प्रतिबिम्बघनाज्ञानं नानासङ्कल्पपेलवम् । बाल्यमालूनसंशीर्णमनः कस्य सुखावहम् ॥ ६ ॥
pratibimbaghanājñānaṁ nānāsaṅkalpapēlavam | bālyamālūnasaṁśīrṇamanaḥ kasya sukhāvaham || 6 ||
Translation
Childhood, thick with ignorance like a reflection, frail with its many fancies, its mind cut and scattered: to whom does it bring happiness?
Word by word
- pratibimba
- like a reflection
- ghana
- thick
- ajñānaṁ
- with ignorance
- nānā
- with its many
- saṅkalpa
- fancies
- pēlavam
- frail
- bālyam
- childhood
- ālūna
- cut
- saṁśīrṇa
- and scattered
- manaḥ
- its mind
- kasya
- to whom
- sukha
- happiness
- āvaham
- does it bring
Meaning
A reflection in a mirror looks real and is not; the commentary reads it so: in childhood ignorance is vivid and dense, or every object leaves its image in the mind and makes a new confusion. The child imagines endlessly (saṅkalpa), and each fancy is frail; when the imagined thing is not got, the mind is "cut and scattered", as the commentary says, all broken up. The question at the end is honest: whose happiness is this? Perhaps the parents', watching; not the child's.