Shloka 17
अन्तर्वन-विद्यारण्योपमा
The Allegory of the Inner Forest of Knowledge
सप्त स्त्रियस्तत्र वसन्ति सद्य- स्त्ववाड्मुखा भानुमत्यो जनित्रय: । ऊर्ध्व रसानाददते प्रजाभ्य: सर्वान् यथा सत्यमनित्यता च
sapta striyastatra vasanti sadya-stvavāḍmukhā bhānumatyo janitrayaḥ | ūrdhva-rasānādadate prajābhyaḥ sarvān yathā satyam anityatā ca ||
婆羅門は言った。「そこには七人の女が住み、慎みのゆえに常に顔を伏せている。彼女らは覚知の光に輝き、万有の母である。その『森』に住む衆生から、あらゆる最上の精髄を汲み上げる――ちょうど無常が、その仕方において、真実を捉えるように。」
ब्राह्मण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses an allegory of “seven women” who draw out the ‘essence’ of beings to point toward a metaphysical truth: all embodied life is subject to extraction, change, and dissolution, and impermanence continually ‘seizes’ what we take as stable. Ethically, it urges detachment and discernment—recognizing the transient nature of worldly enjoyments while seeking what is truly real (satya).
A brāhmaṇa speaker describes a symbolic scene: seven radiant, mother-like figures dwell in a certain place (likened to a forest) and draw upward the finest ‘juices’ from the beings there. The description is not merely literal; it frames a philosophical explanation about how life’s essences are taken up by higher principles and how impermanence relates to truth.