SAUNDARANANDA 13.12: Aspects of Good Use

uttaano bhaava-karaNaad
vivRtash c' aapy a-guuhanaat
gupto rakShaNa-taatparyaad
a-cchidrash c' aan-avadyataH

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13.12
Expansive by reality's doing;

Open from not hiding;

Guarded because aimed at prevention;

And unbroken through freedom from fault.

COMMENT:
The subject, as I understand it, is still prayogaH kaaya-vacasoH, "use of body and voice," from the previous verse.

The first line, as I read it, relates equally to Alexander's principle of non-doing (that one cannot do an undoing but that "the right thing does itself"); and to the 2nd law of thermodynamics (that energy has an inherent tendency to spread out, unless hindered from doing so).

"Let the head out," Marjory Barlow used to say, "That's where it wants to go!"

Not hiding might include the meaning of unmasking, and of dropping off pretence. Not hiding does not mean that nothing is hidden. Things often turn out to have been hidden that we did not know we were hiding. We did not know we were hiding because the hiding was hidden. To delude oneself that nothing is hidden is not the point. The point is not to hide, even from hiding itself.

In the third line, as I read it, prevention is better than cure. To prevent a fault like anger seems constantly to require us to dig deeper than we expect to have to dig, because the roots of misuse are very deeply buried.

In the fourth line, freedom from fault might be like springing free of a traffic jam on the M40 into London by taking the A41 instead -- in which case it is not that the M40 ceases to exist.

EH Johnston:
Candid from giving expression to the feelings, open from not concealing anything, guarded from concentration on self-government and without defect from sinlessness.

Linda Covill:
upright because of the workings of your true character, open because nothing is hidden, regulated because of the focus on self-government, and without blemish because they are irreproachable.

VOCABULARY:
uttaanaH (nom.): upright
bhaava: true condition or state , truth , reality (ibc really, truly); any state of mind or body , way of thinking or feeling , sentiment , opinion , disposition , intention
karaNaad = ablative of karaNa: doing , making , effecting , causing ; n. the act of making , doing , producing , effecting ; n. the posture of an ascetic

vivRtaH (nom.): open
ca: and
api: also
a: not
guuhanaat = ablative of guuhana: n. concealing , hiding

guptaH (nom.)
rakShaNa: n. the act of guarding, watching , protecting , tending (of cattle) , preservation
taatparyaad = ablative of taatparya: aimed at ; n. devoting one's self to ; n. reference to any object (loc.) , aim , object , purpose , meaning , purport

acchidraH (nom.): unbroken, free from disconnectedness
ca: and
avadya: "not to be praised", blamable
anavadya: irreproachable , faultless ; unobjectionable
- taH: (ablative suffix)