श्रीवसिष्ठ उवाच । तुल्यस्याऽतुलदुःस्थस्य भावकैः किल तोलनम् । निरन्वया यथैवोक्तिर्जगत्सत्ता तथैव हि ॥ ७ ॥
śrīvasiṣṭha uvāca | tulyasyā’tuladuḥsthasya bhāvakaiḥ kila tōlanam | niranvayā yathaivōktirjagatsattā tathaiva hi || 7 ||
Translation
Vasiṣṭha said: A thing without equal, hard to place, is weighed by thinkers against its like; as such a statement has no second term, just so is the being of the world.
Word by word
- tulyasya
- of (a thing) against its like
- atula
- without equal
- duḥsthasya
- hard to place
- bhāvakaiḥ
- by thinkers
- kila
- indeed
- tōlanam
- a weighing
- niranvayā
- without a second term
- yathā
- as
- ēva
- just
- uktir
- (uktiḥ) a statement
- jagat
- of the world
- sattā
- the being
- tathā
- so
- hi
- indeed
Meaning
A dense verse, and the commentary takes it slowly. One wishes to compare the seen with something else, but no comparison can be found outside the seen itself, the thing to be compared; so it cannot be compared with anything. A comparison made with things that fall within the compared itself is an example of the figure called ananvaya, "without a second term", and Rāma's own statement is such: "the sky is like the sky, the ocean like the ocean, the battle of Rāma and Rāvaṇa like the battle of Rāma and Rāvaṇa". Such a statement ends by saying the thing has no likeness. So too the idea Rāma offers: it lies within the world, so it cannot be the world's example. It follows, the commentary says, that the world's separate being is as Vasiṣṭha said, like the barren woman's son. And as for the claim that the unreal cannot serve as an example: though the unreal is not seen to illustrate the real, nothing stops it illustrating the unreal; people do say "unreal as a sky-flower". The "thinkers", bhāvaka, are those who weigh things in the mind.