सुखदुःखक्षयकरं महानन्दैककारणम् । मोक्षोपायमिमं राम वक्ष्यमाणं मया शृणु ॥ ७ ॥
sukhaduḥkhakṣayakaraṁ mahānandaikakāraṇam | mōkṣōpāyamimaṁ rāma vakṣyamāṇaṁ mayā śṛṇu || 7 ||
Translation
listen, Rāma, to this means to liberation that I am about to tell, which ends pleasure and pain together and is the one cause of the great bliss.
Word by word
- sukha
- pleasure
- duḥkha
- and pain
- kṣaya
- the ending of
- karaṁ
- which brings about
- mahānanda
- of the great bliss
- ēka
- the one
- kāraṇam
- cause
- mōkṣa
- to liberation
- upāyam
- the means
- imaṁ
- this
- rāma
- Rāma
- vakṣyamāṇaṁ
- about to be told
- mayā
- by me
- śṛṇu
- listen to
Meaning
The sentence comes to its verb: śṛṇu, listen. Note what the means is said to destroy: sukha-duḥkha, pleasure and pain both. We would like a teaching that ends pain and leaves our pleasures as they were, but the two are one movement, the mind leaning towards this and away from that. Vasiṣṭha offers instead mahānanda, a great bliss, and he says it has one cause. The pleasure of getting what one wants depends on many causes and any of them can fail. What has one cause, and that within reach, cannot be taken away by circumstance.