Devanagari
स आत्मन्युत्थितं मन्युमात्मजायात्मना प्रभु: ।
अशीशमद् यथा वह्निं स्वयोन्या वारिणात्मभू: ॥ ४ ॥
Verse text
sa ātmany utthitam manyum
ātmajāyātmanā prabhuḥ
aśīśamad yathā vahniṁ
sva-yonyā vāriṇātma-bhūḥ
Synonyms
saḥ
—
he
;
ātmani
—
within himself
;
utthitam
—
risen
;
manyum
—
anger
;
ātma
—
jāya — toward his son
;
ātmanā
—
by his own intelligence
;
prabhuḥ
—
the lord
;
aśīśamat
—
subdued
;
yathā
—
just as
;
vahnim
—
fire
;
sva
—
itself
;
yonyā
—
whose origin
;
vāriṇā
—
by water
;
ātma
—
bhūḥ — self-born Brahmā .
Translation
Though anger toward his son was now rising within his heart, Lord Brahmā was able to subdue it by applying his intelligence, in the same way that fire is extinguished by its own product, water.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Though anger toward his son was now rising within his heart, Lord Brahmā was able to subdue it by applying his intelligence, in the same way that fire is extinguished by its own product, water.
KB 10.89.4
He was even prepared to condemn Bhṛgu by cursing him, but because Bhṛgu was his son, Lord Brahmā controlled his anger with his great intelligence. This means that although the quality of passion was prominent in Lord Brahmā, he had the power to control it. Lord Brahmā’s anger and his controlling his anger are likened to fire and water. Water is produced from fire at the beginning of creation, but fire can be extinguished with water. Similarly, although Lord Brahmā was very angry due to his quality of passion, he could still control his passion because Bhṛgu Muni was his son.
Purport
Lord Brahmā is sometimes affected by his contact with the mode of passion. But because he is
ādi-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 Bhṛgu was his son. Thus in this verse Śukadeva Gosvāmī draws the analogy that Brahmā’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.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Out of anger, he intended to kill his son. As fire is controlled by what comes out of its womb (sva yonya), by its product water, he controlled his anger by his product in the form of his son. Or, just as fire is extinguished by its cause water (sva yonya), so he extinguished his anger by its cause, the mind (atmana). From its names asu yoni and kapita yoni (born from air or born from wood), it is also known that fire comes even from water.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
He controlled the anger in his mind (ātmani) without having to accept apologies (ātmanā) since he was capable of reflection (prabhuḥ) since he was born from Viṣṇu (ātma-bhūḥ). He thought as follows. “As fire is extinguished by its product water, my anger is extinguished because he is my son who has arisen from me.”