⏑−⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−¦¦⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑− Vaṁśastha
adhīram-anyāḥ
pati-śoka-mūrchitā vilocana-prasravaṇair-mukhaiḥ
striyaḥ |
⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−¦¦⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−
siṣiñcire
proṣita-candanān stanān dharā-dharāḥ
prasravaṇair-ivopalān || 8.26
8.26
Other
women, losing control, dizzied by sorrow for their lord,
[They,
as individuals who were different, not in a fixed manner,
but
as masters caused through sorrow to grow,]
Wetted
with streaming faces, whose wellsprings were eyes,
Bare
breasts bereft of sandal paste –
Like
mountains with their wellsprings wetting rocks.
COMMENT:
The
two levels of meaning, ostensible and hidden, are less readily
apparent in the 1st pāda of today's verse than they were
in yesterday's verse. This, I think, is Aśvaghoṣa's usual way; he
alerts the reader and draws us in with a relatively easy
double-entendre, and then requires us verse by verse to do gradually
more spadework. A case in point might be the series of verses in BC
Canto 4 which, like the present series, ostensibly describes the
behaviour of a group of women. That series of verses also describes
women, in the singular (anyā) or in the plural (anyāḥ), who are
other, different, odd, individual.
Thus
at the beginning of today's verse adhīram (MW: imprudent, deficient in
calm self-command, excitable, capricious) is ostensibly pejorative,
and a non-pejorative hidden meaning is not readily forthcoming. But
one clue is offered by the dictionary's “not fixed, movable.” At
the same time, the translations of EBC (having lost all
self-control), EHJ (losing self-control), and PO (losing all
self-control) can also be read as suggesting the falling away of
restraints in the sitting practice of a non-buddha who, as nature
takes over, is coming unglued, or spontaneously dropping off body and
mind.
The
compound pati-śoka-mūrchitāḥ
presents even more of a challenge. Ostensibly pati-śoka means
“sorrow / grief / anguish for [the loss of] their lord / master.”
But another way of reading pati-śoka is “a master's sorrow /
grief / anguish.” With the former, ostensible reading the
definition of murchita that fits is “fainted, stupefied.” With
the latter, hidden reading the definition that fits is “augmented,
increased, grown.”
The
above is as far as I got yesterday in preparing a comment on today's
verse. Then when I woke up this morning in the wee small hours,
earlier than I would have liked, feeling tense, with a head full of
negative thoughts, I festered for a while, not bringing my attention
back to today's verse for many minutes – at least not consciously.
But when I finally did get round to asking the question, the answer
seemed to come back loud and clear, as if straight from the horse's
mouth: a-nitya, duḥkha, an-atman.
Today's
verse, then, the message as I received it seemed to be, is pointing
to that reality which is impermanent (a-nitya) , full of suffering (duḥkha), and not of
the self (an-atman); and, equally, is reminding the afflicted reader that
observing reality to be impermanent, full of suffering, and not of
the self, is a most excellent (if not
very advanced) method of causing the tree of afflictions to shake.
Hence:
For, on those grounds, on the grounds of impermanence and emptiness, on the grounds of absence of self, and of suffering, / He, by the most excellent among mundane paths, caused the tree of afflictions to shake. // SN17.17 //
Read
in this light (which I am sure is not the only light in which to read
it), the three main elements of today's verse are (1) adhīram in the
1st pāda,
expressing impermanence; (2) śoka in the 1st
pāda, expressing suffering; and (3) the objective description in the
2nd, 3rd,
and 4th
pādas of water falling from the eyes.
Ostensibly,
then, the women described in today's verse are exhibiting grief very
differently to the women described in yesterday's verse. On the
surface, the women yesterday expressed their grief by a state of
lifeless passivity, whereas the women today are extremely
demonstrative.
But
below the surface, Aśvaghoṣa as I hear him is not describing two
groups who are different from each other. Rather he is describing true human individuals, who are different from
ordinary people and different from our ordinary human
conceptions and expectations of how a true human being ought to be.
