⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−
Upajāti (Kīrti)
tataḥ
śarat-toyada-pāṇḍareṣu bhūmau vimāneṣv-iva rañjiteṣu
−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−
harmyeṣu
sarvartu-sukhāśrayeṣu strīṇām-udārair-vijahāra tūryaiḥ
|| 2.29
2.29
Then, in penthouse
apartments
painted white as autumn
clouds --
Like the seven-storey
palaces of gods,
only on the earth --
And appointed for
comfort in every season,
He roamed for fun
among female players of
the finest instruments.
COMMENT:
One of those fine instruments referred to in the 4th pāda was very probably the bamboo flute, known in Japanese as the shaku-hachi – the playing of which a certain long-time follower of this blog knows a bit about.
Retreating from such
idle speculation and coming back to more solid ground, a key word in
today's verse might be bhūmau, “on the earth.”
No bloke has ever
really been to paradise, because paradise does not really exist, but
many of us have had the experience of feeling like we were in
paradise.
Before that many of us
had the experience of fantasizing what the paradise-like experience
might be like, possibly while leafing through a publication with a
title like Playboy, or Penthouse, which seemed to us to be replete
with idealized images of celestial nymphs.
But then, if we were
lucky (or so we thought), we actually got to experience what all the
fuss was about, on a bed, in a bedroom, on the upper storey of a
house, built on the earth.
In the end how was it?
Like paradise? Possibly. Either way, it was very fleeting. The paradise-like
experience, if we ever had it, was impermanent, and it soon ushered in suffering.
Thinking objectively,
the paradise-like experience is a trick that our biology plays on us,
and it invariably either ends in the passing on of our genetic
inheritance, or ends in tears. Sometimes both. Rarely neither.
In any event, the point
conveyed by bhūmau is that the young prince had plentiful
paradise-like experience down here on earth – not with celestial
nymphs up in heavenly towers, and not only in his dreams, but with
real women, on planet earth, in a palace with south-facing apartments
furnished with heating facilities to keep rooms warm when it was cold
outside, with north-facing apartments with cooling facilities to keep
rooms cool when it was hot outside, with balconies from which to
admire winter changing to spring and summer changing to autumn, et
cetera.
Digging deeper bhūmau, into the
earth, it makes no difference to the earth whether a royal palace is
built on it so that female virtuosos can play the bamboo flute in
penthouse apartments high above it, or whether an enlightened buddha
on his transcendent way lightly treads upon it. Whether it is shat
upon by a dog, or sat upon by a buddha, the earth does not mind at
all – and this is a fact that, as an antidote to being too much of
a fusspot, a big girl's blouse, a moaning minnie, might usefully be
meditated upon.
“Roamed for fun,”
incidentally is vijahāra, from the root vi-√hṛ, from which is
also derived the vihāra (“exploring”) of the canto title, as
discussed yesterday.
In terms of the mining
metaphor, exploration can be seen as a stage preparatory to the more
rigorous work of mining, so that exploration is a cause whose effect
is mining. Alternatively, mining, including exploration, can be seen
as a cause whose effect is abundant gold, wrought and unwrought, in
jewellery and in bullion.
Either way, the
exploring and mining are done not in heaven but on the earth and
in the earth – bhūmau.
VOCABULARY
tataḥ: ind. then, on
that basis
śarat-toyada-pāṇḍareṣu
(loc. pl.): white as autumn clouds
śarad: f. autumn (as
the " time of ripening ") , the autumnal season (the sultry
season of two months succeeding the rains ; in some parts of India
comprising the months bhādra and āśvina , in other places āśvina
and kārttika , fluctuating thus from August to November)
toya-da: m. "
water-giver " , a rain-cloud
pāṇḍara: mfn.
whitish-yellow , pale , white
bhūmau (loc. sg.): f.
the earth , soil , ground
vimāneṣu (loc. pl.):
m. n. a car or chariot of the gods , any mythical self-moving aerial
car (sometimes serving as a seat or throne , sometimes self-moving
and carrying its occupant through the air ; other descriptions make
the vimāna more like a house or palace , and one kind is said to be
7 stories high); m. the palace of an emperor or supreme monarch (esp.
one with 7 stories)
iva: like
rañjiteṣu (loc.
pl.): mfn. coloured , dyed , painted , tinted ; illumined ; affected
, moved , charmed , delighted
harmyeṣu (loc. pl.):
n. a large house , palace , mansion , any house or large building or
residence of a wealthy person
sarvartu-sukhāśrayeṣu
(loc. pl.): furnished with comforts for every season
sarvartu: m. every
season ; " containing all seasons " , a year
sarva: all
ṛtu: seasons
sukha: ease, pleasure,
comfort
āśraya: mfn. ifc.
depending on , resting on , endowed or furnished with
strīṇām (gen. pl.):
f. woman
udāraiḥ (inst. pl.):
mfn. high , lofty , exalted ;
vijahāra = 3rd
pers. sg. perf. vi- √ hṛ: to spend or pass (time) ; (esp.) to
walk or roam about for pleasure , divert one's self
tūryaiḥ (inst. pl.):
n. a musical instrument
迢遰若秋雲
温涼四時適
隨時擇善居
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