Knowledge contained in books and money given to someone for safe keeping

पुस्तकस्था तु या विद्या परहस्तगतं धनम्।

कार्यकाले समुत्पन्ने न तद् विद्या न धनम्॥

pustakasthā tu yā vidyā parahastagataṁ dhanam|

kāryakāle samutpanne na tad vidyā na dhanam||

pustakastā vidyā tadvidā eva vartate|| parahastagatam dhanampati tadvidham| yataḥ naiva tad vidya naivāpi tad dhanam samutapnne kāryakāle asmākaṁ rakṣāyai na upayuktaṁ bhavati|

 or as loan

would

never come to our help when an urgent need

for application of that knowledge

or spending that money arises..

Habitually most scholars pride themselves in possessing of large number of books..

And most people just keep whatever money they have

in the form of deposits or investments

or in the custody of others

or lend money for interest or even without interest ..

But when an emergency comes if we are to apply certain knowledge or skill, we should have already acquired that skill.. and cannot afford to read from the books and do things simultaneously..

This idea applies to our money too..

We try to keep the money safe and secure in the custody of bankers and others.

But situations are too many where only ready cash would bail us out..

This does not mean that we should not have big libraries, but then we should spend some time reading the books too..

And we should always have some ready cash for immediate spending..

word translation

या पुस्तकस्ता तु विद्या knowledge contained merely in a book

(तद्विधा एव वर्तते) just remains that way.॥

परहस्तगतम् kept in the hands of someone else

धनमपि money too

(तद्विधम्) remains that way ।

(यतः) because

नैव तद् विद्या neither that knowledge

नैवापि तद् धनम् nor that money

समुतप्न्ने कार्यकाले when urgent need or emergency arises

अस्माकं रक्षायै न उपयुक्तं भवति do not come in handy or protective for us.।