Lord Kṛṣṇa’s Explanation of the Vedic Path
यथोर्णनाभिर्हृदयादूर्णामुद्वमते मुखात् । आकाशाद् घोषवान् प्राणो मनसा स्पर्शरूपिणा ॥ ३८ ॥ छन्दोमयोऽमृतमय: सहस्रपदवीं प्रभु: । ओङ्काराद् व्यञ्जितस्पर्शस्वरोष्मान्त स्थभूषिताम् ॥ ३९ ॥ विचित्रभाषाविततां छन्दोभिश्चतुरुत्तरै: । अनन्तपारां बृहतीं सृजत्याक्षिपते स्वयम् ॥ ४० ॥
Transliteration
yathorṇanābhir hṛdayād ūrṇām udvamate mukhāt ākāśād ghoṣavān prāṇo manasā sparśa-rūpiṇāchando-mayo ’mṛta-mayaḥ sahasra-padavīṁ prabhuḥ oṁkārād vyañjita-sparśa- svaroṣmāntastha-bhūṣitāmvicitra-bhāṣā-vitatāṁ chandobhiś catur-uttaraiḥ ananta-pārāṁ bṛhatīṁ sṛjaty ākṣipate svayam
Synonyms (Word-for-Word)
yathā — just as; ūrṇa-nābhiḥ — a spider; hṛdayāt — from its heart; ūrṇām — its web; udvamate — emits; mukhāt — through its mouth; ākāśāt — from the ether; ghoṣa-vān — manifesting sound vibration; prāṇaḥ — the Lord in the form of the original life air; manasā — by means of the primeval mind; sparśa-rūpiṇā — which exhibits the forms of the different phonemes of the alphabet, beginning with the sparśa letters; chandaḥ-mayaḥ — comprising all the sacred Vedic meters; amṛta-mayaḥ — full of transcendental pleasure; sahasra-padavīm — which branches out in thousands of directions; prabhuḥ — the Supreme Personality of Godhead; oṁkārāt — from the subtle vibration oṁkāra; vyañjita — expanded; sparśa — with the consonant stops; svara — vowels; uṣma — sibilants; anta-stha — and semivowels; bhūṣitām — decorated; vicitra — variegated; bhāṣā — by verbal expressions; vitatām — elaborated; chandobhiḥ — along with the metrical arrangements; catuḥ-uttaraiḥ — each having four syllables more than the previous; ananta-pārām — limitless; bṛhatīm — the great expanse of Vedic literature; sṛjati — He creates; ākṣipate — and withdraws; svayam — Himself.
Translation
“Just as a spider brings forth from its heart its web and emits it through its mouth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead manifests Himself as the reverberating primeval vital air, comprising all sacred Vedic meters and full of transcendental pleasure. Thus the Lord, from the ethereal sky of His heart, creates the great and limitless Vedic sound by the agency of His mind, which conceives of variegated sounds such as the sparśas. The Vedic sound branches out in thousands of directions, adorned with the different letters expanded from the syllable om: the consonants, vowels, sibilants and semivowels. The Veda is then elaborated by many verbal varieties, expressed in different meters, each having four more syllables than the previous one. Ultimately the Lord again withdraws His manifestation of Vedic sound within Himself.”