8.19 bhUthagrAma: sa EvAyam

SrI:  SrImathE SatakOpAya nama:  SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama:  SrImath varavaramunayE nama:

Chapter 8

<< Chapter 8 verses 18

SlOkam – Original

bhUthagrAma: sa EvAyam bhUthvA bhUthvA praleeyathE |
rAtryAgamE’vaSa: pArtha prabhavathyaharAgamE ||

word-by-word meaning

pArtha – Oh son of kunthI!
avaSa: sa Eva ayam bhUthagrAma: – the collection of those jIvAthmAs which are bound by karma
(aharAgamE) bhUthvA bhUthvA – (in the beginning of every day [of brahmA]) gets created again and again
rAthryAgamE praleeyathE – (in the beginning of every night [of brahmA]) gets dissolved
aharAgamE prabhavathi – (again) gets created in the beginning of the day

Simple Translation

Oh son of kunthI! The collection of those jIvAthmAs which are bound by karma, gets created again and again (in the beginning of every day of brahmA ) and gets dissolved (in the beginning of every night of brahmA) and (again) gets created in the beginning of the day.

Rendering based on ALkoNdavilli gOvindhAchArya swAmy’s English translation of gIthA bhAshyam

‘The self-same bonded multitude of things repeatedly become, disappearing with approach of Night, and appearing with approach of Day.’

Those who know the order of Day and Night, established by Me for all, from man etc., up to (the Demiurge) Brahmā, know that a Day of Brahmā ends with a thousand of Four Yugas, and a Night of equal duration. At the dawning of Brahmā’s Day, all things in the three-fold regions, viz., bodies, senses, objects of enjoyment, localities of enjoyment etc., all in their undeveloped state, emit from the Avyakta-state of Brahmā’s body. —And when Night draws on, they are again re-absorbed into that unmanifest form of his body. The same groups of beings, bound down by karma, come and go, coming with the Day, and vanishing with the Night, coming again with the Day and so on (ad: infin).

When one hundred years, —a Day being equal to one-thousand of Four Yugas— are past, all systems of worlds up to Brahmā’s own realm, and Brahmā himself, have an ending. And in the order stated in the Śruti:—

‘Earth is resolved into water, water into fire etc.,’[1. Sub: Up: 2, ‘Pṛithivy-apsu pralīyate, āpas tejasi līyante.’] the Kosmos, from avyakta, merges back into akshara, akshara into tamas, and finally into Me.

Thus, all things save Me, are circumscribed by time. All things derive their being from Me, and find their absorption in Me. There is no escape from birth and death. Thus, slipping back from material prosperity (aiśvarya) for those who have sought it, is inevitable.

But in the case of those who attain to Me, returning (to re-birth) is not to be thought of.

Now it is shown that there is no return (to re-birth) for those who have attained kaivalya (=ātma-isolation).

>> Chapter 8 verse 20

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