SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
SlOkam – Original
AScharyavath paSyathi kaSchidhEnam AScharyavadh vadhathi thathaiva chAnya: |
AScharyavach chainam anya: SruNOthi SruthvApi Enam vEdha na chaiva kaSchith ||
word-by-word meaning
Ascharyavath – being amazing
Enam – this AthmA
kaSchith Eva – one (among crores of persons)
paSyathi – see
thathA – in the same manner
Ascharyavath (Enam) – being amazing (such AthmA)
anya: (Eva) – another one (among crores of persons)
vadhathi – speaks
Ascharyavath Enam – being amazing (such AthmA)
anya: (Eva) – yet another one (among crores of persons)
SruNOthi – listens
SruthvA api – even after listening
kaSchith Eva cha – even one
Enam – this AthmA
na vEdha: – does not understand
Simple Translation
One (among crores of persons) sees this AthmA as amazing; another one (among crores of persons) speaks about this amazing AthmA ; yet another one (among crores of persons) listens about this amazing AthmA; but even after listening, not even one person understands this AthmA [truly].
Rendering based on ALkoNdavilli gOvindhAchArya swAmy’s English translation of gIthA bhAshyam
‘One looks on this (ātmā) as wonderful; similarly someone else speaks of it in wonderment; another hears about it as wonderful but no one knows at all what it is.'[2. Cf. Śravaṇayāpi bahubhir-yona labhyah, sṛiṇvantopi bahavo yam na vidyuh, āścharya vaktā kuśalosya labdhā (Kat: Up: II-7). This Śruti is with reference to Paramātma.]
Amongst innumerable beings, rarely is there one whose sins have become expunged by rigorous austerities, and who has so accumulated merit as to realize ātmā in its singularly distinct nature as such from all the rest of things, according to the description given above. Such a person talks about it to another. Another person similarly circumstanced gives it listening and so on. But no one definitely understands the true nature of ātmā. The conjunctive particle cha used at the end of the verse is to connote that even among the seers, talkers and listeners of ātmā, the definite seeing, the definite talking and the definite listening, of what ātmā precisely is, is rare.
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