4.31 · Firefly Against the Sky

Then, with every covering and impurity removed, knowledge is infinite and what remains to be known is small.

Word by word

tadā

then

sarva-āvaraṇa-mala-apetasya

of that from which every covering and impurity is gone

jñānasya

of knowledge

ānantyāt

because of its infinity

jñeyam

what is to be known

alpam

little

Where it fits

With afflictions and karma gone (4.30), nothing covers knowledge. Vyāsa explains that the mind's sattva is no longer overwhelmed by tamas, so knowledge becomes endless and what is left to know is like a firefly in the sky. Compare 3.54. 4.32 asks what remains for the guṇas.

Reading

When every covering is gone, knowledge is boundless, and what remains to be known is small, 'like a firefly in the sky', as Vyāsa puts it. The image reverses ordinary life, where knowledge is a small lamp in a dark world. Here the light is everywhere and its objects are tiny. Vyāsa then quotes a riddle of impossible things, a blind man piercing a jewel; Vācaspati explains that without causes, rebirth would be just as impossible.

Vyāsa

“Because knowledge is endless, what is left to know becomes small, like a firefly in the sky. On this it has been said: 'A blind man pierced a jewel; a man with no fingers threaded it; a man with no neck put it on; a man with no tongue praised it.'”

Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 342.

Practice

Tonight, go outside or to a window and look at the widest stretch of sky you can find for three minutes. Let one small worry sit in that space. Notice its size.

A question to sit with

How large is your worry against the whole sky?

Where commentators disagree

What is the point of Vyāsa's verse about the blind man who pierced a jewel?

Vyāsa

When knowledge is freed from every covering it is endless, and what remains to be known is as little as a firefly in the sky. He adds a saying: 'A blind man pierced a jewel; one without fingers strung it; one without a neck put it on; a dumb man praised it.' (Woods 1914, p. 342)

Vācaspati Miśra

Reads the saying as an answer to the question why one who has reached the cloud of dharma is not reborn: if an effect could arise when its cause is uprooted, absurd feats like these would happen before our eyes. (Woods 1914, pp. 342–343)

Vijñānabhikṣu

As Jha reports him, takes the saying instead as the Buddhist's claim that such omniscience is as impossible as the feats it describes. (Jha 1907, p. 159)

J. H. Woods

Traces the saying to the Taittirīya Āraṇyaka. (Woods 1914, p. 342, n. 2)

Key ideas

prajñā (wisdom), guṇa (strands of nature), viveka (discernment)