भिक्षुको मङ्गलेभेन नृपो यत्क्रियते बलात् । तदमात्येभपौराणां प्रयत्नस्य बलं महत् ॥ ११ ॥
bhikṣukō maṅgalēbhēna nṛpō yatkriyatē balāt | tadamātyēbhapaurāṇāṁ prayatnasya balaṁ mahat || 11 ||
Translation
When a beggar is made king by force through the auspicious elephant, that is the great power of the effort of the ministers, the elephant and the citizens.
Word by word
- bhikṣukō
- (bhikṣukaḥ) a beggar
- maṅgala
- auspicious
- ibhēna
- through the elephant
- nṛpō
- (nṛpaḥ) king
- yat
- when
- kriyatē
- is made
- balāt
- by force
- tad
- (tat) that
- amātya
- of the ministers
- ibha
- the elephant
- paurāṇāṁ
- and the citizens
- prayatnasya
- of the effort
- balaṁ
- the power
- mahat
- great
Meaning
The tale was well known: when a royal line failed, the state elephant, garlanded, was sent out, and the man it lifted up was made king, though he were a beggar. Nothing seems more plainly the work of fate. Vasiṣṭha answers: look at who did what. Ministers decided, the elephant walked, citizens accepted. The commentary is careful here. The beggar's own merit from an earlier life may be the chief cause, it says, and the ministers' effort the helping cause, but had the ministers not sent out the elephant, the beggar's son could never have become king. Luck, examined, is full of other people's work. And it is effort, the commentary ends, that can give even an ordinary man the highest of places.