Dnyaneshwari - Part 4

The Genius of Dnyaneshwar Dnyaneshwari Verses 68–216 Geeta Chapter 16

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Chapter 101

Fear, Fortune and Freedom

What is the source of fear? That is the question. In answer it can be said that man fears the world. Left to himself and if there was nothing else around and if a single man was the only thing in the cosmos the question of fear would perhaps not arise. But as things stand, men must encounter the world and must interact with each other. That is a price that one pays for creation and also the price for the sensations that the world offers you. The world in which man lives is both kind and cruel, a source of pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow. Man strives but is not always rewarded in a measure that he anticipates. Conflicts of interests abound, personal relationships prosper and flounder1, love is rejected, unwanted burdens are imposed, life is full of ups and downs and just as you think, all is well, despair seems to lurk around the corner.

Is there no solution to this grind?2 But before that question is answered what needs to be asked is, what is the cause of this grind?

And the answer in one word, according to Indian philosophy, is ‘duality’. Duality is a state of mind where man isolates himself from the rest, in which there is ‘me’ versus ‘he’ or ‘they’ or ‘others’, as if a battle is being fought, points are being earned or lost, as in a game or in an argument, where one man’s interests are always being weighed against someone else’s and where his share is being usurped3 for whatever reasons.

Civilizations have dealt with this predicament4 by ushering in rules or laws. They, in turn, are made through a mandate5 given by people, and a semblance6 of order appears to have been established in most civil societies. But even in a lawful society, personal problems continue to fester7. For one, all are not born equal, or similar. Nature is an epitome8 of variety man must cope with his nature, his ability and his circumstance, the three sources of his predicament, his dissatisfaction, and lastly and most importantly, fear. The question uppermost in man’s mind is what cards the world will deal to him,

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how will he manage them and what result will follow. That is the struggle which occupies man’s mind. And the most natural collateral9 of this struggle is fear. Two conditions have to be met to be divested of fear: 1) man must not isolate himself as an individual from the rest of the world. That will take care of duality. 2) Having thus eliminated his individuality and therefore his pride, he will realize that he now cannot lose nor can he win. The game is over, no battles are being fought, there are no victory stands nor consolation prizes or eliminations. Life becomes a flat walk without obstacles. All that happens is for the good, there are no competitors, only fellow passengers. There is no fear of losing your fortune, and what remains is sheer freedom. This is an exalted10 state. Dnyaneshwar takes us step by step up this ladder to the exalted state or the ideal temperament, while narrating his verses on the sixteenth chapter of the Geeta.

You must be Free from fear Of drowning There is no fear If you do not jump Into a flooded river If your food Is wholesome and pure Disease will not rear …2143 Whatever you do Do not fear Wipe out your ego’s smear11 Drive away your pride And show it the door You must know That you are the soul And not the body nor mind Know that once for all For sure And then will vanish fear Salt in water drowns Quickly and sure Water it does not fear

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Of dualism* and discrimination12 You must despair Then go forth without fear Fearlessness is a guard Of realization’s sphere …2144 * Please see second paragraph of this chapter

The flooded river in the above verse is that of personal emotions.

Wholesome food represents the clean and noble way of living. The salt that dissolves with ease is a man sublimating13 ‘his person’ in the task at hand. Duality and discrimination occur in relation to bodies and minds, not in relation to souls. When you assume and educate yourself that the soul is your essence, you do not fear as to what will happen to your body. Fearlessness therefore stands guard and secures realization for you.

The soul is your essence and you must be focused on it. All else should be secondary. Here are some verses which elaborate what the state of the mind should be Like ash cannot be doused Nor put to flame The moon is in its darkest phase Just before it shows its face Neither the summer’s dry riverbed Nor its post-monsoon spate For parted lovers love is all Unmindful of their worldly fate Whatever happens good or bad Mind in its steady state That is how with your essence You must come to mate …2145 In order that this realization is hastened, you must Mould your body To the yogic* state Or pursue (real) knowledge With great interest …2146 * This refers to yogic postures that steady your mind and to pursuing philosophical truth (not just information).

In normal circumstances, man’s greatest preoccupation is with himself. When man rises above himself, charity begins.

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Even to the enemy In adversity To offer help and sympathy Is the surest sign of charity …2147 Like a tree Offers itself free Its roots or fruits Flowers and leaves One must give Whomever needy be …2148 But in order to arrive to this state what is needed is restraint of your own emotions, passions and your needs which can border on avarice.

Sensual* pleasures Or sorrow and pain Are both in fact the same The body’s and the senses’ Favourite game Have them bound And on a chain Put your mind in an ascetic14 frame And fully have it restrained …2149 * related to your sense organs (eyes, ears, tongue, skin, nose)

Dnyaneshwar gives the example (in this connection) of how turbid water comes to be cleaned when treated with alum. The senses being the turbidity of our life in relation to our soul and how restraint and asceticism can clean the mind.

In order that one follows a certain way of life in which there are no distractions, the following verses are narrated as an explanation.

Whatever caste or whatever creed Or whatever your social state Woman or man, rich or poor Live in a hut or on a big estate Your duty don’t forget Each must offer their stake And follow one’s path straight Banish the thought of your fate

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And that you thus gave Such thoughts one must eradicate15 This then is the Yadnya state Your most reliable mate …2150 For Yadnya, the reader must refer to Chapter 43. To recapitulate briefly, yadnya is a ritual, where things are offered to a fire and are thus consigned forever, never to return. Whatever your social status, your acts must be performed, in a uniform manner with no expectations of return and this must become a way of life. This lends a certain calmness to man, away from the distracting temptations of a reward, and therefore, the ‘Yadnik’ state is a real mate.

Having said this, man is reminded that even a yadnya is an act and like any act it is entwined in the Karma principle (see Chapter 33) or the cause and effect relationship. But the effects of ‘yadnyalike acts’ are different from the day-to-day acts which are done with a material objective. Here are the verses explaining this principle You bounce a ball Not to hit the ground But to bounce it back Back in hand and around …2151 When you ‘throw’ seeds In the ground What counts is That crops will abound …2152 You take a lamp To search for things Water a tree For the fruit it brings You clean a mirror To watch your being …2153 Sacred texts You must read Because God is within Him you need …2154 The crucial verse in this set is the one about cleaning a mirror to be able to see oneself. Dispassionate work cleans one’s mind and

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allows one to see one’s essence through the newly created transparency. The other interesting verse is the one about carrying light to search for things. The light here is presumably dispassionate work ethic which alone shows you in your own true light or spirit. The verse about the bouncing ball written nearly 800 years ago is intriguing. Rubber was marketed as balls much later. But one must not go into these details and should rather look at the beauty of the verse. Nobody wants to punish the ground with a ball. The aim of bouncing it back is to control this act and it is probably suggested in this verse that the nature of your karma rebounds back on you and that is why it is important that you do karma in a certain manner.

The last verse, that of the sacred texts, is also revealing. The idea in reading these texts is not to gain heaven but to create a mental frame.

You need the texts to get into a certain mental state, equalled here with what we call God. Next comes penance.16 Here too the idea is not to achieve anything external but to turn inwards to find your essence. In the process you get purer in your thoughts and deeds and it appears as if you are shrinking as you let go of your material needs. Penance must also mean that it has no external residue. Here is how the verses go, beginning with an example of incense (which leaves very little trace behind).

Penance, like incense17 Burn it does But leaves no trace A plant witheres After the fruit it gave When a blot is removed Gold appears to lose some weight The moon shrinks In its reducing phase To know yourself and your true essence Shrink you must stage by stage Concentrate and contemplate18 About the soul and not the body’s cage Then dreams will fade You will wake To your essence ‌2155 The verses are arranged in a certain order, the burning of the incense has a certain religiosity, then follow verses which give

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examples of everyday experiences but towards the end, the soul and the body are mentioned as also is the familiar metaphor19 of dreams and wakefulness. The spirit is the real thing. Dreams belong to this world which like a dream comes and goes.

What follows is what Dnyaneshwar thinks is the definition of truth. Contrary to the common saying ‘truth is bitter’ or the oftrepeated expression, ‘I had to give it to him straight and hard’, Dnyaneshwar believes that truth when expressed should be a joyous experience to the receiver. The ‘bitter truth’ mentioned earlier is about the material world, for example, when a fault is pointed out in a person. The real truth transcends20 the material world, is expressed softly, and in civil language, is not personal, has to do with universal unity and has to do with emancipation21 in the true sense rather than worldly progress.

Bright is the moon But not its rays Water is soft on the eye But it can break a rock By its violent spray Truth is a sword And will pierce all doubts But when heard in words Is sweet in sound When truth is heard Ears grow mouths Brahma22 is unravelled And clears all doubts …2156 Truth is that Which cheats no one And though truth it is Hurts no one Not like the call That trappers make Nor like fire Which burns all it takes More like a mother Who scolds her child

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And then fondles it more And whose tone is mild Joy it gives And is with sweetness laced Of anger and hate There is no trace …2157 The verse which mentions the ‘trapper’s call’ needs elaboration.

In India there is a specific community which survives by trapping birds and animals. The members of this community have done this (trapping) over generations and the trapping is done by mimicking animal and bird sounds. The animals are thus enticed and when they appear from the thick brush, are caught and then sold, to be later caged or cooked for their meat. When truth is narrated sweetly it appears to strike a chord in your heart. It is counterpoised here against the trapper’s call, which produces the exact opposite effect because it is false. What follows is a description of a man who never gets angry. Anger usually comes about when what you expect does not come to materialize. It’s a reaction to a worldly circumstance and has to do with aspirations. What if you work yet do not expect?

Then anger can never follow.

Water you may pour But a stone won’t sprout When snakeskin is kicked It won’t rear its snout23 …2158 Even in the spring The sky won’t flower And ash won’t burn Even if oil is showered …2159 When life is over A man is dead Brahmadeo himself Cannot alter this fate …2160 Such is the irreversibility of this man’s state. Brahmadeo is one of the three important gods (in the Indian pantheon)24 who creates or gives birth. The rest of the verses employ inert things, stone, snakeskin, the sky (or space) and ash. The simile of the snakeskin is interesting. The spirit or the snake is now detached from its mortal

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shell, signifying that the spirit is now aloof and that the body is inert enough not to react.

The material world in which we live as also the fact that we ourselves are material create problems. What if we forsake (at least to some extent) the material world and our material nature? This is like nipping the problem in its bud.

When you give up clay A pot is not Discard a thread And cloth is lost When you remove a wall Paintings fall …2161 Reject a seed And there is no tree Dreams don’t call If you do not sleep When water is given up Waves won’t rise When wealth is forsaken Pleasures depart As pride is given up The world departs …2162 The last verse in this set is crucial. The ‘me’ and the ‘world’ and the position of ‘me’ in that world determine worldly interactions revolving mostly around individual pride. Like clay, or the seed, or a piece of thread as mentioned in the verses, when pride is given up, the world falls like the wall in the above verse. With the wall falling down the paintings also come down, the paintings being the way ‘me’ paints ‘the world’ in his mind. The simile of the seed is also apt because it is the seed of pride that sprouts ideas about the world which is not real because it is perceived differently by different people. Dreams belong to the same category.

If pride isolates man and increases his demands from the world, peace eludes him. Unless man realizes that he is a part of the world and therefore the world itself, peace will not come calling.

When what is to know And the one who knows And the knowledge that grows

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When all three go Then peace can grow …2163 An example is also given of the final flood where everything that there is, is choked with water and there is no movement. No streams, no rivers, no ponds, no waterfalls. All is one, there is no space and no perturbations.25 When this concept dawns, an entirely new perspective arises in life where man does not classify things and takes them as they are.

The sick are sick Not high or low A cow stuck in mud Neither milch26 nor fallow A drowning man Neither mean nor highbrow27 …2164 Man might sin By nature or through fate Hate him not But make him your mate …2165 Pray to god And then go to Him Sow the seeds And then visit the field Empathize with his state And then embrace him …2166 Hurt him not Nor call him names When help is sought Give him the same …2167 In these set of verses, the one about going to God after praying to him is interesting. One does not start praying after one is ushered into God’s presence (a temple or church). Prayer must be in your heart. In the same manner empathy,28 kindness, and camaraderie29 must be a way of thinking in order for you to feel one with the world at large. Genuine heartfelt kindness or mercy therefore follow.

Like the full moon’s light Is equal to all

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Help he gives To the big and small Water gets lost But trees grow tall And when it flows Each ditch fills Large or small For those who suffer He is always on call And in the joy of others He is happiest of all …2168 This man is also described by Dnyaneshwar as water for the thirsty.

The passage of this man through life is spread out for others, he is oblivious to what happens to his personal self and to top it he is not affected by the effects that his goodness brings about in others. Here are the verses that describe this state The lotus blooms With the passing of the sun The trees come to life When the spring will come But neither of them thinks Of what is done …2169 Laxmi*, the Goddess of wealth Was nothing to God Heaven and earth And the pleasures in them Are nothing at all (to this man) …2170 * Laxmi is considered as the Goddess of wealth and is married to Vishnu, the Protector of this world and an important god in the Indian pantheon.

This passage of the exalted man through life is therefore natural.

He has merged with and moulded to his environment and passes through it with ease.

The hive for the bees The fish in water Always at ease For the birds the skies

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Mother’s love In her loving eyes …2171 The cool breeze from the hills Its touch divine When you get your wish That feeling sublime30 …2172 Space to each Is a secure home And in the smallest of atoms* With ease it roams* As if home …2173 * notice the mention of space in atoms

Soft to touch Sweet to taste Fragrant smell White and chaste31 …2174 Such then, according to Dnyaneshwar is naturalness, the ability to mould and move with and in your environment, without being intrusive or aggressive and without projecting your personality. But this can happen only if you dethrone your body with its material attributes32. In a cynical33 and pessimistic34 and even repulsive description of how a man should be averse to, even ashamed of his body, Dnyaneshwar has the following verses In defeat ashamed (king) Runs from war Utterly tamed (warrior) Is what man must feel For being born Vitiligo35 on alabaster36 skin A leprous patch starkly seen To be born is like an unwelcome dirty patch on your soul To live in this world With bones and flesh To be born to die Again and again …2175

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To bathe in fluid Urine and spit Float in the womb Loose and adrift …2176 This is a description of a foetus in a womb (an unborn child) To be just the body And this fickle37 mind With only a thought For this terrible grind (of life) Not for this man One of his kind When puppets leave Their strings behind Or when the sun is set Rays are not easy to find This man has won His mercurial38 mind And his senses have retired And are left behind …2177 No fear of death Nor to enter a fire Like a woman climbing Her husband’s pyre39 Walks into oblivion With his senses retired Though with barbs and thorns This path is attired …2178 The body and the mind might be a great source of sensual pleasure but there is no denying that it can also be a seat for despair and disease. True, the human condition, according to Indian philosophy is an exalted state, superior to other living beings but if this human state is to be used as a platform for something beyond the alternating show of light and darkness (joy and sorrow) and if man must aspire for a release from this material existence, then the body and mind must be subdued and overcome. They therefore are portrayed as a warrior or a king in defeat, a patch of leprosy or vitiligo (both repulsive). Bone and flesh are mentioned by themselves without any reference to spirit or life, and a repulsive portrait of a foetus40

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floating within the womb is drawn in these verses (spit, urine, amniotic intrauterine fluid). In the verse that follows the mind is shown to be caught up in the worldly grind and then images are drawn where puppets are rid of their strings, the sun has set and its rays have disappeared, the mind is left behind and thoughts are obliterated, the sensual call of the world no more tempts and man is ready to traverse this barbed and thorny path, or to enter a fire as did women when their husbands died and were put on the pyre.

The fire and thorns and the barbed wire are mentioned because this path, without the caressing aspect of the world, is difficult to traverse.

It is on this path that his soul shines and is effulgent41.

It is in this state that the material aspect of man’s world is subdued.

All doubts are overruled Motivations are mute Achievements are subdued And rituals are eschewed42 ‌2179 Like the body wears a trillion hairs But of their presence is not aware With nonchalance43 He wears his worldly cares ‌2180 When senses run Beyond bodily gates Or illness rears As a part of fate When what he likes He does not get And what he gets He comes to hate When all these together Open their floodgates Agasti he becomes And swallows the sea Or like banks of smoke Are swallowed by the breeze Courage and fortitude Is what you see

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He stands firm and resolved In this tumultuous sea …2181 The passage through life of this man portrayed in the above verses is typical of a man who has conquered the tribulations44 of his material world. Agasti, the great sage who is mentioned in the verse is supposed to have swallowed the sea in a mythical story. The mention of the sea at the end of the verses is also apt in view of the fable of Agasti. The mind thus become pure. If according to the Indian tradition River Ganga is the purest thing in the world, then Dnyaneshwar explains that this purity of this mind is like In a pot of gold Ganga stored (her water) Using the metaphor of this river Sins are washed When the Ganga is around When it flows It nourishes the ground …2182 As in the famous mythological fable in which when Ganga the great arrived on this earth, only God Shankar was capable of receiving her on his head (such was her force). Yet she was modest, this man too is shown to be modest though he is great.

Like the Ganga blushed On Shankar’s head Greatness his He shuns it instead …2183 This man by his nature Banishes ignorance Reduces sufferance Comforts tormented souls And this world’s recurrence …2184 Now we approach the denouement45 These divine traits Is Brahma manifest If realization is king This is his estate …2185

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This divine estate Is Ganga itself Come to the sea To merge and mate …2186 This realization, a virtuous lass With a garland of flowers Of best of thoughts Comes searching for him To tie the knot …2187 And finally, the Geeta on which Dnyaneshwar is elaborating is mentioned Like a lamp With divine wicks46 The Geeta is ready and quick Eager to pray And also to light (To her husband) Whom she has picked …2188 And lastly, The Geeta is the sea And has oyster shells And these divine traits Are pearls from these shells …2189

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flounder – struggle, blunder grind – used here in the sense of the monotony of this word usurp – seize wrongfully predicament – difficult or unpleasant situation mandate – an official command by an authority semblance – superficial, outward, appearance fester – cause annoyance epitome – a person or a thing embodying a class quality collateral – side by side exalted – lofty, high, risen smear – used here as in something that was applied discrimination – distinction/differentiation sublimate – divert energy into a higher activity ascetic – a person practising severe self-discipline, denying all pleasures eradicate – root out, destroy

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penance – self-punishment for sins or guilt incense – a gum-like vegetable product burnt in a religious ritual contemplate – survey with eyes or mind metaphor – an imaginative use of word, term or phrase transcend – excel, surpass emancipation – freedom from slavery Brahma – the singularity from which the cosmos emerges snout – mouth and nose of an animal pantheon – a group of deities of a particular group perturbation – disturbance, agitation milch or fallow – those giving and not giving milk highbrow – cultured, learned empathy – a certain feeling of a mental identity camaraderie – companionship sublime – supreme, heavenly chaste – pure, virtuous, decent attribute – a quality cynical – sneering, mocking, disregarding normal standards pessimistic – gloomy vitiligo – leucoderma/a condition that reduces skin pigmentation alabaster – translucently white fickle – changeable, inconstant, unreliable mercurial – changeable, inconstant, unreliable pyre – a pile of wood on which a dead body is burnt with rituals foetus – unborn child effulgent – radiant eschew – avoid nonchalant – calm, casual, unmoved tribulation – great affliction or oppression denouement – the final portion of a novelette where the plot is resolved wick – a piece of thread, cloth etc. dipped in oil which burns as a flame in a lamp

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Dnyaneshwari Verses 217–173 Geeta Chapter 16

Chapter 102

Spiritual Destitution Revisited The Fallen Man

While the preceding chapter in this book elaborated on the qualities that raise man from his self-centered material1 being, the verses in this chapter narrate in some detail the baser2 instincts in man. In many respects this is somewhat a repetition of what has been described earlier when Dnyaneshwar narrated several scores of verses on man’s weakness for his own pride as well as his predisposition3 to desire, anger and greed and the frustration that visits him on their account (see Chapter 92, Spiritual Destitution). Here in this part of the Dnyaneshwari, only six bad qualities are picked up by Dnyaneshwar but the overall result of this narration is not vastly different from what had been described in an earlier chapter (92) in this book. The translation here is therefore somewhat curtailed. A disturbing feature of this part of the Dnyaneshwari is Dnyaneshwar’s attempt to resort to the ideas of heaven and hell and how man when he spends his life in the midst of his baser, meaner and selfish nature is consigned to hell or forced to be born as a vermin or a reptile or a wild animal. Though it is true that the Geeta hints at such a situation it would seem that Dnyaneshwar has elaborated on this here with some enthusiasm. This is contrary to all texts of the Vedanta4 or the later Upanishadic5 philosophy. But like the Geeta, the Dnyaneshwari too is not a purely philosophical document. Both are long popular songs, Dnyaneshwari even more so than the Geeta, because Dnyaneshwari is narrated in a non-classical language describing hundreds of worldly occurrences as well as popular mythology and ideas. In the translation, this diversion has been included in brief.

The verses are such that the reader should be able to make out the drift of what Dnyaneshwar has in mind. The translation is curtailed also because its original text is repetitive, includes obscure mythology and some portions have been covered in an earlier part of this book.

Dnyaneshwar begins with hypocrisy, conceit and the lengths to which a man will descend to achieve publicity.

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However great Your mother might be You cannot strip her For the public to see …2190 In an extraordinary coincidence, a popular Indian painter with a weakness for publicity recently exhibited a set of his paintings in one of which Goddess Saraswati (the goddess of language, arts and crafts, see Chapter 17) was painted in the nude. In some interesting comments that followed this exhibition, it was pointed out that the artist had done what Dnyaneshwar had predicted 800 years ago.

Goddess Saraswati is revered by most artists like a mother and this painter had used her in a sensational manner. The exhibition of those paintings was later withdrawn after some protests.

All the knowledge That the Guru gives you To air it in public Will rebound on you …2191 The body that gives you Health and life Gluttony6 will make Poison to rise …2192 The good things of life That you follow in life If you advertise Sins will arrive …2193 A fool who has just Learnt to write To the learned will show His literary might …2194 The servant who mans The horse’s stable Compares his animal To ‘Airawat’ of the fable …2195 In the Indian mythology, Indra the king of Gods, had an extraordinary horse called ‘Airawat’.

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The lizard which climbs The farmer’s fence Thinks it has come In heaven’s presence …2196 A fish in a pond Tries for the seas Or the grass on fire Licks the skies …2197 A beggar on a dole Arrogant and rude With woman and wealth Education and health The fool will turn Snobbish7 and prude8 …2198 Dnyaneshwar also describes a fool by saying that he (the fool) is so comforted on a summer day by the shadows cast by the passing clouds that he gets ready to wreck his permanent home. Or he is so enamoured by a distant mirage and the water within that he lets go of a large store of water preserved for the dry season. And further, this fallen man is so full of himself that he denies That the scriptures9 are supreme That there is a God divine That it is only the sun That really shines Or kings rule by an ancestral10 line All this is nonsense He avers11 as lies …2199 Scriptures I will poison With my king Think of treason God I can swallow Such his* perverse12 reason * that of the fallen man

This man is incapable of seeing anyone else succeeding Water crackles On heated oil

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With the rising moon The fox is foiled Daylight renders Owls blind The sun is death For the thief’s mind Poison from milk A snake will find Wealth and wisdom Will anger his mind …2200 A bright moon in the night sky is an anathema13 to the fox because it foils his sly attacks on small prey. The enmity between water and hot oil is common knowledge. That owls cannot see during the day or that the thieves work at night and that the snake converts its food into poison are also well known. The examples are given to show what wealth and wisdom in others will do to a demonic14 man.

His vision lunges Like an arrow’s head His mind is like A serpent’s bed …2201 His speech is a shower Of fiery embers15 Sharp like a saw His deeds and temper …2202 He is hard within And hard without Softness nowhere In or out …2203 Like a stone Knows not Cold or hot Day and night Are beyond A blind man’s thoughts …2204

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Fire knows not What it burns A spoon knows not What it churns The wind knows not Its twists and turns A child knows not What to eat And what to spurn16 …2205 What is good And what is not Knows he not Mixed and messy Are his thoughts Fallen in spirit That is what …2206 Having thus generally described this evil man Dnyaneshwar conjures up images of dreadful providence17 concentrated in this man.

When stars get crossed In a single sign When death is around Sickness shines Failure dogs In adverse times Those in trouble Cheats will find Bent and tired By their alarming tide …2207 Notice the combinations. Those who are in trouble in the affairs of the world are known to fall prey to charlatans18, quick fixers and cheats.

To sum up Dnyaneshwar says Even a drop of these Demonic traits For those who aspire* Will seal their fates * Those who aspire for realization of Brahma

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In an interesting analogy19, Dnyaneshwar mentions that the fire can burn only when wood is available and greater the amount of wood, the bigger appears the fire. He states that these evil traits find their home in a human body and as the body grows so do the traits.

Simply put, he says, the longer and taller the sugarcane, greater is the amount of sugar within.

Dnyaneshwar adds that these men do not have any discriminating powers.

