Word meanings
- bhūta-grāmaḥ
- the multitude of beings
- saḥ
- these
- eva
- certainly
- ayam
- this
- bhūtvā bhūtvā
- repeatedly taking birth
- pralīyate
- dissolves
- rātri-āgame
- with the advent of night
- avaśaḥ
- helpless
- pārtha
- Arjun, the son of Pritha
- prabhavati
- become manifest
- ahaḥ-āgame
- with the advent of day
Translations
This same multitude of beings, being born again and again, helplessly dissolves, O Arjuna, into the Unmanifested at the coming of the night and comes forth at the coming of the day.
The same multitude of beings, which have lived on earth so often, all are dissolved as the night of the universe approaches, to issue forth anew when morning breaks. Thus, it is ordained.
O son of Prtha, after being born again and again, that very multitude of beings disappears of its own accord at the approach of night. It comes to life again at the approach of day.
हे पार्थ ! वही यह प्राणिसमुदाय उत्पन्न हो-होकर प्रकृतिके परवश हुआ ब्रह्माके दिनके समय उत्पन्न होता है और ब्रह्माकी रात्रिके समय लीन होता है।Commentary
Avidya (ignorance)? Kama (desire) and Karma (action) are the three knots that bind the individual to Samsara. Desire is born of Avidya. Man exerts to attain and enjoy the objects of his desires. During this activity he favours some and injures others through the force of Raga-Dvesha (love and hatred or attraction and repulsion). Therefore he is caught in the wheel of Samsara or transmigration. He has to take birth again and again to reap the fruits of his own actions. He repeatedly comes forths and dissolves through the force of his own Karma.
The individual souls have lost their independence as they are bound by ignorance, desire and activity. Therefore they are subject to the sorrows, miseries and pains of this Samsara. In order to create dispassion in their minds and a longing for liberation in their hearts, and to remove the fallacious belief that a man reaps the fruits of what he has not done or that he does not reap the fruits of what he has done, the Lord has said that all creatures involuntarily come into being again and again at the coming of the day and dissolve at the coming of the night (on account of the actions or Karmas caused by desire born of ignorance).