मूढानुमानसंसिद्धं दैवं यस्याऽस्ति दुर्मतेः । दैवाद्दाहोऽस्ति नैवेति गन्तव्यं तेन पावके ॥ ५ ॥
mūḍhānumānasaṁsiddhaṁ daivaṁ yasyā’sti durmatēḥ | daivāddāhō’sti naivēti gantavyaṁ tēna pāvakē || 5 ||
Translation
He of bad understanding, for whom a fate inferred by fools really exists, should walk into a fire, saying "by fate there will be no burning".
Word by word
- mūḍha
- by fools
- anumāna
- inferred
- saṁsiddhaṁ
- established
- daivaṁ
- a fate
- yasya
- for whom
- asti
- exists
- durmatēḥ
- of bad understanding
- daivād
- (daivāt) from fate
- dāhō
- (dāhaḥ) burning
- na
- not
- ēva
- indeed
- iti
- saying
- gantavyaṁ
- should walk
- tēna
- he
- pāvakē
- into a fire
Meaning
The sarga now shifts into a sharp, almost comic mode. If you truly believe, test it. Step into the fire, confident that it burns only if fate has so decreed. The commentary says just this. No one, of course, does it, and that is the proof: at the edge of real consequences, every fatalist acts as if actions had effects. He looks both ways before crossing the road. Fate is therefore a belief that people hold only where it costs nothing. The word "inferred" (anumāna-saṁsiddha) is pointed as well. It is not seen but worked out, and by fools. Whenever one says "it's no use trying", the question is whether one would stake a hand on that sentence.