Good or sin Are far from his mind A worm will build Its home in wood But does not leave A door behind …2208 The ‘door behind’ implies an exit route. The worm builds its cocoon and gets trapped inside. Dnyaneshwar also draws a parallel between these foolish men and careless moneylenders who give loans without any collateral20 or without any assurance that it will be returned. Dnyaneshwar adds Coal might turn Lily-white Give up meat Demons might But they refuse to see Sensible light …2209 They are like A smelly wine Never in their mind A thought sublime21 In their deed and words Scriptures won’t shine The words of elders Far from their minds To method and ethics22 Totally blind A goat will eat Whatever it finds A fire will leave Nothing behind

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The wind will wander As if blind …2210 A scorpion will not tickle But only sting An arse is an arse Will only stink …2211 The last simile is repulsive but is “on the dot” in conveying to the reader what a fallen man is and will be. This is what is added Like a chimney Belches smoke A camel has no features Of beauty remote These men nay demons With evil deeds Are fully choked And this is how they think That world has been around From immemorial times And runs according to God’s design That good and sin Heaven and hell Scriptures decide These facts They smirk23 and deride24 Ritual fires Saffron clothes Idols and faith Are a cheating device With your strength And what you earn You must rejoice If you are weak And without help Have no choice That then is A natural price If robbing the rich Gives you wealth

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That is a prize That is life If the strong eat the weak How come small fish survive Vows or not Animals breed Thievery kills not Nor mars your skin God, heaven and hell Who has seen The body will die Cannot forever live Do what you can Feel free and rejoice …2212 The above verses depict the hedonistic25 man. In a further description of these men Dnyaneshwar says Atheists26 to the core Heaven and hell Don’t matter any more When death is around Sickness takes encores27 They are bubbles and froth From filth as it is poured Crocodiles appear When fish are to be devoured Meteors28 in the skies When nations are open To mutinous29 doors …2213 A fishnet cannot Hold water Fire won’t Respect matter …2214 An elephant in heat Fed with spirit neat Stiff with pride Stiffer as age strikes Obstinacy at its height In foolish pursuits delight

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In wicked acts use their might Praise themselves to great heights And despise all That is in sight …2215 But fear and worry Lurk30 in their minds From which They have no respite Deeper than the deepest valley Is their plight31 …2216 Women are their true delight What they sing How they look And how to hold them tight Is all that is On their minds And for all this They will fight Move heaven and hell Wrong or right …2217 Like the fish First tempted Then swallow the bait And meet their death Such is their fate Desire abets desire And when desire is not met Anger and hate generate …2218 Like a royal guard by the day At night must also guard the gate And wait and wait Without any rest Such are their minds Bubbling with Desire, anger and hate And with desire unabated The world in their hands

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Gets sacked and looted Like hunters With their weapons collected Traverse and trample the forests After their prey And then with their loot And what they have hunted Feel full in their minds But are for only a moment sated32 But there is more To be looted and collected Is what is said (by them) And also on this strength I will have this world To myself And not leave anything To anyone else Or by itself Is what is said (by them) …2219 I will kill Everyone and enemy Within sight And rule With all my might I will be the source And the saviour Of every delight I am God Whatever I will do Or say or wish Will be proved right As long as I am Even time will lose Its power and might …2220 Notice the last verse where this insolent man defies the factor of time, confirmed through ages as the great leveller. Dnyaneshwar continues the evil man’s soliloquy

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Kuber, God’s treasurer Might be rich But even Vishnu, the consort Of Lakshmi the Goddess of wealth Is not as rich as me And Brahma the creator Is inferior to me In every way which I will revive if need The crafts of the witch33 And rituals will be used To enrich (me) And those who sing praises of me I will grant then Their every wish ‌2221 Dnyaneshwar then describes them in the third person Thus they speak Like the sick With ignorance They are bewitched And like dust they whirl in the sky With every kind of wish Like a bank of monsoon clouds Or waves on water rise They are filled With every perverse wish And these wishes Snare their mind And like a lotus Dragged across A bunch of spines Or a pot breaks Into smithereens34 coarse and fine Such are their Shattered minds And as night grows Darkness comes to rise Avarice claims a price And grow sins With lust, anger, hatred and greed

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And hell arrives During life (itself) Where sword-like leaves Are borne by tress Smouldering embers In heaps and hills And boiling oil Makes the seas And torture forms Neat long lines Yet they don’t show Any signs Of getting wise Rituals they wrongly surmise Are meant to extract a price In this world to thrive Like with a man A harlot35 lives Without proper vows And then imagines That she Is not a keep But his wife ‌2222 With pride they swell Like steel Or the peaks of hills They refuse to bend And imagine the rest To be like dried grass An utter waste And with their wealth Intoxicated and inebriate36 Ceremonies and loaded rituals They celebrate And in turn loot Gifts and presents From their so-called guests They are so wicked That a calf that is dead They use as bait

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And trick the cow So that milk They will get And as they consecrate37 Rituals and yadnyas* Kill animals Gesticulate38 and celebrate ‌2223 * please see Chapter 43

The night darkens Darkness paints it Further black Pride grows Insolence39 flows Indiscretion40 comes to haunt And this foolish wayward sea Crosses its mark Lust burns And anger comes to a flash A fire sprawls Like a tank of oil in this fire A wayward mind mauls41 Whatever it will call Witchcraft and magic Spread their thrall42 43 Chaste women and generous men Mendicants44 and penitents45 Great minds or the devoted kind None are spared None at all ‌2224 What follows is religion in the Middle Eastern mode, where a personal God intervenes and orders that these men may now suffer hell and damnation. The spirit of these verses completely contradicts the later Upanishadic philosophy. But throughout early human civilization, the idea that a kind all-powerful God can wreak46 havoc on men who do not follow tenets supposed to be laid down by God has been all-persuasive.

Dnyaneshwar, a strong advocate of later Upanishads is echoing human history in this part of the Dnyaneshwari.

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Here are the verses in the first person of Shrikrishna in Dnyaneshwar’s words I listen to these facts And then act Their humanness I retract In a town called torture In a garbage dump Which has no future Where even grass cannot be nurtured Snakes or scorpions I make of them Hunger becomes their Second name Of food and water I deprive them They are forced to eat Their own flesh and phlegm47 With each of their breath They pout and crane48 For eons49 they will remain the same And such is their Terrible state That even sin thinks That they are a shame Hell imagines It is better than them With their touch Even filth is stained And speech is drawn To tears and shame And thoughts will run If you speak their name ‌2225 Dnyaneshwar leaves behind the theme of personal God at this stage to reiterate the basic tenets that desire, greed and anger, the trine50 are the biggest obstacles in the realization of your spirit.

Desire, anger and greed Are the root of all sin For pain and sorrow These three Are expert divines To push a man into hell

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Conspires this trine Disasters become easy Pain becomes cheap And a man who stands In the midst of this trine Is honoured in hell As the best possible find The biggest foe Of realization and relief divine51 Those who care Must not be blinded by their shine You cannot swim With stones tied to your front and behind Or drink poison When you sit down to dine Only when the chain Is broken of this trine Can you traverse this world With joy divine ‌2226 Dnyaneshwar then gives three parallel examples. The first one is of the body, which is wrecked by phlegm, gas and bile. The second example is that of a town, which is ruined by theft, adultery and incitement and lastly he mentions the mind which is rendered desolate when it lacks a 1) spiritual background 2) is attacked by misfortunes or 3) is born with debility. Dnyaneshwar then adds that the body, or a town or the mind when rid of these three above mentioned enemies can live in peace. So can man when he overcomes desire, anger and greed. He meets good virtuous people, reads what is noble and is strengthened with a philosophy which tells him and convinces him that birth and death are insignificant events and therefore by a logical conclusion so is the perturbation52 called the world. The triad of desire, anger and greed are then vanquished53.

Dnyaneshwar then gives three traditional examples If for yourself You have any pity Read and follow Scriptures divine A devoted wife By dint of her way of life Is blessed

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In her married life Or a disciple devoted to his Guru Has spiritual experiences sublime …2227 And ends his narration by giving certain directions. He advises that man cannot but rely on God(!)-given scriptures as also the laws of governance and conduct as postulated by wise men who have preceded the present man (in this instance Arjun). Shrikrishna then tells Arjun ‘if scriptures and law forbid that you enjoy this kingdom you must discard the idea of ruling as you would discard a blade of grass and if advised by the law you should be ready to take poison even if it appears harmful to you’. It is only thus adds Shrikrishna that you can lead the world, by gathering people around you because you are fit for such leadership and to which you are destined.

All in all, the sixteenth chapter of the Geeta ends on a very traditional note. God-given scriptures are mentioned and there is emphasis on temporal law. Even the examples of a devoted Indian wife serving her husband or a disciple attached to a Guru are very worldly and smack of a certain discipline. This part is not philosophy but is redolent with customs, practices, tradition, law, order and discipline.

From here, we pass on to the seventeenth chapter of the Geeta, which is not very different in its tone though it does present some new philosophical insights.

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material – made of matter without its spiritual context base – lacking moral worth predisposition – inclined beforehand Vedanta – end of Vedic literature Upanishadic – concluding portion of the Vedic literature gluttony – excessive eating snobbish – patronizingly arrogant prude – one who has extremely proper attitude scriptures – religious law, sacred writing ancestral – belonging and from your forefathers avers – states firmly perverse – contrary to natural law or logic anathema – abhorrence, abomination demonic – of the demons, cruel, fearsome embers – red hot glowing coal spurn – avoid, to go away from, reject providence – foresight, forethought charlatan – a person falsely claiming special knowledge

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The Genius of Dnyaneshwar analogy – correspondence or partial similarity collateral – side by side, parallel sublime – lofty, high, heavenly ethics – rule of morals in human conduct smirk – sneer, affected amile deride – mock hedonistic – pleasure-based life atheist – without God as a basis encore – repeat by way of a call from an audience meteor – a small body of burning matter from outer space mutinous – rebellious lurk – linger, loiter plight – an unfortunate state sated – satisfied witch (crafts of) – the use of magic smithereens – small fragments harlot – prostitute inebriate – make drunk consecrate – make holy, sanctify, bless gesticulate – act with gestures or movements of limbs insolence – offensiveness, arrogance indiscretion – imprudence, carelessness maul – handle roughly thrall – to be a slave of a person or be under the influence of a thing chaste – pure, without any extramarital passion mendicants – living only on alms penitents – repentant sinners wreak – inflict, cause phlegm – mucous secretion from the respiratory tract crane – stretch out one’s neck to see eons – long periods of time trine – triple, threefold divine – related to God or heaven perturbation – violent disturbing motion vanquish – destroy, defeat

The Genius of Dnyaneshwar Dnyaneshwari Verses 1–327 Geeta Chapter 17

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The Clearing House

The seventeenth chapter of the Geeta in many respects is a clearing house. It is the penultimate1 chapter because the Geeta has eighteen chapters and the last, the eighteenth, is a grand summary of all the earlier chapters. It appears that there are several little things that have not been fully answered up to the seventeenth chapter, which Arjun will now raise here. The opportunity is offered at the end of the sixteenth chapter, where Shrikrishna, with some force, lays emphasis on the technique (to achieve realization) and exhorts2 Arjun to follow, as far as possible, the wisdom offered in the scriptures3 or the combined might of the religious texts. The nature of the exhortation comes indirectly in the following manner.

Though virtue or good behaviour are well known to the common man, there is a tendency in man to be tempted to sin, or to fall prey to greed in various ways in this material4 world. The sixteenth chapter of the Geeta is devoted to the demonic5 and divine qualities and the direction to rely on the established scriptures comes towards the end of the chapter. In the chapter as a whole as well, there are some oblique hints eulogizing6 the priestly (read Brahmin) class and some verses state directly what happens when customs are neglected and man does not quite fulfil the rituals that this Brahminic class ordains7. This is more like traditional religious practice rather than philosophy. Virtue might have been explained quite adroitly8 as being nearest to the non-material soul through the Geeta, but having laid this foundation, the Geeta in the sixteenth (the previous chapter) says that it (virtue) should be espoused9 and ordered by the priest or the Brahmin and is to be enforced with an element of fear.

The mention of Yadnya (see Chapters 36 and 43), the ritual fire presided over by Brahmin priests, used as a metaphor10 for a cosmic11 fire in which man gives tokens, to replicate12 his life’s sacrificial base, appears here more in its ritualistic form. There is a distinct undertone in the verses to indicate that the ritual has come to occupy great

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importance and the original metaphorical idea (Chapter 43) has been left behind. The seventeenth chapter of the Geeta and Dnyaneshwar’s verses on the chapter which are only summarized here in the present book carry the same tone as the sixteenth. Pure philosophy will return to the fore in the eighteenth chapter, but for now though some new subjects are broached, ritual is mentioned rather prominently in this (the seventeenth) chapter of the Geeta as well. The editors of the Geeta must have had their objectives, needs and compulsions.

And Dnyaneshwar, a Brahmin himself and not an overt13 social revolutionary but a compassionate, practical, intellectual and a poet at that (see Life and Times of Dnyaneshwar in the annexure) does not stray too far from the flow and tenor of the verses of the sixteenth chapter of the Geeta. Mind you, Dnyaneshwar had a mixed audience when he narrated his magnum opus.14 The proletariat15 sat at the back and the pundits16 in front. The narration on the sixteenth and seventeenth chapters divided itself equally in giving joy to both sections.

Dnyaneshwar’s introduction to the seventeenth chapter begins with an invocation17 to Ganesha (see Chapter 3) who is portrayed here as having merged in his (Dnyaneshwar’s) guru, Nivrutti.

Here is what is said Your maya18 makes The world manifest19 And of the life that follows You are the leader and the best *Sattwa, raj and tam are the gallows20 That encircle the soul, life and the rest To you then God himself prayed And had all of them saved …2228 * Please see Chapter 96

The reader is referred to Chapter 96 of this book which gives a detailed description of sattwa, raj and tam, the three qualities or tempers that accompany all living matter (Brahma or the primordial21 thing is without any attributes22 and beyond any description, not matter ,which must have certain qualities). The thrust of the verse is that maya, the unexplained magical thing allows the world to form from Brahma23. The world is a tantalizing24 and bewitching25 occurrence because of its variegation26. And this in turn is due to the three basic qualities sattwa, raj and tam, which are like the gallows around the soul itself. To man, therefore, only matter beckons and

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the soul is forgotten. And in order to become aware of the soul, a prayer is being offered to Ganesha. In fact God himself offers this prayer to Ganesha to save the world.

In the verse that follows God is put in his proper place because it is only the Guru (and not God) who gives you the wherewithal27 to deal with the situation arising out of maya.

Compared to God Heavier you are But on maya you float And so lighter by far …2229 It is from the ignorant That you turn away your face To the earnest28 and of faith You appear face to face …2230 Your blinking eyes Are narrow and small But as they blink The world forms and falls …2231 Maya is your woman You make her dance And in her delicate moving steps The world seems to prance29 …2232 When you become Someone’s kith and kin The world of maya Easily gets skimmed (And the nature of reality becomes obvious) …2233 You transcend30 All kinds of bonds That is why You are the cosmic bond …2234 That man who contemplates31 Your apparent worldly form

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Ends up losing His own identity and form …2235 To indicate that man must use the idol for contemplation to look beyond the world of matter.

But Those who aspire And desire your form You leave them far And make them forlorn32 …2236 Those who know The oneness of this world Has your hand And your word …2237 Those who will force you In their mental world In your mind Lose their worth …2238 To indicate that faith is not about force. The conversion is slow, deliberate and cannot be done as an objective or by a design or according to a plan.

Those who deny your perfection Themselves shout with imperfections When words are known to fail in your description Useless are their articulations33 …2239 Silence is your given name Futile then are words of praise Devotion may be an utter waste When the real you is such a maze34 …2240 Serve you Is what if I offer to do Then there are two Me and you Nothing to do Is what I must do

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‘Let it be’ Is what I say to you …2241 When the feeling me Has flown and gone I will get to thee In your real form …2242 Dnyaneshwar adds that by bending and bowing before Ganesha, symbolized here by the Guru, he feels fulfilled.

Like in water dissolves salt Or When a wick is lit It becomes a lamp …2243 All the verses in the introduction are not translated. For example, a verse is narrated in prose here to explain the difficulties of translation.

1) Your (Ganesh, the elephant God) ears are the motivation for the world 2) When they move, a breeze is generated 3) This breeze carries the sweet smell of secretions from your forehead into the atmosphere 4) This fragrance attracts the bumble bees to your forehead 5) These bumblebees symbolize life 6) They are bluish in colour and appear like lotuses as if you are being anointed35 with flowers 7) Then the Guru emerges 8) His name is renunciation36 (Nivrutti, happens to be the name of Dnyaneshwar’s Guru. Nivrutti in Sanskrit is renunciation) 9) When now your ears flap (here those of the Guru, not of Ganesha) wisdom dawns because the lotuses or bumblebees are thrown apart by the movement of the ears 10) Thus motivation for the worldly life falls 11) Then you Ganesha (thanks to Guru Nivrutti) appear in your bare form and man realizes the naked real truth thanks to the Guru.

There are other similar verses with flowers as motifs describing Shrikrishna, the narrator of the Geeta, these are also omitted because of extreme difficulties of translation. But soon Dnyaneshwar picks up the thread of the subject proper. As described in the introduction

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to this chapter, Arjun is going to contest Shrikrishna’s advice to stick to the laws (!) of the scriptures (religion as it exists) in order to conduct himself in a certain manner so that renunciation will follow and he can be liberated. This is how Arjun presents his case about the difficulties of following the scriptures.

Says Arjun to Shrikrishna You speak of scriptures And their rules But to study the rules Places are far and few And all your life Which may be short You will have to use To know their meaning true And to know them true You must find a Guru And on top of that Books you must own Which will give you clues All that apart Man is born With different reason and views What can then A man really do Tell me the truth For I look up only to you …2244 Arjun has indirectly clinched his argument in the above verse by presenting a cascade37 of difficulties. Arjun is however no ordinary man. Not only does he present an alternative but follows the alternative with questions that forms the subject of this chapter of the Geeta.

Says Arjun Or should I follow those Who followed the scriptures close And by their way of life To heavens easily rose …2245 To those who can see Or like a child copies a book

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The blind will tether38 And to them get hooked …2246 To suggest that the blind take help from those who can see.

The crucial question is next. When a man follows a certain way of life by copying others then what kind of a nature or temper will this man have. Here is the question What then will Happen to me In this manner If I look for thee Of what temper Will I be Sattwa, raj or tam I await the word From only thee …2247 39 This question and the answer that follows are the crux of this chapter. Shrikrishna states that man will and must act by his nature and this nature is determined by his temper. Man is born with a certain temper, admittedly a mixture of sattwa, raj and tam, of which one tends to dominate. This is an inviolable40 truth or principle. (See Chapter 96, Tempers of man.) Just by following an example of another good person the follower cannot abandon his nature entirely.

The gallows that encircle the soul (mentioned in an earlier verse) or man’s temper will determine not only his acts but his acts of faith.

From that of believing in an imperceptible (energy-filled) spirit to invoking ghosts or witches, or praying to animals—a broad spectrum of beliefs or faiths happen to man. The soul is like water. Its taste will depend on what it is mixed with.

Here are the verses narrated by Dnyaneshwar of this mixture.

Water it is That sustains life But when mixed with poison Will take your life When mixed with spices Tangy41 it is And when sugar is put Nothing but sweet The tree is known By the flower it gives

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Faith is known By the nature which weaves And nature is what Is woven in a seam …2248 These verses start with water, then comes a tree, ultimately settling down on faith according to a man’s temper. Temper or nature, it is reiterated42, does not arise ‘de novo’. It has antecedents43 like a bundle of cloth has cotton arranged in a certain pattern.

What follows is a short description of how faiths marked by different tempers appear When sattwa forms The basis of faith Heavens become Its object and aim ‘Educated’ is their state ‘Yadnya’ they undertake In the kingdom of God They have a stake …2249 Yadnya and its ritual (see Chapter 36 and 43 ) forms an important but a token feature of sacrifice that a man makes. Raj, the medium temper, with activity as its pronounced feature and pride as its consequence, is described below in relation to faith.

When faith is announced With raj as a boast Prayers are offered to Demons and ghosts …2250 Demons and ghosts are held to have unusual powers in popular beliefs.

When tam comes to lord Over the faith of a man Sins are galore And actions are hard Sacrificial deaths In sinister yards …2251

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This faith is the worst as can be seen from the last two lines of the verse. Cruelty, taking life and an association with graveyards are described in a faith dominated by tam. Dnyaneshwar then returns to the sattwa faith.

Sattwa is what Man should preserve Realization is then Safely reserved …2252 Science and scriptures He may unlearn or learn Those who follow Goodness with verve44 They are the ones You must follow and serve Then the fruit of this labour You are sure to earn …2253 A man might be a fool But when he follows the good He too is saved That is the truth …2254 The first lamp to light (or to be lit) Is the hardest of all Then the rest of the wicks45 too Glow bright and tall …2255 A house may be built With plenty of wealth But guests as well Enjoy it well …2256 A pond in a town Is water for all A cook also eats When guests come to call …2257 The latter verses which give examples of a lamp, a house, a pond and a cook are narrated to show how a repository of goodness by association serves an excellent purpose for the rest.

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The Geeta and the Dnyaneshwari now turn their attention to the ‘tam’ type of faith. Tam represents darkness, ignorance, indolence46 and indiscretion47. Here are the verses describing what comes to happen when ‘tam’ type of faith is practised.

They do not even start To learn the scriptures’ dictats48 And with those in the know Avoid contacts And at the wiser in their clan Humiliatingly clap What has been rejected Is welcomed and grasped …2258 With pride and vanity In haste they come to start Of their rituals Blood is a part To witches and ghouls49 This blood they impart Children are sacrificed For the sake of their Gods Day after day They resort to fasts …2259 They trouble themselves Torture everyone else Such deeds when sown Only grief can grow, what else? …2260 When your arms are weak And without a boat or a ship The sea will swallow you And drown you deep …2261 If a doctor is disliked And medicines are kicked Pain will overwhelm Those who are sick …2262 Out of envy and anger If you pierce your eyes

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What else can happen But you lose your sight …2263 Passion is what Decides their acts Those that can be killed Are killed without a thought And me their God They bury in the rocks …2264 This group of verses certainly depicts the effect of tam temper on man’s attitude to his faith but Dnyaneshwar also uses this opportunity to describe several heinous50 cults that existed in India during his time. Readers are reminded that violent crude religious cults have taken several lives in the modern world as well. In a small but revolting addendum Dnyaneshwar regrets that words must be used to describe this lot.

Such is this lot Not deserving of speech But the dead must be touched To be waxed and to be cleaned …2265 Hands have to be used To wipe your spit The arse must be touched To clean it of the shit Words must be used To show them as they fit …2266 Having thus dealt with raj and tam, Dnyaneshwar reiterates that it is best for man to behave in a manner which will reinforce the sattwa tendency in him. This idea of reinforcement brings us to an interesting aspect in Indian philosophy wherein it is stated that man, animal, tree, land, water or all living or non-living matter in general live in a state of symbiosis51 and therefore are interdependent. When it comes to man, his internal environment, both physical and psychological, is not separate from his external environment but they work in tandem. This is particularly applicable to what man imbibes from his surroundings. Sights, sounds, words and certainly food which man takes in, all influence his philosophy. Food is crucial in

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this respect. In an earlier part of the Geeta it is stated that man is nothing but food or food is the entire Brahma. This is not very different from the English saying ‘man is what he eats’. ‘Ayurveda’ the ancient Indian system of medicine is first a science of life and only later a science of disease and its treatment. And while dealing with life, health or disease Ayurveda lays great store by the nature of man, his tendencies, his attitudes and the nature of his diet. Food too therefore is divided into sattwa, raj and tam and it is the sattwa type of food that is advised for man to potentiate his sattwa quality.

Further, it is stated in the Geeta and the Dnyaneshwari that when the sattwa principle is reinforced, the nature of man’s charitable disposition and his actions, his work ethic and his missionary zeal (called penance and yadnya in the Geeta) too assume sattwa qualities.

For example, mercy and love are far more important in charity than the actual amount given. So also when man strives not only for self but others, his life’s mission, for example, must be to alleviate suffering and help. The idea is not to empower himself so that he can rule (raj quality) or destroy (tam quality).

Dnyaneshwar starts with the sattwa type of food after a couple of verses as an introduction.

If sattwa is what You want to nurse and create The best way to do it Is by your diet …2267 What you eat Is how you are made Liquor you take And drunk you get …2268 It is food that incites Phlegm52 or bile53 And it is food that decides Your nature and style …2269 When a vessel is heated So will the milk Your diet will determine Your wishes and will And they will decide How your mind will fill

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Your food is the basis For your nature and your ilk54 …2270 Of sattwa, raj, tam Man is made Diet too has These different shades Man’s penance and charity It is his food that shapes …2271 The word penance has been elaborated somewhat in the introduction to these verses and is to be explained further in the later part of this chapter.

Dnyaneshwar then describes the sattwa food Succulent, naturally sweet Tender and soft Not too big, nor too small Like the Guru’s words Few and far But they take you Long and far …2272 They are sweet to taste And don’t lead to waste …2273 And then come verses of the effects that they produce When sattwa food Showers within The river of life Is filled to the brim …2274 By the rising sun The day comes to grow It is by this food That sattwa comes to show …2275 Sickness is banished By the sattwa food Health comes to grow And ushers a joyous hood (over man) …2276

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Next comes the turn of raj food which is hot in more than one sense, i.e. it is overheated and spicy and pungent.

