नाऽभिनन्दामि मरणं नाऽभिनन्दामि जीवितम् । यथा तिष्ठामि तिष्ठामि तथैव विगतज्वरम् ॥ ८ ॥
nā’bhinandāmi maraṇaṁ nā’bhinandāmi jīvitam | yathā tiṣṭhāmi tiṣṭhāmi tathaiva vigatajvaram || 8 ||
Translation
I do not welcome death, I do not welcome life; as I stand, so I stand, free of fever.
Word by word
- na
- not
- abhinandāmi
- I do welcome
- maraṇaṁ
- death
- jīvitam
- life
- yathā
- as
- tiṣṭhāmi
- I stand
- tathā
- so
- ēva
- just
- vigata
- free
- jvaram
- of fever
Meaning
One of the great verses of the sarga. Rāma is not tired of life and longing for death; that would be another desire. Nor does he cling to life. He wants neither (na abhinandāmi, "I do not rejoice in"), and stays as he is, without the fever (vigata-jvara) of wanting. The commentary: whatever state frees me from the burning of the world, that I would hold to, whether it comes while I live or after death; I am not anxious for it either way. The repetition "as I stand, I stand" (yathā tiṣṭhāmi tiṣṭhāmi) has the stillness it describes. It is close to the Gītā's wise one, the same in pleasure and pain (2.15, 2.38). The reader may try, for a moment, to want nothing of the next hour, neither that it come nor that it pass, and feel the fever drop.