Shloka 20
Sāṅkhya: Categories of the Absolute Truth and the Unfolding of Creation
Tattva-vicāra
विश्वमात्मगतं व्यञ्जन्कूटस्थो जगदङ्कुर: । स्वतेजसापिबत्तीव्रमात्मप्रस्वापनं तम: ॥ २० ॥
viśvam ātma-gataṁ vyañjan kūṭa-stho jagad-aṅkuraḥ sva-tejasāpibat tīvram ātma-prasvāpanaṁ tamaḥ
Thus, after manifesting variety, the effulgent mahat-tattva—holding all universes within, the seed of cosmic manifestation and undestroyed at annihilation—swallows the fierce darkness that had covered the light at dissolution.
Since the Supreme Personality of Godhead is ever existing, all-blissful and full of knowledge, His different energies are also ever existing in the dormant stage. Thus when the mahat-tattva was created, it manifested the material ego and swallowed up the darkness which covered the cosmic manifestation at the time of dissolution. This idea can be further explained. A person at night remains inactive, covered by the darkness of night, but when he is awakened in the morning, the covering of night, or the forgetfulness of the sleeping state, disappears. Similarly, when the mahat-tattva appears after the night of dissolution, the effulgence is manifested to exhibit the variegatedness of this material world.
FAQs
This verse says the Supreme, by His own effulgence, absorbs the intense darkness that makes the soul ‘sleep’ in self-forgetfulness—indicating that divine illumination dispels ignorance at its root.
Kapiladeva is teaching Devahuti Sāṅkhya—how the Lord remains unchanged yet manifests the universe and how His spiritual potency overcomes the darkness of māyā that binds the conditioned soul.
Seek the Lord’s ‘light’ through bhakti—hearing and chanting—so that clarity, purpose, and self-awareness replace inertia, confusion, and escapism (the symptoms of tamas).