This food may not kill But is more bitter Than the bitterest pill …2277 Gone so sour over time That it burns the mouth like lime (as in the chemical) …2278 Like water is mixed to make dough In raj food salt is poured …2279 Hot is the food and full of heat As if a fire is what this man eats …2280 Chillies he chews and bites Enough for a fire to ignite …2281 Hardest of hard Food he finds So that his molars Can bang and grind …2282 Pungent to start with On top mustard to dress His mouth and nose Are a vaporous mess …2283 All this heat To the stomach it descends And the body then burns And a fire ascends …2284 Thirst cannot be slaked Water is what Is all that he takes Sickness which was asleep Now rouses and wakes

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Crawling it comes In a bunch like snakes …2285 What follows is a description of the Tam diet and here too Dnyaneshwar depicts a revolting picture. In short, what he says is Tam food is raw and uncooked Or is eaten hours after it is cooked …2286 Food that stinks or is rotten Made without caring From where it is gotten …2287 The food is dry and withered Or in which Worms are found to wriggle …2288 Dnyaneshwar, following the Geeta is now going to delve into three concepts peculiar to Indian religions and philosophy. They have been touched briefly earlier in this chapter and are called tapas, daan and yadnya in Sanskrit. This book has two whole chapters on Yadnya to which the reader may kindly refer (Chapter 36 and 43). It is however appropriate at this stage to define these three terms or rather look at their meanings. Tapas means self-denial, moral virtue, merit or a special duty as per his standing in society and is associated with meditation55 or penance.56 Yadnya in its purest sense means an occasion where sacrifices are offered to a fire in a social setting but also by implication means that man is now on offer to the cosmos of which he is a part. He is also reminding himself that his life is a collective effort of a certain clan, group or society and that by offering a token he is reminding himself of his personal obligation to a collective. Daan pronounced with a soft ‘D’ as in the word ‘the’, means, very briefly, giving, liberality and charity. The reader will notice that all the three concepts have a common thread in them, that of overcoming self (for the rest). The overcoming of self is not done in a vacuum. While its focus might be on one’s person the result is not only personal but in fact benefits society. This is a man trying to rise above himself to help his fellow man. But this happens only when tapas, yadnya and daan are done in a proper way and also according to a certain tradition. Man must not aspire or desire for himself by way of tapas, daan and yadnya as instruments. Extraordinary abilities derived from stringent tapas,

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in the hands of a demon can be a nuisance or a disaster. That is why these three social/personal acts are also classified by man’s nature under sattwa, raj and tam. The worth of a man rises by any of the three, tapas, daan or yadnya but the resulting boon that comes as a gift can become a bane in the hands of a raj or tam man. And finally, can a raj or tam man, after charity, undertake tapas (penance) or perform a yadnya? Indeed they can. There is no such thing as a pure divine person. We are surrounded or rather our soul is surrounded by matter. This matter so to speak is surrounded in turn by the universal soul (Brahma). It is in this, in a manner of speaking, that matter is formed and as we have seen, matter must have a certain temper, a mixture of sattwa, raj and tam in varying degrees. It is the attitude to tapas (penance), daan (charity) and yadnya (a token ritual to symbolize collective life) which matters.

How it matters is what the Geeta and Dnyaneshwar now describe.

Man, as he approaches a yadnya with sattwa in his mind is shown to be completely absorbed in the idea and the event. Dnyaneshwar describes the person’s mental state.

Fully with her husband A chaste wife is free The river stops to flow As it merges with the sea Water does not spread Once it nears the roots of a tree Or scriptures become silent When Brahma they come to see …2289 This mental state is the penultimate stage before the yadnya (the ultimate stage) is executed with sattwa in mind. Dnyaneshwar then describes what must be man’s attitude as he begins the yadnya.

With your real interest in mind (that of realization) Not the interests of your body and mind (those of this world) Devoid of desires of every kind Approach the yadnya of the sattwa kind …2290 The actual physical act of the yadnya is also important. But this can be done only by a technique described in the sacred texts.

You can see yourself By holding a mirror Or in the dark With the help of a lamp

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A jewel in your hand Appears quite clear Only after sunrise Roads seem to appear With the help of the scriptures Which are important here For the yadnya you prepare …2291 Going one step further, Dnyaneshwar elaborates on how the ritual should appear The arrangement Must be neat and bright Immaculate must look The yadnya’s site Like ornaments fit Just right With rewards out of mind And out of sight All invocations57 You must recite For a plant of Tulsi Your care is proper and right Without a thought For flower or fruit That in future Offer it might …2292 The Tulsi plant grows about two feet in height and is worshipped mainly by women in India. In no respect is it remarkable. It does not flower in a showy way, its fruits are not large, in fact are small and hidden and for all practical purposes appear as seeds and because of its small size, the plant does not provide any shade. Yet the plant is worshipped out of faith (for reasons hidden in ancient lore58) and is or used to be planted in the forecourt of one’s house, be it large or small. The last part of the above verse hints that the ritual of the yadnya, sanctified over time, must be done with faith. The other part of the verse explains that the procedure must be executed neatly and meticulously and the site must appear well appointed. It is not a chore59 done as a burden, in fact it is not a chore but an obligation done with enthusiasm and élan and without any expectation of a

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reward. Nor is it done with any ostentation60 or show.

The yadnya done by a raj man is quite different. It is an act done for the world, and for worldly aims and is accompanied by pomp and show. Dnyaneshwar describes this yadnya as under For this yadnya A multitude he gathers So that the world comes to know How much he matters …2293 According to Dnyaneshwar, this man says to himself Heavens I will get And respect I will earn My wishes will be met As the sacred fire burns …2294 Dnyaneshwar adds that such a man will invite the king on the day of remembrance of his father. The king’s presence ensures that the occasion commands attention, in turn people will know how important the host is and the memorial service will also be done by and by. It is in this manner that a raj yadnya is performed.

The yadnya performed by a man with a tam nature is described

by Dnyaneshwar in his characteristic brutal fashion reserved for the tam nature.

For birds, animals and beasts Where is the need for a priest Marriage vows are not needed It is just their heat A virtual sexual tryst61 …2295 The verse describes an animal-like relationship without any commitment or sanctity. To describe further the impropriety of the way in which the yadnya will be performed by way of this man’s whim and fancy, a verse is warranted Death will come when it will It does not keep to dates Fire is not known to care What it will burn or save A wind will go wherever Its flimsy mind will take …2296

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Songs in the scriptures Without rhythm or sense Rituals in sequence Are of no consequence …2297 According to the Geeta and Dnyaneshwar, in this yadnya When a priest is seen as a foe How can charity flow …2298 The fee given to the priest as a token for the duty he performs is withheld and this yadnya, because it is not done systematically, goes haywire62 When the wind comes to roar Fire will spread and grow …2299 And in the end this yadnya does no good to anyone A childless couple’s fate This faith is a useless waste …2300 Dnyaneshwar then narrates verses on penance and explains that penance as a mission in life is of three types—physical, mental, and related to the way one expresses oneself.

Of the physical penance Dnyaneshwar says He walks in the pilgrim’s wake63 Till his legs hurt and ache …2301 For the sake and care of Gods His hands get specially shod64 …2302 Like a stick when pushed Will fall In front of an idol Flat he falls …2303 For every sage and friar65 He comes to serve and care …2304 Those in turmoil Or in pain

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Soothing comfort He helps to gain …2305 To his parents Whom he thinks as Gods His life is offered Against every odd …2306 And the Guru Who wards off the world With all his strength He comes to serve His pride is burnt In every living thing Brahma is discerned And to them He bows turn by turn Charitable at every turn Women he spurns66 Even a blade of grass He does not upturn By such physical penance Truth and realization he earns …2307 Describing what effect penance will have on words and speech, Dnyaneshwar mentions that like iron without losing weight becomes gold by alchemy67 so too after a penance, words and speech acquire a sublime character and are a boon to all concerned. In an inimitable manner, such speech never exhausts a listener but only gives perpetual joy.

Alchemy will turn iron Heavy as before into gold His words People will gather to listen Without being invited or told …2308 The speech is soothing and pure Gentle and clear Full of cheer To all who come to hear …2309

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Water from a canal Helps grow a tree For the grass on its banks It is plenty and free This speech is a treat And ignorance beats A hasty retreat …2310 The ignorance is about oneself. That ignorance, where man comes to believe that he is nothing but his body and mind and neglects the idea of his soul.

Next, penance has to do with the mind, which in normal circumstances is cluttered with the phenomenal68 world and therefore influenced by it. When mental penance is undertaken what happens to the mind is described by Dnyaneshwar in multiple metaphors69, as follows Waves disappear from a lake The sky, the clouds forsake A sandal tree without snakes Full moon without a phase Nourishing food Without fear of gaining weight Sky emptied of space Light without heat The mind in its pure original state …2311 The ascetic’s70 abrasions and scars are gone The mind becomes serene and calm …2312 In the Indian lore, a sandalwood tree is home to snakes and therefore to get at its wood for its fragrance is a task fraught with danger. Here in this metaphor the sandalwood tree is safe and its wood easy to get. The snakes represent the material world. The abrasions and scars on an ascetic’s mind are the residual effects of the penance that he had undertaken. Even those scars are gone to leave the mind serene and calm. Dnyaneshwar continues to describe this post-penance person Whatever the scriptures might speak His mouth abandons speech Salt is now one with the sea

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Ideas and thoughts Come to flee …2313 Dnyaneshwar compares such a mind to a human palm where, no matter what, hair cannot grow. The idea that even scriptures must use articulatory skills to convey meaning is alien71 to the primal and final silence is alluded to in the line ‘mouth abandons speech’. The extraction of salt from seawater belongs to this phenomenal world and is reversed as in the line ‘Salt becomes one with the sea’.

In describing physical and mental penance and the effects it produces on one’s power of expression, Dnyaneshwar, in fact, has summed up the sattwa penance in the preceding verses. He therefore now describes a man’s mission in life when it is dominated by the raj quality (penance of a raj man).

He divides the world Into me and they And strives to appear great When food is served The first to run for his plate Whatever honours there might be He must grab and get He wishes the world Sings his praise And that all should visit his place Like a whore72 paints her face His deeds are false and fake Money is what is at stake His mission may give him pain But he bears the pain for future gains But nothing in fact he gains Thunder claps and rumbling sounds Empty clouds without rain …2314 What follow are tam practices, and it becomes even more clear that Dnyaneshwar is appalled by the numerous savage cults that existed in his time, because he describes some of their weird practices in detail to indicate how darkness has enveloped the reason of these uncultured groups.

Foolishness overwhelms Bodies singed with flames Brand their heads

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With acid stains Walk on fire And suffer pain Hang from a tree Upside down And noxious smoke is inhaled Hook and nails On the back are impaled73 In winter months In water cold Immerse their torso74 and frame …2315 Dnyaneshwar adds that these tortuous practices do not do any good to anyone, neither to the sufferer nor to the rest of the population and sums up to say A boulder tumbling down the hill Bodes nothing but ill …2316 The next subject is that of charity. Dnyaneshwar begins by describing the sattwa quality in charity. There are about twenty verses on the subject but more than ten of them are traditional and relate to a proper time, place and the nature of the recipient of the charity (read Brahmin or priest). But the remaining verses employ some interesting metaphors. This section begins with a verse which dictates that once you give, it must be given forever and without any expectations whatsoever. The thought that you have given and that something might in some way benefit you in the future because of what you gave is abhorrent75 to all Indian philosophical systems.

Karma, an act, deed or a transaction done for a reward or a return leads to attachment, this attachment is heavy, man gets laden and his release from this material world is thus adversely affected. Not only must you give for free but freely give. The latter expression ‘freely give’ is about the mind (mental), the former ‘give for free’ is material in its sense. The first verse mentioned earlier in the above paragraph reads as below You must give In such a way That what you give Will never come your way …2317

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And to explain the point, Dnyaneshwar says There is never any echo From the sky When the mirror is turned Images die A ball on water Bounce will not However hard you try …2318 And in what are reversed metaphors, Dnyaneshwar explains A bull sent to pasture Is not a grateful creature And an ungrateful creature With love you cannot capture …2319 That then should be the way you should look at life when you give. Not only must you not expect a return for what you offer but educate your mind with examples such as mentioned above.

The Raj type of charity is conditional or centred on self. The verses include some practices which are prevalent even today I will treat the patient He says As soon as The patient pays …2320 Guests are invited With presents in mind Cultivate friends For cash or for kind …2321 Or, says he First decide the interest The loan will be offered next …2322 All the four examples are commonplace today. A physician who certainly helps but only for a consideration. At all social gatherings, particularly at weddings and birthday parties, presents that are likely to be offered are taken into consideration when expenditure is planned. For what are known as upwardly mobile men, country clubs, or other similar social organizations are a ladder to achieve a certain purpose and lastly, though you are beholden to the one who

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gives you a loan he has already extracted the interest on the first instalment in most modern financial agreements.

The act of giving has to have a certain dignity. Also those to whom charity is offered must be chosen well and treated with respect.

Giving must not be accompanied by a frenzy of dinner and dance followed by a party attended by riffraff who await an opportunity to be fed (fund-raising charity dinners). And when deserving recipients are chosen for charity (read Brahmins or priests) they must be seated decorously, anointed, bowed to and then offered what they have asked for. The giver cannot calculate or measure the amount of charity he thinks is appropriate. And even if he does he cannot blurt out ‘this is what you deserve or get’. In the end, Dnyaneshwar makes several points while describing charity done by a man with the tam quality.

The verses in brief are as follows and describe Tam charity which is exactly the opposite of what is described in the preceding paragraph.

At the wrong place Or the wrong time When light is fading Or in the dead of the night To whores and gamblers he is beholden To dancing girls and minstrels76 He offers what he has stolen All this cannot lend To any good Can a worm carve An alphabet on wood If by chance A sage is chosen With honour and respect He is not given This is all you deserve Is what is said A farthing77 more You won’t get …2323

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The story of a worm which burrows wood is interesting because what Dnyaneshwar conveys is the impossibility that the worm might carve out an alphabet even by accident. In a similar accompanying verse the chances that you might accidentally come to hold a bird in your hands if you happen to be clapping your hands for something else, are almost none, is narrated. Similarly, the tam type of charity even accidentally will not lead to any good, is what Dnyaneshwar wants to convey.

Little is now left of the seventeenth chapter but that little is of some import because it goes to the roots of the birth of the cosmos and then traces its evolution. Man is advised that the origins of the cosmos from the primal substance and what follows are a vast backdrop in front of which he performs and it should be an obligation for him to remember all three as he proceeds with his life. More on that in the next chapter.

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penultimate – last but one exhort – urge or advise strongly scripture – religious law or sacred writing material – concerned with bodily comforts etc/ opposed to spiritual demonic – personification of evil passion eulogize – praise in speech or writing ordain – decree, a religious order adroit – skilful espoused – adopted or supported metaphorical – application of a phrase etc. imaginatively to an action cosmos – the whole of the universe in a certain order replicate – repeat, make a replica overt – evident, apparent magnum opus – great and large work of literature proletariat—lowest class of the community/uncultured/common wage earners pundits – as in a learned expert or teacher invocation – an appeal to a supernatural being maya – a classical Indian philosophical term, applied to the created world to imply an illusion manifestation – clear or obvious to the eye or mind gallows – a structure used for hanging primordial – existing at or from the beginning attribute – a quality ascribed to a person or a thing Brahma – primordial singularity from which the world came to be tantalize – torment or tease without the ability to seize bewitching – casting a spell variegated – diverse in appearance wherewithal – means, resources, ability earnest –ardent, intense

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prance – walk or behave in an elated arrogant manner transcend – to go beyond the material world or reason contemplate – survey with eyes or mind forlorn – sad, abandoned, lonely articulation – used here in the sense of using words maze – a complex network anoint – consecrate, formally confirm as a religious priest renunciation – self-denial, the act of giving up cascade – like in a waterfall tether – fasten, tie, secure crux – the decisive point at issue inviolable – that which cannot be violated, sacred tangy – spicy reiterate – repeat, restate antecedents – previous things verve – enthusiasm, vigour wick – a thread or a piece of cloth dipped in oil for a flame indolence – laziness, sloth indiscretion – lack of discretion dictat – used here to denote an order ghoul – an evil spirit or phantom heinous – utterly wicked symbiosis – mutually advantageous association between living organisms phlegm – thick viscous secretion form the respiratory tract/ used here as a physiological tendency bile – a secretion from the liver ilk – family class or sect, used in a derogatory manner, therefore avoided meditation – reflect by thinking or pondering penance – self-punishment for guilt or sin invocation – prayer lore – a body of tradition of a certain group chore – routine task ostentation – vulgar display, to attract notice tryst – a time and a place for a meeting, especially of lovers haywire – badly disorganised or disturbed wake – a track, a path, a trail shod – used here in the sense of modified and protected from constant use friar – here used in the sense of a saint or sage spurn – reject, refuse alchemy — the science of turning base metal into gold phenomenal – perceptible to the senses, the material world/ as opposed to the spiritual world metaphor – application of a phrase etc imaginatively to an action ascetic – one who practices severe self-discipline and abstains from pleasure alien – unfamiliar, foreign whore – prostitute impale – transfix with an instrument torso – the trunk of the human body abhorrent – hateful, inspiring disgust minstrel – a person who entertains a patron by singing or buffoonery farthing – a coin equivalent of a quarter penny

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Dnyaneshwari Verses 328–433 Geeta Chapter 17

Chapter 104

Aum, That Thing, and Now This AUM, TAT, SAT

When man wants to describe God, or the origin of all that there is (with or without an active creator) he at best can toy with ideas. The two options that are most frequently toyed with are light and sound.

The expressions “he experienced a divine light (realization) or he came to hear a divine sound” are used frequently to describe something which is beyond a normal sensory world. To be fair to what we call ‘light’ its comparison with sound is rather unfair. The speed of light surpasses the speed of everything else in the world.

Sound, in comparison, is ponderous and travels almost in slow motion. Light, according to many, is beyond a definition and has a mysterious character because it appears sometimes as waves and at other times as particles (called photons). Sound has no such mystery surrounding it. It always travels in waves and therefore has to have a medium in which it can travel (for example, air). Light has no such requirement. It traverses through vast areas of space without a medium and even in the so-called darkest outer reaches of space, light is present, because when you reach there you can see the sun and the stars. Space appears dark because there is no one to see the light which is travelling through it. All in all, sound is at best a poor cousin of light, supposedly because it has no existence beyond what we call atmosphere.

Be that as it may, sound occupies a prominent position in all religious philosophies and certainly in the Indian stream. Light appears to come from distant sources and appears supernatural.

Sound is a more familiar thing and shares an intimacy with us. Unlike light we can make sound ourselves and our whole life is surrounded and modulated by a variety of sounds. Helen Keller (1880–1968) who was both deaf and blind stated quite categorically that if she was given a choice to have only one of the two infirmities, she would any day prefer to be blind rather than deaf.

As mentioned earlier, nature abounds in sound. This is what an

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older edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica has to say about sound: ‘Inanimate1 nature produces the thunder of the storm, the roar and the pounding of the surf,2 the whistling of the wind, the whisperings of trees, the patter of rain, the gurgling of running water…’ and it says further, ‘Even more rich is the vocabulary of living things, the barking and snarling of dogs, mewing of cats, crowing of the fowl, the roaring of lions and the hissing of the snake…’ etc.

It is on this background that man appears to take several steps forward. The drum, the pipes, the strings or the bellows—only these four basic instruments are enough for man to produce extraordinary sounds. To add to all this man also sings, an advance on speech and such can be the beauty of a song accompanied by instrumental music that practitioners of Indian classical music reiterate from time to time that they feel as if they have been ushered into the presence of something extraordinary or divine, when practising their music. Not very different from the well-known experiment with a tuning fork, a taut wire and a piece of paper sitting astride on the wire. When certain conditions are met in the experiment, the paper goes aflutter as sound waves envelop it.

But to come back to speech and the words that make speech, one must remember that words are constructed out of letters (for example, consonants ‘b’ or ‘d’, and vowels a, e, i, o, u). According to the Indian tradition, words are constructed by man but letters are usurped3 or borrowed by man from nature. The word for the word ‘letter’ in Sanskrit is AKSHAR. The A in this word means without, and the remaining word ‘kshar’ means dissolvable or temporary.

The word Akshar therefore means permanent, indestructible, pristine4, original, etc. The ancient Indian science of grammar states quite unequivocally that Akshar or letters are sourced to God, the primordial5 singularity or Brahma, or nature and spring forth as if ‘de novo’6 in man’s mind through his senses but in fact owe their origin to all of the above.

Dnyaneshwar, in his introduction to the Dnyaneshwari, while reviewing man’s intellectual and articulatory progress reminds man about the importance of letters or Akshar with a verse about Ganesh on whom a metaphor has been penned in the introductory verses.

The verse could read slightly differently from that in Chapter 4 and is as follows The whole world of words Is a beautiful dress adorned

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On letters which form A faultless body and form …2324 The letters are the faultless body, words only adorn it. They (the words) are like a beautiful dress or are ornaments. These can be changed. Not so the letters, which cannot be analyzed and therefore cannot be faulted.

This long introduction is needed to familiarize the readers with the word Aum (dealt with in the earlier Chapter 1, 16), which is a part of the title of this chapter as well. The word Aum has two vowels ‘a’ and ‘u’ (the first and last vowel) and the letter ‘m’ here is not treated as a consonant but is to be spoken here with a nasality (reverbatory m) by manipulating your lips so that the flow of air resonates with the help of paranasal sinuses (two hollow air-filled spaces on either side of the nose). A close scrutiny of the Upanishads7 reveals that this word has been denoted by these texts as the primal cosmic8 sound associated with Brahma (the dense primordial singularity from which the cosmos evolves). In fact, it is even hinted that Aum precedes what is called the substantive Brahma9. Brahma or the primordial singularity is also referred to as “that thing” in the Upanishadic or allied texts. The cosmos and the world that we live in and perceive is “what is now” and is referred to as “now this” in the title of this chapter. The full title of this chapter should now make sense. Aum, that thing and now this. Only one more explanation needs to be offered, that of the Sanskrit equivalent of this title, namely Aum Tat Sat. The word Tat is usually synonymous with the primordial singularity or Brahma and means “that”. The word “Sat” describes the body of the world or the cosmos in which we live, that includes man. The t in Tat and Sat is soft, not like tea in English but like tableau10 in French.

The question is, why is this elaborate description necessary here in this chapter and why was it originally presented in the Geeta and later explained in the Dnyaneshwari. The reason has to do with practical philosophy based on a theoretical principle which helps man to go about in this world. It was surmised after observing man over the millennia prior to the narration of the Geeta that man is likely to get too full of himself, as he indulges in this world, in his very brief lifespan as compared to the eons over which “this here” came about from “that thing” then. The verses that follow exhort us to remember Aum and that thing or Brahma and that to give away or dedicate all our activities to them would not only be in the fitness

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of things because man owes everything to them but would also be psychologically convenient and productive because it would ease his burden. After all, the one thing with which man is most burdened, and which he is least aware of is his ego. Further, the verses declare that this ability to dedicate is most facilitated by lack of selfishness or by virtue. The word (self) Atma in Sanskrit means spirit or energy but man is prone to identify himself only with his body and mind. Virtue allows man to unburden his material self, it helps him transcend11 his needs of flesh, of passion and emotions and reach his essence which is the true and permanent inheritor of Aum and that thing (Tat) which transcends everything and is immanent12 in this thing now (Sat).

A small note on cosmic sound, is reproduced here verbatim from the Times of India, June 26, 2004, Mumbai.

‘Did the big bang give birth to the universe silently? Or was the explosive Bang really noisy? For years, the very concept of cosmic sounds didn’t exist, for space, perceived as a vacuum was not a friendly medium for sound. It is now possible to crunch these waves in the laboratory to levels that are audible to our ears. Mark Whittle, astronomy professor at the University of Virginia and his team claim they have been able to ‘map’ auditory signals in space by studying miniscule ripples in the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR). The CMBR is the Big Bang leftover ripple-effect that fills the space between galaxies, in which scientists have found exciting undulations, tantalising proof of a cosmic orchestra still playing somewhere in the background. Data collected so far cover the period during the first five million years following the Big Bang.

Whittle and his team have turned these observations into a sound clip that’s seeks to replay the primeval sound. The simulated music, however, is a far cry from the heavenly ‘music of spheres’ conceptualized by ancient philosophers. For the computer-generated score that lasts five seconds sounds more like a low hiss that turns into an extended gruff rumble. The Chandra X-ray Observatory had earlier detected sound waves with a 57-octave pitch below middle C coming from the bowels of the Perseus black hole – a bass note too deep to be heard. Just as well, for researchers say if our senses were sharp enough to hear these sounds, we would be subject to the equivalent of a hi-decibel rock concert every second of our lives. Heavenly motions have traditionally been visualized as a continuous song, perceived by the intellect, not by the ear and indicative of a universal harmony. The music that charms our ears was believed to derive its

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melody from the rolling spheres, understood and felt but never heard. “Unstruck music” from the songs of the gods were believed to aid in meditation and liberation. Keats was on spot when he wrote: “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard sweeter;/Therefore, ye soft pipes, play on: not to the sensual ear,/But the more endeared—pipe to the spirit, ditties of no tone.”

