यदेकवृन्तफलयोरथैकं शून्यकोटरम् । तत्र प्रयत्नः स्फुरितस्तथा तद्रससंविदः ॥ ८ ॥
yadēkavṛntaphalayōrathaikaṁ śūnyakōṭaram | tatra prayatnaḥ sphuritastathā tadrasasaṁvidaḥ || 8 ||
Translation
When of two fruits on one stalk one is hollow inside, there the effort of those that taste its juice was at work.
Word by word
- yad
- (yat) when
- ēka
- one
- vṛnta
- on stalk
- phalayōr
- (phalayoḥ) of two fruits
- atha
- then
- ēkaṁ
- one
- śūnya
- hollow
- kōṭaram
- inside
- tatra
- there
- prayatnaḥ
- the effort
- sphuritas
- (sphuritaḥ) was at work
- tathā
- so
- tad
- (tat) its
- rasa
- juice
- saṁvidaḥ
- of those that taste
Meaning
A second objection: that may hold for what is in human hands, but what of things in no one's hands? The commentary introduces the verse with exactly this. Two fruits hang from one stalk, with the same soil, sun and rain, and one of them is hollow (śūnya-koṭara). Surely that is pure chance? Vasiṣṭha answers: not at all. Something got in and ate it. Those "who know its juice" (tad-rasa-saṁvid), says the commentary, are a person or an insect that enjoys it, and their effort, of this life or an earlier one, destroyed the juice. It is a modest image for a large claim. What looks like blind accident from outside is, looked at closely, the end of a chain of striving by someone. To say "it just happened" is usually to say "I have not looked".