स्वसङ्कल्पाभिलषितान् भावानप्राप्य तप्तधीः । दुःखमेत्यबलो बालो विनिष्कृत्त इवाऽऽशये ॥ २२ ॥
svasaṅkalpābhilaṣitān bhāvānaprāpya taptadhīḥ | duḥkhamētyabalō bālō viniṣkṛtta ivā’’śayē || 22 ||
Translation
When it does not get the things it wanted in its own fancy, the weak child, its mind burning, suffers as if cut in its heart.
Word by word
- sva
- its own
- saṅkalpa
- in fancy
- abhilaṣitān
- it wanted
- bhāvān
- the things
- aprāpya
- does not get
- tapta
- burning
- dhīḥ
- its mind
- duḥkham
- suffers
- ēti
- comes to
- abalō
- (abalaḥ) the weak
- bālō
- (bālaḥ) child
- viniṣkṛtta
- (viniṣkṛttaḥ) cut
- iva
- as if
- āśayē
- in its heart
Meaning
The child imagines something, wants it, and cannot get it. Its mind burns, and it suffers, as the Dwivedi text says, as though its heart had been cut. This is the root pattern of suffering described in the whole discourse: wanting what is imagined, and the pain of not having it. In the child it is naked and total. The reader is asked to see the same pattern in their own disappointments, larger and better disguised.