Here are the verses from the Dnyaneshwari, considerably curtailed after eliminating all references to rituals and mythology.

Brahma the beginning and end And which remains unchanged And is always the same Has been given three names In fact it cannot have a name But in the darkness of this world Full of maya13 and filled With spurious14 games Scriptures15 had to have A utilitarian16 aim And that is why Brahma was given this name …2325 The above verse is a philosophical idea, which states that at present, in the state in which man is, it is futile to think of how the universe came about and to describe the primordial principle. Be that as it may, as man thinks on the subject, he is forced to use his language, expressed in words and therefore calls ‘that thing’ ‘the Brahma’ (from the Sanskrit root Brih as in to spread).

Imagine a newborn child Does it have a name But as time comes to pass And the child learns the game In this so-called reality It will awake When called by its name …2326 A simile17 is written in the above verse where a newborn child, the very essence of new life, unaware of this world (like Brahma) slowly adjusts to its name.

Men will tire Of this worldly game And then to call for Brahma

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It must have a name Brahma is unaware Of what went and came In fact with the world It cannot even relate But man wants to arrange A method by which The two, Brahma and man Can come on some sort of a plane It is man who names Brahma as Brahma And that is how it came Its name or the other names ‌2327 The idea that Brahma is unaware of the development of this world is repeated here. Man when confused, desperate, or in difficulty might hark back to his distant roots. But for him to call on his primordial ancestor he must use a method familiar to him (that is his language). That is why the name Brahma to enable man to deal with this situation in his own human way.

Brahma is behind Every piece of nature When it is called upon It comes to stand In front of every creature But only those who know Upanishadic literature Will understand Brahma, nature and creature And this nomenclature18 ‌2328 The evolution of the cosmos is perhaps in three phases. Brahma the singularity, the creation or nature, and then the appearance of the creature (man). This logical sequence, according to the above verses is given in the Upanishads, the last of the Vedic literature and only those who know the Upanishads will understand that when man calls for Brahma it stands before him (to wit it is already there but man becomes aware of it when he starts to dwell on the subject) by reading the Upanishads.

To begin with God was confused

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Did not know me And his powers were of no use But by knowing what is Aum* His powers came into use He created sages And with scriptures They were infused He created the worlds Had them mixed and fused Remember Aum* was first That thing Brahma second And ‘this thing now’ was third But appears enormous and huge …2329 * Please see Chapter 1, 16

These verses for the first time state very directly that the soundless sound or the cosmic9 rhythm preceded the substantive Brahma. Aum, the cosmic sound abounded and only later did gel as Brahma. The God depicted here is more like a metaphorical19 creature acceptable to man’s ideas. The sound and the gel (Brahma) is from where things emerged. God (!) was helpless without those two entities. The creation that followed is what we now have and is the third in the lineage.

The verse that follows mentions the sattwa or virtuous temperament as a means to overcome the effects of karma, which may entangle man by way of the worldly gains that he might acquire (Please see Chapter 96).

All three are of import And form a continuous strand When sattwa is pursued Realization may be at hand But the art of karma is what Man must fully understand Or it may so happen That it will stand Between realization and man …2330 The continuity of Aum, Brahma, and the created world is stressed here. Everything ‘now’ is the last of the stages, ‘karma’. It needs to be handled properly, done with finesse, man must remember karma’s

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predecessors, know that he too as a product of this continuity is an embodiment of karma. Dnyaneshwar pens three verses to stress the point about doing karma properly.

Ornaments you may have But how to wear them You must know Or the box in which they come You may carry around to show …2331 Food is ready And hungry is the child To eat how and when Must be shown to the child …2332 Fire, oil and wick Are ready and in one’s hand But one must know How to light a lamp …2333 Man, in order to achieve realization (from the word real) usually performs acts (yadnya), tries to untangle his mind by mental and physical renunciation20 from the material benefits of karma (by penance) and indulges his fellow man (charity). But the focus of these acts and attitudes must be the trinity Aum, Brahma, and nature at large. The relevant verses are next.

Aum must be said When any karma is performed Yadnya, penance and charity In all three karma is involved …2334 A light that shines forever In darkness will show the way When with an able friend In a forest You won’t lose your way …2335 A boat is heavy on ground But on water floats with ease Aum is the answer When karmic rewards tease …2336

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All the three preceding verses are narrated to tell man that by voicing Aum he will unburden himself of the problem of getting entangled in his karma. This is in a way a simple solution because the very responsibility of the birth of man is transferred to the primordial soundless sound or Aum. Man thus gets free and can go through life having realized that he came to happen and will live here for a short time. Aum, therefore is the light, the able strong friend and the boat from the verses.

The same theme is repeated in the following verses with Brahma in focus.

Brahma is that Which sees each and all Brahma is that From where everything falls …2337 Whatever there is to do When man plans to start Whatever comes to follow Is offered only to “that” …2338 ‘This is not mine’ Is what man must say Lose he may or gain To him all must be the same …2339 While this method by virtue of faith in philosophy and its practical technique will succeed to a great extent, man’s existence as a psychological and physical creature cannot get obliterated. Man survives and so does the rest of the world and this is called duality.

As karma comes to happen And though is given to ‘that’ Duality will persist Because man remains a fact …2340 Duality implies dealing with others, the ideas of failure and success, and it breeds fear, insecurity and apprehension. In order to overcome this mental state the only way available is to remind oneself of Aum and Brahma repeatedly.

Because man persists Fear turns and twists

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The idea and the word ‘that’ Is what man must repeat …2341 The world or this creation is a descendant of ‘Aum’ and ‘that’ and is called “sat.”

Here all that we see Is not what we call as ‘sat’ And this world and all its acts Are only ‘sat’s’ creative facts …2342 From this created world of “sat” we need to go backwards to realize the full magnitude of how all this evolved. This recapitulation of the past can be done when man pauses to think, looks at the material world with a dispassionate eye, cultivates virtue, or practises the sattwa temperament (see Chapter 96). The verse regarding this attitude is as follows.

Those who are ill and sick Divine medicine can cure Or those filled with fear With courage need to be assured With sattwa temper in man Good deeds and fortune are ensured …2343 The sattwa temper is portrayed here as a divine remedy, a certain reassurance in the midst of fear, and helps foster a good virtuous life and leads to fortune, a word not used here as material wealth but as spiritual richness. The transformation in man is depicted below by giving examples of the technique of alchemy,21 the all-encompassing River Ganga or the use of the divine potion called ‘Amrit’ in Sanskrit. (mrit=death; a=without).

Iron by way of alchemy21 Turns into gold A measly stream turns holy Within the Ganga’s fold Or the dead come to life When a divine potion22 is poured …2344 And then comes the last word and the clinching verse which is self-explanatory.

You may conquer a hundred times The whole of this world

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Or donate what you won Worth its weight in gold Or stand upside down Only on your thumb Till you grow a thousand years old But you won’t win ‘that thing’ Without ‘Brahma’ and ‘sat’ And the soundless sound called ‘Aum’ …2345

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inanimate – non-living surf – the swell of the sea breaking on shores usurp – seize wrongfully pristine – in its original form/unspoilt primordial – existing from the beginning de novo – starting again Upanishad – the concluding portion of the Vedic literature cosmos – the universe as a whole in a certain order Brahma – ‘that thing’ from which the world emerges tableau – a silent motionless group of people enacting a scene transcend – go beyond human reason and the material world immanent – indwelling, inherent maya – trick, magic, the creating potential of Brahma spurious – false, not genuine scriptures – religious law, sacred literature utilitarian – practical, not necessarily attractive simile – comparison of one with another nomenclature – systematic naming metaphor – imaginative use of word, term or phrase renunciation – the act of giving up alchemy – an ancient chemical process converting base metal into gold potion – a liquid medicine

The Genius of Dnyaneshwar Dnyaneshwari Verses 1–86 Geeta Chapter 18

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Chapter 105

Introduction to Chapter 18

The eighteenth chapter is the last chapter of the Geeta and not only her summary but also called its pinnacle1 by Dnyaneshwar. It is but natural that Dnyaneshwar is in full form while explaining this chapter and has narrated more than 1800 verses to expound on the 78 verses of this chapter in the Geeta. The introduction to this chapter of the Geeta is roughly divided into two parts, the first of these is an ode2 to his Guru Nivrutti and the second part describes the Geeta herself. As is Dnyaneshwar’s custom, when he is not writing or narrating on the Geeta or describing her author Shrikrishna (the Lord), he (Dnyaneshwar) when he is on his own, almost invariably speaks about his Guru because it is he (the Guru) (please see Chapters 18, 84, 97) who has given him (Dnyaneshwar) the true vision of what Brahma is. In fact, Dnyaneshwar alludes to his Guru as Brahma, that colourless, formless, primordial singularity, beyond time and age, which is, which was, and which will be (and is imperishable) and from which the universe comes about only to again merge with it. This universe according to the Upanishads (the last of the Vedic philosophical texts) is transient and secondary to the allencompassing Brahma,3 which defies any description. Here are the introductory verses about the Guru and the Geeta with a note for each verse as an explanation. The Guru, for all practical purposes, is equated with Brahma.18 Like the wind are you Oh God-like Guru Clouds of birth and age Are dispersed by you Sinless, innocent and pure Thy servants are saved by you And I bow before you …2346 Barring the ornamentation in the verse, the kernel4 of this verse is

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about birth, age (and death) being like passing clouds. And these clouds are dispersed or their grip on man’s mind is loosened by the philosophy that the Guru imparts to his disciple (that is Dnyaneshwar).

Banished you have With great thrust The unholy bunch Of pride and lust …2347 The ‘me’ in man is his pride and it is the ‘me’ in man that breeds desires. Ego and desire are the classical characteristics of man in this world. Unless they are taken care of, man cannot overcome this world and merge with Brahma. This merger can only be helped by the Guru.

Dnyaneshwar also describes his Guru as follows The scripture’s5 tree’s fruits The Guru gives from its very roots …2348 You are by yourself Full in every sense Friend, partisan and fence Of those beyond Passion, in every sense The passing of time and age You have guessed and sensed …2349 The Guru is described as friend, partisan and fence (for protection) of those who have detached themselves from worldly things (emotions and passion). He, the Guru also makes the disciples aware that time is unimportant in the world (!) of Brahma.

You are faultless And without form Yet with joy You are adorned6 You are the reason Why things are born …2350 Brahma is formless yet should be the ultimate destination of the material man and is full of joy. It is also stated that it is from Brahma that things come to be born. Things that are born have form, not so the Brahma which is pure (formless) joy.

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You are the sky You are lighted on your own Then there are the clouds That freely roam In you the seeds of the worlds Come to be sown …2351 The sky is an abstract, (so-called) empty entity and is described here as being lighted on its own. The idea is to contrast it with clouds, which are opaque, which move around and are called the seeds of the manifested7 world, which has form and also the so-called substance. It is worth noting here that clouds are ever-changing in appearance and also tend to disappear.

You are The pillar of things Of heavens and beyond By the might of which The web of this world Is shredded and torn …2352 Notice how from the simile of an empty sky, Dnyaneshwar now calls his Guru a pillar (of strength) and credits him with the ability to tear away the web that this world is as compared to Brahma the state of perpetual joy.

You are absolute and still You swallow the world Till all its movements are stilled And you are filled Yet the worlds come to be made For your passion and thrill …2353 Brahma is being described here both as a glutton8 and as a procreator in a metaphor9 that would appeal to man and his ideas.

The metaphor is however deeper and describes Upanishadic10 metaphysics11 of the birth of the cosmos12 from Brahma and its subsequent dissolution, something that happens in cycles over billions of years.

You are The elephant that tramples This worldly life By you

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Tranquil and quelled Is lust, rough and rife You are A sea of mercy Pure and sublime* …2354 The trampling by an elephant is a classical south-Asian image.

What is being trampled is this world, the information about it, and the advantages that this information brings. In short, material or technical science as we know it. It is from these that worldly desires expand, which too are subdued. In the end the Guru is called a sea of mercy and also pure (non-material) and sublime* (beyond physical pleasures).

The snake that is God Eros You put him to rout And to absolute loss …2355 The next (in line) are physical pleasures inherent to the body and mind, and the most powerful amongst them is sexual attraction.

This is represented here by Eros, the God of love, completely destroyed by the Guru in order that man may think spiritually.

The lamp that you are In man’s mind and heart When it shines Troubles depart …2356 Material troubles are products of this world, they can only depart when the world is seen in its proper perspective, as a thing that is ever-changing and temporary, albeit13 not very different from man.

When the knowledge of beyond this world shines in a man’s heart like a spiritual flame (lit here by the Guru) (so-called) troubles automatically depart.

You are second to none Mature ascetic’s loving home Devotion’s very own Never caught in maya’s* zone …2357 *Maya is this magical ever-changing world’s cause. Brahma never gets caught up with maya though maya herself draws strength from Brahma. An ascetic can see through maya, more so the mature ascetic

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whose devotion is entirely focused on the Guru who explains this principle to the devoted ascetic.

A magical tree you are Which takes one far Beyond the realm of thoughts (and its arms) That special soil you are In which grows The seed of realization Mighty and tall …2358 The metaphor has to do with a special soil in which a tree is going to grow after the seeds of realization fall on it. Only with the help of the Guru can this tree grow tall and mighty. More importantly, realization has to do with the (subject’s) person’s inner being and is beyond the world of words and thoughts (beyond thoughts and its arms).

Dnyaneshwar, at this stage, as an aside to himself says that he feels awkward and it is not quite sensible to describe Brahma (Guru) in this manner because it (Brahma) has no form nor is it visible. But he adds The sea remains confined Till the moon comes to rise Trees spring with leaves When the spring arrives The lotus happily blooms As the sun comes to rise Salt loses itself When water arrives Man is bound to belch When food satisfies I have become silly And sing your praises Because sheer insanity thrives …2359 Dnyaneshwar admits in the last part of the verse that insanity thrives in him or that he has gone silly or is not sensible. Yet the verse is preceded by several natural phenomena, which seem to happen spontaneously albeit preceded by a cause in nature. That Dnyaneshwar should be induced to speak about his Guru and Brahma in this manner is also a spontaneous reaction or a happening, something that he cannot prevent.

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Even if I am sane How can I describe you Matter or lack of it Both don’t apply to you …2360 Having called himself ‘mad’ he turns around and argues to say that sanity will not help either because a formless, matterless (object!) cannot be described in any case.

You are ‘that’ the only one With you nothing can be done Why break a pearl Best to keep it one …2361 The impossibility of an analytical description of Brahma is reiterated here. A pearl is used here as an object, which enchants14, is best left alone and not broken in order to look inside and analyze it.

If I serve you We cannot be one The blemish of being another Cannot just be undone …2362 The address here is to the Guru, a symbol of Brahma, the singularity, the unique pristine15 principle which brooks no duality16 in any form. The role of a servant that Dnyaneshwar considers first is rejected straightaway for it would involve two separate individuals, the Guru and his servant.

Mother or father You are not Because bear a child You cannot …2363 The act of creation or procreation or division or distortion does not apply to Brahma. Dnyaneshwar cannot envisage17 that he is his Guru’s child if the Guru is the symbol of Brahma. Bearing children or offspring is a property of the animal world, not of Brahma.

To call you the spirit Within or without Has no meaning at all

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You are all that there is One cannot Put you in or out …2364 The idea of the spirit being immanent and transcendental19 is brought out here. Dnyaneshwar while talking to his Guru is informing his listeners that the spirit cannot be put in a box, a compartment or outside of a container.

When someone is your servant His master you will be called But that too is silly Because you are the master of all …2365 The master/servant relationship is brought out here one more time. All that there is in this world owes itself to the Brahma. This entity20 cannot be individualized or appropriated to a single devotee.

That you cannot be praised Is what it seems to be That is why it seems Silent you care to be …2366 The Guru is leading here by example. He is utterly silent (like Brahma), conveying to his devotee, his student or his follower that words are of no significance at all in this relationship.

Not to say a thing Is like singing your praise And not to do a thing Is the prayer in your case …2367 Like a man gone insane Sings without reason and in vain I pray and sing your praise Pardon me for the same …2368 The first of the two preceding verses describes the ideal situation but Dnyaneshwar in the second verse describes the reality as applied to a mortal21 man and his needs to express what he feels. The idea of insanity returns once again. The needless prayer and singing is highlighted as being inevitable and an apology is sought immediately thereafter.

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The Geeta that is favoured By sages far and near I pray to you with fervour22 That you stamp my tongue with her …2369 The cat now is out of the bag. The Guru has been praised, the eighteenth and the most important chapter of the Geeta is to be described in some detail and Dnyaneshwar has come to that point.

He therefore requests the Guru to bless him so that the Geeta may be stamped on Dnyaneshwar’s tongue to enable him to explain it.

At this stage Nivrutti, Dnyaneshwar’s Guru, to whom this ode23 is being sung, intervenes and scolds Dnyaneshwar and chides24 him by telling him that alchemy, the reaction by which ordinary metal is converted to gold, need be done only once. And that repetition does not enhance the transformation. He therefore enjoins Dnyaneshwar to start explaining the Geeta forthwith and with speed. And it is thus that Dnyaneshwar begins to dwell on the eighteenth chapter of the Geeta.

Now that you have blessed me so I will be on my way The Geeta is a palace To which the eighteenth shows the way …2370 A long metaphor on how the Mahabharat was constructed and how the Geeta formed its central core is to be narrated now. The eighteenth chapter of the Geeta has an important place in the Geeta, it is not only the last chapter but also its summary and considered her (Geeta’s) pinnacle25.

When you see the spire God enters your thoughts The eighteenth does the same Allows the Geeta to be grasped …2371 One tends to visualize the spire first as one approaches a church (or the top of a temple). As the pilgrim approaches the temple, it is this sight that creates a psychological state which ushers God in man’s mind. The eighteenth serves the same purpose according to this verse.

Badarayan the sage Built the spire on the top

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Once the spire was raised Work came to a stop …2372 Badarayan was a scholar who collected all the existing Upanishadic discussions and compiled them in the form of aphorisms26 and these aphorisms are considered even today as the final word. The verse therefore mentions that the spire which is the final word of the Geeta (the eighteenth chapter) was the final expression of the then existing knowledge. The colophon27 at the end of each chapter of the Geeta reiterates that she is an Upanishad (the last of the Vedic literature).

Vyas was the founder Who dug the Upanishadic soil In the jewelled hills of the Vedas28 With a pickaxe he toiled …2373 According to tradition Vyas wrote the Mahabharat (please see Chapter 19) and the Geeta forms the main philosophical content of Mahabharat (Chapter 21). Vyas dug the Upanishdic soil (Upanishads are the last of the Vedic literature) in the hills of the Vedas which by inference are uneven in content but contain many jewels which require to be mined by a pickaxe29 which Vyas employed. The pickaxe being the sharp intelligence of Vyas.

What he came to find Was desire, work and ethics30 With them he raised a rampart31 In which all three he mixed …2374 All human activity is basically divided into desire, work and the way work should be done (ethics). Mahabharat is an epic in verse with a multitude of characters. Vyas mixed these three, desire, work and ethic to create a rampart to fashion the story of Mahabharat.

Nivrutti was the plumb-line* Scriptures provided the thoughts A design was fashioned fine And realization was sought …2375 The use of the word Nivrutti serves a dual purpose. It is the name of a person who is Dnyaneshwar’s Guru and in Sanskrit the word also means renunciation32. They together served as a plumb-line, an essential contraption to fashion a neat and a balanced structure. The

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scriptures served as the source of knowledge and it is through this arrangement that realization was sought (to be achieved).

Fifteen chapters rose With this method apace The sixteenth was the neck And the seventeenth formed the base (of the spire) …2376 The verse describes the structure of the Geeta as 15+2+1, the last being the pinnacle or the eighteenth chapter.

All the floors below Were chapters one over one The eighteenth by itself Speaks for every one …2377 The eighteenth chapter of the Geeta is clearly marked in this verse as independent yet encapsulates everything that has been said in the earlier chapters.

The spire33 is on top But others are no less They are not hidden But the eighteenth is the best …2378 The chapters besides the eighteenth (of the Geeta) are given their due importance here. Yet it is reiterated that the eighteenth chapter stands out as a special chapter.

Astute was Sage Vyas And gave shape to this fort (So that) Living things in this world Without fear could go forth …2379 This verse describes the whole fort as built by Vyas (Mahabharat, please see Chapter 19). The idea of creating this epic was to aid and help man to go through life without fear through the lessons that the epic imparts.

Some walk around the fort And utter pious words Some come here to listen In the shadow of the fort …2380 The verse makes the point that men are not uniform when it comes to seeking realization. Mahabharat and the Geeta contain within it, a

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huge repository34 of knowledge. Man approaches this edifice35 in different ways and at different levels.

Some enter the altar36 With all attention at stake The altar is full of meaning Only little can they take …2381 The altar is (presumably) the Geeta. One needs to focus one’s attention fully on the Geeta and even then only little will be understood by man who approaches her (the Geeta).

When realization comes calling They embrace the Lord But around this palace called the Geeta All get to go to God …2382 The verse denies that discrimination exists and that all get to realize the truth irrespective of whether they are in the altar, skirt it or circle around the structure.

I called Geeta the palace And eighteenth was called the spire With a simple thought in my mind That each must get what he aspires …2383 The idea of discrimination is further demolished here. In the palace of the almighty all are equal.

Now comes the part of Dnyaneshwari where her narrator describes the Geeta, how it forms a long continuous chain of versified philosophical thought without any interruption in its meaning or substance.

Before a man and woman unite They are separate for sure But when they come to unite They form a single core …2384 The verse is to be understood in two contexts. For one there is a popular and well-known idol in India, where male and female characteristics are joined in one figure. The other is the Sankhya doctrine (please see Chapter 79) in which the procreative ability of the world is portrayed as a female principle and the impregnating stimulus is that of a male. However, in a further philosophical modification (please see Chapter 93) the two principles are shown

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to be intricately joined together.

The Ganga and Yamuna Are two different streams But when they merge Only one is seen …2385 The confluence of those two important rivers in North India is a centre for pilgrimage. The two philosophical streams in India, the unitary or dual nature of this world are the source of this metaphor.

The Geeta employs both views in her narration and is therefore portrayed as one stream.

With each different phase The moon takes different shapes But the moon remains the moon Whatever shape or phase …2386 This too is an additional verse to show that Geeta may appear different at different places but she as a body of work is only one.

Four lines make a verse And one verse leads to another The verses may be different But the sequence takes you further Each chapter is by itself And is linked with the other Stones and beads are by themselves But a thread holds them together What is said in the Geeta Might appear widely ranged But what is said in her Is only one and does not change Pearls might be in numbers But their beauty is only one Flowers come in garlands But from each, fragrance always comes …2387 All these verses stress on the continuity in the substance of the Geeta. It is also repeated that the Geeta in spite of the variety that she contains is a single philosophical thought. The variety in the Geeta is

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depicted as pearls, beads or flowers but the thread that holds them together is shown as the crucial element. Different flowers in garlands might give variety to their appearance but their fragrance is mentioned to convey that there lies the real substance.

When Lord finished the seventeenth This is what he said That in karma, Brahma is central And this is borne with faith ‌2388 The reader is referred to the chapter preceding this (Aum, that thing and now this) in which it is clearly stated that since karma arises from Brahma, Brahma is central to all that man does and this is a matter of faith and tradition.

This prompted Arjun To call karma the essence And with that thought in mind Lost his proportion and sense So obsessed was he with karma That of God he forgot to think Brahma was even farther Ignorance made him blink ‌2389 The eighteenth chapter of the Geeta is soon to delve into great detail about the entity called karma. These two verses are an inkling as to what is in store ahead. The mention of God as an entity prior to the idea of Brahma is also noteworthy in these verses.

Even raj, tam had lapsed* Sattwa is in any case small* Faith in the Brahma So was not likely to call ‌2390 * See Chapter 96, The tempers of man

For a detailed description of the tempers of man the reader is referred to Chapter 96. But the point being made here is that Arjun had lost his senses. Even raj and tam the ordinary tempers were lost, not to mention the sattwa temper which facilitates realization of Brahma and which is very rare.

Can you embrace a spear Or run on a rope without fear

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Can you play with a cobra’s head And save your life so dear …2391 Without faith in Brahma Karma is not an easy task A difficult path to tread And rebirth looms large …2392 If karma is done with finesse37 Then realization may dawn Or that very karma Can get you hell and beyond …2393 Such is the nature of karma With many a block on the way Realization for man Is thus held at bay …2394 The crucial point to note here is a certain philosophical belief that an improperly led life leads to rebirth which man must avoid. The aim of man should be realization of the basic ultimate principle of life that is Brahma. It is only when that principle forms the mental background that man can function effectively and as noted in the verse with finesse. If not, karma has the potential to do the exact opposite that is consigning man to hell. Though these ideas do not belong to the final Upanishadic philosophy, they are mentioned here to carry the point with some effect. That is why the examples of playing with a cobra, embracing a spear or walking on rope are narrated. The nature of karma having been described in the previous verses, Arjun just for the sake of arguments raises questions. These questions put forth the idea that karma may not be practised at all and that in this way karma cannot touch man and will not be able to influence man’s fate. It is understood indirectly by the verses that follow that Arjun is not all that ignorant but somehow wants the Lord to speak so that he Arjun can savour the Lord’s presence and his wisdom for some more time. Here are the preliminary verses posed as questions and the later verses explain the genesis of why the questions are asked. The verses are quite clear in their meaning and therefore explanatory notes are not added.

