न चोत्पन्नं न च ध्वंसि यत्किलादौ न विद्यते । उत्पत्तिः कीदृशी तस्य नाशशब्दस्य का कथा ॥ ५ ॥
na cōtpannaṁ na ca dhvaṁsi yatkilādau na vidyatē | utpattiḥ kīdṛśī tasya nāśaśabdasya kā kathā || 5 ||
Translation
What has not arisen and does not perish, what indeed is not there in the beginning: what kind of arising can it have? What talk can there be of the word "destruction"?
Word by word
- na
- not
- ca
- and
- utpannaṁ
- arisen
- dhvaṁsi
- perishing
- yat
- what
- kila
- indeed
- ādau
- in the beginning
- vidyatē
- is there
- utpattiḥ
- arising
- kīdṛśī
- of what kind
- tasya
- of it
- nāśa
- destruction
- śabdasya
- of the word
- kā
- what
- kathā
- talk
Meaning
The commentary introduces the verse: since the world has no being, its arising and the rest cannot be established either. O Rāma, this world has neither arisen nor is it perishable; of what has no being from the first, what arising can there be, and what talk even of the word "destruction"? Arising and perishing are changes in something that is. Where nothing was there to begin with, there is nothing to change; destruction is not merely denied but left without a meaning. Hence Rāma's question about the dissolution, where the world goes, loses its footing.