दैवमेवेह चेत् कर्तृ पुंसः किमिव चेष्टया । स्नानदानासनोच्चारान् दैवमेव करिष्यति ॥ ६ ॥
daivamēvēha cēt kartṛ puṁsaḥ kimiva cēṣṭayā | snānadānāsanōccārān daivamēva kariṣyati || 6 ||
Translation
If fate alone were the doer here, what would a man's efforts be for? Fate would do his bathing, his giving, his sitting down and his speaking.
Word by word
- daivam
- fate
- ēva
- alone
- iha
- here
- cēt
- if
- kartṛ
- the doer
- puṁsaḥ
- a man's
- kim
- what
- iva
- for
- cēṣṭayā
- efforts
- snāna
- bathing
- dāna
- giving
- āsana
- sitting
- uccārān
- and speaking
- kariṣyati
- would do
Meaning
A reductio from daily life. If all the doing is fate's, then a man might stop. Fate will bathe him, and give his alms, sit him down, and say his words. The commentary lists these as all the ordinary activities. The list is deliberately trivial, and that is its force. Nobody sits in dirty clothes waiting for fate to wash him. There is a difference between saying "all is decreed" over a tragedy, and meaning it at breakfast. The thought, if carried through, leaves no room for a single act, including the act of asserting it.