Can karma become clean By giving up all that we do

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Will purity then arrive And is this theory true …2395 Karma once banished Can never ever touch me From its effects and its fear I will be rendered free …2396 By giving up my karma Will realization arrive This was Arjun’s query And the Lord began to speak …2397 Dnyaneshwar adds This is what I mean That one thing leads to another The question has been asked before But Arjun does not remember Answers will be given again And the eighteenth will be rendered The Lord had gone quiet And was not likely to speak Arjun raised a query Eager that the Lord may speak It is like the calf Hungry it is not But yet it suckles at the udder38 Lest the cow move apart With or without reason He wished the Lord may speak And that he may listen And love may reach its peak This is a story of love Arjun its spirit and form Because the Lord kept quiet Arjun’s heart was being torn

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Without the help of a mirror You cannot view yourself To show the glory of Brahma Words were brought to help …2398 If the Lord stopped to speak Brahma will remain far But Arjun was keen on Brahma And thus he ‘raised the bar’39 …2399 To abandon or to renounce40 Karma or its fruit That was the question he posed And Lord will give the truth …2400 This is just not the eighteenth This is Geeta as a whole When the calf nears a cow Milk comes to flow …2401

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pinnacle – a natural peak ode – a lyrical poem in address Brahma – ‘that thing’ from which the world evolved kernel – the nucleus or the essential part of anything scripture – religious law, sacred writing adorn – add beauty, decorate manifest – clear or obvious to the eye or mind glutton – an excessively greedy eater metaphor – a phrase applied imaginatively but not literally Upanishad – concluding portion of the Vedic literature metaphysics – the philosophy of being and knowing cosmos – the whole of the universe in a certain order albeit – of course enchant – charm, delight pristine – in its original unspoilt condition duality – a theory in philosophy as in mind and matter envisage – visualize, imagine immanent – indwelling, inherent, form and content or a division (where there is none) transcendental – beyond the range of human grasp entity – a thing mortal – subject to death fervour – passion, zeal

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ode – a rhymed poem meant to be sung chide – scold pinnacle – peak, apex aphorism – a concise short description of a principle colophon – a tailpiece in a manuscript or book Vedas – philosophical and religious literature of the Vedas pickaxe – a sharp implement used to break ground ethics – laws of moral conduct rampart – a defensive wall with a broad top renunciation – the act of giving up spire – a tapering conical structure built on top of a church (or used here as on a temple) repository – a place where things are stored edifice – a large imposing building, a complex structure altar – flat topped block used to offer sacrifice to a deity finesse – refinement, artfulness udder – the mammary gland (of cattle) with several teats ‘to raise the bar’ – used in the text as a greater stimulant to do whatever was being performed. renounce – to give up

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Dnyaneshwari Verses 87–134 Geeta Chapter 18

Chapter 106

Karma Classified and Explained

What kind of things does a man do during his life? To take two of the commonest examples, he works for a wage or undertakes some sort of commercial activity. What is however forgotten are the many routine or mundane1 actions that he goes through during the day.

Taking a shower, for example, is an activity that man does without giving it a second thought. Being a social creature with a certain upbringing, he may fold his hands before the idols in his house or attend a wedding in the family or perform a certain obligatory ritual in remembrance of his parents who have passed away. These types of karma are called, in the Geeta and the Dnyaneshwari, as routine or occasioned. The question is what kind of pressures do such activities come to bear on man and the answer is very little, if at all. Let us call this karma as Category I. Work or karma done to earn a living or any action or activity performed with an objective (almost always a material objective, for example, wealth or power) is a different category altogether. This kind of karma invariably constitutes the burden of one’s life. Nobody can escape earning a living and even those who are endowed with an inheritance suffer for fear that they may lose what they have. The idea of me and mine and further, of what will happen to me and mine are the root of fear in life. The mind, which borrows its existence from the spirit, dines at the same table as the spirit yet is filled with fear. Let us call this karma Category II. The subject of the verses narrated in this chapter is the art of performing Category II karma with the ease with which Category I karma is performed. The question posed in the preceding chapter (Chapter 105), about abandoning karma altogether as a solution to the problem of karma, is answered here straightaway by reiterating that for a living man karma cannot be brushed away. As stated in the third chapter of the Geeta, whatever man might do to run away from karma, his organs of perception (eyes and ears) and his

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autonomous organs (heart, lungs, brain, liver) will resist cessation of work till death. The Geeta states that the evolution of the cosmos2 from the Brahma3 (the primordial4 indescribable singularity5) is the first fundamental karma, a fact that man must grasp in order to lead his life successfully. All that evolved in the cosmos is karma, including man who is karma’s embodiment6. Man without karma, therefore, is not conceivable and the option of abandoning karma is therefore not available. Instead, what the Geeta advises is to go through karma with dispassion, not to set any targets nor to doubt or contemplate7 the results of karma. To disregard what is to be achieved or what is achieved by way of your karma is the subject of the verses in this chapter. In the original narration by Dnyaneshwar, the two groups of verses (Category I and II) are jumbled up together.

For the convenience of understanding, they are given separately in this chapter of the present book.

The verses begin with a classification To retire from the world Is karma abandoned altogether But Karma done without a bother For the fruits of karma Which come to gather Is the real art of karma …2402 The verse indicates that every karma has an after-effect. While performing karma these ‘after-effects’ or ‘fruits’ come to gather. Yet man must condition his mind to disregard the after-effects of his karma. Dnyaneshwar, however, hastens to add that the above verse is not a license to do what is bad or banned (for example, murder, rape or theft).

Says he Some karma must never be done The fruits of the rest must be shunned …2403 Dnyaneshwar then describes what causal, natural or occasioned karma is (karma of Category I as described in the introduction) In forests and hills Grass grows on its own But efforts are done For rice to be grown

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Gardens and parks Are tended and sown …2404 The examples involving agriculture or recreational parks are classic examples of human civilization. They are the result of a programmed karma as opposed to the spontaneity of the grass growing in the wild.

Your face and limbs Are born with you But ornaments need To be made for you …2405 Here the ideas counterpoised are those of natural endowment and artificial ornamentation. The latter is a human creational activity and therefore karma of Category II. A river is not Made by man But a well is dug By the hands of man …2406 The natural flow of a river is diametrically opposite to a static well, an invention fashioned by man for an assured water supply for his agricultural plans.

Some deeds are done By the nature of things Others are done For the things they bring …2407 And lastly, routine karma is described here as just a happening while there are other actions that man undertakes in order to achieve things or get things.

Dnyaneshwar, by the clever use of similes has brought out the differences between Category I karma and Category II karma.

Dnyaneshwar now proceeds to give details of what routine or occasioned karma is At the time of an eclipse Of the moon or the sun Or on some specific dates Rituals are done Or for the sake of guests Errands are run

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All this is karma In substance and sum …2408 These examples are of what is done in the Indian tradition. Both at the time of an eclipse, or on the day of remembrance of the parents, a karmic ritual is obligatory. To look after one’s guests is also an old Indian custom. Customs, traditions and rituals are done almost effortlessly and little is expected from the actions that they involve.

The sky gets full When the rains are due With the coming of the spring Trees get plumed8 A lass looking comely Is youth on view As the sun comes to rise A lotus will bloom The karma that grows Morning and noon But never does it once Come too soon Sight after sight The eyes can view …2409 The routine or occasioned karma has a certain rhythm and regularity. Dnyaneshwar uses examples in nature including youth, spring, rain and sunrise to bring out this fact. Unlike karma motivated by desire, this type of karma does not precipitate prematurely or in haste which desire forces on man. The mention of morning and noon also underlies certain regularity. And man therefore does not get tired of this karma, like the eyes which accommodate one sight after another in a certain order.

Motion is hidden In the legs and feet Light is natural To oil and a wick Fragrance is what Sandalwood is …2410 Here again Dnyaneshwar reiterates what comes naturally and with ease to certain things. Routine or occasioned karma also comes out naturally without being a burden.

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This karma too Has a purpose and use Not very different Like in hunger and food When gold is fired The blot gets loose When done with faith (Karma) loosens its noose ‌2411 Occasioned or routine karma is like a rehearsal or a preparation for karma done with a certain desire. That is its purpose. It is here that the karmic discipline is fostered. Food and hunger, for example, are a pair, hunger calls for food and food quenches hunger. This type of karma, according to Dnyaneshwar, is the blue flame which extracts the impurities from a block of gold, and gets it ready to become an ornament (please see an earlier verse in this chapter, Verse 2405). This routine and occasioned karma has to be done with faith, so that karma loosens its hold on you.

Problems arise when karma is performed out of a desire for the benefits that it may bring. If you achieve what you set to achieve there is pride. When the desired effect is not achieved, there is sorrow and frustration; if someone else achieves what you cannot achieve, there is jealousy. All in all, man is filled with a welter9 of emotions if karma of the second category is not performed properly. That is why Dnyaneshwar gives the example of the spring in the verse below The spring came And the garden Came into a bloom But it went its way Never asking a price For the change it groomed ‌2412 That is what real renunciation10 is, a totally dispassionate passage through life. And the training for this kind of passage is brought about through a diligent practice of karma of Category I or what we called routine or occasioned karma.

When the head is removed The body lives not When the fruit is removed Karma falls off ‌2413

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The imagery of a lifeless torso and limbs when the head is chopped may be gruesome11 but it is apt. Desires lurk in your head. Not for nothing is the rush of water through a dam called the headwater.

Desire leads and the body follows. The idea is to work peacefully with desire consigned to somewhere way far back in your mind (or head), so also the consequences (fruits) of your actions.

When the renunciation of the results is confused with total abandonment of karma itself, disaster looms because man loses his very nature, that of activity or karma or action. He becomes abnormal, fails to become a constituent of his society and degenerates.

A medicine is well chosen When the disease is known It may become a poison If the disease is unknown …2414 Karma is compared here to proper medicine and food, two key substances that sustain life. Abandonment of karma is an improper medicine. It resembles starvation undertaken foolishly. Both lead to the death of the individual’s very existence, mental and physical.

When thoughts of rewards Swarm and gather War or yadnya* Ritual or charity Little do they matter A price will be paid When desires gather …2415 * Please see Chapter 36,43

Desire is a double-edged weapon. It leads to both motivation and mortification12. By a law of nature you cannot succeed all the time and when you succeed, pride lurks around the corner which almost invariably leads to an error of judgment. If you do not succeed, envy can follow, also a great source of imprudent acts.

When you wear or visit Body and flesh You cannot miss Birth and death Wipe out you can’t What’s in your fate Dark if you are A scrub won’t help

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A loan will stick Till it is repaid Karma will linger Till desire is dead A battle for your king Might mean death Sugar thought as chalk Sweet it will taste Embers13 called ash Will burn your legs Throw up you must This desirous state Fear can vanish When banished is wealth …2416 This is a remarkable group of verses which warns of the pitfalls of karma undertaken with desire (as a motivation). The human state (body and flesh), your complexion (dark colour), a loan (an instrument of bondage) all belong to the same genre. The dark colour is not a racist remark but signifies the inherently sinister nature of karma done with desire. What is added are three unusual examples of karma, not tinged with personal desire. A soldier fights for a king’s desire to win and is somewhat removed from the king’s karma but can still die in battle. Sugar mistaken as chalk or embers mistaken as ash cannot help but produce their natural effects. And lastly comes the clincher, that ubiquitous thing called wealth or money (or power) which is the root cause of fear. Says Dnyaneshwar, banish the first and the second will disappear.

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mundane – ordinary cosmos – the whole of the universe in a certain order Brahma – ‘that thing’ from which the universe emerged primordial – existing from the beginning singularity – a term in physics to describe a thing where nothing else existed embodiment – incarnation, concretization contemplate – survey with eyes or mind plumed – get decorated with feather-like parts (used here to indicate spring) welter – heavy blow renunciation – the act of giving up gruesome – dreadful mortification – embarrassed, rebuffed embers – small pieces of glowing coal

The Genius of Dnyaneshwar Dnyaneshwari Verses 135–277 Geeta Chapter 18

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Chapter 107

The Inevitability of Karma

One of the great things about man is he thinks, (or so he thinks). All his acts are therefore a product of logic and reason but man is also an emotional creature and the final act therefore is a product of both, emotion and logic. There is also a third element which will shape his acts, that of experience or education or put in a longer perspective, civilization. When the act or karma is ultimately fashioned that act then forms a part of a million other karmic events occurring around man or before his time. A man may build a home and feel a sense of achievement but might forget that (certainly in modern times) the achievement was a product of a hundred other people whom he employed. To expand the example of ‘the house building’ onto a larger canvas, a single man is ridiculously insignificant compared to what goes on around him and this analogy1 is not even being stretched to the whole world or the universe. But such is the force of pride in man that he forgets ‘the whole’ which he inadvertently pushes to the background and creates a cloistered2 world of his own in which he appears all-powerful. The fact is actually the opposite.

He has now crippled himself. To be isolated is not only to harm oneself but to pass from the natural to the unnatural.

The ability to dedicate the results of what you do to the whole of which you are a part is a matter of skill, training, education and upbringing. From the guru who brought you up to your students who will shine, there is a chain. They are not isolated instances.

Behind every act and creature, within the animate and inanimate things, lies a certain essence which inhabits the whole. Karma is a huge thing happening around this essence. Man is karma, he does his karma, he does it according to his nature modified by his experience, tradition and emotions.

The verses that follow show a way by which man can survive succeed and prosper within this huge web called karma not by trying to get out of it (which is not possible), not by fighting with karma

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(because you cannot fight with yourself) but by becoming oblivious to its effects (which are what bother man).

With the consequences of karma If you cannot cope You cannot blame karma As a bondage without any hope …2417 A man who strips Right up to his skin Cannot blame those Who laugh at him …2418 When you are ill And the tongue loses all taste Food you cannot blame And call it a waste …2419 When a leper gets ulcers And flies sit on them The leper blames the flies For the fear of shame …2420 Men tire of the fruit Of the karma they do And then blame karma As worthless and of no use …2421 The section begins with the unsavoury results of karma. All your actions cannot possibly bring on pleasing results. The undercurrent of all the verses in this section of the Dnyaneshwari is to look at the consequences of your karma with detachment. Only then can you cope with your karma. If for every setback you receive, you are going to blame your karma, you will have to give it up altogether (or in other words stop living). Three caricatural verses actually bring forth (modern!) images in front of your eyes. One is that of a streaker, the other of an ill man and lastly of a leper (now probably substituted by an equally pitiable viral disease, AIDS). The last verse is about the consequences of karma which is inevitable, and the foolish attitude by which instead of coping with karma or modifying it, man comes to blame his fate or destiny.

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Yadnya is a forte Of some of these men The surest way they say For karma to be tamed …2422 The word yadnya is used here as a ritual karma to achieve a certain result (please see Chapters 36,43). This system is contrary to the Upanishads3 but was prevalent even during Dnyaneshwar’s time.

The tenor of the verse indicates disapproval and this becomes clearer in the verses that follow.

Karma must be done To purify your mind That is the way to win Over sloth4 and the grind(karmic) …2423 If gold has to be cleaned A flame is a must If a mirror has to be cleaned A mop you must trust …2424 If clothes have to be cleaned Clothes must be washed The bucket used for washing How can it be trashed …2425 Karma might bother But it has to be done Cooking is a must If food is to be fun …2426 These verses are nothing more than the old saying ‘a thorn must be removed with a thorn.’ The only way to overcome karma which appears like a burden is to do it, irrespective of the results. The metaphors used are those of gold, a valuable metal, but even gold has to be purified and notice the agent for purification, a flame or fire. One had to smell the bucket of olden days in which clothes were immersed in soap prior to be washed to know what Dnyaneshwar meant about the difficulties of doing routine tasks. Even modern machines when their cycle gets interrupted emit foul odour. And lastly the act of cooking, a monotonous boring chore when done on a daily basis. Yet the fun of eating a proper cooked meal is

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incomparable. Having elaborated on karma, Dnyaneshwari narrates a group of verses to inform the listener that renunciation5 of the fruits of karma is the logical next step which involves three things: 1) Yadnya 2) Charity 3) Penance. The word yadnya is used here with a different meaning than in the earlier verse, that of activity performed as a societal6 obligation and later consecrated7 with a ritual involving a fire in the midst of a congregation followed by a community meal. The societal obligatory acts are the central (see Chapter 36, 43) theme of the whole episode. The word charity is self-explanatory but the word penance does not mean a man smeared with ashes and beads in hand, sitting cross-legged in a forest. The meaning here is that of contemplation8, to get rid of one’s material desires. Here are the remaining verses.

If you need to travel You have got to walk Search you will have to Till you find what you have lost Till you are filled A plate cannot be passed Till you reach the shore A boat is all that you have got Till you have got its fruit A tree cannot be chopped A lamp is a must Till you see what you lost Yadnya, charity and penance Abandon you cannot Till your mind is steady And rid of desirous thoughts ‌2427 The last of these verses indicate that yadnya (please see Chapters 36, 43), charity and penance are the coordinates that will chart your way to the final destination of renunciation of the fruits of karma.

The earlier group of verses include walking to reach your destination, using a lamp to find what you have lost, the need for a plate till you are full, a boat to cross water and a lamp to search too and get what you ought to. The example of a tree is that of a banyan plant which withers away only after it fruits. Cutting it down prematurely is mentioned as a folly.

When you know karma is performed as in a yadnya or while giving charity or by (constantly) watching over your mind for its

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predilection9 towards material things in life, karma is exalted10, becomes easier, even natural. This is how When you walk faster There is time to ease and rest When you persist with your karma It will be easy Yet it will crest11 …2428 When medicine is taken Promptly and with care Illness comes to vanish And a healthy body you wear …2429 When gold is treated with salts It comes to shed its faults With karma done with faith The mind comes to exalt …2430 Your body will be cleansed Where pilgrims bathe and halt Your good karma will rid Your mind of its faults …2431 The problem with karma is at its beginning. As in the metaphor above, once you start walking, you will soon be filled with the first and then the second wind. And as your speed and skill improves there is more time to rest and plan your karma.

The example of medicines being taken regularly, salts being applied to gold and a bath taken at centres of pilgrimage, all invoke images of external applications. Yet Dnyaneshwar clinches this group of verses by reminding his audience of the internal cleansing of the mind by the way of karma. A dedicated karmic state according to Dnyaneshwar brings in unexpectedly pleasant results.

In a hot and arid desert Hot winds bring a shower Or in the dark eyes of the blind The sun ushers its powers …2432 A river to the rescue Of a drowning man The earth rises to support

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A falling man Death bestows life To a dying man Poison’s clever use Lengthens a lifespan …2433 A technical note needs to be added. Each sensory organ (in the Indian philosophical tradition) has a patron. The sun is the patron of the eyes (the second part of Verse 2432). Notice the combination of a hot and an arid desert and hot winds as well. But what culminates is a shower. In the original verse, the shower is that of Amrit, a nectar that leads to immortality. The unexpected is further elaborated by images of drowning, dying, falling or living by way of a clever use of a poison in small doses.

Dnyaneshwar notes here that karma has to be done with skill.

Says he When karma is done with skill It seems that pride is killed A servant as a pilgrim His heart is always filled A rented soldier’s heart Has no place for ill will …2434 On someone else’s arm When a man swims and floats He cannot say he swam Nor can he gloat12 …2435 13 A priest who gives alms And doles14 out for his host Cannot take any credit Nor can he boast …2436 The cows of his master A servant who must herd He could not care less For the milk from their udders15 …2437 A foster mom will feed Someone else’s child

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But there is not that love Of the real mother’s eyes …2438 In the olden days in India, rich men would send their servants to centres of pilgrimage, with money to be given as an obligation and to seek blessings from deities. The servant who carried money for someone else nevertheless got to visit the centre and had no expectations from the visit because he had nothing to offer unlike his master. So also in the simile of a mercenary soldier (though paid for his job) what is implied is that he had no emotions towards the enemy he fought. A man who is saved by another across water, a priest come to consecrate an occasion, doling out alms on behalf of the host, a cowherd tending to someone else’s cows and the example of a foster mother are a series of extraordinarily linked examples and images which beautifully describe a sense of detachment while performing one’s duty.

Abandonment of karma is classified in the Geeta into three types, that by ignorant lazy fools, by those who are prone to action but are constantly seeking rewards and abandon their karma when they are not rewarded, and lastly by those who don’t abandon karma but renunciate its fruit and who are discreet, caring and wise (tam, raj and sattwa temper in that sequence. Please see Chapter 96 for tempers). Dnyaneshwar starts by explaining what ‘tam’ abandonment is Because when it gets dark And you cannot see with your eyes It just cannot be wise To pierce with your nails your eyes …2439 Migraine can give you pain But chop your head you cannot Because the road is steep Break your legs you cannot …2440 When you are hungry And the food may be steaming hot Don’t be in a haste And discard what you have got …2441 A foolish man gone mad Does not know what to do

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Karma can unlock karma Knows not this silly fool …2442 Indiscreet, hasty and self-destructive actions are the hallmarks of a man with a ‘tam’ temperament. Chopping off of one’s head or legs are exaggerated metaphors 16, but steaming food followed by impatience and a sudden exit from a food line by a hungry man is an image more akin to what may actually happen. The last verse is marked by the addition of insanity to the mind of an already foolish man. He possibly cannot understand that the key to the lock called karma is karma itself.

Next, an individual of raj temperament who is like an eager beaver17 and also pines for results is described A backpack18 is always heavy When you start on your trek Karma too can be a burden When the first attempt is made …2443 The fruit of the tree of neem Is bitter to taste when you bite But for youth, health and vigour It is just about right …2444 The cow is called holy But can put to use her horns A rose is called royal But can prick you with its thorns Cooking appears to be a task But food is a source of charm …2445 When you give up karma In between or at the start Renunciation of fruit For sure, it is not …2446 That karma is viewed and felt as a burden at the beginning (of a task) or midway in between is a frequent experience. The idea is to persevere as in a trekker19. The heavy backpack is going to get lighter as he approaches his destination. The whole neem tree including its bark, leaves and roots has been known to possess excellent medicinal value for at least 2000 years in India. But its fruit is bitter to taste.

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This is like the English phrase ‘to take a bitter pill’ or ‘to bite a bullet’.

The metaphors of the cow and her horns, the rose and its thorns as also the boredom of daily cooking are easy to understand.

Renunciation of the fruit is not giving up karma is what the last verse states.

Dnyaneshwar says Like the dawn dims the stars When realization dawns Renunciation of the fruit of action Can alone take you far A half-acted karma Will become a bar (to realization) …2447 Having disposed of the tam and raj tempers and their attitude to karma as it comes to be performed Dnyaneshwar now comes to the man with a sattwa temperament. Some of theses verses are difficult to interpret because they openly hint at the possibility of a brewing carnal20 desire in man towards his mother or daughter.

The first verse is general in nature Respect you must have For what the scriptures21 said That respect you must wear On your body as an amulet22 You perform your karma And on sattwa you are set What you do or do not You must just forget The rewards of your karma You may or may not get …2448 The meaning is obvious. The wearing of an amulet or a ring or a necklace are a common practice. Here you wear this thought as an amulet and then practise your karma without a thought for the rewards.

To see your mother With a carnal desire As per her word and advice Not to act or aspire Is a certain path To hell and its fire A mother must be cared

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From the beginning to the wire Cow gives dung But she cannot be retired A daughter can never be An object of desire It is in the nature of things That she be brought up with care …2449 These verses might have a grain of truth vis-à-vis a man’s mind.

In ancient Greek literature and in some stories in the Indian tradition such incestuous23 references can certainly be found and there is no denying that you read these things as news or in modern novels.

But why Dnyaneshwar should take recourse to these tendencies while describing the most noble instinct in man called sattwa remains a mystery in the mind of the author of this book. He probably wants to stress with a certain severity on the need to be completely detached from expectations that come with your actions.

A fruit you like Has a stone and its skin But throw it you don’t Because of these things …2450 The remaining verses are more straightforward. The fruit here is almost certainly a mango or a jackfruit. Both have inedible skin and a huge stony seed.

The seed* has to be burnt Then there is no tree Forget the rewards And you are set free …2451 * not related to the seed in the earlier verse

The theme of the seed is extremely common in Indian philosophical literature. The seed of desire has to be burnt in order to perform dispassionate acts.

Alchemy will rid Iron of its rust and its blot24 When sattwa will rise The other two are blocked …2452 The rise of sattwa, the exalted temper blocks the lower two, tam (indolence) and raj (too much activity).

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When sattwa comes to shine The eyes will finally see (the truth) Only till the dusk A mirage can you see …2453 The shining sattwa and vision are contradicted with a simile25 of disappearance of light and also of a mirage Show you cannot A thing called the sky The things of this world Then slowly collapse …2454 The sky gives birth And also hides the clouds He knows karma is Brahma26 And does not get fooled …2455 That this karma is bad Or this other is no good Till you are not awake That dream has you fooled …2456 The sky (or space) is not easy to define. It however allows clouds to form within it, the clouds quintessentially in the Indian tradition are temporary and almost nothing. Like this world, which is maya or magic as compared to Brahma the reality (the sky) which harbours maya (or clouds or the world). This is what happens when renunciation of fruit is done with sattwa. The world of objects (false!) collapses Whatever is done And by whoever it is The two are not dual But single it is …2457 The last verse reiterates that man must not segregate himself from the rest but should treat this whole experience as one.

