दुर्वातभूकम्प इव त्रस्तबालपिशाचवत् । मुक्तालीवाऽमले व्योम्नि नौस्पन्दतरुयानवत् ॥ १२ ॥
durvātabhūkampa iva trastabālapiśācavat | muktālīvā’malē vyōmni nauspandataruyānavat || 12 ||
Translation
like an earthquake felt in a fever, like the ghost of a frightened child, like a string of pearls in the clear sky, like trees seeming to move to one in a moving boat,
Word by word
- durvāta
- in a fever
- bhūkampaḥ
- (bhūkampaḥ) an earthquake
- iva
- like
- trasta
- frightened
- bāla
- of a child
- piśāca
- the ghost
- vat
- like
- muktālī
- a string of pearls
- amalē
- clear
- vyōmni
- in the sky
- nau
- boat
- spanda
- moving
- taru
- trees
- yāna
- seeming to move
Meaning
Four more images. In a fever (durvāta, a disorder of the wind humour) the ground seems to shake; a frightened child sees a ghost (piśāca) where there is none; in the clear sky one sees a string of pearls (muktālī), the floating specks of the eye; from a moving boat (nau-spanda) the trees on the bank seem to travel. Each is a perception produced by the state of the perceiver, not by the thing perceived. The last image is the most telling: it is the boat that moves, and the world that seems to. In the same way, the commentary implies, the movement of the mind is projected as a moving world.