स्पर्शस्तस्याभवज्जीवः स्वरो देह उदाहृत ।
ऊष्माणमिन्द्रियाण्याहुरन्तःस्था बलमात्मनः ।
स्वराः सप्त विहारेण भवन्ति स्म प्रजापतेः ॥४७॥

sparÅ›as tasyÄbhavaj jÄ«vaḥ
svaro deha udÄhá¹›ta
ūṣmÄṇam indriyÄṇy Ähur
antaḥ-sthÄ balam Ätmanaḥ
svarÄḥ sapta vihÄreṇa
bhavanti sma prajÄpateḥ

 sparÅ›aḥ - the set of letters from ka to ma; tasya - his; abhavat - became; jÄ«vaḥ - the soul; svaraḥ - vowels; dehaḥ - his body; udÄhá¹›taḥ - are expressed; Å«á¹£mÄṇam - the letters Å›a, á¹£a, sa and ha; indriyÄṇi - the senses; Ähuḥ - are called; antaḥ-sthÄḥ - the set of letters so known (ya, ra, la and va); balam - energy; Ätmanaḥ - of his self; svarÄḥ - music; sapta - seven; vihÄreṇa - by the sensual activities; bhavanti sma - became manifested; prajÄpateḥ - of the lord of the living entities.


Text

BrahmÄ’s soul was manifested as the touch alphabets, his body as the vowels, his senses as the sibilant alphabets, his strength as the intermediate alphabets and his sensual activities as the seven notes of music.

Purport

In Sanskrit there are thirteen vowels and thirty-five consonants. The vowels are a, Ä, i, Ä«, u, Å«, á¹›, á¹, ḷ, e, ai, o, au, and the consonants are ka, kha, ga, gha, etc. Amongst the consonants, the first twenty-five letters are called the sparÅ›as. There are also four antaḥ-sthas. Of the ūṣmas there are three s’s, called tÄlavya, mÅ«rdhanya and dantya. The musical notes are á¹£a, á¹›, gÄ, ma, dha, and ni. All these sound vibrations are originally called Å›abda-brahma, or spiritual sound. It is said, therefore, that BrahmÄ was created in the MahÄ-kalpa as the incarnation of spiritual sound. The Vedas are spiritual sound, and therefore there is no need of material interpretation for the sound vibration of the Vedic literature. The Vedas should be vibrated as they are, although they are symbolically represented with letters which are known to us materially. In the ultimate issue there is nothing material because everything has its origin in the spiritual world. The material manifestation is therefore called illusion in the proper sense of the term. For those who are realized souls there is nothing but spirit.