Dnyaneshwar then reverts back to the incessant27 nature of karma.

To be born in a body And be made of flesh

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And then shun karma as a tool Is the nature of ignorant fools …2458 Of clay a pot cannot tire From a cloth thread cannot retire Heat a fire must bear Light, a lamp must wear. …2459 That the body is an embodiment of karma is repeated. The first two examples that follow are of material things. The latter are in the nature of energy (fire and light).

Asafoetida cannot be rid Of its smell Or water without wetness How can you tell …2460 The third group is of qualities, wetness and smell.

What karma has ordained28 You may avoid But the body as a karma You have to abide29 …2461 A vermilion patch crooked Can certainly be wiped But you cannot straighten your head If the head itself is crooked …2462 Both the verses fall into a pattern. Applying vermilion is a ritual (ordained karma) that can be modified but not the head (mind) if that itself has not grown straight. Karma therefore has to be borne.

Notice that the head is the most important part of the body.

Dnyaneshwar now elaborates further on karma as a continuous occurrence, never ceasing, irrespective of what happens to individuals.

Like you breathe Even after you sleep Incessant it is And is for keeps Living life and after death It bleeps, bleeps and bleeps The way to shed karma

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Which is easy and neat Is to never ever think About its treats …2463 Notice the simile of sleep (breathing persists) and also that of death, which does not stop karma. Death after all happens to only individuals. The modern expression, ‘Life treated me badly’ blames life which in its most basic state has no mind. However, man, a living creature, has a mind and therefore the misconception arises of ‘life treating him!’. In an even more modern context the treat is used as a material favour, typically a meal given by another. The verse conveys that man should not think of the rewards that karma will bring.

When karma is done For God and his sake Realization dawns As in rope and the snake When the karma you do Brings on pain To change your karma Is no possible gain Fisticuffs or kicks Both are the same A patient is not resting When he is in a faint …2464 The old traditional metaphor of a man imagining a rope to be a snake (synonymous with fear) is mentioned here to tell man that when he does for the sake of someone else (God!), fear is extinct because the results of the karma do not belong to him. The painful consequences of karma can’t be changed by changing karma, because all karma has consequences and the simile of fisticuffs or kicks when in a brawl has a touch of humour. The last verse tells the listeners that even taking rest is a planned action. A man who faints and becomes horizontal is not taking rest but has passed out. Karma will have to be done and done consciously.

Dnyaneshwar as a concession to the texts narrated earlier than the final Upanishads narrates the following verse.

Karma is good Or bad or mixed A good karma makes you God-like or king

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A bad karma will make you a vermin And earth you will eat A man comes about When the karma is mixed …2465 The verse as can be seen is popular religion, more than philosophy.

The expression mixed karma indicates that no man’s life is perfect and consists of all three karmas. What follows is the original theme that as long as you are around, karma sticks to you.

Karma is you Whatever you do And if you desire its fruits It (karma) will stick to you …2466 The more you strive More you may get Yet each act greets you Surely at your death A lender will meet you ‘Dot’ on his date …2467 In the sequence of the cob30 Down falls the grain More and more cobs And grains fall again …2468 The karma that you do Comes from your past This ‘now’ karma Will soon become the past One leg crosses another As you stride and walk A ferry boat turns Only again to start Karma and its fruit Like in life and death Do not ever depart …2469 That karma sticks to you at all times is reiterated here, if that is, you aspire for rewards. In the first analogy of food, too much, just because it tastes good (the fruit, the sensation) is shown to cause ill

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health. The next example is that of a man ‘on the go’ forever seeking more (fruit of his actions) who (all said and done) will have to pay for what he strove for. Shylock* the moneylender watches the calendar. Death is just a passing phase. Karma continues unabated like the example of the cob30 of a corn when it falls on fertile ground (an aspiring mind). In a longer sequence in this group of verses the point is clearly made that the march of karma is inexorable it has nothing to do with birth and death of what we call life and as if to highlight the idea of a march, Dnyaneshwar uses the metaphor of legs overtaking each other in walking. In the end he evokes the image of a boat which does nothing more than crossing from one shore to another. * from Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare

The seeds meant to be sown When you come to eat Or the lovely flower of Jai Hardly blooms and retreats To the fruits of your karma When you don’t submit The mind has a clearer beat And with the Guru’s blessings neat Realization is upbeat And duality comes to beat A total hasty retreat …2470 The very seeds that you sow, the special ones, (or karma of Category II from the earlier chapter) when you eat and digest and finally throw away karma and its consequences to all practical purposes (or as an individual experience) vanish. The Jai flower indigenous to the Deccan plateau blooms for a short period to shrivel away. When karma falls, the idea ‘I do’ falls, when the ‘I’ falls, all is ‘we’, the mind is cleaner, upbeat and realization is at hand.

In this section of the Dnyaneshwari before the Geeta and Dnyaneshwari go into the possible antecedents of karma, the group of verses narrated below compare karma (a cosmic occurrence) and the soul or Brahma or that thing (which precedes and harbours the cosmos.)

A painting is gone When a wall crumbles and falls

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Darkness must run When dawn comes to call …2471 Without a body A shadow is not Without a mirror An image is lost …2472 What of those dreams When a man is awake Real or false They need not be felt …2473 East is east West is west They are poles apart Karma and soul Part and the whole They too are far apart …2474 Karma comes to happen after Brahma or the primordial singularity came to spread, burst or explode. (For example, the big bang theory.)

The original singularity is indescribable and is not conceived to have a cause and effect relationship. That is what karma is, cause and effect. However, as the verses explain beautifully, a painting, (karma, a thing painted on your mind) must crumble when the wall crumbles (the idea that the karma is as real as the Brahma). So also with darkness and dawn, a body and its shadow, a mirror and the image within and of course dreams, Dnyaneshwar’s favourite metaphor.

When you are in the real world (!) dreams are nothing, when you are somehow constantly aware of Brahma, the real world(!) is not real. The last verse shows how far karma and the soul are.

When his pride utters That I do that and this Good as well as bad Both come to be his …2475 Clouds and space The sun and the mirage The air and the earth (light and heavy) The water and the rock

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The moon and its spots The path on which The man who walks The bed of the river The water and the moss The flame and its soot The vision and the eye On the strength of the soul Karma plays its part …2476 The first verse shows how a man gets pinned down because of himself. In contrast, a long verse is narrated by Dnyaneshwar about soul and karma (activity).

Space, air, sun, water, the moon and the path on which man (karma) walks are symbolic of Brahma.

Further the riverbed, as opposed to the water and the moss and algae, the flame, the vision (as opposed to the material eye) are used as symbols of Brahma.

Dnyaneshwar clinches the argument in the last verse by stating that karma comes to happen by borrowing from the spirit.

The case with which karma comes to be, is described in the next verse A lotus blooms Because of the sun For the pollen and its smell The bees, fly and run The lotus plant Just basks in the sun …2477 The sun does not do anything on purpose, the lotus plant is equally passive so to say and what can the bumblebee do except follow nature?

In the end Dnyaneshwar broaches31 the topic of the causes of Karma as related to the world of man. He says The soul does not Make or do There are reasons five How karma comes on view …2478

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The Genius of Dnyaneshwar analogy – partial similarity cloistered – secluded, sheltered Upanishad – the concluding portion of Vedic literature sloth – laziness, idleness renunciation – the act of giving up (usually the material world) societal – of the society consecrate – make or declare sacred contemplation – survey with the eyes or mind predilection – special liking exalted – raised, elevated, lifted crest – the top of a wave, mountain gloat – a look of triumphant satisfaction alms – charitable donation of food to the poor dole – charitable gift of food udder – mammary gland of sheep, cattle etc. metaphor – imaginative use of word, term or phrase eager beaver – to indicate constantly at some task backpack – a thing taken on the back for a long journey trekker – one who undertakes a long journey on foot carnal – of the flesh scripture – religious law, sacred writing amulet – a small piece of jewellery worn as a charm against evil incest – sexual union between two persons, closely related and therefore who cannot marry blot – word used for impurity in gold simile – compare one with another Brahma – ‘that thing’ from which the universe emerged incessant- without a stop ordain – appoint (in the religious context) abide – act in accordance with cob – related to corn/cylindrical cone of the maize ear broach – raise for discussion

The Genius of Dnyaneshwar Dnyaneshwari Verses 278–376 Geeta Chapter 18

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Chapter 108

Cause and Effect/ Reason and Purpose

Everything that happens in this universe has got (to have) a reason or a cause. The universe in fact is a huge conglomerate1 of causes and effects. These effects then themselves become causes which in turn have their own consequences (or effects). This is a very long chain (called ‘karma’) incomprehensible because of its vastness and the long duration, in which man appears only for a fraction of a moment, because in comparison, the time that has lapsed since the chain began would seem to stretch to infinity. In the little moment in which man enjoys or suffers life by way of his body and its sensorium2, he attempts to think, no matter that his resources are limited, and therefore the conclusions that he draws might be far from what the truth is. While it can be readily concluded by way of proof that cause and effect relationships exist in our world the question as to whether there is a purpose to the origin of the karmic chain continues to puzzle the best of human brains. A purpose implies intelligence, a design, a plan and an aim. True, man in his limited capacity can envision, plan and set in motion a karmic chain like building a house, boat or an aeroplane but to state that a creature trillions of times more efficient than man may have set in motion this universe is fraught with insurmountable questions and objections. For one what preceded this super creature, who created this universe and if there is a creator of the present creator why did it take an extra step of creating another creator? While these questions appear silly and even heretical3, they survive and also mock all those who subscribe to the view that ‘God created all’.

Unless of course man was to accept the Upanishadic4 doctrine5 (!) or hypothesis6 that 1)the primordial7 thing was a causeless cause 2) that it was pure energy or spirit 3) that it, for unknown reasons without purpose became responsible for the evolution of the universe 4) that the universe is transient and therefore is not as real as the spirit or the primordial stuff which is permanent without a beginning

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or an end and therefore the only everlasting reality 5) and lastly that irrespective of the material nature of the universe, that thing or spirit remains unscathed8 or unstained by what is called the material universe.

The above theory is clever and astute9. But the real beauty of the Upanishadic theory is not its cleverness but its open-ended quality.

In a way, to believe in the Upanishadic theory is to be faithless in the traditional sense (about a creator personal God) yet to be faithful to reason, via the dialogical process and to be aware of the limitations of man’s ability to comprehend. What comes about from this theory is that only the material world has causes and laws and these causes then also become the purpose of what comes about. For example, if the sensory organs are the cause of what you feel and then have a certain want, then this want also becomes the purpose in man, renders him somewhat of an automaton albeit10 with intelligence which modifies his behaviour. The word instinct best describes the pair of ‘cause and purpose’ and in man of all the animals intelligence modifies the instinct the most, yet does not completely eliminate it.

The verses that follow cover the above subject. There is a longish introduction to the verses in which Arjun and Shrikrishna flow with faith and love, admit poetically that they have now shed their separate existence or duality but must converse (though they are one) to discuss the matter (of philosophy) that is at hand. Only two remarkable verses from this group have been translated. The rest of the verses that follow deal with the subject proper, that of ‘cause and purpose’.

The introduction to the verses shows Shrikrishna (the Lord) and (Arjun) the man in the midst of a loving conversation. Arjun is aware of Shrikrishna’s greatness, and his own fortune in having him (Shrikrishna) to himself (Arjun). Shrikrishna on the other hand is enchanted11 by Arjun’s keenness to absorb the philosophy that is being taught and the love with which Arjun sways as he concentrates to pick up the knowledge that is being passed on. Their minds resonate with a synchronicity12, and they are so absorbed in one another that they forget their separate existence. In interludes when they address each other Shrikrishna once says When you have a mirror Why rely on the eyes Of the others To know yourself …2479

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To poetically indicate that Shrikrishna has become a mirror in which Arjun sees himself as a reflection.

Shrikrishna then adds When the very pearl Of wisdom Is with you Where is the need To look elsewhere For you …2480 And in another enchanting verse talks of their unity (in the words of Dnyaneshwar) The moon and the moonlight Together an ethereal13 delight …2481 Arjun however, greedy as he is for more information and insight reminds Shrikrishna Remember you promised to tell About karma’s reasons five And how the soul remains unstained In this busy karmic hive14 …2482 And that is how Shrikrishna comes to answer this tricky question.

Says he in Dnyaneshwar’s words Karma happens By these reasons five Purposes and purports15 Are also five …2483 A detailed list of the reasons and purposes is to follow but he (Shrikrishna) hastens to reiterate16 that the soul or the spirit remains untouched by what is happening.

The soul is untouched Not even stained Is neither the ground Nor the reason When karma comes to reign17 …2484 18 And Dnyaneshwar quickly adds a metaphor In the sky Day and night arise

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Around the soul Karma grows and resides …2485 That the sky remains unaware of either the day or night is further explained by a similar verse.

Water and heat Air and steam And clouds come about The sky is serene19 Is not aware Of what has come about …2486 Notice the familiar metaphor of the clouds. They represent the materialization in or of space. The familiar expression ‘the mind not clouded’ is similar in content, in that, an otherwise clear screen of the mind gets muddied by material things. (The muddying of water is also a similar expression.)

Dnyaneshwar then follows it up with a nautical example, involving man A boat is made Of wooden plates Pushed into the water By the skipper and mates Driven by wind When its sails are set Water supports This onward quest …2487 And then uses the metaphor of the earth to address the sun The rising sun Makes all things stir But it is nothing To the sun What gets done …2488 Having given these examples, Dnyaneshwar settles on the subject of the reasons that cause karma but again mentions the independence of the soul.

These reasons five Make the Karmic vine20

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The soul is tainted21 not It brightly shines …2489 Dnyaneshwar then clearly states that karma and its causes are not to be undervalued in their importance. Says he Each of these Is a pearl on its own Each will be weighed And clearly shown And then he starts to show the pearls The first of them Is the body Also called the place This is where The self resides And joy and sorrow it tastes …2490 The ‘self’ mentioned here is derived from the spirit, comes about with the body, is an entity22 that represents conscious life, conscious of itself and its surroundings, and the interaction between awareness and the environment result in two seemingly opposite effects—joy and sorrow.

This ‘place’ is further explained by Dnyaneshwar and how it comes to taste joy and sorrow.

Action and sense* Together ten Day and night they toil Body is the only Place they have Where everything gets coiled Where sleep and dreams And thoughts as well And bondage too Can get uncoiled …2491 * The organs of action—hands, feet, tongue, genitals and anus The sense organs—eyes, ears, skin, tongue, nose

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What happens in this limited space are wakefulness, sleep, and dreams and the bondage that these three engineer. What is remarkable is, this coiled existence can get uncoiled here in the body itself by way of ‘reason’ or intelligence which are closest to the spirit.

Dnyaneshwar then narrates the second cause of karma The second of the five Is the one who acts And is an image of the soul The sky rains water To form a puddle And mirrors the sky as a whole …2492 The closeness of the spirit (the soul) to intelligence (the one who acts) is shown here as a mirror image. A puddle of water, formed by a shower, which comes from the sky ends up reflecting the whole sky though the puddle is very small. This metaphor in nature is to be extended to the material world as below (by Dnyaneshwar).

A king in his dreams Beggar becomes And thinks He has gone poor The soul forgets What it is And thinks It is the body for sure …2493 The soul, the spirit, the Brahma , or that thing can never be accused of thinking (according to the Upanishads) but the verse has to be looked at with a certain poetic license. Intelligence or the motivator of actions which inhabits the body is a close ally of the spirit. After all, reason or intelligence is the most evolved of the attributes24 man has acquired. But this close ally of the spirit starts thinking that it is the mortal body.

The material manifestation of spirit is the body, and it is this mortal frame that comes to dominate man’s thinking throughout his life.

After all it is the body that is the source of his pleasures and his apparatus for participation in the world. But even the body comes to be further fragmented, as man comes to rely on the sensory world.

The five pores, eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin (the most porous of 23

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them all) assume a certain independence though they all together depend on nature that allows the evolution of the sense organs.

Dnyaneshwar says The nature within Does all the work But the body thinks Otherwise Light from a home Comes through its doors And many a lights Are surmised …2494 The above verse is a prelude to the enumeration of the sense organs as the third reason (of the five) Eyes and ears Tongue and skin And the nose as well Form the sensory herd25 They savour the world And are the reason third …2495 The fourth reason is the (vital) breath. According to the Indian tradition the breath though central to man’s existence takes on various forms. These forms are depicted by Dnyaneshwar thus When you breathe Or when you speak or yawn Or sneeze, belch26 or fart27 When you eat The juices which Take the food apart Then power the sinews28 And give them strength to start That soundless sound That rumbles around From deep in the belly To the heart

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And the holes below That drip and drain The hands that give And also take And the legs that move Like a cart ‌2496 It is extraordinary how all the activities that rely on the oxidative29 processes in the body are condensed here into a verse. The rumble deep in the belly is not just gases but has a deeper mystical meaning and is extensively covered in the chapter on Kundalini in this book (Chapter 51, alternate pathways).

Dnyaneshwar while elaborating the fifth and the last reason takes a convoluted path. In the Indian tradition, each important organ in the body is outsourced by a deity30 or a power. The eyes for example are ruled over or outsourced by the sun. We owe our sight to the light that it generates. Similarly the nose is ruled by the earth (the source of smell) the ears by space (through which sound must travel) the tongue by water (without which dispersal of the sensation of taste cannot occur) and the skin and the tactile31 impulse by air. While making the point that of all the reasons that are at the root of the karmic world, the ruling deities are paramount. Dnyaneshwar elaborates with an ascending cascade (!). Here is how The autumnal season Is better than the best The autumnal moon When it is full Far surpasses All the rest ‌2497 The spring over trees When it rules In their shade Balmy and cool With your beloved That special mood ‌2498 When the spoken word Is said in verse The verse is sweet And sentiments surge

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But all is surpassed When what is said Has a divine urge ‌2499 The body and mind With thoughts is full But it is reason That really rules And all your senses By deities are ruled ‌2500 Verses 2497 and 2498 depict autumn and spring, about six months apart, quite different in their character but Dnyaneshwar chooses the autumnal moon and a garden or a forest in spring to convey the kind of extraordinary effects that may be produced in the human mind. The next verse (2499) shows the power of words. Versification is better than prose and the verse is best when sung with a certain faith and is touched by a divine urge.

The verse after that (2500) shows the ascendancy of intelligence over body and mind. The last verse clinches the issue. Dnyaneshwar tells his listeners that in the karmic goings-on, man is ruled over by nature, natural forces or (deities).

Having given the reasons for karma to happen, the Geeta and the Dnyaneshwari are somewhat inadequate when it comes to revealing the purpose of any kind of karma. The three principal sources of what is called the purpose of karma are mind, speech and body.

This is a difficult idea to grasp. It would seem that the very fact that these three occur in this world means they become the purpose of karma. As mentioned in the introduction living things have an instinct, a certain autonomous32 behaviour. The first half of these verses therefore describe the automatic nature of man’s existence as fulfilling the purpose of its existence. The verses start with examples in nature.

With the spring Come shoots Then there are the flowers And soon come fruits Sun brings clouds And clouds pour rains

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Happiness follows A harvest of grains First comes light Red tinged white Then comes the sun And the day is all light The purpose for karma Is man’s inner mind The mind in turn Speech unwinds When speech shows the way Man is on his way Body is the purpose By reason swayed …2501 The first three verses depicting natural phenomena all show a sequence of events. Yet with the basic philosophical tenet33 of the Upanishads stating that the universe came about without a purpose, the idea of a purpose in natural phenomena must reside in themselves not outside them. Man might analyze the reasons for natural phenomena but the purpose of these phenomena 34 must be somewhat like instincts, embedded35 within the objects which exhibit the phenomena. The next two verses apply to man. The mind is followed by expression of intent (speech, language). Since this occurs in the body, the body too is a purpose for what comes to happen.

Dnyaneshwar then very cleverly refutes any extraterritorial36 seat for any purpose as far as objects or events are concerned.

Like things of steel By steel are repaired By thread on thread A cloth is made Only a diamond can Can a diamond cut By these three Their purpose is laid …2502 These three being the mind, body and speech.

The occurrence of an event however does not end the matter. The intentions of the ‘event maker’ also have to stand scrutiny. The word

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intention is no different from purpose. This therefore now divides deeds into wholesome and not so wholesome. This classification has cultural roots. Dnyaneshwar adds with wit Money that is stolen Is not charity given Or when boiling milk Comes to spill It’s not done with a will …2503 A thief might enjoy the fruits of his theft but that is no charity on the part of a victim. A can of milk kept for boiling may overflow by way of oversight. This is a waste, not renunciation37 of the desire for milk. On the other hand Water from a flood In a paddy field Nourishes roots And a bountiful yield Or In a fit of anger A man leaves home Comes to a shrine39 As he roams This deed is a chance But as pious is shown …2504 It is likely that a good deed might happen by accident yet a good deed done on purpose and determination is superior in quality to an accidental good deed.

Dnyaneshwar sums up this section by saying The alphabet is made By letters fifty-two When used with goodness Comes the scriptural39 route …2505 It would seem from this section that Dnyaneshwar in his Dnyaneshwari wants to suggest that the intentions and purposes in a man’s mind are spontaneously good or bad. The Geeta has only one verse on the subject which blandly states that mind, speech and body and good or bad intentions constitute the five purposes of all karma.

Both the Geeta and Dnyaneshwari are not on a ‘terra firma’ (solid ground) here. For example, good and bad are not only relative terms

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but are subject to change across ages. This is an area of traditional faith and man instinctively grasps what is good or bad in his own time. Looked at in another way, when one decides to go by a certain tradition it is more fruitful to have complete faith in that tradition, hoping that some of its practices might reveal their true meaning over a period of time by way of continuous study and application.

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conglomerate – a number of things that form a heterogeneous mass sensorium – network of sense organs (eyes, ears etc.) and their sensations heretical – the holding of an unorthodox opinion Upanishad – the concluding portion of the Vedic literature doctrine – a principle of religious or political belief hypothesis – a proposition for reasoning without assumption of its truth primordial – present from the beginning unscathed – to remain undamaged astute – shrewd, sharp, subtle albeit – of course enchanted – delighted, charmed synchronicity – occurring at the same time ethereal – heavenly, highly delicate hive – a busy place purport – the sense or tenor of a thing reiterate – repeat reign – rule metaphor – imaginative use of word, term or phrase serene – clear, calm, unperturbed vine – a creeping plant tainted – spoilt entity – a thing Brahma – ‘that thing’ from which the universe emerged attribute – quality herd – a group of animals as in cattle belch – bring out air from the stomach fart – pass gas from the anus sinews – junction of muscle and bone oxidative process – a process in which oxygen reacts with a thing deity – used here as a presiding God tactile – connected with the sense of touch autonomous – self-governed tenet – principle phenomenon – a happening or an occurrence embedded – buried terrestrial – related to the earth or the dry land renunciation – the act of giving up shrine – the tomb of a saint etc. scripture – religious law or sacred writing

The Genius of Dnyaneshwar Dnyaneshwari Verses 377–461 Geeta Chapter 18

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Chapter 109

The Soul/ Atma*

It is always worthwhile to dip into the vast literature on Indian philosophy that Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan has left behind to clarify one’s thoughts. S. Radhakrishnan was not only a great philosopher of the twentieth century but also a distinguished statesman and was one of the earliest presidents of the Indian republic. Here is what he writes about the soul (Atma in Sanskrit) in his book Indian Philosophy (Vol I, New York, The Macmillian Company London, and George Allen and Unwin, second edition 1929). The material reproduced below is in the form of extracts from the chapter ‘Philosophy of the Upanishads.’

1) The Upanishads recognize only one spirit, almighty, infinite, eternal, incomprehensible, self-existent, the creator, preserver and the destroyer of the world (called Brahma1) [the Brahma is an indescribable singularity from which the cosmos came about. The word comes from the root Brih to mean to spread.

The Upanishads are the last of the philosophical thoughts which followed the Vedas. Upanishads2 are also called Vedant, (ved + ant) or end of the Vedas]. or 2) ‘That’ from which these beings are born, ‘that’ in which they live and ‘that’ into which they enter at their death (that is Brahma). Everything else hangs on it (Brahma) and it (Brahma) hangs on nothing.

3) The inner immortal self (the soul*, the Atma ) and the great cosmic power (Brahma ) are one and the same. The Brahma is Atma (soul) and the soul (Atma) is Brahma. The soul of the man is the keyhole to the landscape of the whole universe.

4) This self (Brahma) which embraces all, is the sole reality containing within itself all the facts of nature and all the histories of experience.

5) There must be something at the back of it all, (self-existent) in

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which alone the mind can rest. Knowledge, mind, the senses and their objects are all finite and conditioned.

6) That something, the subject (consciousness) persists throughout the changes, the common factor, in the states of waking, dream, sleep, death, rebirth and final deliverance.

7) That this subject (consciousness) is the universal ground, which is in all individuals. It is hidden in all things and pervades all creation.

