यस्मिन् जगत् प्रस्फुरति दृष्टमौक्तिकहंसवत् । यश्चेदं यश्च नैवेदं देवः सदसदात्मकः ॥ ५१ ॥
yasmin jagat prasphurati dṛṣṭamauktikahaṁsavat | yaścēdaṁ yaśca naivēdaṁ dēvaḥ sadasadātmakaḥ || 51 ||
Translation
In which the world shines forth like the swans that were seen as pearls; which is this and is not this: the God whose nature is both being and non-being.
Word by word
- yasmin
- in which
- jagat
- the world
- prasphurati
- shines forth
- dṛṣṭa
- that were seen
- mauktika
- as pearls
- haṁsa
- the swans
- vat
- like
- yaś
- (yaḥ) which
- ca
- and
- idaṁ
- this
- na
- not
- ēva
- indeed
- dēvaḥ
- the God
- sadasad
- both being and non-being
- ātmakaḥ
- whose nature is
Meaning
A puzzling image, which the commentary explains through an old belief: swans eat pearls, so their whole body was thought to be made of pearl. Seen from afar, one takes them for pearls; coming close, one finds they are swans. So the one God, seen by superimposition (adhyāropa), is the world; seen by its removal (apavāda), he is not the world. He is "this" and "not this" at once: being, as the ground of what appears; non-being, as nothing that appears. The commentary also reads the image more simply, as a swan of pearl seen in a picture or in error: the world shines in him as such a thing shines, there to the eye, not there in fact.