श्रीवाल्मीकिरुवाच । भ्रमस्य जागतस्याऽस्य जातस्याऽऽकाशवर्णवत् । अपुनःस्मरणं मन्ये साधो विस्मरणं वरम् ॥ २ ॥
śrīvālmīkiruvāca | bhramasya jāgatasyā’sya jātasyā’’kāśavarṇavat | apunaḥsmaraṇaṁ manyē sādhō vismaraṇaṁ varam || 2 ||
Translation
Śrī Vālmīki said: This illusion of the world has arisen like colour in the sky. Its forgetting, good sir, a forgetting never followed by remembering, I hold to be the best.
Word by word
- śrī
- Śrī
- vālmīkiḥ
- Vālmīki
- uvāca
- said
- bhramasya
- of the illusion
- jāgatasya
- of the world
- asya
- this
- jātasya
- which has arisen
- ākāśa
- in the sky
- varṇavat
- like colour
- apunaḥ
- never again
- smaraṇaṁ
- remembering
- manyē
- I hold
- sādhō
- good sir
- vismaraṇaṁ
- forgetting
- varam
- the best
Meaning
Vālmīki begins with what liberation is. The sky has no colour, yet it looks blue, because of its distance and because no one examines it. In the same way the world appears in Brahman, the one reality, through ignorance. Liberation is the forgetting of that appearance. It is not the forgetting of deep sleep or of a trance, from which the world returns on waking; it is a forgetting from which there is no remembering again, because its cause, ignorance with its impressions, has been destroyed. Nor is it a blank: as a forgotten thing does not appear though the one who forgot is still there, the world no longer appears while consciousness remains. The commentary sums up: the end of the seen, root and all, marks liberation; abiding as pure consciousness is its nature.