क एतेषां हताशानां दुःखस्याऽन्तो हतायुषाम् । स्यादिति क्षणमेकाग्रं चिन्तयामास भूतये ॥ १८ ॥
ka ētēṣāṁ hatāśānāṁ duḥkhasyā’ntō hatāyuṣām | syāditi kṣaṇamēkāgraṁ cintayāmāsa bhūtayē || 18 ||
Translation
"What end can there be to the sorrow of these people, their hopes broken, their lives cut short?" So for a moment he reflected, with a gathered mind, for their good.
Word by word
- ka
- (kaḥ) what
- ētēṣāṁ
- of these
- hata
- broken
- āśānāṁ
- whose hopes
- duḥkhasya
- to the sorrow
- antō
- (antaḥ) end
- āyuṣām
- whose lives
- syād
- (syāt) can there be
- iti
- so
- kṣaṇam
- for a moment
- ēkāgraṁ
- with a gathered mind
- cintayāmāsa
- he reflected
- bhūtayē
- for their good
Meaning
Hatāśānām, hatāyuṣām: the two words carry the sound of a blow, their hope struck down, their span struck down. Human life seen from the height of Brahmā, whose day is an age of the world, must look like this: brief, and always disappointed. And yet the god's first act is to stop and think, ekāgram, one-pointedly, for a moment. Even for the creator, compassion on its own solves nothing. It has to go by way of clear thought. A person who wants to help should be glad to learn this. Good feeling is where help starts, and then there is a task of working out what would actually help.