रक्तमांसमयस्याऽस्य सबाह्याभ्यन्तरं मुने । नाशैकधर्मिणो ब्रूहि कैव कायस्य रम्यता ॥ ३८ ॥
raktamāṁsamayasyā’sya sabāhyābhyantaraṁ munē | nāśaikadharmiṇō brūhi kaiva kāyasya ramyatā || 38 ||
Translation
Tell me, O sage, what loveliness is there in this body, made of blood and flesh inside and out, whose one nature is to perish?
Word by word
- rakta
- of blood
- māṁsa
- and flesh
- mayasya
- made
- asya
- this
- sa
- with
- bāhya
- outside
- abhyantaraṁ
- and inside
- munē
- O sage
- nāśa
- to perish
- ēka
- one
- dharmiṇō
- (dharmiṇaḥ) whose nature is
- brūhi
- tell me
- kā
- what
- ēva
- indeed
- kāyasya
- in the body
- ramyatā
- loveliness
Meaning
A direct question. Look at the body inside and outside: blood and flesh, and a single law, to perish (nāśa-eka-dharmin). Where is its beauty? The commentary: look well at this perishing body, within and without, and say what charm it has. The question does not deny that bodies are beautiful; it asks where the beauty lies. If it is not in the blood or the flesh, and not in what perishes, then it lies in something else, which the work will name.