इमां मोक्षकथां श्रुत्वा सह सर्वैर्विवेकिभिः । परं यास्यसि निर्दुःखं नाशो यत्र न विद्यते ॥ ८ ॥
imāṁ mōkṣakathāṁ śrutvā saha sarvairvivēkibhiḥ | paraṁ yāsyasi nirduḥkhaṁ nāśō yatra na vidyatē || 8 ||
Translation
Hearing this story of liberation, together with all who discern, you will go to the supreme, where there is no sorrow and no destruction.
Word by word
- imāṁ
- this
- mōkṣa
- of liberation
- kathāṁ
- story
- śrutvā
- hearing
- saha
- together with
- sarvair
- (sarvaiḥ) all
- vivēkibhiḥ
- who discern
- paraṁ
- to the supreme
- yāsyasi
- you will go
- nirduḥkhaṁ
- without sorrow
- nāśō
- (nāśaḥ) destruction
- yatra
- where
- na
- no
- vidyatē
- there is
Meaning
Saha sarvair vivekibhiḥ, together with all those who discern. Rāma is not alone in the assembly, and neither is any reader. The commentary notes that the words mean more than company: those without discernment or with only weak dispassion do not gain knowledge by hearing, and so the promise is made to the discerning. The teaching is called a kathā, a story, and it will prove to be one: long stretches of what follows are tales. Vasiṣṭha knows that people are changed less by arguments than by stories they cannot forget. The destination is described only by what is absent from it, sorrow and destruction. It is hard to say what the supreme is, and easier to say what will no longer be there.