कथं वा नैव किञ्चित्स्यात् कथं वा सर्वमित्यपि । अनयैव वचोभङ्ग्या मम मोह इवोदितः ॥ ४ ॥
kathaṁ vā naiva kiñcitsyāt kathaṁ vā sarvamityapi | anayaiva vacōbhaṅgyā mama mōha ivōditaḥ || 4 ||
Translation
How is it nothing at all, and how is it also all? By this very turn of speech a bewilderment, as it were, has risen in me.
Word by word
- kathaṁ
- how
- vā
- or, and
- na
- not
- ēva
- at all
- kiñcit
- anything
- syāt
- is it
- sarvam
- all
- iti
- thus
- api
- also
- anayā
- by this
- vacō
- (vacaḥ) of speech
- bhaṅgyā
- by the turn
- mama
- in me
- mōha
- bewilderment
- iva
- as it were
- uditaḥ
- has risen
Meaning
The last pair is the sharpest: the same sarga said that this is "nothing" that can be pointed to, and also that it is the ground in which the whole world shines (3.9.49-51). Rāma calls his state moha, bewilderment, but softens it with iva, "as it were": he is not lost, only caught by the way the teaching was phrased, its vacobhaṅgī, the turn and twist of the words. The commentary sums up the four verses as one question with many parts. The honesty is worth noticing. Rāma does not pretend to have understood; he names exactly where the words seem to fight each other, which is the condition for their being resolved.