24. Chapter 24

श्रीवसिष्ठ उवाच । ममेत्युक्तवतो मङ्किर्विनिपत्य स पादयोः । उवाचानन्दपूर्णाक्षमिदं मार्गे वहन्वचः ॥ १ ॥

śrīvasiṣṭha uvāca | mametyuktavato maṅkirvinipatya sa pādayoḥ | uvācānandapūrṇākṣamidaṃ mārge vahanvacaḥ || 1 ||

Vasishtha said:—Being thus accosted by me, Manki fell at my feet (in salutation); and then shedding the tears of joy from both his eyes, spoke to me on our way, with due respect.

मङ्किरुवाच । भगवन्भूरिशो भ्रान्ता दिशो दश दृशो यथा । मया न तु पुनः साधुर्लब्धः संशयनाशकृत् ॥ २ ॥

maṅkiruvāca | bhagavanbhūriśo bhrāntā diśo daśa dṛśo yathā | mayā na tu punaḥ sādhurlabdhaḥ saṃśayanāśakṛt || 2 ||

Manki said:—O venerable sir, I have been long travelling in all the ten sides of the earth; but I have never met a holy man like yourself, who could remove the doubts arising in my mind.

समस्तदेहसाराणां सारस्याद्य फलं मया । खिन्नोस्मि भगवन्पश्यन्दशाः संसारदोषदाः ॥ ३ ॥

samastadehasārāṇāṃ sārasyādya phalaṃ mayā | khinnosmi bhagavanpaśyandaśāḥ saṃsāradoṣadāḥ || 3 ||

Sir, I have gained today the knowledge which is the chief good of the body of a Brahman, whose sacred person is more venerable and far more superior in birth and dignity, than the bodies of all other beings in heaven and on earth; but sir am sorry at heart, at seeing the evils of this nether world.

पुनर्जातं पुनर्नष्टं सुखदुःखभ्रमः सदा । अवश्यंभाविपर्यन्तदुःखत्वात्सकलान्यपि ॥ ४ ॥

punarjātaṃ punarnaṣṭaṃ sukhaduḥkhabhramaḥ sadā | avaśyaṃbhāviparyantaduḥkhatvātsakalānyapi || 4 ||

Repeated births and deaths, and the continued rotations of pleasure and pain, are all to be accounted as painful, on account of their terminating in pain.

सुखान्येवातिदुःखानि वरं दुःखान्यतो मुने । दृढदुःखवदन्तत्वाद्दुःखयन्ति सुखानि माम् ॥ ५ ॥

sukhānyevātiduḥkhāni varaṃ duḥkhānyato mune | dṛḍhaduḥkhavadantatvādduḥkhayanti sukhāni mām || 5 ||

And because pleasure leads to greater pain (at its want), it is better, O sage, to continue in one's pain (which becomes a pleasure by long habit). The sequence of fleeting pleasure being but lasting pain, it is to be accounted as such even as long as it lasts.

तथा राम यथा दुःखमेव मे सुखतां गतम् । वयोदशनलोमान्त्रैः सह जर्जरतां गतम् ॥ ६ ॥

tathā rāma yathā duḥkhameva me sukhatāṃ gatam | vayodaśanalomāntraiḥ saha jarjaratāṃ gatam || 6 ||

O friend! all pleasures are as painful to me, as my pains have become pleasurable at this advanced age of mine; when my teeth and the hairs of my body, are falling off with the decay and wearing out of my internal parts also.

उच्चैःपदे पातपरा बुद्धिर्नाध्यवसायिनी । सुप्रवालं कुसंकल्पाद्गहनं न प्रकाशते ॥ ७ ॥

uccaiḥpade pātaparā buddhirnādhyavasāyinī | supravālaṃ kusaṃkalpādgahanaṃ na prakāśate || 7 ||

My mind is continually aspiring to higher stations in life, and is not persevering in its holy course; and the germ of my salvation, is choked by the thorns and thistles of my evil and worldly desires.

