न हस्तपादचलनं न देशान्तरसङ्गमः । न कायक्लेशवैधुर्यं न तीर्थायतनाश्रयाः ॥ ३९ ॥
na hastapādacalanaṁ na dēśāntarasaṅgamaḥ | na kāyaklēśavaidhuryaṁ na tīrthāyatanāśrayāḥ || 39 ||
Translation
It does not come by moving hands or feet, nor by going to another land, nor by the ordeal of bodily pain, nor by resort to holy places.
Word by word
- na
- not
- hasta
- hands
- pāda
- or feet
- calanaṁ
- by moving
- dēśa
- land
- antara
- to another
- saṅgamaḥ
- by going
- kāya
- bodily
- klēśa
- pain
- vaidhuryaṁ
- the ordeal
- tīrtha
- holy
- āyatana
- places
- āśrayāḥ
- by resort to
Meaning
The commentary gives this as neither prostration nor pilgrimage nor fasting nor dwelling at a holy place. So the list runs through almost everything that is commonly done by people in search of the highest. Vasiṣṭha does not condemn these. At 2.11.31–32 they had their office, which was to clear the way. But the goal is not at the end of any road, and the verse is telling the traveller so.