SAUNDARANANDA 14.43: Noble Principle, Alien Mindfulness, Non-Existence, Loss

aaryo nyaayaH kutas tasya
smRtir yasya na vidyate
yasy' aryo n'aasti ca nyaayaH
pranaShTas tasya sat-pathaH

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14.43
Where is the noble principle of him

To whom mindfulness is alien?

And for whom no noble principle exists,

To him a true path has been lost.


DUST & FLUFF:

Digging it:

A noble principle might be............................ Where?
Mindfulness might be .................................. The Unknown.
No noble principle might be .......................... Non-Existence
And a true path might be ............................... Loss.


An Alexander koan:

Two students are working together in the presence of an Alexander Master. Student A attempts to direct Student B up as Student B bends his knees, so that Student B's spine continues to lengthen upward as his body moves downwards in the direction of a chair.

"Head forward and up," says Student A, as he tries with his hands to initiate a movement up into the chair -- but where forward and up truly is, Student A neither asks nor knows. What he knows is that a chair is not non-existence, and what his hands ask is only that B end up in the chair.

Student B lands on the chair with a thud.

"I lost it," says Student A.

"You lost it?" intervenes the Master, with a wry smile.

"You lost it? You never had it!"


Experience of Losing It:

Sometimes, for example sitting alone in my shed at the bottom of the garden on a quiet autumn evening, I have a sense that, as a result of knowing the noble principle of conscious inhibition of unconscious habit, and as a result of actually treading my own true path of inhibition, mindfulness is pervading my whole body.

Then shortly afterwards I fly into a rage over some minor frustration.

Where then is the noble principle?
What then is the known, and where is the unknown?
Just at that moment, whose non-existence is the principle of NO?
And is it a path of losing?
Can there be, even in losing it, a true path?
Or is it simply a case of never having had it at all?


Tentative Conclusion:

We should be so lucky as to meet a man who seems to have forgotten the noble principle, to meet a woman to whom mindfulness is always alien, and to experience under him or her what it is to lose a true path.

EH Johnston:
Where is the noble plan for him who lacks attention? And he who has not the noble plan has lost the holy Path.

Linda Covill:
Where is the noble plan of a man lacking mindfulness? And if he does not have a noble plan, then he has lost the true path.


VOCABULARY:
aaryaH (nom.): n. Aryan; behaving like an Aryan , worthy of one , honourable , respectable , noble
nyaayaH (nom. sg.): m. that into which a thing goes back i.e. an original type , standard , method , rule , (esp.) a general or universal rule , model , axiom , system , plan
kutas: where?
tasya (gen): of him

smRtiH (nom.): f. remembrance, mindfulness, etc.
yasya (gen): of who
na: not
vidyate = 3rd pers. sg. passive vid
vid (1): to know
vid (2): (originally identical with √1. vid) to find , discover , obtain , possess

yasya: of who
aryaH (nom): noble
n'aasti: there is not
ca: and
nyaayaH (nom.): basic principle, plan

pranaShTaH (nom. sg. m.): lost
tasya (gen): to him
sat-pathaH (nom.): m. a good or right way , correct or virtuous conduct , orthodox doctrine
sat: real , actual , as any one or anything ought to be , true , good , right
patha: m. a way , path , road , course