पटवच्च ॥ १९ ॥
paṭavacca || 19 ||
paṭavat—Like cloth; ca—and.
19. And like a piece of cloth.
Even as is cloth folded and spread out, so is the world before and after creation. In the folded state one cannot make out whether it is a cloth or anything else, which is clearly discernible when it is spread out. In the state of Pralaya (dissolution), i.e. before creation, the world exists in a fine potential state in Brahman and after creation takes the gross form.