Thus
we, in our deluded state, might suppose that the women described in
today's verse are noisily weeping and wailing, sobbing and snuffling,
and might on that basis feel sorry for them – as if they needed our
sympathy. Alternatively, the reference to breasts like rocks might
stimulate in some of us an erotic charge – those breasts, a bloke
can easily imagine, being firm as rocks, and smooth as river-rocks
polished by a waterfall.
If
so, more fool us, when we realize that our soppy pity or erotic
fantasies have been misdirected towards shaven-headed old Zen drills
who have been sitting all the time in total stillness and ease –
albeit with wet breasts – like tigers in front of their mountain
stronghold.
In
conclusion, then, I read today's verse as most probably
auto-biographical. The present Canto, antaḥpura-vilapaḥ,
“Lamenting Within the Battlements,” is ostensibly devoted to
poetic descriptions of various manifestations of grief observed
behind the walls of a royal palace. But, having been alerted by the
turning word anya (other, different, individual) to dig below the
surface of today's verse and yesterday's verse, we could not fail to
uncover something else. That something else, in my book, is a
different way of lamenting. In describing it, Aśvaghoṣa does not
mention any thoughts, does not mention any feelings, does not mention
any noisy sobbing and snuffling, and does not mention any untoward
movements. Rather, he simply describes, in a very objective way,
watering eyes.
VOCABULARY
adhīram
(acc. sg. n.): mfn. imprudent ; not fixed , movable ; confused ;
deficient in calm self-command ; excitable ; capricious
dhīra:
mfn. steady , constant , firm , resolute , brave , energetic ,
courageous , self-possessed , composed , calm , grave ; dhīram: ind.
steadily , firmly &c
anyāḥ
(nom. pl. f.): other women who were different / individual
pati-śoka-mūrchitāh
(nom. pl. f.):
pati:
m. a master , owner , possessor , lord , ruler , sovereign ; a
husband
śoka:
m. flame , glow , heat ; m. sorrow , affliction , anguish , pain ,
trouble , grief
mūrchita:
mfn. fainted , stupefied , insensible , calcined , solidified (said
of quicksilver) ; intensified , augmented, increased , grown ,
swollen (ifc. = filled or pervaded or mixed with)
murch:
to become solid , thicken , congeal , assume shape or substance or
consistency , expand , increase , grow , become or be vehement or
intense or strong ; to fill , pervade , penetrate , spread over
vilocana-prasravaṇaiḥ
(inst. pl. n.): with streaming eyes
vilocana:
mfn. distorting the eyes ; n. the eye , sight
prasravaṇa:
n. streaming or gushing forth , trickling , oozing , effusion ,
discharge
mukhaiḥ
(inst. pl.): n. faces, mouths
striyaḥ
(nom. pl.): f. women
siṣiñcire
= 3rd pers. pl. perf. (middle voice): sic: to pour out ,
discharge , emit , shed , infuse or pour into or on (loc.) ; to
scatter in small drops , sprinkle , besprinkle or moisten with
(instr.) ; to dip , soak , steep
proṣita-candanān
(acc. pl. m.): sandal being banished
proṣita:
mfn. one who has set out on a journey , absent from home , abroad ;
effaced ; set (as the sun) ; deceased, dead
pra-
√ vas: to go or sojourn abroad , leave home , depart ; to
disappear vanish , cease ; (= Caus.) to banish to (loc.)
candana:
mn. sandal (Sirium myrtifolium , either the tree , wood , or the
unctuous preparation of the wood held in high estimation as perfumes
; hence ifc. a term for anything which is the most excellent of its
kind )
stanān
(acc. pl.): m. the female breast (either human or animal) , teat ,
dug , udder
dharā-dharaḥ [Old Nepalese mansucript/EBC/EHJ] (nom. sg. m.): m. " earth-bearer " , N. of viṣṇu or
kṛṣṇa
dharā-dharāḥ
(nom. pl.): f. mountain
prasravaṇaiḥ
(inst. pl.): n. streaming or gushing forth , trickling , oozing ,
effusion , discharge ; n. a well or spring ; a cascade
iva:
like, as if
upalān
(acc. pl.): m. a rock , stone ; f. (úpalā) the upper and smaller
mill-stone (which rests on the dṛṣad)
[No
corresponding Chinese for four verses, 8.26 to 8.30]
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