8) The spiritual language of the soul rebukes3 light-hearted joyousness and provokes reflection on the purpose of man’s existence. Discontent with (what we see as) the actual is the necessary (pre)condition of every moral change and spiritual rebirth. That which gives (real and sustained) zest to life is the supreme motive of the joy of self-conquest. Life is a stage in spiritual perfection, a step in the passage to the infinite (from the finite). The Upanishads declare that the soul will not achieve salvation by the performance of (external) sacrifices (or rituals). It can be achieved by the truly religious life based on an insight into the heart of the universe. Perfection is inward and spiritual, not outward or mechanical. In fact a man cannot be cleansed by washing his shirt.

9) The body is only an instrument and comes to be mounted on consciousness while consciousness is not the product of the body.

These reproductions from Radhakrishna’s writing are not arranged in the order that they were written in the original and the brackets that appear from time to time are supplied by the author of this book with the intention of making the verses that follow more meaningful to the reader. For example, the last of the points mentioned above is relevant to the first verse that forms this chapter.

Asks Dnyaneshwar Does the soul get trapped In this karmic hive4 Caused by the reasons Which are five ‌2506 The last chapter has clearly stated that karma arises by reasons, which are a part of the natural forces and have nothing to do with the soul or Brahma. As mentioned in Point 9 (above) nature (or body) comes to be mounted on the universal consciousness. In answer to the question above Dnyaneshwar narrates a series of metaphors.

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When the sun comes to rise And lights up all things It does not become All those things …2507 His image in the mirror When a man comes to see The mirror and the image He need not be …2508 Because of the sun Arise night and day The sun is neither The night nor the day …2509 The soul makes possible For karma to happen The soul does nothing For karma to happen …2510 In the above verses the sun, lighting up things and causing day or night or the man who sees in the mirror to produce a reflection are bystanders. The image, for example, is a product of the glass. As has been narrated by Dnyaneshwar earlier, the shattering of the glass will not affect man but only his image. In the philosophy of the Upanishads the cosmos is not like a tree growing out of a seed (Brahma). This is a principle that man must hold dear to his heart so that he is not trapped by the body which is the principal seat of the karmic web and therefore says Dnyaneshwar The man who thinks That the body is all That soul, spirit and Brahma Are only bodily parts In the darkness of ignorance He stumbles and falls …2511 In a rainwater pond The sun quivers5 and shakes Means not the sun Is subject to quakes …2512

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But if the sun in the pond Is all that one knows Then that’s how facts Will be twisted and shown …2513 A dream is real Till you wake You must know a rope From a fearful snake …2514 A yellow moon For the jaundiced eye The deer tempted By a mirage …2515 What runs in the sky The clouds or the moon Moon it thinks And the fox is fooled …2516 When you mistake Your body for the soul Your mind is bound to Miss your goal …2517 The quivering image of the sun, the moving clouds in the sky which for a fox appear like the moving moon, are metaphors involving movement. The jaundiced eye and the yellow moon is a static metaphor but deer running towards an imaginary pool of water is a mixed metaphor. All of them point to basic ignorance because the play of the senses which bolsters 6 this ignorance denies knowledge of the permanent reality of the spirit.

A couple of verses follow which show the distinctly separate or aloof reality of the spirit from karma A volcano sits At the bottom of the sea But its fires are not touched By the waters of the sea …2518 From the world of karma Spirit is far

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To be tied by karma Is to lose it by far (this spirit) …2519 The metaphor7 of the volcano is delightfully apt and brings forth its image in front of your eyes. That all that water will not be able to quench the fire within (that volcano) is meant to show the indestructible nature (!) of the spirit as opposed to water, which is subject to turbulence.

Shrikrishna now embarks on describing that person who has realized the truth (about his spirit or soul or Brahma).

Says he in the words of Dnyaneshwar About the one who acts And in karma he is But not touched by karma I will explain to thee …2520 When you lose your things You use a lamp You see a realized man And realized you are …2521 The more a mirror is cleaned The better you see Though the image sees you Only you happen to be …2522 When your spirit has waned8 Think about saints Sooner than later Your spirit you regain The eyes made of skin This vision can’t taint9 …2523 The use of a lamp is a simple example. One needs light to be able to see clearly. Spiritual men provide this opportunity. The metaphor of the mirror is subtler. The more you follow your spiritual guide, the clearer becomes your vision. But even more important is the reference to your image. When the image looks back at you, you realize its falsity and the duality of the event. When the eyes of the ‘seer’ and the ‘seen’ (the subject and the object) meet, duality falls.

The first person singular ‘I’ and ‘me’ and the image disappear and

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realization dawns. But this experience is short-lived. In order for it to become a way of life you must keep the company of realized people and follow the example. The waning spirit is then regained and the vision provided by this experience is beyond the ordinary optic experience achieved by an organ made of skin. (It must be noted here that almost the whole of the eye is developed in the ectoderm, the outer embryological layer which also forms the skin.)

In a succession of verses Dnyaneshwar describes the awakened state When the moonlight spreads Gone is the mirage When you grow The bogeyman10 has gone When sleep is over Dreams can’t form …2524 That is how individual pride or the ‘me’ and ‘I’ disappear and one views the world as one. The multiplicity of the world is like a mirage, a dream (this world full of fear) is a bogey where one cooks up scenarios.11 Another weighty metaphor now follows The sun cannot meet darkness Because darkness recedes When the spirit is met It fully accedes12 You become ‘that’ And completely cede13 …2525 The well-known Indian philosophy axiom that the sun can have no knowledge of darkness is used here. The spirit or the soul too cannot harbour anything material like the body or the mind and its perception of the gross world. When a man as a material being encounters his soul, the spirit or the soul comes to hold complete sway and you have to cede your material being completely to the spirit.

The subject under discussion here is one of unity. The one who acts, the action that is undertaken and the result that accrues14, though seen differently in the karmic world are in fact the manifestation of a single thing and occur within a single thing called Brahma. For example, when a thing burns you cannot separate the fire from that thing. Here are the verses

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When things ignite Only fire it is When the last flood floods Where are the streams When the spirit is touched Karma recedes The soul can’t be grasped When the ‘I’ persists When the world is lit It is not by the sun But by sunlight it is …2526 The last of the examples, that of the sun is the most intricate. The body of the sun is put here on a lower pedestal because it has dimensional limitations, not so its light, which even by modern standards defies a proper definition. Light spreads and envelops objects and so does the spirit which envelops man.

To put these ideas in perspective Dnyaneshwar says When the sun comes to rise It knows not the night You just cannot box Fire or light …2527 Proceeding from the idea of a box, Dnyaneshwar uses space as an example.

There is no place Where there is no space Does the water in the sea Flow or race The pole star stays In the same old place His desires and ego Are in their place And watches he calmly As karma takes place …2528 The example of the pole star, the cessation of streams once rivers pour into the sea and wherever objects might be, space as an entity remains unaffected, is brought out skilfully in the above verses to describe a man who overtakes the comings and goings of karma.

Indeed since karma is somewhat autonomous15 it is not going to

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stop happening. When a man is spiritually awake, all that happens is, he becomes a witness or a spectator to what goes on. Here are the verses which depict this development.

After the wind has fallen Leaves do rustle Though a stream has dried Moisture nestles After a musical soiree16 The melody lingers After the sun has set The light still flickers …2529 An arrow won’t fall After the target is pierced The wheel will turn After the pot is cleared The ego may vanish But the body won’t dither17 …2530 The verses depict natural phenomena involving motion, the wind, the stream, the continuous flow of music and the passage of the sun.

Yet the movement having passed, it still leaves a residue or a telltale18 sign. The melody that sings in your mind is perhaps the clinching metaphor of the message of spirituality that has been sung in your inner space.

The arrow and the potter’s wheel are man-made objects, one of which is a circular motion. The target having being pierced (that of realization) or the pot having been made (the pot is cleared of the wheel) the motion of these objects need not be interrupted. As also in man, once realization is at hand about the true self, the body will not dither from its natural course or trajectory. This natural course is depicted in the following verses.

A dream is not Planned or designed Grass grows wild Without an order or a sign Castles of clouds For no reason or rhyme Without the help of the soul Grows the karmic vine19 …2531

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Coming back to the thing called Brahma as opposed to the manifested world, Dnyaneshwar narrates the following verses.

The worlds may be made Or in smithereens20 smashed The Brahma is unaware Of what has passed …2532 A lotus may wither After it has bloomed The sun knows not As it passes and zooms …2533 Whether a lightning strikes Or rains make green To the fate of the earth The sky is serene When man wakes up Where are the dreams Inured21 is he To the karmic stream …2534 As usual the purpose of describing Brahma is to send forth a message to man that he too should look with disinterest at what is going on, yet not give up on karma while disregarding its consequences. Such a man is depicted in various ways.

When you use your eyes Made of skin He appears to swim In the karmic stream …2535 One requires real vision to see what this man is up to A scarecrow22 built To guard and watch Looks like a man To a foolish fox …2536 This is the second time the fox has appeared in a verse. He is fooled by a scarecrow. The fox is clever or sharp in a superficial kind of way. A man who lives in this world and does all the things that men do but is in fact only going through the motions without getting involved in the rewards or retributions that karma brings

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fools the world into believing that he is an ordinary mortal. And such is the abandon with which this man follows this course of action that let alone the world, he himself is oblivious23 to his way of life.

There are three verses to show how abandoned he has become from the karmic world.

An insane man Stripped to the skin Does not know Till the others have seen …2537 A frenzied soldier With wounds of war The wounds are watched By the others by far …2538 A woman once ready For her husband’s pyre* Does not care What is in store …2539 An insane man stripping himself is not an uncommon spectacle.

Soldiers driven to exceptional bravery, mortal24 wounds notwithstanding are frequently depicted in movies. *The obnoxious revolting and criminal practice of ‘sati’ in which a wife would be burnt on her dead husband’s pyre25 is depicted in the last verse.

Such is her commitment that she has lost all traces of fear as people watch her climbing the pyre with all the decorative paraphernalia26 that married women wore on an auspicious day. In all three examples the subject is in a state of total abandonment as far his mortal physical self is concerned. To follow up these verses, here is how a summing up is done.

One who knows What is real His body or deeds He sees nor hears …2540 When a large wave swallows A smaller wave Only the one who watches Sees the swallowing game …2541

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But the water on which The waves are formed To that water Water is all …2542 The fulfilled man knows That all is one There is nothing to harm Nor kill or shun …2543 A ritual priest Uses things of gold Little realizing All is gold …2544 Water and fire A painting can show But neither of the two The canvas knows …2545 To say that by the sun Darkness is killed Cannot be true For they can’t meet …2546 The good or the sin Are nothing to him Into the Ganga pours Even a gutter of a stream A fire can’t burn What already burns A weapon can’t hurt A weapon in turn …2547 All these verses are about unity. The waves on water are water, the implements in a ritual come from the same thing (Brahma, God) for which rituals are being done, a painting shows diversity but only with the help of a single canvas. For the exalted27 man, all deeds are but variations of a single, the sea for example takes all kinds of water.

When the end point of realization arrives, there is only light and it has not come by killing darkness. The very expression ‘there is light’

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means there is no darkness. There can never be a conflict between the two. That is also why Dnyaneshwar says fire cannot burn fire, or a weapon cannot wound a weapon.

We are now approaching the end of this section of the verses.

Metaphors and similes28 are to be replaced by pure philosophical thoughts as under.

The actor the action And the result as a fact He sees them as one And karma is done With élan29 and tact30 …2548 Intellect and reason And the body at large Cause and purpose And the ten that act* The nature of deeds Tactless or with tact The soul is a witness But does not act** …2549 * discussed in detail in the preceding chapter of this book ** covered in the next chapter ‘First you see then you do’, Chapter 110

The first of the above verses states that the one who acts, the action that is done and the result that we think is real, are only three parts of a whole. To say that ‘I’ by way of ‘this’ deed, came to make ‘that’ is a travesty31, a product of something which has no such attribute as ‘me’, ‘this’ or ‘that’. It is only when one realizes the truth that a certain tact or a method evolves by which karma comes to happen and the man involved shines with a certain élan.

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Brahma – ‘that thing’ from which the universe emerged Upanishad – the concluding portions of the Vedas rebuke – scold hive – a busy swarming place quiver – tremble or vibrate bolster – strengthen metaphor – imaginative use of word, term or phrase wane – reduce in strength or vigour taint – stain, blot, blemish, corrupt bogey, bogeyman – an imagined fear, and the thing involved in this fear scenario – an outline of a plot

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accede – to take office cede – to give up accrue – come as a natural increase autonomous – self-regulated soiree – an evening party for conversation or music dither – hesitate, be indecisive tell-tale – revealing vine – a climbing plant smithereens – small fragments inured – accustomed to something unpleasant scarecrow – human figure in a field to scare away birds oblivious – completely unaware mortal – subject to death pyre – collection of wood to burn bodies by cremation with a religious ritual paraphernalia – miscellaneous items exalted – raised, elevated in stature simile – compare one thing to another élan – dash, verve, flourish, vigour, spirited tact – intuitive perception of the right thing to do travesty – a bad misrepresentation or imitation

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Dnyaneshwari Verses 461–516 Geeta Chapter 18

Chapter 110

First You See, Then You Do

When a man watches a bird sitting on the branch of a tree and also hears it sing, where is the man located? The place where he stands, with the bird in the tree, or between these locations(!)? These questions are likely to appear very silly but they address a very fundamental issue in philosophy. Can we see an object without being or becoming one with it? It is true that light travels from the bird to the man’s retina and stimulates the cells of the retina, and sound weaves through the air and falls on the eardrum of the man and stimulates his hearing apparatus. But are the man, the bird and the medium in which the stimulating waves travel, not joined as a whole at that moment? Or at all times? Remove any one of the three, the one who sees, the thing that is seen, and the sight observed and the whole scenario1, so to say, collapses and becomes null and void2.

Could it be then that there is only one thing divided in three parts for this worldly thing to come about? And that this world is in fact a fragmented appearance of something which is only one, single, unitary thing? The Upanishads 3 answer that question in a resounding affirmative4 and aver that ‘indeed all is one and only appears to be multiple’.

Yet for reasons that are practical, the artificial division of the preceptor, that which is perceived and the perception are a useful division for the world (of man) to run. (That world which is turning around itself without man realizing it.) This cosmos5 which according to the Upanishads evolved out of an entity called Brahma6, is what the world hangs on without the Brahma being aware of this event. As Radhakrishnan put it and was quoted in the earlier chapter (109), whatever might hang on the Brahma, Brahma hangs on nothing. In fact the thing called perception or the act of seeing or hearing or feeling are recent phenomena, only from the time that living matter came along. By that token it is somewhat removed from what was originally present. The ability to take action, or to

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act or to respond and further to respond in what we call in a rational or skilful manner are the next steps in this cascade7. To put it in Dnyaneshwar’s words, while Brahma is pristine8, the perceptor is little inferior in comparison. And when man chooses to act based on his perception, he steps down further, landing on the ground from his lofty9 perch10 from where he observed, like a bird ‘now come to pick on a worm’. If a modern circus was to exist in Dnyaneshwar’s time, he might have called Brahma as the tent from which hang various trapezes11 or swings, which also accommodates cages, and under which a show goes on with actors and perceptors galore and in which various acts get performed. The tent, Dnyaneshwar would have said was not even aware of the show.

The verses under translation here are about the show. In parts they are purely philosophical with a precise nomenclature12 but as usual they are also dotted with fascinating metaphors13 and similes14.

The triad15 that paints On the canvas of life When ignorance Is full and rife I will to you Explain and describe …2550 Shrikrishna, in the words of Dnyaneshwar, is stating that the artificial division of the one who knows, that which is known, and the knowledge therein is in fact ignorance (because all three are parts of the same thing and knowledge about that single entity is real wisdom). The three are described below There is that thing Which invites to be known There is that one Who happens to know And the knowledge Which appears To have come To be known Is the triad that brings Karma to be honed16 …2551 In the final analysis, only when information is obtained, can action follow, based on that information. Though this is explicitly stated later, a hint is given in the above verse that karma is a product of the

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above triad. The way information is reached for is beautifully idealized in the verse below Like by the sun And its rays The lotus is unfurled The senses and their deities17 Are poised and eager To savour the world …2552 The mention of each sensory organ having a presiding deity has appeared in an earlier chapter (108) (the sun for the eye as an example). These sense organs reach out to the objects to understand them. There is a variety of the Indian lotus which blooms as the sun reaches it via its rays. The metaphor is apt in its description of how an object is reached.

Knowledge is thus gained With it pleasure and pain Where all these reside Knower its name …2553 That all sensory exploration cannot always bring joy or pleasure is noted above. This bundle of sorrow and joy resides in the knower.

The linear arrangement of the knower, object, and knowledge is brought out in the next verse.

What is to know In front is stacked18 The knower remains Waiting at the back What is in between ‘Knowledge’ its tag …2554 The word ‘tag’ as a label used here carries the same sentiment as in Dnyaneshwar’s original expression ‘so it is said’ about knowledge.

Dnyaneshwar as well as the Geeta do not lay great store by the information that is acquired by way of the sensory apparatus which is what is conveyed here. After all putting a tag does not mean that a comprehensive description of the object is available.

Having sensed information about the objects, man starts to acquire them, and then savour them or reject them.

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When what is to be known Is met The knower stops In his tracks Then begins the game Of getting this and that With knowledge Such as this Only the surface Is scratched Now let me tell you About things That the knower Comes to catch When the knower ‘Meets’ a mango Different senses arise Colour, taste and smell And touch too Is surmised The mango is a single thing But four senses are perceived From the unity of this world By the senses man is deceived …2555 ‘Information gained by the sensory apparatus’ is the subject of the above verses but more importantly, the knower or the subject is now poised to seize the objects, which give the sensory stimuli. The expression ‘he stops in his tracks’ is to indicate that man having tasted or looked at or touched or smelled an object is not willing to go beyond what his sensorium conveys to him. That the mango as a single entity is not what man appreciates nor the fact that a single object can offer him a variety of stimuli. That then is as far as a man will go

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Like a river is stopped After it reaches the sea Or the traveller rests When his station is reached Or a crop stops to grow When out comes the wheat The knower stops running After the object is seized …2556 And in a further sequence Dnyaneshwar is probably at his withering19 best Like a stork Gobbles a fish The wretched pounce On the money of the rich A woman in his arms Fulfils a lecher’s20 wish Water will rush When the slope is steep A calf wrestles With the cow’s teats For the virgins in heaven The ladders of rituals reach To its mate across the sky A pigeon will sweep The rumbling of the clouds A peacock jumps to meet …2557 All the above examples show the intensity with which a subject would want to embrace or meet its objects of desire. It is well known that in all the examples given above, there is no going back unless the desires are fulfilled or the subject is exhausted. The only example that needs some clarification is that of ladders reaching to heaven.

In most religions the ideas of heaven are studded with material and carnal21 pleasures. A young desirable virgin is such a classical pleasure and man (male in this instance) takes recourse to a variety of rituals (ladders to heaven) to achieve this objective. The sweeping pigeon is also male.

The process of gratification of the senses is however not an open and shut case.

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It is the norm to yearn That is how turns the world What is disliked Is quickly spurned If cannot be spurned22 The mind continues to burn And what is liked Has to be quickly earned But if not earned A dagger in the heart As if twists and turns …2558 And more often than not because our sensory organs betray us, a comical scenario develops When a snake is thought To be a string of beads One reaches for it But if it is a snake indeed Fear is back After a moment of greed …2559 The snake and a rope or a snake and a string of beads are wellknown metaphors commonly used to show the inadequacies of our sensory world.

The one who knows or perceives objects must also become the one who takes appropriate action. The knower then becomes the executor.

When knowledge appears Action starts The knower plays The actor’s part An army general On a chariot’s top Quickly steps down To show his wrestling art …2560 For a general of the army, to step down from his chariot and then wrestle an enemy is a comical comedown. An image is brought out where his army watches dumbstruck as the general climbs several notches down to indulge in some inconsequential personal rivalry,

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because of a momentary impulse. But the verse is narrated just for that purpose, where silly actions overtake men who think they are in the know of the meaning of a sensory impulse which in fact needs to be deliberated and then treated with discretion23.

In most instances, the involvement with an object of desire is complete and ludicrous24. To show the nature of this blanket effect, Dnyaneshwar narrates the verses below Cooking done By the honoured guest A bumblebee herself The garden makes A goldsmith takes on The touchstone’s25 shape A temple built

By God himself …2561 That God Himself should build a temple, a bee which should be savouring the garden should make it herself, that the guest should enter the kitchen to cook, or the goldsmith in his eagerness should become the implement himself instead of using it, are all examples of loss of proportion in the face of temptation.

Dnyaneshwar then follows it up by summing up as to what has happened, and states that the one who perceives, also acts, thus action is executed and a deed comes to be done and all this together is called karma.

Actions done And karma becomes And the purpose is The objects won (!) (or lost) …2562 But when karma happens by instinct and impulse, when there is spontaneity yet haste, when discretion and reason, which represent the higher aspects of life and are nearest to the soul are not in evidence, man in his actions is lowered to the baser part of his nature.

The lowering is depicted by the following group of verses You can’t see When the night is come When luck abandons No games and fun After the full moon comes It loses some

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The knower when Actor becomes Limbs and senses He twists and turns That is when Karma becomes …2563 And the natural spontaneous way in which the unmodified karma comes about is shown by the following verses With the goldsmith’s thoughts Ornaments fill By the rays of the moon Moonlight spills Or a creeper spreads By its will Or the sky it is By which space gets filled Through the one who acts By his action Karma is billed …2564 The verses show a spatial character where things get filled or overflow and spill. The verse about how the ideas in the mind of the goldsmith carve ornaments out of gold is the crucial verse. Gold is the basic stuff of which things are built, or from which things are made, a sort of Brahma, the real (!) reality from which the material world comes about, or man imagines has come about.

The last two verses portray the world of karma and that of the soul as two separate entities.

The knower and the actor Are one and the same The action follows And deeds are made …2565 But the soul and the actor Are not the same The soul is not A part of this game …2566

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The Genius of Dnyaneshwar scenario – sequence of events, a frame null and void – invalid, not existent Upanishad – the concluding portion of the Vedic literature affirmative – asserting that a thing is so, express approval cosmos – the whole of the universe in a certain order Brahma – ‘that thing’ from which the world emerges cascade – waterfall divided into small parts pristine – unspoilt, in its original state lofty – imposing height, towering perch – spot, location, position trapeze – cross bars suspended by ropes for acrobatics nomenclature – systematic naming metaphor – an imaginative use of a word, term or phrase simile – compare one with the other triad – a group of three hone – sharpen (and make) deity – god or goddess stack – pile (up) or heap wither – scornful, reject, rebuff lecher – full of lust, sexy carnal – of the body spurn – avoid, get away from discretion – prudence, care ludicrous – absurd or ridiculous touchstone – a fine-grained quartz stone to test metal and alloys

The Genius of Dnyaneshwar Dnyaneshwari Verses 517–585 Geeta Chapter 18

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Chapter 111

The Nature of Perception (or knowledge)

That man as a creature is a material1 phenomenon, is beyond dispute.

In the terminology employed by physicists2 man is a densely condensed area of energy which emerges as a mass or body. Of course, unlike a stone or a brick this mass is mobile, has a mind and can procreate. It is a complex mass, complicated in its functions, superior to animals in its intelligence, capable of thoughts and also extraordinary ideas and has now seemingly(!) come to preside over the earth. But its original character of being material in construction endows it with a certain nature or a pattern of behaviour. No two men are identical in the way they react to a problem. Kapil’s Sankhya system which elaborates the functional aspect of man by numbering the constituents that go to make a man (sankhya= numbers in Sanskrit) has been discussed at length in two previous chapters (Chapter 79, Kapil Construct, Chapter 96, The tempers of man). Here in the eighteenth chapter of the Geeta the subject is revisited and in some respects dealt with more elaborately. The three tempers that man can possess, sattwa (the very essence of consciousness, a buoyant3 spirit, very light, and representing the goodness in man), raj (feverish excitement and restless effort lending to success and pleasure or disappointment and pain), and tam (apathy, indifference, lack of reason or discretion)4, influence the way a man first perceives the world, then thinks and finally acts. The Geeta and the Dnyaneshwari take each facet separately for each temper and then elaborate on them in these verses after a brief introduction to the Sankhya system itself.

The triad5 That I told you about Of the knower, the doer and the deed Is just not enough To know this world Each has a different creed6

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Raj and tam Will bind you down And sattwa will Set you free …2567 The way one perceives the world, the action that follows depending on the thoughts that are gathered and the actor or the doer, each belongs to a certain creed or has a characteristic according to the materialistic system called Sankhya described by Kapil (briefly discussed in the introduction and discussed in detail in Chapters 79, 96). The message in the above verse is clear. Raj, the actionoriented personality or tam, a personality dominated by sloth7 and laziness will bind a man to this material world. The sattwa personality, dominated by discretion, and careful appraisal8 of the nature of the world (based on the spirit) will however release man from the burden of this material world.

The Sankhya system With the ‘tempers’ therein Is a vast philosophical sea Brahma9 and nature Mixed together Like day and night I will separate for thee …2568 Vedant (or the end of the Vedic literature comprising the Upanishads) avers that though Kapil’s system analyzing the material nature of man stands on its own feet, the evolution of the material world does not occur independently but evolves for reasons unknown from the indefinable entity called Brahma. In the above verse they (Brahma and the material world) are described as mixed like a day and night together (a contradiction in terms) but which the Geeta and now Dnyaneshwar promises to separate.

