आप्तवानसि वैराग्यं विवेकासङ्गजं सुत । चन्द्रकान्त इवाऽऽर्द्रत्वं लग्नचन्द्रकरोत्करः ॥ ४ ॥
āptavānasi vairāgyaṁ vivēkāsaṅgajaṁ suta | candrakānta ivā’’rdratvaṁ lagnacandrakarōtkaraḥ || 4 ||
Translation
You have gained, my son, the dispassion born of contact with discernment, as the moonstone, touched by the mass of the moon's rays, gains its moisture.
Word by word
- āptavān
- gained
- asi
- you have
- vairāgyaṁ
- dispassion
- vivēka
- with discernment
- āsaṅga
- contact
- jaṁ
- born of
- suta
- my son
- candrakānta
- (candrakāntaḥ) the moonstone
- iva
- as
- ārdratvaṁ
- moisture
- lagna
- touched by
- candra
- of the moon's
- kara
- rays
- utkaraḥ
- the mass
Meaning
The moonstone of Indian poetry sweats drops of water when the moon falls on it. The water is not added from outside. The moon's touch brings out what the stone has. In the commentary's reading, viveka-āsaṅga-jam means born from contact with discernment. Another commentary divides the compound otherwise, and hears asaṅga, without contact: a dispassion that came through no one's company. Both fit what has been said of Rāma.