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Library » Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāṇa) » Canto 10: The Summum Bonum » CHAPTER EIGHTY-SIX

ŚB 10.86.45

Devanagari

यथा शयान: पुरुषो मनसैवात्ममायया ।
सृष्ट्वा लोकं परं स्वाप्नमनुविश्यावभासते ॥ ४५ ॥

Text

yathā śayānaḥ puruṣo
manasaivātma-māyayā
sṛṣṭvā lokaṁ paraṁ svāpnam
anuviśyāvabhāsate

Synonyms

yathā — as; śayānaḥ — sleeping; puruṣaḥ — a person; manasā — with his mind; eva — alone; ātma — own; māyayā — by his imagination; sṛṣṭvā — creating; lokam — a world; param — separate; svāpnam — dream; anuviśya — entering; avabhāsate — he appears.

Translation

The Lord is like a sleeping person who creates a separate world in his imagination and then enters his own dream and sees himself within it.

Purport

In the illusion of his dream, a sleeping person creates an apparent world, complete with cities populated by the fictional products of his imagination. In somewhat the same way, the Lord manifests the cosmos. Of course, the creation is not illusory for the Lord, but it is for those souls who are put under the control of His Māyā potency. As her service to the Lord, Māyā deludes the conditioned souls into accepting as real her temporary, insubstantial manifestations.