Shloka 2
अन्तर्वन-विद्यारण्योपमा
The Allegory of the Inner Forest of Knowledge
विषयैकात्ययाध्वानं कामक्रोधविरोधकम् | तदतीत्य महादुर्ग प्रविष्टोडस्मि महद् वनम्
viṣayaikātyayādhvānaṁ kāmakrodhavirodhakam | tad atītya mahādurgaṁ praviṣṭo 'smi mahad vanam ||
Der Brahmane sprach: „Nachdem ich jene große, festungsartige Mühsal überwunden habe—den einsamen Weg, der nur zu den Sinnesobjekten führt, wo Begierde und Zorn als feindliche Gegner lagern—bin ich nun in den weiten Wald des Brahman eingetreten.“
ब्राह्मण उवाच
Educational Q&A
Worldly life is portrayed as a perilous, solitary passage dominated by sense-objects, with desire and anger as chief adversaries. Liberation is framed as ‘crossing beyond’ this fortress-like difficulty and entering the spiritual expanse of Brahman—i.e., turning from viṣaya toward self-knowledge and inner freedom.
A Brahmin speaker declares a decisive transition: he has overcome the obstructive forces of kāma and krodha that guard the difficult worldly route, and he now describes himself as having entered the ‘great forest’ of Brahman, a metaphor for the contemplative, liberated state.