अप्यब्धिपानान्महतः सुमेरून्मूलनादपि । अपि वह्न्यशनात् साधो विषमश्चित्तनिग्रहः ॥ २४ ॥
apyabdhipānānmahataḥ sumērūnmūlanādapi | api vahnyaśanāt sādhō viṣamaścittanigrahaḥ || 24 ||
Translation
Harder than drinking up the ocean, harder even than tearing up Mount Sumeru by its roots, harder even than eating fire, good sir, is restraining the mind.
Word by word
- api
- even
- abdhi
- the ocean
- pānān
- (pānāt) than drinking up
- mahataḥ
- great
- sumēru
- Mount Sumeru
- unmūlanād
- (unmūlanāt) than tearing up by its roots
- vahni
- fire
- aśanāt
- than eating
- sādhō
- good sir
- viṣamaś
- (viṣamaḥ) harder
- citta
- the mind
- nigrahaḥ
- restraining
Meaning
Three legendary feats: the sage Agastya drank the ocean; to uproot Meru, the world-mountain, is beyond even the gods; to eat fire is to swallow death. All these, the commentary says, might somehow be possible; restraining the mind (citta-nigraha) is harder still. The verse sounds like a counsel of despair, but it is said to Vasiṣṭha as a question: if this is so, how is it to be done? The reader who has found the mind impossible to still is being told that they have understood the difficulty correctly.