अथाऽहं दीनतां यातः स्थितोऽसम्बुद्धया धिया । दुःखशोकाभिसन्तप्तो जातो जन इवाऽधनः ॥ ३१ ॥
athā’haṁ dīnatāṁ yātaḥ sthitō’sambuddhayā dhiyā | duḥkhaśōkābhisantaptō jātō jana ivā’dhanaḥ || 31 ||
Translation
Then I sank into wretchedness, my mind no longer awake, burned by sorrow and grief, like a man who has lost all he had.
Word by word
- atha
- then
- ahaṁ
- I
- dīnatāṁ
- into wretchedness
- yātaḥ
- sank
- sthitō
- (sthitaḥ) was
- asambuddhayā
- no longer awake
- dhiyā
- with a mind
- duḥkha
- by sorrow
- śōka
- and grief
- abhisantaptō
- (abhisantaptaḥ) burned
- jātō
- (jātaḥ) become
- jana
- (janaḥ) a man
- iva
- like
- adhanaḥ
- who has lost all he had
Meaning
The greatest of sages, on the lotus of the creator, is suddenly in the position of any person with troubles. Adhana, without wealth: the commentary sees a rich man whose wealth has been seized, who is more wretched than one who was always poor. And the comparison is apt, for he was rich and his wealth is his own forgotten nature. Note that he still sits where he sat. Nothing about his situation has changed, and all of his suffering is due to something missing in his understanding. A reader might check this against a bad day of their own, and ask how much of it was the day, and how much of it was how they were seeing it.