SAUNDARANANDA 13.25: Are We Nearly There?

tathaa priiter upaniShat
praamodyaM paramaM matam
praamodyasy' aapy a-hRllekhaH
ku-kRteShv a-kRteShu vaa

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13.25
The enjoyment is seated in a great happiness which,

Similarly, is understood to be of the highest order;

And the happiness in a freedom from furrowing the heart

Over things done badly or not done.

COMMENT:
If the following comment is polemical in tone, the tendency I am railing against is not ruffling any feather of wren or willow warbler, nor any leaf of ash or hazel, nor any blade of grass out there beyond my window in the Normandy countryside. The tendency that causes me sleeplessly to furrow my heart exists nowhere other than in my own stupid self -- in the one Marjory Barlow called "an inveterate worrier."

Neither are words like "remorse" and "conscience," as used by EHJ and LC, to blame for the sleepless night I have just passed. What is blameworthy is my own habitual reaction to those words, unless I am able to get to the bottom of that reaction and cut it out.

Anyway, here goes with the polemic:

Is the point of this verse to try to be right now, for the sake of securing for oneself a higher order of rapturous delight in the Kingdom of Heaven? Or is the point to try to be right in a more Buddhist manner, with a view to securing for oneself a higher-order happiness in a future life? Or, on the contrary, is the point to exercise what FM Alexander called "Man's Supreme Inheritance," and make a decision to stop trying to be right?

Is this verse a stimulus to get stuck in the rut of dwelling on past mistakes and failures? Or is it a stimulus to start afresh from here?

Should we bring to the reading of this verse the religious baggage of "remorse" and "conscience"? Or should we boot such baggage into the long grass, go back to bed, sleep on it, and try again?

How does one experience this freedom from furrowing the heart? Directly, by fixing one's jaw in redoubled determination that "I shall never make another mistake"? Or by some indirect means of forgetting oneself?

Now we arriving at the nub of the matter. Enough discussion of what is seated in what. Let's get down to it.

EH Johnston:
Similarly ecstasy is deemed to be based on pre-eminent cheerfulness and cheerfulness on freedom from remorse over misdeeds and omissions.

Linda Covill:
Likewise great rapture is considered the secret of joy, and the secret of rapture is a clear conscience in respect of things ill-done or undone.

VOCABULARY:
tathaa: likewise, similarly
priiter = genitive of priiti: joy
upaniShad: secret, basis

praamodyam (nom.): n. rapture , delight
parama: chief , highest , primary, most prominent; best, most excellent
mata: mfn. thought , believed , imagined , supposed , understood ; regarded or considered as

praamodyasya = genitive of praamodya: rapture
api: and
a- : (negative prefix) not, without, lack of, freedom from
hRl: in comp. for hRd: heart
likh: to scratch , scrape , furrow , tear up (the ground)
hRllekhaH (nom.): m. " heart-furrow " , anxiety of the mind , disquietude

ku-kRteShu = locative, plural of ku-kRta: mfn. badly made ; one who has acted badly
a-kRteShu = locative, plural of a-kRta: undone , not committed ; not made , uncreated ; unprepared , incomplete ; one who has done no works
vaa: or