SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
SlOkam – Original
Ethan mE samSayam krishNa chEththum arhasyaSeshatha: |
thvadhanya: samSayasyAsya chEththA na hyupapadhyathE ||
word-by-word meaning
krishNa – Oh krishNa!
mE – my
Ethan samSayam – this doubt
aSEshatha: – fully
chEththum arhasi – please clear;
asya samSayasya chEththA – one who can clear this doubt
thavadhanya: – none other than you
na hi upapadhyathE – is qualified
Simple Translation
Oh krishNa! Please clear this doubt of mine fully; none other than you is qualified to clear this doubt.
Rendering based on ALkoNdavilli gOvindhAchArya swAmy’s English translation of gIthA bhAshyam
‘You are fit, Kṛishṇa! to thoroughly clear this doubt of mine. None else, save You, have I, to cut this doubt asunder.’
One may ever so enthusiastically embark on yoga, but if he lack persistent application, his mind is liable to be distracted therefrom, and he must fail to reach perfection in yoga. What will be the fate (gati) of such a person?
Does he not get lost or disappear like a broken bit of cloud leaving one big mass of cloud behind, and failing to unite with another in front ?
What is meant by the double loss (‘cut off from both’, see text)? The one is the non-fixture (apratishṭhā) and the other is non-enlightenment or ignorance of the Path of Brahma (brahmaṇaḥ pathi vimūḍhatva).
The first loss is the failure to secure svarga[1. . Cp. Bh. Gī. IX-20–21.], the fruit appropriate for works performed. Works (or karma) performed with that object in view, liberally promise that fruit. But works are done by this person with no such intent; and hence he forfeits the (material) fruit on the one side.
The second loss consists in the ‘ignorance of the Path of Brahma.’ This means that the (spiritual) Path (i.e., doing works with no regard to reward, and contemplating on self and God etc.,) is begun to be trodden, but the man fails to pursue in it steadily, and strays away. So he is cut off from this side.
When, then, one is so cut off from both ends, is he lost or not lost?
This doubt of mine, Kṛishṇa![2. The 58th and 554th name of God. Its etymology is ‘Krishir-bhū-vācakaś-śabdo ṇaścha nirvṛiti-vācha-kaḥ, Kṛishṇastad-bhāva-yogācca &c., (Bhārata, Ud. Parva. 69-5).], You can clear. You are Omnipresent and Omniscient. You can therefore cut my doubts asunder.
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