Devanagari
दृष्ट: श्रम: कर्मत आत्मनो वै
भर्तुर्गन्तुर्भवतश्चानुमन्ये ।
यथासतोदानयनाद्यभावात्
समूल इष्टो व्यवहारमार्ग: ॥ २१ ॥
Verse text
dṛṣṭaḥ śramaḥ karmata ātmano vai
bhartur gantur bhavataś cānumanye
yathāsatodānayanādy-abhāvāt
samūla iṣṭo vyavahāra-mārgaḥ
Synonyms
dṛṣṭaḥ
—
it is experienced by everyone
;
śramaḥ
—
fatigue
;
karmataḥ
—
from acting in some way
;
ātmanaḥ
—
of the soul
;
vai
—
indeed
;
bhartuḥ
—
of one who is carrying the palanquin
;
gantuḥ
—
of one who is moving
;
bhavataḥ
—
of yourself
;
ca
—
and
;
anumanye
—
I guess like that
;
yathā
—
as much as
;
asatā
—
with something that is not an actual fact
;
uda
—
of water
;
ānayana
—
ādi — of the bringing and other such tasks
;
abhāvāt
—
from the absence
;
sa
—
mūlaḥ — based on evidence
;
iṣṭaḥ
—
respected
;
vyavahāra
—
mārgaḥ — phenomenon .
Translation
You have said, “I am not fatigued from labor.” Although the soul is different from the body, there is fatigue because of bodily labor, and it appears to be the fatigue of the soul. When you are carrying the palanquin, there is certainly labor for the soul. This is my conjecture. You have also said that the external behavior exhibited between the master and the servant is not factual, but although in the phenomenal world it is not factual, the products of the phenomenal world can actually affect things. That is visible and experienced. As such, even though material activities are impermanent, they cannot be said to be untrue.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
It is observed that I become fatigued from performing actions. When you carry the palanquin or move, then you experience fatigue. This is my inference. One cannot reject the conventional world. Since one cannot carry water with a false pot, one must accept the conventional, practical world.
The King thought, “I will begin questioning Kapiladeva. Having met him on the road, I will first reject his answers, and in that way discover all that I asked about him.” First Bharata said he was not tired. The King inferred as follows. You become tired by carrying a load since you are the doer. The doer becomes tired, just as I become tired when I fight. One cannot say “That this is how people speak in the world, but spiritual people do not talk in this manner” since one cannot uproot practical existence. If one says “Bring water by means of the pot” one cannot bring water using a non-existent pot. Material existence is approved (iṣṭaḥ) as real (sa-mūlaḥ). Thus by inference, the material world is real, because of real objects and real doers. What is not real does not have objects and doers. If the world is unreal, there is no pot and no one to carry the water.
Purport
This is a discussion on impersonal Māyāvāda philosophy and the practical philosophy of Vaiṣṇavas. The Māyāvāda philosophy explains this phenomenal world to be false, but Vaiṣṇava philosophers do not agree. They know that the phenomenal world is a temporary manifestation but it is not false. A dream that we see at night is certainly false, but a horrible dream certainly affects the person seeing it. The soul’s fatigue is not factual, but as long as one is immersed in the illusory bodily conception, one is affected by such false dreams. When dreaming, it is not possible to avoid the actual facts, and the conditioned soul is forced to suffer due to his dream. A waterpot is made of earth and is temporary. Actually there is no waterpot; there is simply earth. However, as long as the waterpot can contain water, we can use it in that way. It cannot be said to be absolutely false.