अतः पौरुषमाश्रित्य श्रेयसे नित्यबान्धवम् । एकाग्रं कुरु तच्चित्तं शृणु चोक्तमिदं मम ॥ २ ॥
ataḥ pauruṣamāśritya śrēyasē nityabāndhavam | ēkāgraṁ kuru taccittaṁ śṛṇu cōktamidaṁ mama || 2 ||
Translation
Therefore take your stand on effort, your kinsman for ever on the way to the highest good. Make the mind one-pointed, and listen to what I am going to say.
Word by word
- ataḥ
- therefore
- pauruṣam
- effort
- āśritya
- taking your stand on
- śrēyasē
- for the highest good
- nitya
- for ever
- bāndhavam
- kinsman
- ēkāgraṁ
- one-pointed
- kuru
- make
- tac
- (tat) that
- cittaṁ
- mind
- śṛṇu
- listen to
- ca
- and
- uktam
- what is said
- idaṁ
- this
- mama
- by me
Meaning
Atah, therefore: since necessity is on the side of whatever is rightly done, nothing stands in effort's way. The commentary says that the point of the last verse was this, that the order of things favours the one who acts. Effort is called a nitya-bāndhava, a relative who never leaves. Other kin stand with us for a while, and at the end cannot come further. What we have made of ourselves by steady effort comes with us. Then Vasiṣṭha asks for one thing, and it is the thing the whole teaching depends on: a mind gathered to a point. He has argued long enough. From here he wants a listener, and a scattered person, however clever, is not yet one.