मनः पिप्पलपल्यूलैरिव कुग्रामकोटरम् । वासनाङ्गवहैर्गृध्रैर्नित्यं पापीयसी स्थितिः ॥ ८ ॥

manaḥ pippalapalyūlairiva kugrāmakoṭaram | vāsanāṅgavahairgṛdhrairnityaṃ pāpīyasī sthitiḥ || 8 ||

My mind is situated amidst its passions and affections, within the covert of my body, as the banian tree stands amidst its falling leaves in the interior of a rustic village; and the desires are flying like hungry vultures all over its body, in search of their abominable sustenance.

कण्टकद्रुमवल्लीव करालकुटिला मतिः । आयुरायासशालिन्या यामिन्येव तमोन्धया ॥ ९ ॥

kaṇṭakadrumavallīva karālakuṭilā matiḥ | āyurāyāsaśālinyā yāminyeva tamondhayā || 9 ||

My wicked and crooked thoughts are as the brambles of creeping and thorny plants, and my life is a weary and dreary maze, as a dark and dismal night.

अक्षीवानागतालोकं क्षीणं संततचिन्तया । न किंचिद्रसमादत्ते नष्टैवापि न नश्यति ॥ १० ॥

akṣīvānāgatālokaṃ kṣīṇaṃ saṃtatacintayā | na kiṃcidrasamādatte naṣṭaivāpi na naśyati || 10 ||

The world with all its people, being parched and dried up like withered plants, without the moisture of true knowledge, and decaying day by day with incessant cares, is fast advancing towards its dissolution, without being destroyed all at once.

न पुष्पिता न फलिता तृष्णा शुष्कलतेव नः । कर्म कर्मणि निर्मग्नं वासनाख्यमकर्मणे ॥ १० ॥

na puṣpitā na phalitā tṛṣṇā śuṣkalateva naḥ | karma karmaṇi nirmagnaṃ vāsanākhyamakarmaṇe || 10 ||

The world with all its people, being parched and dried up like withered plants, without the moisture of true knowledge, and decaying day by day with incessant cares, is fast advancing towards its dissolution, without being destroyed all at once.

जीवितं च जने जीर्णं नैवोत्तीर्णो भवार्णवः । दिनानुदिनमुच्छूना भोगाशा भयदायिनी ॥ १२ ॥

jīvitaṃ ca jane jīrṇaṃ naivottīrṇo bhavārṇavaḥ | dinānudinamucchūnā bhogāśā bhayadāyinī || 12 ||

Our lives are wasted in our attachment to family and dependants, and never employed to lead our souls across the ocean of the world; the desire of earthly enjoyments are decaying day by day, and a dreadful eternity awaits before us.

पूर्णापूर्णात्मनि क्षीणाः श्वभ्रकण्टकवृक्षवत् । चिन्ताज्वरविकारिण्यो लक्ष्म्याः खलु महापदः ॥ १३ ॥

pūrṇāpūrṇātmani kṣīṇāḥ śvabhrakaṇṭakavṛkṣavat | cintājvaravikāriṇyo lakṣmyāḥ khalu mahāpadaḥ || 13 ||

Our prosperity and possessions, whether they are more or less, are as noxious to our souls, as the thorny and poisonous plants growing in the hollow caves of earth; again they are attended with thoughts and cares causing fever heat in the soul, and emaciating the body.

संपन्नमक्षतं सापि विप्रलम्भेन जृम्भते । अन्तः स्फुरितरत्नेहं भास्वरं वान्धकोटरम् ॥ १४ ॥

saṃpannamakṣataṃ sāpi vipralambhena jṛmbhate | antaḥ sphuritaratnehaṃ bhāsvaraṃ vāndhakoṭaram || 14 ||

Fortune makes the brave and fortunate people, fall sometimes in the hands of foes; as the man ardent with the desire of gems in his mind, is tempted to catch the gemming serpents, lying in dark caves.

कल्लोलकलिलं शून्यं चेतः शुष्काब्धिदुर्भगम् । मामिन्द्रियार्थैकपरं न स्पृशन्ति विवेकिनः ॥ १५ ॥

kallolakalilaṃ śūnyaṃ cetaḥ śuṣkābdhidurbhagam | māmindriyārthaikaparaṃ na spṛśanti vivekinaḥ || 15 ||

I being entirely inclined or given up to the objects of sense, am abandoned by the wise (who hate to touch the vile); and my mind which is polluted by worldly desires, and is all hollow within, is shunned by them as a dead sea with its troubled and turbid waters.

