sa ātmany utthitam manyum
ātmajāyātmanā prabhuḥ
aśīśamad yathā vahniḿ
sva-yonyā vāriṇātma-bhūḥ
sah -- he; atmani -- within himself; utthitam -- risen; manyum -- anger; atma-jaya -- toward his son; atmana -- by his own intelligence; prabhuh -- the lord; asisamat -- subdued; yatha -- just as; vahnim -- fire; sva -- itself; yonya -- whose origin; varina -- by water; atma-bhuh -- self-born Brahma.
Though anger toward his son was now rising within his heart, Lord Brahma was able to subdue it by applying his intelligence, in the same way that fire is extinguished by its own product, water.
Lord Brahma is sometimes affected by his contact with the mode of passion. But because he is adi-kavi, the firstborn and foremost learned scholar in the universe, when anger begins to disturb his mind he can control it by means of discriminating self-examination. In this instance he reminded himself that Bhrigu was his son. Thus in this verse Sukadeva Gosvami draws the analogy that Brahma's own expansion (his son) served to put out his anger just as water, which originally evolved from elemental fire in the primeval creation, puts out a fire.
