एष मोहो रघुपतेर्नाऽऽपद्भ्यो न च रागतः । विवेकवैराग्यवतो बोध एव महोदयः ॥ २ ॥
ēṣa mōhō raghupatērnā’’padbhyō na ca rāgataḥ | vivēkavairāgyavatō bōdha ēva mahōdayaḥ || 2 ||
Translation
"This bewilderment of the lord of the Raghus comes neither from misfortune nor from passion. It is awakening, the great dawning that comes to one who has discrimination and dispassion.
Word by word
- ēṣa
- this
- mōhō
- (mohaḥ) bewilderment
- raghupatēr
- (raghupateḥ) of the lord of the Raghus
- na
- neither
- āpadbhyō
- (āpadbhyaḥ) from misfortune
- ca
- and
- rāgataḥ
- from passion
- vivēka
- discrimination
- vairāgya
- and dispassion
- vatō
- (vataḥ) who has
- bōdha
- (bodhaḥ) awakening
- ēva
- it is
- mahā
- great
- udayaḥ
- the dawning
Meaning
This is the decisive verse of the frame story. What the court took for illness, the sage recognises as the first stage of wisdom. Viveka, discrimination, is seeing the difference between the lasting and the passing; vairāgya, dispassion, is the turning away that follows. Together they make a person fit for the knowledge of the Self, and the restless state they produce, before that knowledge comes, looks from outside like sorrow. The reader who has known such a turning may recognise it here: the loss of taste for what once pleased is not always a sickness.