काऽहं क इव संसार इति स्वप्नेऽप्यसंकथा । जाया श्रोत्रियमूढस्य तादृशस्यैव दुर्धियः ॥ १० ॥
kā’haṁ ka iva saṁsāra iti svapnē’pyasaṁkathā | jāyā śrōtriyamūḍhasya tādṛśasyaiva durdhiyaḥ || 10 ||
Translation
"Who am I? What is this world?" Not even in a dream did such talk come to me: the wife of a foolish ritualist, a man of a mind as dull as mine;
Word by word
- kā
- who
- ahaṁ
- am I
- ka
- what
- iva
- indeed
- saṁsāra
- is this world
- iti
- such
- svapnē
- in a dream
- api
- even
- asaṁkathā
- no talk came to me
- jāyā
- the wife
- śrōtriya
- ritualist, learned in the Veda
- mūḍhasya
- of a foolish
- tādṛśasya
- as mine
- ēva
- just
- durdhiyaḥ
- of a dull mind
Meaning
This is the heart of the portrait, and the reason for all of it. A good, dutiful, pious life, yet the two questions that could have freed her never came up, not even in a dream. The Yoga Vāsiṣṭha's own teaching is that the inquiry "who am I, what is this world?" is where freedom begins; without it, piety and labour go round and round. Her husband was a śrotriya, learned in the Veda and its rites, and still "foolish": learning of ritual is not knowledge of the Self. Another commentary: his mind, like hers, was not purified, and was given to the house.