केवलं विररामाऽस्य चेतो विगतचापलम् । भोगेभ्यो भूरिभङ्गेभ्यो धाराभ्य इव चातकः ॥ १२ ॥
kēvalaṁ virarāmā’sya cētō vigatacāpalam | bhōgēbhyō bhūribhaṅgēbhyō dhārābhya iva cātakaḥ || 12 ||
Translation
Only his mind, its restlessness gone, turned away from pleasures, which break apart in so many ways, as the cātaka bird turns from streams of water.
Word by word
- kēvalaṁ
- only
- virarāma
- turned away
- asya
- his
- cētō
- (cetaḥ) mind
- vigata
- gone
- cāpalam
- its restlessness
- bhōgēbhyō
- (bhogebhyaḥ) from pleasures
- bhūri
- in so many ways
- bhaṅgēbhyō
- (bhaṅgebhyaḥ) which break apart
- dhārābhya
- (dhārābhyaḥ) from streams of water
- iva
- as
- cātakaḥ
- the cātaka bird
Meaning
Though not yet at rest, Śuka's mind had stopped wanting. It turned away (virarāma) from pleasures, which are "full of breaking" (bhūri-bhaṅga), sure to end and to wound. The image is the cātaka, a bird that by tradition drinks only rain as it falls from the cloud and will not touch water from streams or pools on the ground. The commentary: as the cātaka has no love for streams other than the rain, so his mind turned from pleasures. The image says more than that he renounced them. The cātaka does not refuse ground water out of effort; it simply has no thirst for it, because its thirst is for something else. Śuka's dispassion was of that kind: not a struggle against desire but a thirst turned elsewhere.