न सुखानि न दुःखानि न मित्राणि न बान्धवाः । न जीवितं न मरणं बन्धाय ज्ञस्य चेतसः ॥ १४ ॥
na sukhāni na duḥkhāni na mitrāṇi na bāndhavāḥ | na jīvitaṁ na maraṇaṁ bandhāya jñasya cētasaḥ || 14 ||
Translation
Neither pleasures nor pains, neither friends nor kin, neither life nor death bind the mind that knows.
Word by word
- na
- neither
- sukhāni
- pleasures
- duḥkhāni
- pains
- mitrāṇi
- friends
- bāndhavāḥ
- kin
- jīvitaṁ
- life
- maraṇaṁ
- death
- bandhāya
- bind
- jñasya
- that knows
- cētasaḥ
- the mind
Meaning
The commentary raises the question the verse answers: the wise also enjoy things and are seen to be happy and sad, so what is the difference? This: pleasure and pain, friends and relations, living and dying are all occasions of bondage, but they do not bind the mind of the knower (jña), because the knower is not in their power. The things are the same; the grip is gone. That is why Rāma, in the next verse, asks not to be rid of the world but to become a knower. The reader may notice that the same event, a loss or a gain, binds them on one day and leaves them free on another, and that the difference was in the mind, not the event.