नाऽवस्थितिमुपायाति न च याति यथेप्सितम् । चिन्ता जीवेश्वरायत्ता कान्तेव प्रियसद्मनि ॥ ६ ॥
nā’vasthitimupāyāti na ca yāti yathēpsitam | cintā jīvēśvarāyattā kāntēva priyasadmani || 6 ||
Translation
Anxiety neither comes to rest nor goes where it pleases; dependent on its lord, the soul, it stays like a wife in her beloved's house.
Word by word
- na
- neither
- avasthitim
- to rest
- upāyāti
- comes
- ca
- nor
- yāti
- goes
- yathā
- where
- īpsitam
- it pleases
- cintā
- anxiety
- jīva
- the soul
- īśvara
- on its lord
- āyattā
- dependent
- kāntā
- a wife
- iva
- like
- priya
- her beloved's
- sadmani
- in house
Meaning
Anxiety (cintā) is pictured as a wife bound to her husband's house, the commentary says: she neither rests nor goes off where she likes, but stays at home. Her husband is the individual soul (jīva), and her home is his favourite place, the heart. The image is subtle. Anxiety is not a visitor who will leave; it belongs to the jīva, is faithful to it, lives where it lives. As long as one is a separate self, worry keeps house with it. The teaching will not try to drive the wife out; it will change the householder. The reader may notice that their anxieties are loyal in just this way: they follow the self they belong to wherever it goes.