Nārāyaṇasya Guhya-nāmāni Niruktāni (Etymologies of Nārāyaṇa’s Secret Epithets) / नारायणस्य गुह्यनामानि निरुक्तानि
बध्यते मथ्यते चैव कर्मभिर्मन्थवत् सदा । जो मोहसे अन्धा (विवेकशून्य) हो गया है, वह सदा ही दुःखद भोगोंमें ही सुखबुद्धि कर लेता है और मथानीकी भाँति कर्मोसे बँधता एवं मथा जाता है
badhyate mathyate caiva karmabhir manthavat sadā | yo mohase andho (vivekaśūnyaḥ) bhavati sa sadā hi duḥkhada-bhogeṣu sukha-buddhiṁ karoti karmabhir manthavat baddho mathitaś ca bhavati ||
Nārada bersabda: Seseorang terikat dan terus-menerus “dikocok” oleh perbuatannya sendiri, bagaikan tongkat pengaduk. Orang yang dibutakan oleh moha—tanpa viveka—mengira kenikmatan yang menyakitkan sebagai kebahagiaan; karena itu ia senantiasa terbelenggu dan tergilas oleh karma.
नारद उवाच
Delusion makes a person misread painful sense-enjoyments as happiness; this misjudgment fuels repeated action, and those very actions bind and torment the doer—like a churning-stick that both binds the process and is itself worked again and again.
In Nārada’s instruction within the Śānti Parva’s discourse on peace and liberation, he uses the metaphor of churning to explain how the deluded person is continually driven and constrained by karma, cycling through suffering while imagining it to be pleasure.