पुरुषार्थात् फलप्राप्तिर्देशकालवशादिह । प्राप्ता चिरेण शीघ्रं वा याऽसौ दैवमिति स्मृता ॥ २१ ॥
puruṣārthāt phalaprāptirdēśakālavaśādiha | prāptā cirēṇa śīghraṁ vā yā’sau daivamiti smṛtā || 21 ||
Translation
The fruit that comes from effort here, through place and time, whether late or soon: that is what is called fate.
Word by word
- puruṣārthāt
- (puruṣārthāt) from effort
- phala
- the fruit
- prāptir
- (prāptiḥ) that comes
- dēśa
- place
- kāla
- time
- vaśād
- (vaśāt) through
- iha
- here
- prāptā
- gained
- cirēṇa
- late
- śīghraṁ
- soon
- vā
- or
- yā
- which
- asau
- that
- daivam
- fate
- iti
- as
- smṛtā
- is called
Meaning
This is a definition that solves a puzzle. Why does effort sometimes seem to go unrewarded while another man prospers with no labour? Because the fruit ripens according to place and time, late or soon (cireṇa śīghraṁ vā). Another commentary gives the picture: some efforts have borne fruit now, others in another birth, as one tree fruits at once and another after twenty or forty years, yet the fruit belongs to the planting. When the sowing is forgotten, the harvest looks like a gift, or a blow, from nowhere; that is the moment when people say "fate". Fate, then, is effort that we have lost track of.