संपत्तेरिति जैमिनिः, तथा हि दर्शयति ॥ ३१ ॥
saṃpatteriti jaiminiḥ, tathā hi darśayati || 31 ||
saṃpatteḥ—Because of imaginary identity; iti—so; jaiminiḥ—(says) Jaimini; tathā hi—for so; darśayati—declares (the Sruti).
31. Because of imaginary identity (the Supreme Lord may be called span long), so says Jaimini; for so (the Sruti) declares.
Sampat Upasana is a kind of meditation in which something is imagined as identical with something else on account of some kind of similarity or likeness. As, for example, when the cosmic being (Purusha) is worshipped through the identification of His different limbs with the different parts of the worshipper’s body from the top of the head to the chin. The head of the worshipper is heaven, the eyes the sun and the moon, and so on. In this meditation of the cosmic Person He is limited to the size of a span, the distance from the top of the head to the chin. Therefore, says Jaimini, in the text under discussion, the Supreme Lord is regarded as of the size of a span.