Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Srimad Bhagavatam 11.12.18

yathanalah khe 'nila-bandhur ushma

balena daruny adhimathyamanah

anuh prajato havisha samedhate

tathaiva me vyaktir iyam hi vani

SYNONYMS

yatha -- just as; analah -- fire; khe -- in the space within wood; anila -- air; bandhuh -- whose help; ushma -- heat; balena -- strongly; daruni -- within the wood; adhimathyamanah -- being kindled by friction; anuh -- very tiny; prajatah -- is born; havisha -- with ghee (clarified butter); samedhate -- it increases; tatha -- similarly; eva -- indeed; me -- My; vyaktih -- manifestation; iyam -- this; hi -- certainly; vani -- the Vedic sounds.

TRANSLATION

When sticks of kindling wood are vigorously rubbed together, heat is produced by contact with air, and a spark of fire appears. Once the fire is kindled, ghee is added and the fire blazes. Similarly, I become manifest in the sound vibration of the Vedas.

PURPORT

Lord Krishna here explains the most confidential meaning of Vedic knowledge. The Vedas first regulate ordinary material work and channel the fruits into ritualistic sacrifices, which ostensibly reward the performer with future benefits. The real purpose of these sacrifices, however, is to accustom a materialistic worker to offering the fruits of his work to a superior Vedic authority. An expert fruitive worker gradually exhausts the possibilities of material enjoyment and naturally gravitates toward the superior stage of philosophical speculation on his existential situation. By increased knowledge, one becomes aware of the unlimited glories of the Supreme and gradually takes to the process of loving devotional service to the transcendental Absolute Truth. Lord Krishna is the goal of Vedic knowledge, as the Lord states in Bhagavad-gita: vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyah [Bg. 15.15]. The Lord gradually becomes manifest in the progression of Vedic rituals, just as fire is gradually manifest by the rubbing of firewood. The words havisha samedhate ("the fire increases by addition of ghee") indicate that by the progressive advancement of Vedic sacrifice, the fire of spiritual knowledge gradually blazes, illuminating everything and destroying the chain of fruitive work.

Lord Krishna considered Uddhava to be the most qualified person to hear this elaborate transcendental knowledge; therefore the Lord mercifully instructs Uddhava so that he may enlighten the sages at Badarikasrama, thus fulfilling the purpose of the sages' lives.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
His Holiness Hrdayananda dasa Goswami
Gopiparanadhana dasa Adhikari
Dravida dasa Brahmacari