तान्याकाशजकर्माणि लब्धवान्मृत्युरुद्यतः । वन्ध्यापुत्रमिव प्राज्ञः संकल्पाद्रिमिवाऽपरः ॥ १५ ॥
tānyākāśajakarmāṇi labdhavānmṛtyurudyataḥ | vandhyāputramiva prājñaḥ saṁkalpādrimivā’paraḥ || 15 ||
Translation
of Ākāśaja's actions; Death, for all his zeal, obtained them no more than a wise man obtains the son of a barren woman, or another man the mountain someone has imagined.
Word by word
- tāni
- them
- ākāśaja
- of Ākāśaja
- karmāṇi
- the actions
- labdhavān
- obtained
- mṛtyur
- (mṛtyuḥ) Death
- udyataḥ
- for all his zeal
- vandhyā
- of a barren woman
- putram
- the son
- iva
- no more than
- prājñaḥ
- a wise man
- saṁkalpa
- imagined
- adrim
- the mountain
- aparaḥ
- another man
Meaning
Two images of what is not there to be found. The son of a barren woman is the classical example of what does not exist at all; the imagined mountain exists only in the mind of the one who imagines it, and no one else can climb it. The commentary: as a wise man does not find the son of a barren woman, and as no one but the one imagining finds the mountain he imagines, so Death found no deadly action of the brahmin anywhere. The second image is the finer: what is real to the one who imagines it is nothing to another. Hold it for v. 26.