श्रीराम उवाच । भगवन् सर्वधर्मज्ञ प्रतिष्ठामलमागतम् । यल्लोके तद्वद ब्रह्मन् दैवं नाम किमुच्यते ॥ १ ॥
śrīrāma uvāca | bhagavan sarvadharmajña pratiṣṭhāmalamāgatam | yallōkē tadvada brahman daivaṁ nāma kimucyatē || 1 ||
Translation
Śrī Rāma said: Blessed one, knower of every duty, tell me, O Brahmin: what is this called fate, which has become so firmly established in the world?
Word by word
- śrīrāma
- Śrī Rāma
- uvāca
- said
- bhagavan
- blessed one
- sarva
- every
- dharmajña
- knower of duty
- pratiṣṭhām
- established
- alam
- firmly
- āgatam
- which has become
- yal
- (yat) which
- lōkē
- in the world
- tad
- (tat) that
- vada
- tell me
- brahman
- O Brahmin
- daivaṁ
- fate
- nāma
- called
- kim
- what
- ucyatē
- is
Meaning
After three sargas of argument, Rāma asks what has so far gone unasked. The commentary hears a real difficulty behind his polite question. Vasiṣṭha has said two things: that fate is unreal, and that fate is one's past effort. If it is unreal, what of all that the world and the Veda say of it? If it is past effort, it exists; and since today's impulses themselves come from past action, how is a person free? Rāma does not yet say this openly. He says only that the word is firmly established (pratiṣṭhām alam āgatam). A good student does not let a teacher's conclusion pass until it has been made to answer the hardest case, and this sarga is where that happens.