कथं नाथ महादुःखमयः संसार आगतः । कथं च क्षीयते जन्तोरिति पृष्टेन तेन मे ॥ ३५ ॥
kathaṁ nātha mahāduḥkhamayaḥ saṁsāra āgataḥ | kathaṁ ca kṣīyatē jantōriti pṛṣṭēna tēna mē || 35 ||
Translation
"How, lord, did this saṁsāra, so full of great sorrow, come to be? And how does it wane in a creature?" So I asked, and he
Word by word
- kathaṁ
- how
- nātha
- lord
- mahā
- great
- duḥkha
- sorrow
- mayaḥ
- full of
- saṁsāra
- (saṁsāraḥ) saṁsāra
- āgataḥ
- did come to be
- ca
- and
- kṣīyatē
- does it wane
- jantōr
- (jantoḥ) in a creature
- iti
- so
- pṛṣṭēna
- asked
- tēna
- by him
- mē
- to me
Meaning
Here are the two questions of all philosophy that matters to a person in pain, in their shortest form. How did this happen, and how does it end? Rāma asked the same in the Vairāgya Prakaraṇa. Note that Vasiṣṭha asks about jantu, a creature, any creature, not himself alone, for by his father's design he is asking for everyone. Note too the order of the two questions. The rest of the Yoga Vāsiṣṭha can be read as the reply: the Utpatti Prakaraṇa on how it arose, and the Sthiti and Upaśama on how it stays and how it subsides.