Chapter 8Verse 18 of 28

Bhagavad Gita 8.18

अव्यक्ताद्व्यक्तयः सर्वाः प्रभवन्त्यहरागमे | रात्र्यागमे प्रलीयन्ते तत्रैवाव्यक्तसंज्ञके ||

avyaktād vyaktayaḥ sarvāḥ prabhavanty ahar-āgame | rātry-āgame pralīyante tatraivāvyakta-saṁjñake ||

Translation

From the unmanifest all manifest beings come forth at the coming of day; at the coming of night, they dissolve into the same unmanifest.

At Brahma's dawn the manifest comes out from the unmanifest. At his night, they dissolve back into it. The same unmanifest, the same returning. The cosmos breathes. The verse is calm about a fact that should otherwise overwhelm the reader. What seems permanent, all the worlds and their populations, is one frame of a longer rhythm. The same plays out below in human scale. Sleep is the night of a smaller cosmos, and waking its day. The verse hints at the parallel without explaining it. The seeker who has felt the small breath has the start of the picture of the large one. They are the same shape.

Reflection

Where in your life have you confused a frame for the whole rhythm?

Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Eight

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