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Chapter 11 · Verse 12
👁 Sanjaya narrates
Illustration for Chapter 11, Verse 12

दिवि सूर्यसहस्रस्य भवेद्युगपदुत्थिता। यदि भाः सदृशी सा स्याद्भासस्तस्य महात्मनः॥

divi sūryasahasrasya bhavedyugapadutthitā | yadi bhāḥ sadṛśī sā syādbhāsastasya mahātmanaḥ ||

Word by Word 14 words
दिवि
div heaven, sky

in the sky

सूर्य
sūrya sun

suns

सहस्रस्य
sahasra thousand

of a thousand

भवेत्
bhū to be, to become

were to be, might arise

युगपत्
yugapat at once, simultaneously

all at once, simultaneously

उत्थिता
ud up sthā to stand, to rise

risen, having risen

यदि
yadi if

if

भाः
bhā to shine

light, radiance

सदृशी
sa with, like dṛś to see, to resemble

similar, resembling

सा
tad that, she

that

स्यात्
as to be

would be

भासः
bhā to shine

to the splendour, of the radiance

तस्य
tad that, his

of that, His

महात्मनः
mahā great ātman self, soul

of the great-souled One

reaches for the only comparison big enough: if a thousand suns were to rise in the sky all at once, their blaze might — just might — come close to the splendour of that great-souled One. One sun already lights our whole world. Imagine a thousand, all at once. Even that, Sanjaya says, would only begin to match it.

कथा

A Thousand Suns

An original story

stopped describing the shapes and the ornaments. He had run out of ordinary words. There was a brightness in the vision, and he did not know how to make the blind king feel it.

"My king," he said at last, "you have stood in the courtyard at midday in the hot season. You remember how the single sun can be too fierce to look at — how it presses on the back of your neck, how it makes the white stones glare until your eyes ache and you must turn away."

"I remember," said .

"Now hold this in your mind," said. "Not one sun. Imagine the sky suddenly filled with a thousand suns, all rising together in the same moment, each one as bright as the one we know. A thousand mornings breaking at once. A blaze with no shadow anywhere in the world, no cool corner, no dusk, no night — only one enormous flood of light pouring from every part of heaven."

The old king's hands tightened on the arms of his chair, as if even imagining it were too much.

"That," said quietly, "is the nearest I can come. If a thousand suns rose together, their splendour might begin — only begin — to resemble the radiance pouring from this great-souled One. And the strange thing, my king, is this: can look at it. He should be blinded. He should be burned to nothing. But he was given a divine eye, and so he stands and beholds a light that a thousand suns could not outshine."

, on the chariot, felt the truth of it. The light did not hurt him now, yet he understood that without the gift of the divine eye it would have swallowed him whole. He was looking at the brightness behind all brightness — the light from which the sun itself borrows, the way the moon borrows from the sun.

"There is the sun we wake to," he whispered to himself, "and behind it, this. All this time, behind the sun, this."

चिन्तनम्

We can only look at the sun for a tiny moment before it hurts our eyes. What do you think it would take to be able to look at something a thousand times brighter — and not turn away?