Verse IV.46

From Buddha-Nature
Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse IV.46

Verse IV.46 Variations

शीतं स्वादु प्रसन्नं मृदु लघु च पयस् तत् पयोदाद् विमुक्तं
क्षारादिस्थानयोगाद् अतिबहुरसताम् एति यद्वत् पृथिव्याम्
आर्याष्टाङ्गाम्बुवर्षं सुविपुलकरुणामेघगर्भाद् विमुक्तं
सन्तानस्थानभेदाद् बहुविधरसताम् एति तद्वत् प्रजासु
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[1]
śītaṃ svādu prasannaṃ mṛdu laghu ca payas tat payodād vimuktaṃ
kṣārādisthānayogād atibahurasatām eti yadvat pṛthivyām
āryāṣṭāṅgāmbuvarṣaṃ suvipulakaruṇāmeghagarbhād vimuktaṃ
santānasthānabhedād bahuvidharasatām eti tadvat prajāsu
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[2]
ཇི་ལྟར་བསིལ་དང་ཞིམ་དང་འཇམ་པ་དང་། །ཡང་བའི་ཆུ་ནི་སྤྲིན་དེ་ལས་ཐོན་པ། །
ས་ལ་བ་ཚ་ལ་སོགས་གནས་འབྲེལ་བས། །ཤིན་ཏུ་མང་པོའི་རོར་ནི་འགྱུར་བ་བཞིན། །
དེ་བཞིན་འཕགས་པའི་ཡན་ལག་བརྒྱད་ཆུའི་ཆར། །རབ་ཡངས་བརྩེ་སྤྲིན་སྙིང་པོ་ལས་ཐོན་པ། །
འགྲོ་བའི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་གནས་ཀྱི་དབྱེ་བ་ལས། །རྣམ་པ་མང་པོའི་རོ་དང་ལྡན་པར་འགྱུར། །
Cool, sweet, clear, soft, and light is the rain that is released from clouds,
[But] it assumes a great many tastes due to coming in contact with places on earth that are full of salt and so on.
Likewise, the rainwater of the eightfold [path of the] noble ones that is released from being contained in the vast cloud of compassion
Assumes many kinds of tastes due to the differences in the places that are the mind streams of beings.
Fraîche, agréable, douce et légère,
L’eau qui tombe des nuages
Se charge d’un grand nombre de saveurs,
Comme le salé, au contact de la terre. (IV, 48)


De même, la pluie de l’octuple sentier des êtres sublimes
Qui jaillit des immenses nuées de la compassion
Aura autant de goûts différents
Qu’il y a de formes d’esprit chez les êtres.

RGVV Commentary on Verse IV.46

།སྣོད་རྣམས་སྣ་ཚོགས་ཉིད་ལས་ནི། །ཇི་ལྟར་{br}བསིལ་ཞིང་མངར་དང་འཇམ་པ་དང་། །ཡང་བའི་ཆུ་ནི་སྤྲིན་དེ་ལས་འཐོན་པ། །ས་ལ་བ་ཚ་ལ་སོགས་གནས་འབྲེལ་བས། །ཤིན་ཏུ་མང་པོའི་རོར་ནི་འགྱུར་བ་བཞིན། །དེ་བཞིན་འཕགས་པའི་ཡན་ལག་བརྒྱད་ཆུའི་ཆར། །རབ་ཡངས་བརྩེ་སྤྲིན་སྙིང་པོ་ལས་འཐོན་པ། །

འགྲོ་བའི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་གནས་ཀྱི་དབྱེ་བ་ལས། །རྣམ་པ་མང་པོའི་རོ་དང་ལྡན་པར་འགྱུར།

Other English translations[edit]

Obermiller (1931) [5]
Cool, sweet, soft, and light
Is the water descending from the clouds,
But having touched on earth such places
That are filled with salt and the like,
It becomes possessed of many different tastes.
Similar is the rain of the Doctrine
Concerning the eightfold Path of the Saint;
Abundant, it issues from the clouds of mercy,
But, owing to its repositories, the hearts cf the living beings,
It subsequently assumes a variety of forms.
Takasaki (1966) [6]
Cool, sweet, clear, soft, and light
Is the rain descending from the cloud,
But having touched on earth the places filled with salt, etc.,
Becomes of tastes of much variety;
Similar is the rain of the 8-fold Holy Path,
Descending from the cloud, the womb abundant with Compassion,
But, owing to the variety of conditions of individuals,
It assumes many kinds of taste in the living beings.
Fuchs (2000) [7]
Water that is cool, delicious, soft,
and light when it falls from the clouds
acquires on earth very many tastes
by touching salty and other grounds.
When the waters of the noble eightfold [path]
rain from the heart of the vast cloud of love,
they will also acquire many kinds of tastes
by the different grounds of beings' make-up.

Textual sources[edit]

Commentaries on this verse[edit]

Academic notes[edit]

  1. Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input
  2. Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input
  3. Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014.
  4. DP "as for the variety of the vessels" (snood rnams sna tshogs nyid la [text: las] ni).
  5. Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.
  6. Takasaki, Jikido. A Study on the Ratnagotravibhāga (Uttaratantra): Being a Treatise on the Tathāgatagarbha Theory of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Serie Orientale Roma 33. Roma: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (ISMEO), 1966.
  7. Fuchs, Rosemarie, trans. Buddha Nature: The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra. Commentary by Jamgon Kongtrul and explanations by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso. Ithaca, N. Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 2000.