सङ्गीतरत्नाकर: प्रथम भाग (शार्ङ्गदेव - स्वरगताध्याय सविस्तार व्याख्या व अनुवाद सहित)

30 Treatment of Svara
withdraws it for the sake of rest⁵; thus, the order of creation
and dissolution is believed to be an incessant flow.⁶ (9c-10)
(v) जीवब्रह्मणोः सम्बन्धः
ते जीवा नात्मनो भिन्ना भिन्नं वा नात्मनो जगत् ।
शक्त्या सृजन्नभिन्नोऽसौ सुवर्णं कुण्डलादिव ॥११॥
सृजत्यविद्ययेत्यन्ये यथा रज्जुर्भुजङ्गमम् ।
(v) The relation of jīva and Brahman : 11-12b
These individual beings are not different¹ from the
Ātman, neither is the world² different from it; for, creating
by its own power³, it is non-different (from its creation),
5. 'K' suggests that, since creation takes place for the enjoyment
of the individual beings, it is withdrawn by the creator also
for the rest of the individual beings. Since the creator, being
the substratum of the phenomenon, is not affected by the
duality of pain and pleasure and for him creation is sportive,
he needs no rest.
6. Anādi of the text means beginningless. The idea is that crea-
tion and dissolution do not take place in time, since time
itself is a part of creation. The world process is thus conceiv-
ed to be an incessant flow. 'K' suggests that the world has
a beginning with reference to the particular, i. e., individual
manifestations only, viz a son is born and has a beginning
but the universal, i e., the process of regeneration has no
beginning.

1. The individuals are considered here in the relationship of the
   constituents and the constituted, i e., aṁśāṁśibhāva, and are
   thus essentially non-different from, i. e., identical with Ātman,
   reality.
2. The world too is conceived to be non-different from Ātman,
   since the creator and the creation are understood to be in the
   relationship of cause and effect, i. e., kāryakāraṇabhāva. This
   relationship as well as the above one is accepted by the
   Bhedābheda school of the vedānta system of Indian philosophy.
3. According to the Bhedābheda-vedānta philosophy, the creator
   creates the universe by its own power and therefore is not
   essentially different from its creation, just as the sunshine is
   not essentially different from the sun.
   Section 2 : The Genesis of the Human Embodiment 31
   just as gold⁴ is non-different from (its products such as)
   ear-ring etc.; according to others, however, it creates through
   nescience as the rope gives rise to the snake.⁵ (11-12b)
   Now the author is presenting the whole picture of the creator and
   the creation; the relationship of the creator, the created beings and the
   world is that of identity in difference—identity with reference to
   substance and diversity with reference to form, just as ornaments made
   of gold are gold in substance and are yet called by different names such
   as ear-ring, bracelet, etc. The visible differences belong to the pheno-
   menon and not to the reality manifested through it. However, as it
   would be clear from the analogy of gold and ornaments, creation in this
   view involves a transformation of reality.
   The other view regarding the relationship of the creator and the
   creation does not accept the phenomenon to be a transformation of
   reality, rather it conceives it as an illusion based on individual nescience.
   According to this view the nature of phenomenon is essentially illusory,
   even though the substratum of the phenomenon is real So phenomenon
   is only an appearance of the real caused by the limitations of individua-
   lity. The stock example of, 'the snake appearing in a piece of a rope
   due to darkness', is a popular analogy to explain this particular relation-
   ship. Here, the non-existence of the snake is realised in the existence
   of the rope; similarly the true significance of appearance is realised only
   in the experience of reality.
   (vi) भौतिकसृष्टिः
   आत्मनः पूर्वमाकाशस्ततो वायुस्ततोऽनलः ॥१२॥
   अनलाज्जलमेतस्मात्पृथिवी समजायत ।
   महाभूतान्यमून्येषा विराजो ब्रह्मणस्तनुः ॥१३॥
4. Gold is not different from the ornaments made out of it, as
   far as the substance is concerned, and yet, they are different
   in form with reference to each other. So the creation is not
   different with reference to the creator, the perceptible diffe-
   rence being relative in the manifest world.
5. As the rope, acting as the substratum gives rise to the illusion
   of the snake appearing in it; so also, through ignorance and
   the power of illusion, Ātman, acting as the substratum, gives
   rise to the illusion of the phenomenon of duality.