श्रीराम उवाच । सद्रूपं परमात्मेति कथं नाम हि बुध्यते । इयतोऽस्य जगन्नाम्नो दृश्यस्याऽसंभवः कथम् ॥ २६ ॥
śrīrāma uvāca | sadrūpaṁ paramātmēti kathaṁ nāma hi budhyatē | iyatō’sya jagannāmnō dṛśyasyā’saṁbhavaḥ katham || 26 ||
Translation
Rāma said: How indeed is the supreme Self understood to be what is real? And how is so vast a seen thing, called the world, impossible?
Word by word
- sad
- (sat) real
- rūpaṁ
- what is
- paramātmā
- the supreme Self
- iti
- (marks what is understood)
- kathaṁ
- how
- nāma
- indeed
- hi
- indeed
- budhyatē
- is understood
- iyatō
- (iyataḥ) so vast
- asya
- this
- jagat
- the world
- nāmnō
- (nāmnaḥ) called
- dṛśyasya
- seen thing
- asaṁbhavaḥ
- impossible
- katham
- how
Meaning
Rāma raises the question of evidence, as the commentary puts it: a thing is real in the way the means of knowledge show it to be. Brahman is not shown by the means of knowledge, so how can we be sure it is real? And the world is shown as real by every means of knowledge, so how can we be sure it is unreal?