its cause; and the birth of the unborn was meant as an appearance (vivarta), not as a change of substance (pariṇāma). Then Yama: this brahmin was never born and has never perished; in the highest truth he is knowing alone, of the nature of light, and he stays as he is, never altered. Nothing came from the void, because nothing came.