जर्जरीकृत्य वस्तूनि त्यजन्ती बिभ्रती तथा । मार्गशीर्षान्तवल्लीव धृतिर्विधुरतां गता ॥ ७ ॥
jarjarīkṛtya vastūni tyajantī bibhratī tathā | mārgaśīrṣāntavallīva dhṛtirvidhuratāṁ gatā || 7 ||
Translation
Wearing things out, letting them go and still holding them, my steadiness has come to distress, like a creeper at the end of the month of Mārgaśīrṣa.
Word by word
- jarjarīkṛtya
- wearing out
- vastūni
- things
- tyajantī
- letting them go
- bibhratī
- holding them
- tathā
- still
- mārgaśīrṣa
- of the month of Mārgaśīrṣa
- anta
- at the end
- vallī
- a creeper
- iva
- like
- dhṛtir
- (dhṛtiḥ) my steadiness
- vidhuratāṁ
- to distress
- gatā
- has come
Meaning
At the end of Mārgaśīrṣa, as winter begins, the frost withers the creepers: they drop their spoilt leaves and keep a few green ones. Rāma's steadiness (dhṛti) is in that state, the commentary explains: by discernment it lets objects go as worthless, but because some taste (rasa) for them remains it still holds on to some. The commentary cites the Gītā (2.59): the objects turn away from one who abstains, but the taste remains; even the taste goes when the Supreme is seen. Until then one is a creeper in early winter, half bare. The reader who has given up much and kept a little, and feels the strain of being neither, has been described.