अहङ्कारमहाविन्ध्ये मनोमत्तमहागजः । विस्फूर्जति घनास्फोटैः स्तनितैरिव वारिदः ॥ १४ ॥
ahaṅkāramahāvindhyē manōmattamahāgajaḥ | visphūrjati ghanāsphōṭaiḥ stanitairiva vāridaḥ || 14 ||
Translation
In the great Vindhya range of the ego, the great mad elephant of the mind trumpets with heavy crashes, as a cloud with its thunder.
Word by word
- ahaṅkāra
- of the ego
- mahā
- great
- vindhyē
- in the Vindhya range
- manō
- (manaḥ) of the mind
- matta
- mad
- gajaḥ
- elephant
- visphūrjati
- trumpets
- ghana
- heavy
- āsphōṭaiḥ
- with crashes
- stanitair
- (stanitaiḥ) with its thunder
- iva
- as
- vāridaḥ
- a cloud
Meaning
The Vindhya mountains, the home of wild elephants, appeared in 1.13.12. Here the ego is the mountain range, and the mind is a great elephant in rut (matta), maddened and trumpeting. The commentary: as a cloud thunders, so the mind-elephant roars with the eagerness for battle, or with the crash of breaking rock. The mind's turbulence, its rages and fixations, needs a range to roam in, and the ego provides it. The reader who finds their mind wild is pointed past the elephant to the mountains that shelter it.