श्रीराम उवाच । इयमस्मिन् स्थितोदारा संसारे परिकल्पिता । श्रीर्मुने परिमोहाय साऽपि नूनं कदर्थदा ॥ १ ॥
śrīrāma uvāca | iyamasmin sthitōdārā saṁsārē parikalpitā | śrīrmunē parimōhāya sā’pi nūnaṁ kadarthadā || 1 ||
Translation
Śrī Rāma said: This Fortune, O sage, which in this world is imagined to be stable and generous, is in truth only for bewilderment, and surely brings misery.
Word by word
- śrī
- Śrī
- rāma
- Rāma
- uvāca
- said
- iyam
- this
- asmin
- in this
- sthitā
- stable
- udārā
- generous
- saṁsārē
- world
- parikalpitā
- is imagined to be
- śrīr
- (śrīḥ) Fortune
- munē
- O sage
- parimōhāya
- for bewilderment
- sā
- she
- api
- only
- nūnaṁ
- surely
- kadartha
- misery
- dā
- brings
Meaning
In the last sarga Rāma found that the objects of the senses give no lasting joy. The natural answer is: then the trouble is only that one has not enough of them, and wealth will mend it. So he turns now to Śrī, Lakṣmī, fortune: wealth, power and prosperity, the means by which every object is had. The commentary puts it so: having shown the hollowness of the objects, he shows that the means of getting them is hollow too. Two things are believed about fortune, that it lasts (sthitā) and that it is noble and generous (udārā). Both are only "imagined" (parikalpitā). Its real work is moha, bewilderment, and its gift is kadartha, the base and the painful. The reader is asked to test this against experience, not to take it on trust: what has wealth, once gained, actually given, and what has it taken?