Verse 8.18
Speaker: Krishna
Sanskrit
अव्यक्ताद्व्यक्तयः सर्वाः प्रभवन्त्यहरागमे | रात्र्यागमे प्रलीयन्ते तत्रैवाव्यक्तसंज्ञके ||१८||
Transliteration (IAST)
avyaktād vyaktayaḥ sarvāḥ prabhavanty ahar-āgame | rātry-āgame pralīyante tatraivāvyakta-saṁjñake ||18||
Word-by-Word Meanings
avyaktāt-from the unmanifest
vyaktayaḥ-manifest beings
sarvāḥ-all
prabhavanti-come forth
ahar-āgame-at the arrival of day
rātri-āgame-at the arrival of night
pralīyante-dissolve
Translation
At the coming of day, all manifest beings emerge from the unmanifest; at the coming of night, they dissolve into that same unmanifest.
Commentary
This verse describes the cosmic cycle of creation and dissolution. At the dawn of Brahma's day, all beings manifest from the unmanifest (avyakta) state; at his night, they return to that latent condition. Ramanuja explains that this cyclical process demonstrates the helplessness of beings caught in samsara without divine grace.
Themes
timekarmajnana