श्रीराम उवाच । इति मे दोषदावाग्निदग्धे महति चेतसि । प्रस्फुरन्ति न भोगाशा मृगतृष्णा सरःस्विव ॥ १ ॥
śrīrāma uvāca | iti mē dōṣadāvāgnidagdhē mahati cētasi | prasphuranti na bhōgāśā mṛgatṛṣṇā saraḥsviva || 1 ||
Translation
Śrī Rāma said: So, in my great mind, burnt by the forest fire of seeing faults, the hopes of enjoyment no longer flicker up, as mirages do not over lakes.
Word by word
- śrī
- Śrī
- rāma
- Rāma
- uvāca
- said
- iti
- so
- mē
- my
- dōṣa
- of faults
- dāva
- forest
- agni
- by the fire
- dagdhē
- burnt
- mahati
- great
- cētasi
- in mind
- prasphuranti
- flicker up
- na
- no longer
- bhōga
- of enjoyment
- āśā
- the hopes
- mṛgatṛṣṇā
- mirages
- saraḥsu
- over lakes
- iva
- as
Meaning
Two sargas have shown the faults of things (1.27) and their ceaseless change (1.28). "So" (iti) gathers them up: that seeing has been a forest fire (dāvāgni) through the mind, and what it burnt, the commentary says, was the old sense that the world is lasting and the love that went with it. The image that follows is exact. A mirage appears only over a dry desert; over a lake, where there is real water, the eye is not deceived. The hopes of enjoyment were mirages of that kind, the shimmer of a satisfaction that was never there, and they rose out of an inner dryness. Where the mind has been filled by discernment, they do not rise. Rāma does not say he has fought his desires down; he says they do not come up. That is the mark of dispassion (vairāgya) as this text understands it: not a struggle against wanting but the end of the illusion that made wanting seem reasonable. The reader may ask of one desire that returns to them: is it a mirage, and what dryness in me makes it shine?