तदेतत् सत्यं
यथा सुदीप्तात् पावकाद्विस्फुलिङ्गाः
सहस्रशः प्रभवन्ते सरूपाः ।
तथाऽक्षराद्विविधाः सोम्य भावाः
प्रजायन्ते तत्र चैवापि यन्ति ॥ १॥
tadetat satyaṃ
yathā sudīptāt pāvakādvisphuliṅgāḥ
sahasraśaḥ prabhavante sarūpāḥ .
tathā’kṣarādvividhāḥ somya bhāvāḥ
prajāyante tatra caivāpi yanti .. 1..
This is the Truth: As from a blazing fire, sparks essentially akin to it fly forth by the thousand, so also, my good friend, do various beings come forth from the imperishable Brahman and unto Him again return.
Commentary:
“O Master, how has this world come?” The disciple raises the question.
There are various ways of answering this question of how this world has come. In the beginning the answer will depend on the ability of the mind of the student to understand, because the student imagines that the world has come from something. Even without seeing the world coming from something, we put questions such as: “Who created this world?” Why should the world be created by anybody? We imagine that this world must have been created by someone, and as this assumption is already in the mind, one has to take the stand of the disciple in assuming that there is a cause for this world; so initially, by a kind of illustration and analogy, the cause of the world, and the manner of its coming from the cause, are described in this verse.
Here is the truth, the answer to your question. From a large conflagration of fire, thousands of sparks emanate in all directions. In a similar manner, varieties of individualities—species of beings and things—emerge from this Imperishable Reality and return to it, as sparks of fire that rise from the conflagration shoot up and then go back to their source, which is the fire itself. Thus is the world coming from its cause, which is the Imperishable Brahman. It comes, it is sustained, and it returns. There is a beginning, and a middle, and an end for this world. Therefore, the world is not real, merely because of this simple fact that it has a beginning and an end, and a tentative middle.
The illustration of the fire and sparks is to indicate for the student’s comprehension that there is some quality in us which will enable us to reach God. If the effect is totally disconnected from the cause—if there is nothing in the effect which can be called similar to the essence of the cause—there will be no relationship between them. This is to indicate that in spite of our separation from God, our fall from Brahman, as it were, we are still endowed with that potential for returning to Brahman, because the feet of Brahman are planted in our own heart. The Atman that we are is an indication of the Universal that Brahman is, just as the character of the spark is, in essence, the same as the character of fire. This illustration makes out that basically we are verily that which we are seeking. If we are entirely dissociated from that, there will be no possibility of our returning to it. The Atman is Brahman basically.