श्रीवसिष्ठ उवाच । देशाद्देशान्तरं दूरं प्राप्तायाः संविदो वपुः । निमिषेणैव यन्मध्ये तद्रूपं परमात्मनः ॥ १९ ॥
śrīvasiṣṭha uvāca | dēśāddēśāntaraṁ dūraṁ prāptāyāḥ saṁvidō vapuḥ | nimiṣēṇaiva yanmadhyē tadrūpaṁ paramātmanaḥ || 19 ||
Translation
When awareness goes from one place to another far away in the blink of an eye, what its body is in between: that is the form of the supreme Self.
Word by word
- dēśād
- (deśāt) from one place
- dēśāntaraṁ
- to another
- dūraṁ
- far away
- prāptāyāḥ
- when it goes
- saṁvidō
- (saṁvidaḥ) of awareness
- vapuḥ
- the body
- nimiṣēṇa
- in the blink of an eye
- ēva
- just
- yan
- (yat) what
- madhyē
- in between
- tad
- (tat) that
- rūpaṁ
- is the form
- paramātmanaḥ
- of the supreme Self
Meaning
Awareness without an object is not something we notice, the commentary says, so to bring it within experience Vasiṣṭha points to a moment everyone has. Look at the tip of a branch, then at the moon beyond it: in the blink of an eye awareness has gone from the branch to the far moon. It must have been continuous across the gap, or the two could not be known together. At the branch and at the moon it has an object; in between, it is awareness with no object, direct and unveiled. That is the form of the supreme Self. One can try it: in the passage between one thought or sight and the next, what is there?