[INDOLOGY] Query

[Jennifer Cover]

Dear Patrick,

Another possible Sanskrit verse – from a Kashmir source

…from Bodhasāra by Narahari (in a section on the 7 steps of knowledge in
Rāja Yoga)

athā ca vāsiṣṭhe  |
calārṇavayugacchidrakūrmagrīvāpraveśavat  |
anekajanmanāmante vivekī jāyate pumān  ||17||

Also in the work called Yogavāsiṣṭha,

17.    Just like the head of a struggling turtle
         finally surfaces into a calm
         in the midst of  innumerable turbulent waves,
         so a person finally becomes discerning after many births.

(Cover, Jennifer and Grahame (2014). Bodhasara The surprise of awareness,
Createspace, USA, p174-175)
(Narahari (1905). Bodhasāra (with a commentary by Divākara), Benares
Sanskrit series. Benares: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Book Depot, p223)

F/N (Cover p175-176)
Yogavāsiṣṭha (Nirvāṇaprakaraṇam Book 6.1 Section 126, verse 4)
(Yogavāsiṣṭha of Vālmīki 1984:1050) and Laghu Yogavāsiṣṭha
(Laghu-Yogavāsiṣṭha 6.15.14). The sense here is that it is extremely
difficult to become discerning. There are seven steps of knowledge, but
even to begin on the first step takes effort, and possibly many births. The
difficulty of a struggling turtle finally surfacing into a calm in the
midst of  innumerable turbulent waves, is a clear metaphor for the level of
difficulty. Mark Allon has found a short sūtra, for which this same
powerful image is central, in the third of six texts written on scroll 22
([recto]II. 31-56) of the Gāndhārī texts preserved in the Senior collection
of Kharoṣṭhī Buddhist manuscripts (Allon 2006).([recto]II. 31-56) of the
Gāndhārī texts preserved in the Senior collection of Kharoṣṭhī Buddhist
manuscripts (Allon 2006).

Jennifer
Sydney

On Sun, Oct 26, 2014 at 2:25 AM, Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh at umich.edu> wrote:

> I am posting the verse again, with some missing diacritics:
>
> *prayatnād yatamānas tu*
> *yogī saṃśuddha-kilbiśaḥ*
> *aneka-janma-samsiddhas*
> *tato yāti parām gatim*
>
> *Bhagavadgītā 6.45*
>
> On Sat, Oct 25, 2014 at 9:20 AM, Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh at umich.edu>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> Probably, he may have recited a verse like Bhagavadgītā 6-45:
>>
>> *prayatnād yatamanas tu*
>> *yogi saṃśuddha-kilbiśaḥ*
>> *aneka-janma-samsiddhas*
>> *tato yāti parām gatim*
>>
>> *Madhav Deshpande*
>>
>> On Sat, Oct 25, 2014 at 8:50 AM, Patrick Olivelle <jpo at uts.cc.utexas.edu>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear All:
>>>
>>> An anthropologist friend of mine recalls a Sanskrit verse or proverb
>>> told him by a Kashmiri Brahmin regarding the significance of rebirth. I
>>> could not place it, and wonder whether there is anything in the literature
>>> that strikes a bell.
>>>
>>> "A village Brahmin was holding forth to me on the virtues of rebirth,
>>> saying it takes a long, long time in this Kali Yuga to complete the good
>>> works that one can and should do. For good effect, he rounded off in
>>> Sanskrit, which I did not take down carefully, explaining in Kashmiri: "We
>>> shall have to take birth time and again, and again". Now, what must he have
>>> said?"
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>>
>>>
>>> Patrick
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> INDOLOGY mailing list
>>> INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
>>> http://listinfo.indology.info
>>>
>>
>> --
>> Madhav M. Deshpande
>> Professor of Sanskrit and Linguistics
>> Department of Asian Languages and Cultures
>> 202 South Thayer Street, Suite 6111
>> The University of Michigan
>> Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1608, USA
>>
>> ____________
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>


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