SAUNDARANANDA 11.41: Unprofitable Enjoyment

tasya bhuktavataH svarge
viShayaan uttamaan api
bhraShTasy' aartasya duHkhena
kim aasvaadaH karoti saH

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11.41
Having enjoyed in heaven

The utmost sensual objects,

He falls back, beset by suffering:

What has the enjoyment done for him?


COMMENT:
What Ananda is describing here is not a fall from grace that has resulted from the tasting of forbidden fruit. Ananda is not saying that enjoyment of the acme of sensuality is the cause of the backslider's backsliding. It is not sensual enjoyment that causes the backslider to fall from heaven; rather, the backslider falls from heaven when his residual good runs out.

So in this verse as I read it Ananda is not telling Nanda that sensuality is originally sinful. He is rather suggesting that the enjoyment of sensuality, for one who aspires to get off the samsaric merry-go-round, is useless, not advantageous, a waste of time.

What eventually causes Ananda to spring free from samsara and attain the state of the anaagaamin, the one not subject to returning, is neither sensual enjoyment nor the denial of sensual enjoyment. What eventually causes Ananda to spring free is neither viShayaan buktavat, having enjoyed sensual objects, nor tapas, asceticism. What eventually causes Ananda to spring free from samsara and attain the state of the anaagaamin, Ashvagosha tells us in 17.41, is yoga, practice.

If I am a fraud I am a fraud because of preaching practice for the sake of practice while concealing in my heart some end-gaining agenda. That seems to be what I am up to much of the time.



EH Johnston:
After enjoying even the choicest pleasures in Paradise, he falls and is grievously afflicted. In what way has that enjoyment advantaged him?

Linda Covill:
He falls, visited by sorrow, after enjoying in heaven the most appetizing sense objects -- and how does that gratification help him?

VOCABULARY:
tasya (gen. sg. m.): him, that [backslider]
bhuktavataH = gen. sg. m. past active participle bhuj: to enjoy , use , possess , (esp.) enjoy a meal ; to enjoy (carnally)
svarge (loc. sg.): in heaven

viShayaan (acc. pl.): m. sense object; anything perceptible by the senses , any object of affection or concern or attention , any special worldly object or aim or matter or business , (pl.) sensual enjoyments , sensuality
uttamaan (acc. pl. m.): mfn. uppermost, highest
api: even

bhraShTasya (gen. sg. m.): mfn. fallen , dropped , fallen down or from or off ; a backslider
aartasya (gen. sg. m.): fallen into (misfortune) , struck by calamity , afflicted , pained , disturbed ; injured ; oppressed , suffering , sick , unhappy
duHkhena (inst. sg.): n. suffering, sorrow

kim: ind. what? how? whence? wherefore? why?
aasvaadaH (nom. sg.):. m. eating with a relish , tasting , enjoying (also metaphorically); flavour , taste
ā- √ svad: to eat , consume : Caus. ā-svādayati , to taste , enjoy , eat with a relish
karoti = 3rd pers. sg. kR: to do ; to do anything for the advantage or injury of another
saH (nom. sg. m.): that, the [enjoyment]