Verse 1.6

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

ततः स्वयम्भूर्भगवानव्यक्तो व्यञ्जयन्निदम् ।
महाभूतादि वृत्तोजाः प्रादुरासीत् तमोनुदः ॥ ६ ॥

tataḥ svayambhūrbhagavānavyakto vyañjayannidam |
mahābhūtādi vṛttojāḥ prādurāsīt tamonudaḥ || 6 ||

Thereafter, the supreme being Hiraṇyagarbha, self-born, unmanifest and bringing into view this (universe), appeared,—dispelling darkness and having his (creative) power operating upon the Elemental Substances and other things.—(6)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

After the above described Great Night;—the ‘Self-born,’ he who comes into existence by himself; i.e. who takes up a body by his own will, his taking the body not being dependent upon his past acts, as it is in the case of beings undergoing births and deaths.

‘Unmanifest,’—not cognizable by people devoid of ability to contemplate and other powers produced by the practice of yoga. Or, it would be better to read ‘avyakṭam’ (in the Accusative), making it an epithet of ‘idam,’ ‘this;’ the meaning being ‘this universe which was in its unmanifest condition.’

‘Bringing into view’—making it perceptible in the form of the grosser products; that is, he by whose wish the World comes into existence.

‘Appeared’—the term ‘Prāduḥ (?)’—denotes visibility.

‘Dispelling darkness,’—‘darkness’ stands for the state of dissolution; he dispells, sets aside, that state; he creates the World afresh and is therefore said to ‘dispel darkness.’

‘Elemental Substances,’ earth and the rest.

‘Other things’—refers to Sound and other qualities of the said substances;—he has his ‘power’ i.e. creative power—‘operating,’ acting, upon the said substances &c. The Elemental Substances by themselves are incapable of producing the World; when however the requisite potency is instilled into them by him, they become transformed into the shape of trees and other things. The term ‘Elemental Substances’ here does not stand for the substances, which at the beginning of ‘creation,’ exist in the form of potencies lying latent in Primordial Matter.

Another reading is ‘mahābhūtānuvṛttaujāḥ;’ ‘anuvṛttam, meaning bent upon; the meaning of the epithet remains the same as before. (6)

 

Explanatory notes

‘Mahābhūtādī’—Here again Rāghavānanda, the Vedantin, is at variance with the other commentators, and takes it in the sense of ‘Akaṅkāra,’ and not in that of ‘the Elemental Substances &c,’

‘Prādurāsīt’—‘assumed a body of his own free will, not in consequence of his Karma?: (Medhātithi, Kullūka, Govinda, Nandana);—‘became discernible’: (Nārāyaṇa)—‘became ready to create’: (Rāghavānanda)

The reader should refer to the latter portion of the Bhāṣya on verse 11, where the present verse is explained as setting forth the self-evolution of Prakṛti, according to the Sāṅkhya.