मुहूर्तमात्रं ते पुत्र चेतो वानरचञ्चलम् । अज्ञानमभ्याविशतु शशः शशधरं यथा ॥ २९ ॥
muhūrtamātraṁ tē putra cētō vānaracañcalam | ajñānamabhyāviśatu śaśaḥ śaśadharaṁ yathā || 29 ||
Translation
"For a moment, son, let ignorance enter your mind, restless as a monkey, as the hare entered the moon."
Word by word
- muhūrta
- a moment
- mātraṁ
- only for
- tē
- your
- putra
- son
- cētō
- (cetaḥ) mind
- vānara
- as a monkey
- cañcalam
- restless
- ajñānam
- ignorance
- abhyāviśatu
- let enter
- śaśaḥ
- the hare
- śaśadharaṁ
- the moon
- yathā
- as
Meaning
Without warning, and with no fault on the son's part, the father curses him. The hare is the mark seen on the moon's face, which gives the moon its name śaśadhara, hare-bearer; another commentary glosses it as the moon's stain. The image says two things. The stain is on the surface of the moon, and the moon's own light is not changed. And the ignorance will have somewhere to settle, since the mind is called vānara-cañcala, monkey-restless, by nature. Muhūrta-mātram, for a moment only. Even so, this moment is the entire condition of people who do not yet know, and from inside it will not feel like a moment at all.