Verse 12

अन्धं तमः प्रविशन्ति येऽसम्भूतिम् उपासते ।
ततो भूय इव ते तमो य उ सम्भूत्यां रताः ॥ १२ ॥

andhaṃ tamaḥ praviśanti ye’sambhūtim upāsate .
tato bhūya iva te tamo ya u sambhūtyāṃ ratāḥ .. 12 ..


Into blinding darkness pass they who are devoted to the unmanifest, and into still greater darkness, as it were, they who delight in the manifest

Tap a word for its meaning

Sambhavanam means birth. That which is born and is an effect is sambhūti. asambhūti is what is other than sambhūti i.e., prakṛti, the undifferentiated cause whose essence is nescience and which is the source of all activity and desire. They who devote themselves to such Cause enter (as may be expected) darkness which is correspondingly blind in its nature. sambhūtyāṃ i.e., in the phenomenal Brahman known as hiraṇya-garbha. They who delight only in Him enter darkness which is, as it were, more blinding still.

Now follows as an argument for their simultaneous practice, a statement of the distinction between the respective fruits of the two kinds of meditation—

* I read Samuchchayakāriya eva ekapuruṣārtha-sambandhah.