छायाप्रत्याह्वयाभासा ह्यसन्तोऽप्यर्थकारिण: । एवं देहादयो भावा यच्छन्त्यामृत्युतो भयम् ॥ ५ ॥
chāyā-pratyāhvayābhāsā hy asanto ’py artha-kāriṇaḥ evaṁ dehādayo bhāvā yacchanty ā-mṛtyuto bhayam
- chāyā
- shadows
- pratyāhvaya
- echoes
- ābhāsāḥ
- and false appearances
- hi
- indeed
- asantaḥ
- nonexistent
- api
- although
- artha
- ideas
- kāriṇaḥ
- creating
- evam
- in the same way
- deha-ādayaḥ
- the body and so on
- bhāvāḥ
- material conceptions
- yacchanti
- they give
- ā-mṛtyutaḥ
- up to the point of death
- bhayam
- fear
Although shadows, echoes and mirages are only illusory reflections of real things, such reflections do cause a semblance of meaningful or comprehensible perception. In the same way, although the identification of the conditioned soul with the material body, mind and ego is illusory, this identification generates fear within him even up to the moment of death.