यस्मात्किल जगत्यस्मिन् व्यवहारक्रियां विना । न स्थितिः सम्भवत्यब्धौ पतितस्याऽजला यथा ॥ १४ ॥
yasmātkila jagatyasmin vyavahārakriyāṁ vinā | na sthitiḥ sambhavatyabdhau patitasyā’jalā yathā || 14 ||
Translation
For in this world, it is said, there is no living without the work of action, as for one who has fallen into the sea there is none without water.
Word by word
- yasmāt
- for
- kila
- it is said
- jagati
- world
- asmin
- in this
- vyavahāra
- of action
- kriyāṁ
- the work
- vinā
- without
- na
- no
- sthitiḥ
- living
- sambhavati
- there is
- abdhau
- into the sea
- patitasya
- for one who has fallen
- ajalā
- without water
- yathā
- as
Meaning
Here Rāma closes the easy way out. One might say: if action brings pain, give action up. But a creature born in the sea cannot live out of water, the commentary says, and no one in this world can live without acting (vyavahāra-kriyā). Breathing, eating, speaking, deciding are actions. To be in the world is to be in that sea. So the question cannot be how to stop acting; it must be how to act without being drowned. This is the ground of the Gītā's teaching too (3.5: no one can stay even a moment without acting). The reader who has dreamed of escaping all obligation may see that even the escape would be a kind of action.