Bhashya
सा एवमुक्ता ह उवाच— यत् यदि, ‘नु’ इति वितर्के,मे मम इयं पृथिवी, भगोः भगवन्, सर्वा सागरपरिक्षिप्तावित्तेन धनेन पूर्णा स्यात् ; कथम्? न कथंचनेत्याक्षेपार्थः,प्रश्नार्थो वा, तेन पृथिवीपूर्णवित्तसाध्येन कर्मणा अग्निहोत्रा-दिना-अमृता किं स्यामिति व्यवहितेन संबन्धः ।प्रत्युवाचयाज्ञवल्क्यः—कथमिति यद्याक्षेपार्थम्, अनुमोदनम्-नेतिहोवाच याज्ञवल्क्य इति ; प्रश्नश्चेत् प्रतिवचनार्थम्; नैवस्याः अमृता, किं तर्हि यथैव लोके उपकरणवतां साधन-वतां जीवितं सुखोपायभोगसंपन्नम्, तथैव तद्वदेव तवजीवितं स्यात्; अमृतत्वस्य तु न आशा मनसापि अस्तिवित्तेन वित्तसाध्येन कर्मणेति ॥
In plain words
So addressed, Maitreyī spoke — and Śaṅkara walks through her words one by one: "if," "pray," "mine," "this earth," "sir," meaning "all of it, ringed by the ocean," "full of wealth" — of riches. "How?" can mean two things: an outright "no chance," or a real question. Either way she is asking: through a rite bought with all that wealth — an Agnihotra and the like — would I become immortal? Yājñavalkya answers: if she meant it as an objection, his "no" simply agrees with her. If she meant it as a real question, his "no" is the answer itself: you would certainly not become immortal. What would happen instead? Exactly what happens to anyone with means — a comfortable life, full of the pleasures money buys. Yours would be no different. But immortality — wealth cannot buy that, not even as a hope you quietly hold in your mind.
Close to the Sanskrit
She, thus addressed, spoke: "yat" — [glossed as] "if"; "nu" — in the sense of deliberation; "me" — [glossed as] "mama, my"; "this earth"; "bhagoḥ" — [glossed as] "O venerable sir"; "all" — surrounded by the ocean; "with vittena" — [glossed as] "with riches"; "were full"; "how?" — this has the sense of an objection meaning "not at all," or else the sense of a question; "by that" — by that rite, such as the Agnihotra, accomplishable by wealth filling the earth — "would I be immortal?" — this is the construction, with intervening words. Yājñavalkya replied: if "how" has the sense of an objection, then [his] "no" is an agreement; "no," thus said Yājñavalkya. But if it is a question, then it has the sense of a direct answer: "you would surely not be immortal; what then? Just as, in the world, the life of those who possess means is endowed with the resources and enjoyments of comfort, so exactly, just like that, your life would be. But of immortality there is no hope, even in the mind, through wealth, through a rite accomplishable by wealth."