अपहस्तितसर्वार्थमनवस्थितिरास्थिता । गृहीत्वोत्सृज्य चाऽऽत्मानं भवस्थितिरवस्थिता ॥ ८ ॥
apahastitasarvārthamanavasthitirāsthitā | gṛhītvōtsṛjya cā’’tmānaṁ bhavasthitiravasthitā || 8 ||
Translation
Unsteadiness has taken hold, pushing every aim away; the state of becoming stands, having grasped the self and let it go.
Word by word
- apahastita
- pushing away
- sarva
- every
- artham
- aim
- anavasthitir
- (anavasthitiḥ) unsteadiness
- āsthitā
- has taken hold
- gṛhītvā
- having grasped
- utsṛjya
- let it go
- ca
- and
- ātmānaṁ
- the self
- bhava
- of becoming
- sthitir
- (sthitiḥ) the state
- avasthitā
- stands
Meaning
The commentary calls this the painful state between (antarāla). The mind is unsteady, having lost both the pleasures of the world and the joy of the supreme: it has pushed away (apahastita, "thrust off with the hand") every aim. And worldly existence (bhava-sthiti) has grasped the self and let it go, by half: the commentary says, I am neither a full knower nor wholly ignorant, and standing between I have neither the happiness of this world nor that of the next. This is the most exact description in the sarga of where Rāma stands. The reader who knows too much to go back and not enough to go on is in the same place, and the text names it so that it can be passed through.