अशनिर्गुणसस्यानां फलिता शरदापदाम् । हिमं संवित्सरोजानां तमसां दीर्घयामिनी ॥ ३६ ॥
aśanirguṇasasyānāṁ phalitā śaradāpadām | himaṁ saṁvitsarōjānāṁ tamasāṁ dīrghayāminī || 36 ||
Translation
She is the thunderbolt to the crops of virtue, the autumn in which calamities ripen, frost to the lotuses of awareness, the long night of darkness.
Word by word
- aśanir
- (aśaniḥ) the thunderbolt
- guṇa
- of virtue
- sasyānāṁ
- to the crops
- phalitā
- ripen
- śarad
- the autumn
- āpadām
- in which calamities
- himaṁ
- frost
- saṁvit
- of awareness
- sarōjānāṁ
- to the lotuses
- tamasāṁ
- of darkness
- dīrgha
- the long
- yāminī
- night
Meaning
Four images of destruction and their opposite gifts. Virtues are a crop, and craving is the hailstorm that flattens it. Calamities are a harvest, and craving is the autumn in which they come to fruit. Saṃvit, awareness, the knowledge of the truth, as the commentary says, is a lotus, and craving is the frost that kills it. And for ignorance (tamas), craving is the long winter night in which it lasts and lasts. The reader is shown the account whole: what craving destroys and what it ripens.