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140
Minoru Hara
Makaranda
asāram eva nikhilam buddhvā budhā bodhane lokānugraha-peśalena manasā yatnah samādhiyatăm ||
(IS. 4634) "Enjoyments are unsteady like the breaking of billows. Life perishes in a moment. The happiness of youth lasts only a few days and love with one's beloved is unstable. Oh, wise men, having realized the whole world of transmigration as essenceless, an effort should be made for enlightenment with your mind skilled at helping people."
With the addition to this of the word sāra (essence), the phrase is endowed with a positive value, meaning "something solid or essential (sāra) in this ephemeral world of human existence." An oft-quoted passage of the Pañcatantra reads,
Ananta-pāram kila sabda-śāstram svalpaṁ tathāyur bahavaś ca vighnāḥ sāram tato grāhyam apāsya phalgu haṁsair yathā kļīram ivāmbu-madyat ||
(IS. 243)
"Verbal science is shorelessly extended), life is short and beset with many obstacles. Thus, one should grasp the essential, leaving the essenceless, as geese extract the milk out of water (mixed)."
But, the content of the word sāra here varies in accordance with the nature of the contexts in which it occurs. It is, then, an interesting task to collect the passages which contain the phrase and investigate their contexts, analysing what is meant by the word sāra in each and every context. This analysis will show what is considered by the ancient Indians to be the most valuable thing in human life, and eventually reveal some aspects of the Hindu view of life in general.
Though material will be multiplied in the course of further extensive reading in Sanskrit texts, here is presented the result of modest gleanings from classical Sanskrit literature which may encourage more competent scholars to further comprehensive and systematic studies in the future.
