Verse 17

¹⁷Bhagavan said: This living one, born from the opening, has entered the hollow with the breath as a sound; and taking on a subtle form made of mind, it grows coarser as measure, as pitch, as letter. ¹⁸As fire, whose kin is the wind, lies as heat in the hollow and, rubbed hard out of the wood, is born small and then blazes up with the offering, just so this speech of mine is how I show myself. ¹⁹So too are speaking, action, going, letting go, smell, taste, sight, touch and hearing, willing and understanding, and then self-regard, and the thread: all of them changes of passion, clarity and darkness. ²⁰This living one is threefold, the source of the lotus, unshown, one, and the first in age. With its power loosened apart it shines as though it were many, as seeds do when they come into a womb.