antaḥpura-striyo 'pṛcchad

antaḥpura-striyo 'pṛcchad

vimanā iva vediṣat

api vaḥ kuśalaṁ rāmāḥ

seśvarīṇāṁ yathā purā

O King Prācīnabarhi! Somewhat dejected, he asked the women of the household, “O women! Are you who attend my Queen in good health as previously?”

O King Prācīnabarhi (vediṣat)! Are you who accompany the Queen well? 

|| 4.26.15 ||

na tathaitarhi rocante

gṛheṣu gṛha-sampadaḥ

yadi na syād gṛhe mātā

patnī vā pati-devatā

vyaṅge ratha iva prājñaḥ

ko nāmāsīta dīnavat

Now the wealth of the house is not attractive. If there is no mother or wife in the house, what learned man would remain there? It is like a chariot without wheels.

Now (etarhi), without her, the house is not pleasing. The women of the house are the actions of the antaḥkaraṇa in their previous condition, inclined to dharma. They suddenly appeared. Seeing them, he considered “If the actions of my intelligence remain steady, destroying my present impressions of sin, they can deliver me.” Thus he asks how they are. “But you should become happy by enjoying material objects. What is the use of dharma?” The first line of the verse answers: now, the forbidden objects do not give pleasure. The mother is bhakti to Viṣṇu. The wife is intelligence endowed with dharma. Vyaṅge means without wheels.  

 

|| 4.26.16 ||

kva vartate sā lalanā

majjantaṁ vyasanārṇave

yā mām uddharate prajñāṁ

dīpayantī pade pade

Where is this woman who enlightens my intelligence, who delivers me at every step, when I am drowning in the ocean of saṁsāra?

Where is she? The actions of the intelligence (the Queen’s assistants) are not so helpful. He laments that they are not the intelligence itself.

 

|| 4.26.17 ||

rāmā ūcuḥ