तेजः वाव अद्भ्यः भूयः तत् वै एतत् वायुम् आगृह्य आकाशम् अभितपति तत् आहुः निशोचति नितपति वर्षिष्यति वा इति तेजः एव तत्पूर्वम् दर्शयित्वा अथ अपः सृजते तत् एतत् ऊर्ध्वाभिः च तिरश्चीभिः च विद्युद्भिः आह्रादाः चरन्ति तस्मात् आहुः विद्योतते स्तनयति वर्षिष्यति वा इति तेजः एव तत्पूर्वम् दर्शयित्वा अथ अपः सृजते तेजः उपास्स्व इति
tejaḥ vāva adbhyaḥ bhūyaḥ tat vai etat vāyum āgṛhya ākāśam abhitapati tat āhuḥ niśocati nitapati varṣiṣyati vā iti tejaḥ eva tatpūrvam darśayitvā atha apaḥ sṛjate tat etat ūrdhvābhiḥ ca tiraścībhiḥ ca vidyudbhiḥ āhrādāḥ caranti tasmāt āhuḥ vidyotate stanayati varṣiṣyati vā iti tejaḥ eva tatpūrvam darśayitvā atha apaḥ sṛjate tejaḥ upāssva iti
"Heat is greater than the waters. Seizing the wind, it heats space; then men say: 'it is sultry, it is scorching — there will be rain.' Heat first shows itself, and then pours out the waters. And when the thunder rolls with lightnings flashing upward and aslant, men say: 'it lightens, it thunders — there will be rain.' Heat first shows itself, and then pours out the waters. Venerate heat."
c0dbdfa54d42 · published Jul 26, 2026, 11:45:28 PM UTC
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The eleventh rung: tejas, heat, is greater than the waters, for it calls them forth. The proof is taken straight from a pre-storm sky: the sultriness ("it is sultry, it is scorching"), then the flashes and the thunder — and only then the downpour. Heat always "first shows itself, and then pours out the waters": the cause precedes and foretells.
The order of elements here is the same as in the sixth chapter's cosmogony: Being created heat, and heat the waters (6.2.3). Nārada's ladder, as it climbs, goes back along the steps of creation — from the dense to the earlier, from effect to antecedent. Every thunderstorm plays out before people the first pages of Genesis; to venerate heat is to be able to read in a summer's sultriness the rough draft of world-making.