________________
2826
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ DECEMBER, 1928
"Thou, O Naciketas, hast meditated upon the lovely and lovely-looking pleasures and hast let them go106. Nor even hast thou accepted this chain of wealth in which many people get tied up.107 (3)
"Far away from each other, differing entirely are ignorance and that which is known as knowledge108. Naciketas seems to me desirous of knowledge; the many (sexual) pleasures do not badly hurt thee109. (4)
"Those who are living in ignorance, thinking themselves wise, believing themselves to be very learned 110, those fools run to and fro like blind men led by a blind one.111 (5).
"The great transition is unintelligible to the dull-witted, the heedless fellow befooled by the illusion of great wealth. This world exists but not the other one, thus believing he from time to time falls into my hands. (6)
"Many do not even attain to hearing him, many if they heard him would not understand him: a wonder is a clever preacher of this, (a wonder) the attainer, a wonder the knower instructed by the clever one112. (7)
“Taught by an incompetent person this onel13 remains difficult to understand, even when frequently meditated upon. And there is no way to him unless he be taught by another, for he is inconceivably more subtle than the measure of an atom. (8)
"This doctrine, which thou hast obtained, cannot be obtained by pure speculation; it is easy to understand when taught by another, O my darling. Upon my word, thou art of true perseverance ! May I not114 get another questioner like thee, 0 Naciketas ! (9)
"I for one know that the treasure (of good works) is something perishable; not by un. real things can that real one11s be obtained. Thus I built the Náciketa-fire, with perishable materials I obtained the imperishable116 (10)
106 Cf. abhidhydyan wartaratipramohdn (cf. n. 102 supra) in 1, 28 : atyasrdkih again in 2, 11.
107 The falso reading majjanti, which was adopted by Samkara, has obecured the real sense of srnka in this verse. We should read sajjanti and then everything tallies beautifully. Long after I had found this out I noticed to my great pleasure that Professor Geldner, 1.c., p. 205 n. 6, has already proposed this emendation. This seems to me all the more adinirable because Prof. Geldner is apparently in the dark us to the real meaning of spika.
108 Read probably avidyd yd yd)ca vidyeti jaid; Böhtlingk's jídte is quito unnecessary.
109 Lolupante, Mocording to Pan. iii, 1, 24, should be lolupyante, a slight alteration. But we have already observed more than once that the text is not Paninean in its grammar. I can see no obstacle to translating lolup(y)ante as I have done above, and in that case the sense fits very well.
110 Perhaps we should read panditam manyarnándh with Raghavendra
111 The variæ lectiones in Maitr. Up. vii, 9 and in Mund. Up. ii, 8 are of no value. This is perhaps the first time that we meot with the well-known andhaparampard of the Samkhya.
113 This verse seems slightly out of order, metrically as well as in meaning ; but Whitney's suggestion kusalo'nudista scarcely helps us.
1 Viz., the Atman.
114 All the translators take no to be=nah and render the words : 'may there be for us, N., & questioner like thee,' which according to my opinion entirely misses the sense of the passage. Yama nover liked to give his knowledge away: he tries as far as possible to withhold it. bata expresses astonishment or even slight anger, and no is = na , an emphatic na. Yams wishes that he may never meet another man as per nevering in his questions as Naciketas.
115 Viz., Brahman-Atman.
110 Only Professor Goldner (and poosibly Bohtlingk) has correctly attributed this verse to Yama. Whitney And Hillebrandt think of Nacikotas as the speaker, and Profemor Sieg, 1.c. p. 131, attributes it to the illusory prastar of the preceding verse. Yama, who has hitherto only given introductory phrases, now for the last time tries to make his horror be content with his knowledge of the N iketa-fire-but, as he knows himself, without success.
