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ANUGITA
CHAPTER XXX
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Brahman said :
The wheel of life 1 moves on; a wheel of which the spoke is the understanding, of which the pole 2 is the mind, of which the bonds are the group of the senses, of which the outer rim 3 is the five great elements, of which the environment is home 4; which abounds in old age and grief, which moves in the midst of disease and misfortune, which rotates in 5 space and time; the noise of which is trouble and toil, the rotations 6 of which (constitute) day and night; which is encircled with cold. and heat of which pleasure and pain are the joints, and hunger and thirst the nails fixed into it, of which sunshine and shade are the ruts; which staggers in the opening or closing of an eyelid, which is enveloped in the fearful waters of delusion, which is ever revolving and void of consciousness 7, which is measured by months and half months, is ever-changing 8, which moves through (all) the worlds 9; the mud 10 for which is penance and regulations.
Footnotes :
1. Literally, time; it seems, however, to stand for the vicissitudes of worldly life. Cf. Svetasvatara. The body is called 'wheel of time' at supra, but Arguna Misra there says 'it is the wheel which causes the rotation of the wheel of time.'
2. The cause of its being large in dimensions, Arguna Misra; the supporting pillar, Nilakantha. I prefer the former, and take the sense to be that worldly life is co-extensive with the operations or 'fancies' of the mind.
3. What is outside the elements, the physical manifestations of Prakriti, is beyond the domain of worldly life.
4. The possession of 'home' is equivalent to a dwelling in the midst of worldly life. Hence the idea of homelessness at inter alia Gita.
5. This means, I presume, that worldly life is conditioned, so to say, by space and time. See supra.
6. I. e. the cause of the rotation, Nilakantha.
7. I. e. unintelligent.
8. Now takes the form of a man, now of an animal, and then of some other thing, Nilakantha. I think, however, that the meaning is, that it is not alike to all; different persons are in different states in this world.
9. Arguna Misra says this means that it is the cause of the movements in all the worlds. That is the sense I extract from his words, which are not quite clear, lokanam samkarane hetus. The rendering in the text follows Nilakantha.
10. I. e., I presume, that which retards the revolutions of the 'wheel.' Instead of 'penance,' Nilakantha's reading is 'the, quality of darkness.'
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