Shloka 7
अव्यक्तादि विशेषान्तं सहस्थावरजड्रमम् । सूर्यचन्द्रप्रभालोकं ग्रहनक्षत्रमण्डितम्,यह जगत् एक ब्रह्मवन है। अव्यक्त प्रकृति इसका आदि है। पाँच महाभूत, दस इन्द्रियाँ और एक मन--इन सोलह विशेषोंतक इसका विस्तार है। यह चराचर प्राणियोंसे भरा हुआ है। सूर्य और चन्द्रमा आदिके प्रकाशसे प्रकाशित है। ग्रह और नक्षत्रोंसे सुशोभित है। नदियों और पर्वतोंके समूहसे सब ओर विभूषित है। नाना प्रकारके जलसे सदा ही अलंकृत है। यही सम्पूर्ण भूतोंका जीवन और सम्पूर्ण प्राणियोंकी गति है। इस ब्रह्मवनमें क्षेत्रज्ञ विचरण करता है
avyaktādi-viśeṣāntaṁ saha-sthāvara-jaḍa-dramam | sūrya-candra-prabhā-lokaṁ graha-nakṣatra-maṇḍitam | idaṁ jagad ekaṁ brahma-vanaṁ | avyakta-prakṛtir asyādaḥ | pañca-mahābhūta-daśendriyāṇi caikaṁ mana iti ṣoḍaśa-viśeṣaiḥ asya vistāraḥ | idaṁ carācara-prāṇibhir pūrṇam | sūrya-candrādi-prakāśaiḥ prakāśitam | graha-nakṣatraiḥ suśobhitam | nadī-parvata-saṅghaiḥ sarvato vibhūṣitam | nānā-vidha-jalaiḥ sadālaṅkṛtam | etat sarva-bhūtānāṁ jīvanaṁ sarva-prāṇināṁ ca gatiḥ | asmin brahma-vane kṣetrajñaś carati |
Vāyu said: “This universe is a single forest of Brahman. Its beginning is the unmanifest Prakṛti, and its expansion reaches up to the distinct principles—five great elements, ten senses, and the one mind—sixteen in all. It is filled with beings, moving and unmoving. It is illumined by the radiance of the sun and moon, adorned with planets and constellations, beautified on every side by clusters of rivers and mountains, and ever ornamented with waters of many kinds. This is the life of all beings and the course of all creatures. In this forest of Brahman, the Knower of the Field (kṣetrajña) wanders.”
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse presents the cosmos as a ‘forest of Brahman’: an all-encompassing field arising from unmanifest Prakṛti and structured through key principles (elements, senses, mind). Within this vast, ornamented universe, the kṣetrajña—the conscious self—moves as an experiencer/witness, pointing toward self-knowledge and discernment between consciousness and nature.
Vāyudeva is instructing the listener by describing the universe in a vivid, poetic cosmological image. He reframes the world’s diversity (sun, moon, stars, rivers, mountains, beings) as a single coherent domain, preparing a philosophical reflection on the self (kṣetrajña) that traverses and experiences this ‘field’.