Akṣa-hṛdaya

Translation:

Behold this great vibhītaka tree, a mass of branches and twigs: here one does not count every leaf, for many are beyond sight. Just as one who applies the śāstra-fixed rule for inferring parts from the whole understands everything, so in the sum of what is to be known, success comes even from grasping a small particle — do not be deluded.

Translation:

This does not run on fortune alone, nor is it sheer chance; O Naiṣadha, see the law inherent in this array. As in one blink I count leaves here in crores, so too the art of possible outcomes in the heart of dice must be understood — do not wander in confusion.

Translation:

What arises by the kākatālīya maxim is surely false appearance; ever apart from random drift, keep perception clear. What mean arises from combining many outcomes — that alone is truth; know it, O Nala, and do not fall into the well of error.

Translation:

As the black swan rises unforeseen when delusion ends, so dread events in the world ever operate beyond (mere) wit. The wise apportion limits and stake a small share of their store, so gain may exceed the stake without ruin in every way.

Translation:

As fate’s own ordinance is fixed — there is neither doubt nor fickleness. Knowing the highest secret of probability, master the dice that last but a moment.

Translation:

Those praised in endless worlds are lucky, not truthful. He who measures the nature of time — he alone among mortals becomes Kubera.

Translation:

Just as the rule of play is taught as weighty and skilled for growing one’s purse, so in dharma and in wealth the precepts of guarding bounds bear fruit.

Translation:

The probable is taught as twofold, by distinction of heaps in time: know one as individual, the other as spread through all the world.

Translation:

Whoever fails to know this distinction stumbles at every step; for this world, moving and still, mingles truth and untruth.

Translation:

See the counting of vibhītaka leaves as it truly is; then I shall speak of the fall of the black swan (the illusion of the unseen).

Translation:

Knowledge of the heart of dice is reckoned the highest reckoning; where delusion wanes, success endures.

Translation:

He who treats measured exit from play as equal in gain and loss, and in sudden ill outcome stands firm — for him alone winning awareness ever holds; to you, king of mathematical soul, I give this.

Translation:

By sāṅkhya’s expansion, divide into rows as Piṅgala once fixed for metre — void, twofold nature, duality mixed: so the whole world appears in the round of probability.

Translation:

Across myriad worlds, now a dentist is seen as lord of lakhs, now a beggar on the road — birth is not from deed-skill nor mere prowess; one is lifted only in the stream of chance.

Translation:

So never burn your all, O king, in ruin’s fire; stay within play’s rule, guarding a share of wealth. The vibhītaka is witness, pointing the path of reckoning; by this heart-of-dice teaching, cast off Kali’s trouble.

Translation:

In the void, things dissolve into voidness; in the real, truth stands firm. In this stream of probability, knowledge is likened to a boat.

Translation:

No one knows the future as such; yet by intelligence alone one draws the boundary (of what can be said).

Translation:

Thus the hidden summit of reckoning is told. Gaze at the vibhītaka tree; train skill in counting.

Translation:

As dawn’s sun scatters night, O Nala, so with knowledge’s rays shatter delusion, O king. When dice and the mingled cup run high, clear reason will — without doubt — yield realm and fame that does not fade.

Translation:

While the śāstra-taught mesh of counting leaf-masses is seen, so long the wise may compare worldly fortune. Nala too, bowing to that best of kings, gained supreme learning, shed Kali-born delusion, and became adept in reckoning.

Translation:

Hear, king: I give an example of how time’s repetition divides cases — where even experts in reckoning lose their way.

Translation:

Among a hundred separate casts (each player once), ninety-six successes appear in that whole cohort — the ensemble looks favorable even when individuals lose.

Translation:

But if one man here casts a hundred times, his ruin is sure — from time’s wheel turning.

Translation:

Ensemble reckoning differs from reckoning by the count of trials in time’s flow; whoever lacks this knowledge perishes at dice.

Translation:

Reflecting on what must be for all beings, one who knows the heart of dice never comes to grief.

Translation:

If you want your purse to grow, do not stake everything on ruin’s ground; as splendor swells by proportion, so sorrow swells from the season of loss.

Translation:

Split the gain-fraction, steady soul, and match stake to principal; as numbers grow by least steps, so apportion your shares.

Translation:

Ever shy of the ruin-point, while you live you will harvest fruit; so the vigilant guard core wealth, free of calamity.

Translation:

Who teaches without staking his own hide — his counsel is not truth-rooted; know this as reckoning’s ethic.

Translation:

Who plays house yet pays no forfeit of flesh and blood — heed him not; without disaster touching his own life-stake, he never truly shares the fruit.

Translation:

On chance’s open stage, someone reaches fortune’s peak; though weak in judgment, the crowd, by luck’s bond, counts him among the wise.

Translation:

This is human nature’s folly — calling success the fruit of one’s own act, while charging every loss to fate, and standing blameless oneself.

Translation:

Where the black swan’s fall was never seen before, ruin’s odds are vast; so do not reckon by past clocks on sights that leave evidence’s road.

Translation:

Even in long-tail spread, the null fall ever sleeps; whoever wakes guarding wealth — he alone reaches the far shore of becoming’s sea.

Translation:

Knowing thus the heart of dice, O Nala, quit sorrow; return to enjoy your realm. Fierce ruinous Kali is not there where intellect bows to sāṅkhya’s rule.

Translation:

So spoke Ṛtuparṇa and gave Nala, true in valor, the science named heart of dice.

Translation:

Receiving it, King Nala, freed of Kali’s taint, by reckoning’s power cast off dice-delusion.

Translation:

Knowledge is the highest eye, knowledge the highest strength; by full grasp of probability, all is held in the palm.

Translation:

Whoever hears daily this dialogue of the two kings, rich in mathematical truth — overcomes every strait.

Translation:

Thus, best of kings, I have told sāṅkhya’s secret; by dice-science strike foes through your own deed.

Translation:

When doubt rises in mind from endless things, reckoning minds still measure it. Truth has its bound; beyond lies void veiled as illusion — all indicated being is knowledge’s seed.

Translation:

The dual alternative-web the Pingalas showed — that same form is nature’s breath in all calculus; one, void, and the letter-pair build the whole; so gaming’s order dwells within it too.

Translation:

In this random stream a firm law runs; though unseen, to the learned it flashes clear in an instant.

Translation:

Therefore rise, king; drop vain grief; armed with this learning, rule without thorn.

Translation:

Strike Puṣkara in war, skilled at dice; before one who knows probability his strength is nothing.

Translation:

Who holds this dice-thread inwardly — neither Kali harms him nor gambling’s defeat.

Translation:

This whole essence I have sung; by thought and steady meditation realize it, lord of men.

Translation:

The knowledge won beneath the vibhītaka — that will be your life’s foundation.

Translation:

Homage to reckoning wherein the world rests; homage to wisdom’s form, to knowing probability.

Translation:

Thus the highest secret is told; do as your heart wills, upheld by dice-science’s strength.