सकण्टकममेध्यस्थं श्लेष्मातकमिव द्रुमम् । असदेव महारम्भं चलदर्जुनवातवत् ॥ १६ ॥

sakaṇṭakamamedhyasthaṃ śleṣmātakamiva drumam | asadeva mahārambhaṃ caladarjunavātavat || 16 ||

My mind is turning also about false vanities, as the rheumatic pains all about the body;

मनो मरणमप्राप्तं शून्यं दुःखाय वल्गति । शास्त्रसज्जनसंपर्कचन्द्रतारकधारिणी ॥ १७ ॥

mano maraṇamaprāptaṃ śūnyaṃ duḥkhāya valgati | śāstrasajjanasaṃparkacandratārakadhāriṇī || 17 ||

And I am also even with my innumerable deaths hunting after desired vacuity for sorrow, though my mind is purged from the dross of ignorance by reading sastra and associating good men; as the moon and stars which with its power of removing darkness, stand good in vacuity.

अहंभावोल्लसद्यक्षा क्षीणा नाज्ञानयामिनी । अज्ञानध्वान्तमत्तेभसिंहः कर्मतृणानलः ॥ १८ ॥

ahaṃbhāvollasadyakṣā kṣīṇā nājñānayāminī | ajñānadhvāntamattebhasiṃhaḥ karmatṛṇānalaḥ || 18 ||

There is no end of the dark night of my ignorance, when the gloomy spectre of my egoism is playing its part; and I have not the knowledge, which like a lion may destroy the furious elephant of my ignorance, and burn down as fire the straws of my actions.

उदितो न विकारार्को वासनारजनीक्षयः । अवस्तु वस्तुवद्बुद्धं मत्तश्चित्तमतंगजः ॥ १९ ॥

udito na vikārārko vāsanārajanīkṣayaḥ | avastu vastuvadbuddhaṃ mattaścittamataṃgajaḥ || 19 ||

The dark night of my earthly desire or cupidity is not yet over, and the sun of my disgust of the world is not risen as yet; I still believe the unreal as real, and mind is roving about as an elephant.

इन्द्रियाणि निकृन्तन्ति न जाने किं भविष्यति । शास्त्रदृष्टिरपि प्राज्ञैर्नाश्रिता तरणाय या ॥ २० ॥

indriyāṇi nikṛntanti na jāne kiṃ bhaviṣyati | śāstradṛṣṭirapi prājñairnāśritā taraṇāya yā || 20 ||

My senses have been continually tempting me, and I know not what will be the end of these temptations, which prevent even the wise people, from observing precepts of the sastras.

साप्यदृष्टिरिवान्ध्याय वासनावेशकारिणी । तदेवमतिसंमोहे यत्कार्यमिह दारुणे । उदर्कश्रेयसे तात तन्मे कथय पृच्छते ॥ २१ ॥

sāpyadṛṣṭirivāndhyāya vāsanāveśakāriṇī | tadevamatisaṃmohe yatkāryamiha dāruṇe | udarkaśreyase tāta tanme kathaya pṛcchate || 21 ||

This want of sight or disregard of the sastras, leads to our blindness by kindling our desires, and by blinding our understanding;—Therefore tell me sir, what am I to do in this difficulty, and what is it that may conduce to my chief good, that I am asking thee to relate.

शाम्यन्ति मोहमिहिकाः शरदीव साधौ प्राप्ते भवन्ति विमलाश्च तथाखिलाशाः । सत्येति वाग्भवतु साधुजनोपगीता मद्बोधनेन भवता भवशान्तिदेन ॥ २२ ॥

śāmyanti mohamihikāḥ śaradīva sādhau prāpte bhavanti vimalāśca tathākhilāśāḥ | satyeti vāgbhavatu sādhujanopagītā madbodhanena bhavatā bhavaśāntidena || 22 ||

It is said that, the mist of our ignorance flies like the clouds, at the sight of wise men and purification of our desires; now sir, verify the truth of this saying of wise men, by your enlightening my understanding, and giving peace to my mind.