Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.89.4
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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manyum
—
anger
From √man (to think); manyu is heated thought. Gauḍīyas read manyu as the signature emotion of rajas — a heat that requires labor to suppress, unlike the cool stillness of śuddha-sattva.
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ātma-jāya
—
toward his own son
Compound: ātma (self) + ja (born). The pathos is exact: the anger is at one born of himself. Even paternal love did not preempt the flare; only buddhi could.
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ātmanā
—
by himself, by his own intelligence
Instrumental of ātman. Brahmā extinguishes Brahmā — strenuous self-management. Contrast verse 8–9, where Viṣṇu requires no such labor.
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ātma-bhūḥ
—
the self-born (Brahmā)
Compound: ātma (self) + bhū (become). A standard epithet of Brahmā. The verse stacks ātma- words to make the point: rajasic mastery is self-against-self; sāttvika peace needs no such war.
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.
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.
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.”
- When did intelligence subdue my anger most recently — and what made it possible?
- Where could I build the intelligence muscle that catches anger before it acts?
Fire is born of water (in the cosmology of sacrifice) and is extinguished by water — its own source. Brahmā's anger toward his son rises, and Brahmā's own intelligence — born of the same self — puts it out. This is rajas at its best: self-correcting, but only by effort. Viṣṇu, by contrast, will not need the effort at all.
My note
Source: vedabase.io