विरागवासनापास्तसमस्तभववासनाः । मुहूर्तममृताम्भोधिवीचीविलुलिता इव ॥ ३ ॥
virāgavāsanāpāstasamastabhavavāsanāḥ | muhūrtamamṛtāmbhōdhivīcīvilulitā iva || 3 ||
Translation
their longings for worldly existence all cast out by the longing for dispassion, they were for a moment as if rolled in the waves of an ocean of nectar.
Word by word
- virāga
- for dispassion
- vāsanā
- by the longing
- apāsta
- cast out
- samasta
- all
- bhava
- for worldly existence
- vāsanāḥ
- their longings
- muhūrtam
- for a moment
- amṛta
- of nectar
- ambhōdhi
- of an ocean
- vīcī
- in the waves
- vilulitā
- (vilulitāḥ) rolled
- iva
- as if
Meaning
The deepest effect. A vāsanā is a lasting tendency; the listeners' tendencies toward worldly life (bhava-vāsanā), all of them, were driven out (apāsta) by a new tendency, the longing for dispassion (virāga-vāsanā). The commentary: all their desires, rooted in attachment and aversion, were destroyed. And for a moment (muhūrtam) they were as if swept in the waves of an ocean of nectar (amṛta). The word "for a moment" is honest. Hearing can give a moment of freedom; whether it lasts is the work of the teaching. The text says this precisely so that the reader does not mistake the moment for the end. Anyone who has left a talk or a book changed, and found the change fading by the next day, knows both the nectar and the muhūrta.