सुमनःपल्लवामर्दे किञ्चिद्व्यतिकरो भवेत् । परमार्थपदप्राप्तौ न तु व्यतिकरोऽल्पकः ॥ ४२ ॥
sumanaḥpallavāmardē kiñcidvyatikarō bhavēt | paramārthapadaprāptau na tu vyatikarō’lpakaḥ || 42 ||
Translation
In crushing a flower or a sprout there may be some trouble; but in reaching the highest state there is not the least.
Word by word
- sumanaḥ
- a flower
- pallava
- or a sprout
- āmardē
- in crushing
- kiñcid
- some
- vyatikarō
- (vyatikaraḥ) trouble
- bhavēt
- there may be
- paramārtha
- the highest
- pada
- state
- prāptau
- in reaching
- na
- not
- tu
- but
- alpakaḥ
- the least
Meaning
The commentary takes up a doubt: the world is so vast that millions of axes could not cut it down; how can it be ended without effort? The answer is the nature of knowledge. Then a second doubt: why was effort praised so much before? Effort was praised, it says, to remove the faults that block knowledge, attachment, doubt and wrong notions. Once those are gone, knowing takes no effort at all.