visasmaara priyaaM bhaaryaam
apsaro-darshanaad yathaa
tath" aa-nityatay" odvignas
tatyaaj' aapsaraso 'pi saH
12.7
Just as he had forgotten his beloved wife
After seeing the apsarases,
So also,
when startled by their impermanence,
Did he put the apsarases behind him.
COMMENT:
Having been helped by the Buddha to forget a love from the past, and having been helped by Ananda to put behind him a dream of the future, Nanda is ready to engage in an activity that can only take place in the present: listening to the voice of Buddha.
What is such listening?
I do not know what it is. Sometimes I see what it is not:
It is not a doing, and not a knowing.
EH Johnston:
As on seeing the Apsarases he had forgotten his wife, so now he gave up the Apsarases also in his agitation over the impermanence of the stay with them.
Linda Covill:
Just as he had forgotten about his beloved wife when he gazed on the apsarases, so also did he forsake the apsarases, disturbed by the fact of their impermanence.
VOCABULARY:
visasmaara = perfect of vi-√smR: to forget
priya: beloved
bhaaryaam = accusative of bhaaryaa: wife
apsaras: nymphs, apsarases
darshanaad = ablative of darshana: seeing, looking at
yathaa: just as
tathaa: so, likewise
anityatayaa: = instrumental of anityataa: transient existence, impermanence
udvignaH = nominal, singular of udvigna: mfn. shuddering , starting , frightened , terrified ; sorrowful , anxious , grieving for (an absent lover)
tatyaaja = perfect of tyaj: to leave , abandon , quit
apsarasaH = ablative/genitive of apsaras: nymphs, apsarases
api: also, even
saH (nominative, singular): he
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