श्रीवसिष्ठ उवाच । यथास्थितं ब्रह्मतत्त्वं सत्ता नियतिरुच्यते । सा विनेतुर्विनेतृत्वं सा विनेयविनेयता ॥ १ ॥
śrīvasiṣṭha uvāca | yathāsthitaṁ brahmatattvaṁ sattā niyatirucyatē | sā vinēturvinētṛtvaṁ sā vinēyavinēyatā || 1 ||
Translation
Śrī Vasiṣṭha said: Brahman as it stands, reality itself, is being; and that being is what is called necessity. It is the governing in whatever governs, and the being governed in whatever is governed.
Word by word
- śrīvasiṣṭha
- Śrī Vasiṣṭha
- uvāca
- said
- yathā
- as
- sthitaṁ
- it stands
- brahma
- Brahman
- tattvaṁ
- reality
- sattā
- being
- niyatir
- (niyatiḥ) necessity
- ucyatē
- is called
- sā
- it
- vinētur
- (vinetuḥ) of what governs
- vinētṛtvaṁ
- the governing
- vinēya
- of what is governed
- vinēyatā
- the being governed
Meaning
One question was left over from the last sarga, and the commentary states it sharply. Fate may be only past effort, and present effort may defeat it. But what of niyati, necessity, the power the Vairāgya Prakaraṇa called the wife of Death? People say that if what must happen could be prevented, Nala, Rāma and Yudhiṣṭhira would not have suffered. If necessity binds everyone, where is freedom? Vasiṣṭha does not deny necessity. He tells us what it is: Brahman itself, seen as the fact that a cause brings its effect and an effect has its cause. It is no outside ruler. It is the lawfulness of what is, and we rely on that lawfulness every time we expect a seed to grow or a practice to bear fruit. So the very thing we feared as a chain turns out to be what makes effort worth making.