[Advaita-l] yadA carmavat & BGB 13.2

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Mon, 10 May 2010, Murali Karamchedu wrote:

>> The reference is to the famous quotation in the Shve. Up. "yada 
>> charmavadakasham veshtayishyanti maanavah..." - which simply means that 
>> only when man can figure out how to roll up this entire expanse of 
>> space like he would roll up a leather-skin, can there be an end to 
>> samsara without knowledge of the Lord.
>
> Thank you. A lovely figure of speech to indicate utter impossibility. (Much
> better than the modern 'when hell freezes over').
>

charma specifically refers to an animal hide worn as clothing. (Like the 
mrgacharma or dearskin worn by a forest-dwelling sage.)  It is ridiculous 
to assume the sky could be wrapped up around oneself like a coat.

I don't know if any acharya has made this connection before but when I 
read this I was immediately reminded of another upanishad vakya. 
Ishopanishad says "All this [the phenomenal universe] is covered by the 
Lord"  The utterly impossible becomes possible with knowledge of the Lord!

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>