किं मे राज्येन किं भोगैः कोऽहं किमिदमागतम् । यन्मिथ्यैवाऽस्तु तन्मिथ्या कस्य नाम किमागतम् ॥ १५ ॥
kiṁ mē rājyēna kiṁ bhōgaiḥ kō’haṁ kimidamāgatam | yanmithyaivā’stu tanmithyā kasya nāma kimāgatam || 15 ||
Translation
What is a kingdom to me, what are pleasures? Who am I, and what is all this that has come about? Let what is false be false: to whom, after all, has anything come?
Word by word
- kiṁ
- what
- mē
- to me
- rājyēna
- is a kingdom
- bhōgaiḥ
- are pleasures
- kō
- (kaḥ) who
- ahaṁ
- am I
- idam
- all this
- āgatam
- has come about
- yat
- what
- mithyā
- false
- ēva
- indeed
- astu
- let be
- tat
- that
- kasya
- to whom
- nāma
- after all
Meaning
Here the inquiry turns inward. After "what are these things?" comes "who am I?" (ko 'ham), the question the Upaniṣads put at the centre of all inquiry. The second line answers itself: if the world is false, then nothing has truly been gained or lost by anyone. The commentary: what is unreal can neither help nor harm. For the reader the verse is an invitation, not a doctrine to accept: to ask, when something seems to have been won or lost, who it is that has won or lost it.