भावाभावसहस्रेषु दशासु विविधासु च । स्वपौरुषवशादेव निवृत्ता भूतजातयः ॥ १० ॥
bhāvābhāvasahasrēṣu daśāsu vividhāsu ca | svapauruṣavaśādēva nivṛttā bhūtajātayaḥ || 10 ||
Translation
Through thousands of gains and losses, and through conditions of every kind, the races of beings have come through by the power of their own effort alone.
Word by word
- bhāva
- gains
- abhāva
- and losses
- sahasrēṣu
- through thousands
- daśāsu
- through conditions
- vividhāsu
- of every kind
- ca
- and
- sva
- their own
- pauruṣa
- of effort
- vaśād
- (vaśāt) by the power
- ēva
- alone
- nivṛttā
- (nivṛttāḥ) have come through
- bhūta
- of beings
- jātayaḥ
- the races
Meaning
The view widens to all life. Bhāva and abhāva, says the commentary, are fortune and misfortune, thousands of each. Through them whole kinds of beings (bhūta-jāti) have passed by their own effort, good or bad. A species survives by what it does: it feeds, flees, migrates, tends its young. On this long view, an individual's bad year is one ripple. The verse makes no promise of ease. It observes something simpler and rather steadying: everything now alive is descended from something that kept going.