निर्वाणं नाम परमं सुखं येन पुनर्जनः । न जायते न म्रियते तज्ज्ञानादेव लभ्यते ॥ २१ ॥
nirvāṇaṁ nāma paramaṁ sukhaṁ yēna punarjanaḥ | na jāyatē na mriyatē tajjñānādēva labhyatē || 21 ||
Translation
The supreme happiness is called nirvāṇa, by which a person is not born again and does not die, and it is gained from knowledge alone.
Word by word
- nirvāṇaṁ
- nirvāṇa
- nāma
- called
- paramaṁ
- the supreme
- sukhaṁ
- happiness
- yēna
- by which
- punar
- (punaḥ) again
- janaḥ
- a person
- na
- not
- jāyatē
- is born
- mriyatē
- does die
- taj
- (tat) that
- jñānād
- (jñānāt) from knowledge
- ēva
- alone
- labhyatē
- is gained
Meaning
Here is the diagnosis. Brahmā's works improve conditions, but birth and death remain. Any happiness that can still end has not solved the problem. The only happiness that deserves the name is one with no further loss in it, called nirvāṇa, a word which means the going out of a flame and here names the end of the round. Why from knowledge alone? Because what binds us is a mistake about what we are, and a mistake is the one thing that action cannot remove. However hard you work inside a dream, you do not wake. A person may run for miles from the snake that is really a rope, and only a look at it will end the fear.