AVG 2.11

Chapter 2 (The Seekers Joy at Self-Cognizance): Verse 11
अहो अहं नमो मह्यं विनाशो यस्य नास्ति मे ।
ब्रह्मादिस्तम्बपर्यन्तं जगन्नाशोऽपि तिष्ठतः ॥ २-११॥

PURPORT:
I remain amazed; salutations to myself!
I, who know no decrepitude,
cannot atrophy nor abate,
even if manifest reality be negated
right down to the last blade of grass.

TRANSLITERATION:
अहो अहम् नमः मह्यम् विनाशः यस्य न अस्ति मे ।
aho aham namaḥ mahyam vināśaḥ yasya na asti me ।
ब्रह्मादिस्तम्बपर्यन्तम् जगन्नाशो अपि तिष्ठतः ॥ २-११॥
brahmādistambaparyantam jagannāśo api tiṣṭhataḥ ॥ 2-11॥

MEANING:
aho (अहो)  = astonished! [as an exclamation of being pleasantly surprised at himself]
aham (अहम्) = I am
namaḥ (नमः) = salutation/adoration (related note: Namaskaram means the process of salutations. The word is Namaskara i.e. NamaH is salutations and Kara (karanam) is the process. Difference between Namaskaram and Namaste: नमस् + कृ = नमः कार = नमस्कारः नमस् denotes salutations. This is combined with the verb कृ to make the word Namaskara. The word Namaskara as a whole means “The act of bowing to someone or saluting someone”. नमस् + ते = नमस्ते Here नमस् is Combined with ते which means “to you”. So Namaste means “Salutations to you”. This is generally used when addressing someone personally.)
mahyam (मह्यम्) = to myself/for me
vināśaḥ (विनाशः) = annihilation/destruction/perdition
yasya (यस्य) = whose/of that which
na (न) = not
asti (अस्ति) = is/to be
me (मे) = my ।
brahmādistambaparyantam (ब्रह्मादिस्तम्बपर्यन्तम्) = all the way from Brahma down to a tiny clump of grass
jagannāśo (जगन्नाशो) = armageddon/apocalyptic end of the world as we know it/destruction of the world
api (अपि) = even
tiṣṭhataḥ (तिष्ठतः) = stay/abide/remain existing/remain potent ॥ 2-11॥

COMMENT:
The themes recurrent at the heart of this verse is resurgence, elimination and a form of enduring that while impermanent is nevertheless uplifting. Within these spare, beautifully rendered lines, Janaka talks about the awareness that he sees WITHIN and WITHOUT himself. Within, he finds a measure of calm acceptance of fundamental truths that offers in him an internal fortitude and confidence ("I, who know no decrepitude, cannot atrophy nor abate") with understanding an existence that is not permanent. Without, he finds that the application of such an awareness allows for the mental equipoise to comprehend the latent impermanence of all manifest matter within this universe.

I have a little back story here to accompany this particular verse that brings it home for me: In a corner of my office at work where the windows meet, I have a relatively large chunk of bedrock that once formed the understory of Manhattan. An amateur assay of the rock I had undertaken indicated that it was composed of Fordham gneiss that was deposited over 500 to 600 million years ago. The dull black surface is broken up by flecks of mica that catch the sunlight streaming in through the windows. Every once in a while, we are visited upon by the forces of erosion and I notice that tiny bits of the rock break off and collects underneath. I dutifully dust off the flecks the keep the area tidy. I reason that given enough time and enough fluctuations in temperature, air currents and sunlight (or the lack thereof), the solidity of the rock will have long gone, bit by bit breaking off ever so gradually until nothing more than dust remains. In due course, the dust will doubtless be scattered. Impermanence of manifest entities is a difficult concept to get ones head around; not because the concept itself is hard, but, because we do not want to be reminded of the same. In polite society, talk of decay and death is oftentimes taboo; sometimes, downright rude. Yet, the only absolute truth that one can certainly state about any manifest entity that we encounter is the onset of decay and the certainty of eventual dissolution into our constituent elements. If you ask me, impermanence rules the cosmos; from the change of seasons, to the slow fade of a photograph to decrepitating books to the cycle of birth and death amongst our sentients to mountain ranges eroding in response to the movement of continental plates to planets changing course; there is no real way to escape the fact that impermanence is everywhere around us. In fact it is the only certainty that we can be assured of in our relatively short stint of existence on this planet. So, of course, it reasons to ask: why is it that we never broach the subject of eventual decay, dissolution and the general importance of everything? Maybe we are hard-wired genetically to not focus on impermanence so that we may concentrate on the proliferation of our species? Maybe the thought of impermanence is stultifying in and of itself that we do not want to think about it as it might a complete let-down on our otherwise precarious mood levels? Maybe we reason that will be able to escape the perceived curse of impermanence if we do not think or talk about death? But, I find that keeping oneself close to the ideas and the concept of impermanence is not stultifying in the least and is in fact, a healthy perspective. It gives credence to the underlying reality that we are sentient on this planet for a short period of time. It further pushes the thinking that we give the best of what we have to the world in that short period of time. We also begin to understand that all of our fellow-travelers on similar short journeys with whom we are fortunate to travel also have similarly short stints. A mindset grounded on a substratum of impermanence grounds our thinking. Impermanence as a concept is not only applicable to our fellow-travelers, but also the world and the universe at large. Entropy being the greatest common leveler, even something solid as a rock that seems whole and immobile eventually weathers away. The only constant that seems to be ever-present with our waking lives is continuous change and eventual dissolution. While some might find the concept of thinking about and introducing the idea of impermanence within our daily lives dreary at best and downright depressing at worst, I find this notion liberating. It reminds me of our boundaries that are bookended and clearly bracketed; boundaries that comprise arising via association, dependent enduring and eventual cessation. It reminds me of the fact that we should treat each waking moment in as precious a manner as possible and approach each moment with the feeling that this moment is the only one we really have to call our very own as the present is all we have. I use the rock to remind myself of impermanence.
Reading these verses again, it dawns that Janaka sees the impermanence allowing for his happiness to confidently shine through.