Varaha Purana 113.18: Adhyaya 113, Shloka 18
Hymn to Varāha and Pṛthivī’s Inquiry
Prelude to the Sanatkumāra Dialogue
Uttara Bhāga · Cosmic stillness motif (absence of elements and lights)
न वाति पवनस्तत्र नैव चाग्निर्न विद्युतः ॥ न किञ्चित्तत्र विद्येत न तारा न च राशयः
na vāti pavanas tatra naiva cāgnir na vidyutaḥ || na kiñcit tatra vidyeta na tārā na ca rāśayaḥ
na vAti pavanastatra naiva chAgnirna vidyutaH || na kiMchittatra vidyeta na tArA na cha rAshayaH
वहाँ हवा भी नहीं चल रही थी। ना आग थी, ना बिजली चमकती थी। वहाँ कुछ भी नहीं था, ना तारे, ना कोई ग्रह-नक्षत्र।
Sandhi Notes
- naiva cāgnir = na eva ca agniḥ (a + a → ā)
Ritual, time, and knowledge rely on elemental and astral order; their absence implies suspension of dharma’s external supports.
Value agni (discipline), vāyu (prāṇa regulation), and ‘light’ (study) as inner counterparts that sustain dharma even amid instability.
Elemental withdrawal: vāyu (movement), agni (transformation), and vidyut (sudden illumination) are absent—signifying a pre-creation/pralaya condition where even astral order (tārā, rāśi) is unmanifest.
With agni absent, yajña cannot proceed; with rāśis absent, calendrical/ritual timing collapses—implying the need for a cosmic ‘restorer’ to re-light agni and re-establish time.
Guṇa-sāmya (equilibrium) before manifestation: when differentiating functions cease, nāma-rūpa is not available; īśvara’s saṅkalpa reintroduces differentiation.
Continuation of 113.18’s darkness motif
FAQs
It catalogues the absence of elemental and astral markers, reflecting a Purāṇic way of narrating cosmic suspension or dissolution-like conditions.
No geographic location is identified.
No explicit ethical instruction is given; the verse is descriptive and cosmological.
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