8.18 The universe breathes Krishna speaks
अव्यक्ताद्व्यक्तयः सर्वाः प्रभवन्त्यहरागमे
रात्र्यागमे प्रलीयन्ते तत्रैवाव्यक्तसंज्ञके
avyaktād vyaktayaḥ sarvāḥ prabhavantyahar-āgame
rātryāgame pralīyante tatraivāvyakta-sanjñake
At the coming of that day all things manifest emerge from the unmanifest; at the fall of night they dissolve into it again.
Explanation
Manifest and unmanifest, on a cycle.
At the coming of the day everything appears; at the fall of night it dissolves back into what it came from. The universe is not created once. It is exhaled and inhaled, indefinitely.
The image carries more than the cosmology does. Whatever exists visibly is a phase of something that was already there unmanifest — which is why the chapter can treat appearing and disappearing as the same kind of event, rather than as creation and catastrophe.
Word by word
- avyaktāt
- from the unmanifested
- vyaktayaḥ
- the manifested
- sarvāḥ
- all
- prabhavanti
- emanate
- ahaḥ-āgame
- at the advent of Brahma’s day
- rātri-āgame
- at the fall of Brahma’s night
- pralīyante
- they dissolve
- tatra
- into that
- eva
- certainly
- avyakta-sanjñake
- in that which is called the unmanifest
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