Perhaps closing the eyes should always be on one's mind when the leader is not sarvajña and sarvavid, to keep with the Kaṭha/Muṇḍaka context. 

I prefer the verse about praśāntacittāya śamānvitāya. So I will let further responses fly by. 

Aleksandar Uskokov

Lector in Sanskrit 

South Asian Studies Council, Yale University 

203-432-1972 | aleksandar.uskokov@yale.edu 


From: Walter Slaje <walter.slaje@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 5, 2020 10:13 AM
To: Uskokov, Aleksandar <aleksandar.uskokov@yale.edu>
Cc: Roland Steiner <steiner@staff.uni-marburg.de>; Indology <indology@list.indology.info>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] A distraction from the Coronavirus
 
> Spectators can always close their eyes. 

... only to end up like the proverbial blind (yathāndhāḥ) who let themselves be guided by another blind man (andhenaiva nīyamānāḥ)? Closing one's eyes is certainly a congenial advice scholars would welcome from a scholar.


Am So., 5. Apr. 2020 um 16:15 Uhr schrieb Uskokov, Aleksandar <aleksandar.uskokov@yale.edu>:
Where svayaṃdhīrāḥ is the operative word. 

All that we say as indologists would have been said in vain in the eyes of the śruti liberationists. What better time for liberating levity than this? Spectators can always close their eyes. 

Aleksandar Uskokov

Lector in Sanskrit 

South Asian Studies Council, Yale University 

203-432-1972 | aleksandar.uskokov@yale.edu 


From: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces@list.indology.info> on behalf of Walter Slaje via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info>
Sent: Sunday, April 5, 2020 8:54 AM
To: Roland Steiner <steiner@staff.uni-marburg.de>
Cc: Indology <indology@list.indology.info>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] A distraction from the Coronavirus
 

Has not the Śruti said:

 

avidyāyām antare vartamānāḥ

svayaṃdhīrāḥ paṇḍitaṃmanyamānāḥ |

dandramyamāṇāḥ pariyanti mūḍhā

andhenaiva nīyamānā yathāndhāḥ ||


As it appears from the cascade of poetic performances to which we are exposed here as spectators, it was - alas - uttered in vain.

Am So., 5. Apr. 2020 um 15:26 Uhr schrieb Roland Steiner via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info>:


> Please excuse my awkward previous stanza! This version is now
> corrected and improved by Girish K. Jha:
>
> हा हेति भूपा मुनिपुंगवाश्च
> सर्वे विलेपुः सहभृत्यलोकाः ।
> वृथैव सीते वयमागताः स्मो
> न स्पर्शनीये तव पादपद्मे ॥

Just for the indological record (without wanting to encourage or discourage anyone here):
1. padma is also used as a masculine (examples: rāghavaś cintayitvaivam upetya caraṇau pituḥ /
haṃsaḫ padmāv iva navau jagrāha nakhakesarau
; or: adya tv atitarāṃ brahman mama bhāgyaviparyayāt /
himenevāhataḫ padmas sampanno haritaẖ kṛśaḥ
). 2. The metre in the "original" stanza is a (correct) Upajāti. Now it is a (correct) Indravajrā.

RS

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