Shloka 3

अज्ञान–लोभयोः परस्परहेतुत्वम्

Mutual Causality of Ignorance and Greed

Devanagari script

कृत्स्नं नूनं स दहति इति लोको व्यवस्यति । यत्र त्वं तादृशो भूत्वा धर्ममेवानुपश्यसि,चिरकालतक तीक्ष्ण स्वभावका आश्रय लेनेवाला राजा निश्चय ही अपना सब कुछ जलाकर भस्म कर डालता है, ऐसी लोगोंकी धारणा है; परंतु तुम वैसे होकर भी जो धर्मपर ही दृष्टि रख रहे हो, यह कम आश्वर्यकी बात नहीं है

Transliteration

kṛtsnaṃ nūnaṃ sa dahatīti loko vyavasyati | yatra tvaṃ tādṛśo bhūtvā dharmam evānupaśyasi |

Translation

Śaunaka said: “People are convinced that such a man surely burns everything to the ground. Yet you, even while being of that very kind, keep your gaze fixed only on dharma—this is no small wonder.”

Word by Word

• {'kṛtsnam': 'the whole, everything (entirety)', 'nūnam': 'surely, indeed', 'saḥ': 'he (that person)', 'dahati': 'burns, consumes by fire

• destroys', 'iti': 'thus (quotative particle)', 'lokaḥ': 'people

• the world (public opinion)', 'vyavasyati': 'concludes, determines, is firmly convinced', 'yatra': 'where/whereas

• inasmuch as', 'tvam': 'you', 'tādṛśaḥ': 'such, of that sort', 'bhūtvā': 'having become

• being', 'dharmam': 'dharma

• righteousness, moral law, duty', 'eva': 'only, indeed (emphatic)', 'anupaśyasi': 'you keep seeing/observing

Speaker

शौनक उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Śaunaka
• loka (people/the world)
• dharma