अशुभेषु समाविष्टं शुभेष्वेवाऽवतारयेत् । प्रयत्नाच्चित्तमित्येष सर्वशास्त्रार्थसंग्रहः ॥ १२ ॥
aśubhēṣu samāviṣṭaṁ śubhēṣvēvā’vatārayēt | prayatnāccittamityēṣa sarvaśāstrārthasaṁgrahaḥ || 12 ||
Translation
When the mind has entered the unwholesome, one should by effort bring it down into the wholesome: this is the gathered meaning of all the scriptures.
Word by word
- aśubhēṣu
- the unwholesome
- samāviṣṭaṁ
- has entered
- śubhēṣv
- (śubheṣu) into the wholesome
- ēva
- indeed
- avatārayēt
- one should bring down
- prayatnāc
- (prayatnāt) by effort
- cittam
- the mind
- ity
- (iti) thus
- ēṣa
- this
- sarva
- of all
- śāstra
- the scriptures
- artha
- the meaning
- saṁgrahaḥ
- gathered
Meaning
A remarkable claim: the whole of scripture in one sentence (sarva-śāstra-artha-saṅgraha). It says nothing of doctrine. It describes a movement. The mind has wandered into what is unwholesome (aśubha); one brings it, by effort, into what is wholesome (śubha). The verb avatārayet, "let him bring down", is the word for taking something down into a place, as one leads an animal down into water. Notice what is assumed. The mind will go astray; that is expected, and is no disgrace. The practice is the returning. Done many thousand times over a life, this small act of bringing the mind back is, on this view, everything the scriptures have to teach.