SAUNDARANANDA 13.40: Unsatisfactory End-gaining

viShayair indriya-graamo
na tRptim adhigacchati
ajasraM puuryamaaNo 'pi
samudraH salilair iva

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13.40
A cluster of sense organs

Is no more sated by objects

Than, though constantly filled,

The ocean is by water.

COMMENT:
What is the secret of a successful marriage? A sexy cook willing to cater to a man's every need? Well, yes, I must admit that helps. But more fundamentally the secret might have to do with keeping expectations of each other reasonably low -- what old couples often call "give and take."

This verse, as I read it, relates to the Buddha's final teaching that true contentment is derived from alpecchu (alpa = small; icchu = wishing, desiring), or in other words not expecting too much.

Bringing it down to the level of breakfast, unconsciously I am liable to think that a satisfying breakfast would be a rather big one, consisting of fruit and cereal, boiled eggs, and maybe pancakes washed down with a big pot of coffee... But the Buddha's teaching, challenging my unconsciousness every step of the way, is that any satisfaction to be derived from eating breakfast will derive primarily not from the objects of my appetite but from any modesty and restraint that I manage to bring to the exercise.

Again, on a level less obvious than food and sex, but on a more general and pervasive level, vishaya in this verse may be taken to represent not only physical objects but also objects as ends or aims -- like getting to the end of translating a great Sanskrit poem, or getting to the far end of a swimming pool.

There always seems to be a lot to learn about end-gaining from the activity of learning to swim, where fear is liable to play such an important part. If the nervous beginner, in her fear, adopts the attitude of desiring to get to the side of the pool at all costs, regardless of how much she splashes and strains on the way, even if she manages to get to the side of the pool without drowning, it won't have been a satisfactory experience.

If my brother reads this, maybe he could add a comment with a link to give people a clue as to what it means to swim without the stress induced by end-gaining.

As in swimming, so too in sitting: In the end, if a great ambition to let the Buddha's truth be heard were to cause the ambitious person in question to lose his own integrity as a human being, what would be the point of that?

EH Johnston:
The domain of the senses can no more be filled to satisfaction with their objects, though perpetually supplied with them, than can the ocean with the water ever flowing into it.

Linda Covill:
The village of the senses never has enough of sensory experience, just as the ocean, though rivers perpetually fill it, never has enough water.

VOCABULARY:
viShayaiH (instrumental, plural): by the objects of the senses
indriya: sense, sense power, sense organ
graamaH (nom. sg.): m. an inhabited place, village, hamlet; ifc. a multitude, class, collection or number
indriya-graama: m. the assemblage of the organs ; the senses or organs of sense collectively

na: not
tRptim (accusative): f. satisfaction , contentment
adhigacchati: it obtains

ajasram: ind. perpetually , for ever , ever
puuryamaaNaH (nom. sg. pres. part. of gerundive of pRR, to fill, sate, refresh, grant abundantly): being filled with
api: though

samudraH (nom.): " gathering together of waters " , the sea , ocean
salilaiH (instrumental, plural): by the waters
iva: like