SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
SlOkam – Original
sarvabhUthAni kaunthEya prakruthim yAnthi mAmikAm |
kalpakshayE punas thAni kalpAdhau visrujAmyaham ||
word-by-word meaning (based on puththUr krishNamAchArya swAmy’s thamizh translation)
kaunthEya – Oh son of kunthI!
kalpakshayE – at the end of the life span of brahmA
sarva bhUthAni – all entities
mAmikAm – my body
prakruthim – in mUla prakruthi (primordial matter)
yAnthi – enter
thAni – them
aham – I
kalpa Adhau – at the beginning of creation
puna visrujAmi – again create
Simple Translation (based on puththUr krishNamAchArya swAmy’s thamizh translation)
Oh son of kunthI! At the end of the life span of brahmA, all entities enter into mUla prakruthi (primordial matter) which is my body; at the beginning of creation, I create them again [as they were before].
Rendering based on ALkoNdavilli gOvindhAchArya swAmy’s English translation of gIthA bhAshyam
‘All beings, Kaunteya1! enter into My Nature at the end of a Kalpa2. Again do I emit them at the beginning of a Kalpa3.’
All movable and immovable things enter into My own Nature, i.e. prakṛiti which is My body designated tamas (darkness=the indistinguishable, indifferentiate vast expanse of matter-stuff;, which has no name, form and division (in its indistinct state).
At the end of a Kalpa: when the period of dissolution comes for the four-faced Brahma. At that time all creatures pass into Me by My will.
The self-same creatures do I bring forth again at the dawning of a Kalpa. Says Manu:—
‘This became full of tamas (darkness)’ etc.,4
‘He, willing (to produce) from His own body’ etc.,5
Say the Śrutis also thus:—
‘Of Whom avyakta (indiscernible matter) is body’6.
‘Avyakta merges into akshara, and akshara into tamas‘7.
‘It was tamas in the beginning, by tamas was all hidden and indiscernible (apraketam)’8.
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- A matronymic of Arjuna. ↩
- See footnotes to verse 4.4 and verse 4.8. ↩
- See footnotes to verse 4.4 and verse 4.8. ↩
- Manu: i-5. (Āsīd idam tamo-bhūtam etc). ↩
- Manu: i-8. (So`bhidhyāya śarīrāt svāt etc). ↩
- Sub: Up: 7. Yasyā `vyaktam śarīram etc). ↩
- Sub: Up: 2 (Avyaktam akshare līyate etc). ↩
- Tait: Brā: ii-8-9 and Rig Veda viii-7-17. (Tama āsīt tamasā gūdham agre`praketam). apraketam=apra-jñāyamānām=incomprehensible. ↩