From God creator To the smallest ant From ‘tempers’ None is free When the vision clears And is filled with sattwa

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Things appear Clear and clean …2569 Notice that ‘God is a product of man’s imagination’ and is also not spared from the three tempers.

The tendency to drown in this world or to be drawn to it as one goes about one’s life are a characteristic of the tam and raj temper.

In the former, such is the indolence and lack of intellectual ability that the world overwhelms man. In the Raj personality there is an obsession to actively deal with forms and appearances without discerning10 the hidden play of forces or the spirit. Judgement is therefore faulty though action is plenty. In a man dominated by sattwa, action or activity is calibrated, discretion is of a high order and appearances and forms are taken in one’s stride. The sattwa temperament’s perception is described first.

Like the sun cannot Darkness see Rivers pour But unaware is the sea Your shadow can’t be Caught by thee From God creator To measly grass All is one This vision sees Forms and figures Whatever be …2570 The examples of the sun (light), the sea (for its majesty), the impossibility of grasping a shadow (a mere figure), and the comparison between God (in the heavens) and grass (on the ground) are used to stress the message that the sattwa man is not deceived by form (and figures). He sees unity in everything he knows and this gets reflected in his deeds.

When a slate is wiped It is the letters That get wiped When salt is washed Away it goes Out of sight

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When you wake Dreams disappear In the morn after the night The knower and the known The doer and the deed Are not to be seen When sattwa fills your sight …2571 This verse is also about unity but is now focused on the self. That ‘I did this unto you (or unto that) because I thought that the deed was what was needed’ is a sentence that typifies the fragmentation of the events in this world. And that is how it has to be because the world too is a (relative) reality. As sattwa gathers force this fragmentation tends to disappear and the subject (self) and the object (the target) tend to gather themselves together. As Dnyaneshwar says in the two accompanying verses ‘where is the need to construct ornaments or trinkets when each is after all gold’ and adds that one must collect water as a whole and not try to grab each individual wave. To conclude, Dnyaneshwar returns to the simile of the man, the mirror, and the image When in the mirror What you see Is your image That is seen The one who sees And what is seen All is one Must come to thee …2572 The emergence of the sattwa temperament in man condenses his world into the basic fundamental truth, the spirit. The sattwa principle teaches man that all is one, that we are mere passing images, like our own in the mirror, made possible by light—an entity11 that is the closest to Brahma (of the many things that we know in this world).

The emergence of the raj principle, dominated by activity or action, has as its focus the numerous things in this world. Multiplicity or duality12 is the basis of karma or action. The raj temper therefore is characterized by Dnyaneshwar as under

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That there is more than one Is what the raj temper thinks The thoughts are then Filled with twists and kinks And wakefulness Is weighed down with Silly and unreal dreams …2573 The twists and the kinks occur because the mind struggles to accommodate various interests. The wakefulness mentioned in the above verse is awareness that there is only one thing in this world and that is the spirit. But when this awareness lapses, man is portrayed as having a fitful sleep in which quite contrary to the truth, unreal dreams appear which portray false things. To continue the theme, Dnyaneshwar says A child knows not That ornaments are nothing but gold Brahma is out of thought As the world comes to unfold …2574 The comparison between a child and a raj man is apt. The child deals with the world superficially. It is attracted to motion, colours, shapes and also sizes. The Raj man too comes to be obsessed with the world and Brahma is therefore out of his thoughts, as narrated in the following verses Clay goes missing From the earthen pot Thread is not to be seen In the woven cloth …2575 The lamp stands out Not the flame nor light The canvas hides As the painting delights …2576 The clay, the thread, the flame and the canvas are the foundation on which a pot, a cloth, a lamp or a picture is built. But the latter objects come to dominate man’s psyche 13. The choice of the substances in the similes14 is interesting, one is a block (clay), the other is linear (thread), the flame shines while the canvas is more of an opaque background. In the event unity becomes a casualty.

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Victim is Unity in things And sizes and shapes Come to sing …2577 And to sum up the idea Dnyaneshwar says Wood is in logs But fire is one Many a flower Fragrance one Broken images But the moon is one …2578 The last couplet in the original verse talks about the many images of the moon on a pond of water stirred by the wind.

The tam temper is ‘the pits’15 to use a modern expression. The perception of a man with this temper is very poor, irrational and self-destructive. Dnyaneshwar has made generous use of similes and metaphors16 in this section and some of them are reproduced without any explanatory note because they evoke clear-cut images or are easy to understand. Only the last two verses in this section are explained.

The ghosts of tam The worlds they roam The texts* have banned them From their fold …2579 * texts= scriptures17

A mongrel18 dog In an empty town Will chew and eat Whatever is found …2580 A fire will burn Whatever it meets A fly will sit On rotten meat …2581 That one should avoid What the scriptures ban

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Or one must do What they demand Temper ‘tam’ Will not understand …2582 All objects brought To the jaws of desire All kinds of food Into the gastric fire …2583 A woman is nothing But a thing, a desire The world is meant To use and devour …2584 Heaven and hell Virtue and sin Are nothing to him …2585 This body his soul His Gods in stone And when there is need They can be sold …2586 Any which way Smoke comes to drift This man is a waste For nothing is fit …2587 The Bhenda tree Dry or wet The so-called cobs Of sugarcane The mind of a child Or impotent men The wealth of a thief Or an udder on the neck The eyes of the blind Or the ears of the deaf …2588

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Spirits too are worthy of drink Water it is but in different streams …2589 The Bhenda tree grows quickly or luxuriously but is of little use because it bears inedible19 fruit and its branches are poor firewood.

The sugarcane stem is a source of sugar. Towards the end of its season it flowers but it grows no cobs. The mind of a child is depicted here as sterile and the reference to impotent men is relevant and connected. The wealth of a thief at least from what appears in the verse of Dnyaneshwar’s time could not be used openly. The female goats occasionally have an extra udder on the neck which does not give milk and the eyes or the ears as external organs without sight or hearing are useless. Dnyaneshwar sums up the verses to say that man comes in varieties. The ‘tam’ man is also a man but is not worthy of notice and his life is futile. Dnyaneshwar adds in the end that alcoholic drinks too are beverages though they nourish little and produce harm, and water is after all water but in different streams it has different meanings (for example, the water in a gutter as opposed to that of the holy Ganges river).

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material – as opposed to spiritual/made of worldly goods physicist – of the branch of physics buoyant – light-hearted discretion – prudence, care triad – a group of three creed – a set of principles ruling a life sloth – laziness or indolence appraisal – evaluation, assessment Brahma – ‘that thing’ from which the universe emerges discern – see clearly entity – a thing duality – where matter is seen different from the spirit psyche – mind simile – comparison between one and another ‘the pits’ – the worst metaphor – imaginative use of word, term or phrase scripture – religious law, sacred writing mongrel – of mixed parentage, no clear ancestry, usually applied to a dog inedible – not suitable for eating

The Genius of Dnyaneshwar Dnyaneshwari Verses 586–630 Geeta Chapter 18

893

Chapter 112

The Nature of Karma

While the previous chapter explained how man perceives the world according to his temper, this part of the Geeta and Dnyaneshwari will explain the nature of acts performed by the sattwa, raj, and tam tempers. As explained previously, sattwa temper allows man to see the world as a whole in its spiritual essence. The world is not fragmented and the sattwa man, shed of his ego and individuality, merges with the world smoothly.

The natural union With his chaste wife Is what comes about In his life …2590 Sandalwood paste On a dusky1 maid Dark and fine Maiden’s eyes Kohl2 will shine …2591 Routine karma adorned3 On duty performed And when occasion demands More tasks are performed As if on gold Fragrance is adorned …2592 To bring up her child A mother will toil Never will she tire Nor can she be foiled …2593

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Karma he does Not for rewards But to the idea of Brahma4 Offered as awards ‌2594 Perennial5 flow Of karma in his hands With events or occasions Stops nor stands ‌2595 All the verses depict ease, naturalness, compatibility or a smooth sequence. The embrace of a chaste wife is natural, kohl in dark eyes enhances beauty so also the yellowish brown sandalwood paste applied on a dusky complexion. When rewards are not sought, karma comes to be given back as an award. Notice the play of words, reward and award. Routine karma flows. When occasions or events demand that a certain karma be done (occasioned karma) and further when extraordinary tasks are performed, the naturalness of priceless karma (gold) is enhanced further as if it starts to smell with a sweet fragrance. In the end such is the naturalness of his karma that nothing stops it, not even adverse events or occasions.

The raj activity implies selfishness, constant attention to rewards, neglect of natural social obligation and a feverishness in action without any peace of mind. The verses are as follows Not a word of love For dad or mom But with the world he deals With suave6 aplomb7 Not a drop of water For the Tulsi tree For a vine of grapes Feeds milk free ‌2596 The above verses show the attitude of the man. The pride of succeeding in the society at large overtakes the need to treat his old parents with love. And the Tulsi plant, the symbol of devotion to god, and without any material benefit, usually planted in the forecourt of the house is neglected but milk is poured at the roots of a vine8 of grapes because it is a cash crop.

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For social chores9 And routine tasks Lazes around Till called and asked …2597 For the sake of his name And to garner10 power Money and efforts He pours and showers …2598 Spend he does Works he hard Never loses a chance To show his cards When he wins He bloats11 with pride Father and guru He casts them aside Like medicines don’t work On certain fevers His selfish motives Linger forever A rat will burrow The whole of a hill For the sake of a grain To have his fill Beggar he is But charms with snakes A frog caught in the moss The sea it shakes The ant for an atom The earth it scrapes …2599 This man also neglects his normal duties of being a good neighbour or a good family man and has to be goaded12 into routine chores or tasks. But when it comes to gaining credit, he spends with eagerness.

Not only does he spend but sees that everyone knows of his socalled benevolence13 (shows his cards). When the so-called success arrives, both his father and guru are relegated14 to obscurity15. His feverish and selfish desire for acceptance by society defies a solution.

He is like a rat, burrowing for a grain of profit, like a frog who will

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shake the sea for the sake of some moss or is like an ant which will hunt for an atom ‘till hell comes’ by scraping at the earth. The image of a snake charmer is particularly evocative16 in the modern age.

The man is actually a beggar but uses hapless reptiles to make money, an issue that has been recently highlighted by environmentalists.

The actions induced by the tam temper are irrational, reckless, and bereft of any conscience.

Foolishly he acts And has no shame There is not even a thought For losses or gains Whatever the occasion Whether boon or bane17 Lack of forethought Is the name of the game …2600 A fire will gut18 Where it is housed The sea gets wicked When a typhoon is aroused …2601 What can he get When he blows on ashes Uses a mill And sand he crushes …2602 Like chaff19 is dispersed By a blowing wind Tries a noose20 To catch the wind …2603 With an arrow he tries To bisect the skies Of all his actions Nothing survives …2604 A noose made of thorns Has flowers torn And the noose will itself Lose its form …2605

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A moth to a flame Surely fries The flame is doused And the light too dies …2606 A fly in your food Goes down the throat The one who swallows With vomit he chokes …2607 A fire has no mind. It might be locked safely in a house and sheltered from the wind but once it spreads it has no respect for its shelter. The tam temper is characterized by injudicious actions. To blow on ashes to get a fire going, to crush sand to extract oil, to try to catch the wind with a noose, that too when it is carrying useless chaff, to try to bisect the sky with an arrow, are actions which are irrational, unproductive and a waste of time. The tam temper is also destructive of others as it destroys itself. A noose of thorns and a fly swallowed are given as examples of how normal life is disrupted by this temper and the causes like the noose or the fly also die in the process.

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dusky – darkish kohl – a black powder used as make-up in eastern countries adorned – worn as in an ornament Brahma – ‘that thing’ from which the world evolves perennial – recurrent, constant, perpetual, lasting suave – smooth, polite, sophisticated aplomb – assurance, self-confidence vine – a climbing or a creeping plant chore – a tedious routine task garner – collect, gather bloat – swell goad – incite, stimulate benevolent – charitable relegated – confined or dismissed to a less important position obscurity – insignificant, non-entity evocative – inspirational, arousing bane – curse gut (colloquial) – as in to destroy or devastate chaff – hay, fodder or corn (without seeds) noose – a loop with a running knot, as used by a hangman

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Dnyaneshwari Verses 631–689 Geeta Chapter 18

Chapter 113

The Doer or the One who Acts

This is the third of the trilogy. The first one was about perception, the next one was about the nature of action and this chapter is about the one who acts. Having perceived the world in a certain manner and then acted in a pattern that is according to one’s temper, it follows that the one who acts is also described. This chapter is not about the physical description of the individual but the impression that one gathers about him through his actions. Here are the verses and the sattwa individual is described first.

Sandalwood stems Grow long and free Without a thought Of fruit on the tree …2608 The long Nag vine1 Grows in time Without any fruit It thrives and feels fine …2609 His karma may not bear Any kind of fruit A fruit can’t grow On another fruit …2610 The sattwa temper does not hanker after or expect any rewards.

The first three verses in this section show the minute botanical2 detail with which Dnyaneshwar was conversant. It is well known that a certain sandalwood tree called Bawan does not bear fruit so also a vine called Nag which grows quickly but does not bear fruit. The connection here with rewards is quite direct. The last of the above verses is however brilliant. That a fruit does not bear a fruit is an extraordinary idea and conveys that if karma itself is its fruit, the

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question of a consequence and fruit just does not arise.

Clouds carrying water Rarely rumble Laden with karma Without pride, and humble …2611 According to law His karma is done And the place of karma Is carefully chosen …2612 For him karma is all His mind in its thrall3 With courage and conviction All else is forestalled4 …2613 Selfishness is abandoned The body is not pardoned Sleep is surrendered Appetite undone And pleasures are sundered5 …2614 The simile of rain-bearing clouds is familiar. The art and the technique of the execution of karma is the subject of the second verse.

Courage and conviction are the pillars on which his karmic life stands. The last verse depicts that as karma comes to be executed, his body surrenders to the karma entirely and forgets its normal wants and processes.

Gold put through fire Is purer but gets light With the fire of his karma With zest he fights …2615 7 A wife climbs a pyre Without any fears His heart is set on his soul Without pain or tears …2616 Both similes are related to fire. One is about the purification of gold and how it shines brighter and is compared to the sattwa man who is energized by his karmic fire. The widow climbing onto the 6

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husband’s pyre (the practice of Sati) was a horrible custom but such was the widow’s faith in what she was doing that the fire had no fears for her nor would she shed tears. Also described is a man focused on his soul who forfeits two bodily characteristics, pain and tears.

If by chance His karma came to a halt He remains nonchalant8 Like a broken cart …2617 In the original verse the cart is shown to have fallen down a precipice9 along a winding steep road. The question is what does a cart feel if it must stop after breaking apart. The answer is it feels nothing. The cart is a vehicle like the body is. The sattwa man takes such karmic setbacks in his stride.

If it happens That karma has a happy end He utters not a word Nor victory signs he sends …2618 The nonchalance mentioned in the earlier verse applies to his success as well. He remains unaffected by what is perceived as victory.

Then starts the description of the raj man Corpses10 fill a graveyard Or filth fills a dump This man is hardly a man Of avarice11 he is a rump12 …2619 All that remains in this man is his avarice and avarice is compared to dead bodies in a graveyard and a garbage dump getting filled with filth.

Karma that is easy Does eagerly and with ease And whatever he earns He has no desire to share …2620 Like a miser guards his wealth Or a stork will watch the fish This man watches others Their wealth his only wish …2621

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To take the easy path is the characteristic of the raj man and it is equally difficult for him to share his wealth with others. Not only that but the accompanying verse describes how he is focused on the wealth of others. These interactions are bound to be antisocial and generally lead to abrasive results.

Like the bori tree Will catch you with its spines When you try to move The spines will cut you fine And when it grows with fruit The fruits are sour like a lime So is this raj man In body, speech and mind …2622 Notice the involvement of all three, the body, speech and mind and their comparison with the spines, their ability to hurt and finally the bitter, sour fruits.

By another astute botanical observation, Dnyaneshwar compares him to a Dhatura fruit.

Like the prickly dhatura fruit Has poison seeds within Short of pure thoughts His mind is full of sins …2623 Here too like the bori tree, there are spines on the fruit but the seeds within are even worse. Dhatura is a poisonous fruit with harmful effects on the nervous system.

The last two verses in this section are somewhat allied in their theme. The raj man, says Dnyaneshwar For a long, arduous effort He lacks the will to last But give up he will not And that same karma he will tap …2624 By his karma if he wins The world is his to mock But if he happens to fail Feels lost and is shocked And then blames the karma For what has come to a naught …2625

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Finally comes the tam man and his absolutely indiscriminate actions.

The fire knows not The feelings of the burnt A weapon knows not How it has hurt A poison will not know The damage that is done The wind will roam Whichever way that comes Such then are his acts Only harm comes to be done (To himself and everyone) …2626 13 14 The metaphors are quite succint . The last part of this verse is crucial. The tam man’s actions cause damage not only to others but to himself as well. Dnyaneshwar follows this with other verses How to feed his desire Is all that he will think Whichever may be the bull The cattle louse15 will cling …2627 Cattle louse has appeared earlier in this book. There it was shown to prefer blood to milk. Here it is shown to be busy filling itself by clinging to any bull.

To observe a tam man Is to see an insane man A child’s laugh or a cry Without reason whenever it can …2628 The simile of a child here hints at an undeveloped mind.

Good or bad are not Ever in his thoughts Like a garbage dump he will swell And then come to rot …2629 The crucial word here is ‘swells’ (with bad deeds=garbage) and he therefore rots because he does not know good from bad.

Where to bend and where to bow He does not know

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And even to the gods He will not bow …2630 He is a thief And has scheming ways Like for a wealthy ‘trick’ A whore will always pray …2631 A thief’s cunning ways and a whore’s solicitation of a wealthy customer (a trick=American slang) are bracketed together. Contrast this with the earlier verse, how he does not bow to god.

His home is like A gambling den He is the street Where robbers prey …2632 Notice the imagery of a gambling den, and a rundown neighbourhood where gangs roam.

When someone else gets a lucky break He is jolted and is a mental wreck16 …2633 However cold A thing may be When put in a fire Burn it will …2634 As sweet and tasty Food may be judged When put in the stomach Turns into sludge …2635 Food turning into sludge, things catching fire, and a wrecked mind when other people succeed are all interconnected verses. An association with this man is likely to lead to untoward consequences.

When a chance arrives To do good deeds He is found to be Fast asleep But when his thoughts Turn to wicked deeds

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He is all attention And full of heed A crow will shun Mangoes and grapes To the eyes of an owl Light is death …2636 Good deeds are no attraction to him, wicked deeds are welcome.

A crow shunning luscious fruits but eating filth and the owl’s abhorrence17 of light are interesting examples of such behaviour.

Dnyaneshwar follows this with his last verses about a tam man At the bottom of the sea A volcano burns Smoke is plenty When goat’s dung18 is burnt Foul is the odour In between the bums He is always a mess Whatever comes …2637 This is about the depth of despair and depravity in a tam man.

The volcano is deep, the smoke is hidden in the cake of the goat’s dung and the foul odour of a fart19 comes from a deep hollow.

In the end Dnyaneshwar says, On whatever he wants His eyes might be set But even a blade of grass He fails to get …2638

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vine – a creeping or a climbing plant botany – a study of plants and trees thrall – a slave to an influence forestall – act in advance to prevent sunder – separate, sever simile – comparison of one with another pyre – a collection of wood to burn dead bodies as in cremation nonchalant – calm, unmoved precipice – a vertical steep fall of a rock corpse – dead body avarice – greed

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12. rump – the hind part of a mammal, a small contemptible remnant (of a political body), used here poetically 13. metaphor – imaginative use of word, term or phrase 14. succinct – concise 15. louse – a parasite 16. wreck – as in a useless remnant 17. abhorrence – distaste 18. dung – shit of an animal, especially of cattle 19. fart – pass gas from the anus

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Dnyaneshwari Verses 690–771 Geeta Chapter 18

Chapter 114

Reason and Fortitude (or Courage)

Having dealt with the character of the one who does, the nature or the way of doing things and having described the relevant deeds, Dnyaneshwar (and the Geeta) now dwell on the ‘reason’ or ‘intelligence’ which are specific to each temperament (i.e. sattwa, raj, and tam). But before he actually details each temperament separately, he narrates an extraordinary verse on how man comes to reason out his actions.

Says Dnyaneshwar In a town called perception Man wears a dress of temptation And ornaments loaded with suspicion And looks at his own reflection Those then are the roots And the description Of reason Which runs in three directions …2639 The idea that a man is an inhabitant of a town called perception (or observation) and that he covers himself with temptation and suspicion and then observes himself or rather his body (often forgetting the idea called the soul) leading him to three different ways of thinking is what the above verse says. The sattwa man is most likely to think first about his own spirit, relegating his body to a secondary position. Dnyaneshwar reiterates that the nature of a man will not leave him and gives the two verses below What kind of wood is it That won’t by fire be lit …2640 Stating thereby that wood will burn whatever type it might be and adds

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From temper and character Everything is culled1 In this vast Variegated2 world …2641 Dnyaneshwar states further that fortitude or courage of whatever manner are sourced to reason and go hand in hand.

From a certain reason Arises a certain courage Two sides of the same page But for convenience, first Reason will be looked at And guaged3 …2642 Dnyaneshwar, as he has done earlier, categorizes karma Karma that must be done Karma out of desire done Karma that should never be done …2643 The technique of doing karma, both its quality and quantity are then commented upon.

Water is drunk Enough to quench your thirst Only karma done in this manner Will reach your soul first …2644 With karma, when done in this manner This life and this world Will hold no fear And for this man Realization draws near …2645 And this karma is described below Light is life To a man in a cave Medicine and diet For an illness grave A dying fish Only water can save …2646

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Coming to the nature of reason that is motivated by the sattwa temperament The reason that breeds Worthwhile deeds And shuns those acts That desires breed …2647 And what does sattwa reason teach?

With fire You must not play Jump you don’t Into ocean’s depths Hold you don’t A red hot rake4 Touch you don’t A hissing snake You must not enter A tiger’s cave From karma that is bad And also a bane5 Sattwa reason Will take you away …2648 Further, sattwa reason acts like in the similes6 below Poisoned food Will kill for sure Sattwa reason Separates the pure …2649 Diamonds are chosen By a jeweller’s sight Sattwa tells you The wrong from the right …2650 Dnyaneshwar then describes how reason acts in a raj personality The blind know not Day and night A stork will drink Whatever is white …2651 (The stork is unable to distinguish between milk and other white

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liquids. In the Indian tradition it can separate and drink milk which is mixed with water.)

The bee steals pollen As its right But in burrowing wood It uses its might …2652 The role of a bee in the lifecycle of a forest is to transfer pollen and that would be its proper karma. However, it probably wastes itself in attempting to burrow into wood.

Such is this reason It thinks not much …2653 If you lack the art Of choosing pearls You are likely to part With what you have earned …2654 Having thus described the lack of deliberation or reasoning skill, Dnyaneshwar paints the image of a marriage being solemnized Rice gets thrown On the party as a whole Raj fails In its discerning7 role …2655 When the wedding is actually solemnized, those who have gathered throw rice at the couple but such is the congregation and so difficult to take aim that the rice falls all over. Similar is the fate of raj reason. It is distracted and sprays its energy.

Tam reason is described very briefly and appears to abort at the very start because of a total lack of discrimination and almost zero intellectual energy.

A thief will avoid A royal route It is night for the demons When the sun is en route8 …2656 Into a pit of coal The wretched will dig Unaware of diamonds That are his …2657

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What has been said By the scriptures and texts To avoid them He does his best …2658 The tam man will follow everything except the given rules and regulations. When the world is ready to welcome the dawn and the day that is to follow, like the demons who abhor light the tam man will not see the light in his life and will also avoid the royal route by which the king and the subjects pass lest he be caught by the guards because he is a thief. And lastly, his life, which really is a treasure (diamonds) he will neglect and indulge in acts like digging in a pit full of coal. (Notice the choice of coal and diamonds in the verse— both are from the element called carbon.)

What follows is a description of the kind of courage or fortitude that men display. As usual the description is divided into three parts, one each for sattwa, raj and tam.

First is the sattwa courage As the day comes to dawn Thieves will run By a royal decree Sins come to be shunned When the wind blows strong Clouds rumble and run With Agasti in sight The sea stays mum Elephants halt When a lion comes Sattwa will stop Mind’s twists and turns The knot of passion Is loosened and undone Desires and designs The mind comes to spurn9 All manner of breath Are joined as one The mind refuses graft To ‘yog’ it turns …2659 Notice how the verse unfolds. Light (of sattwa) drives away thieves of selfish thoughts. Sins are shunned because sattwa is the

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most exalted temper (royal decree). The clouds (the commonest metaphor) which mar the clear sky (mind) may rumble but also float away when the sattwa temper flows. The sea, which is forever in a state of perturbations10 and therefore produces sound waves becomes mum when he faces Agasti, the mythical sage who once swallowed the whole sea. Elephants, the biggest terrestrial11 animals (and compared to thoughts in an earlier part of the Dnyaneshwari) must halt when the lion of sattwa roars. Then comes a direct reference to the mind which is always full of twists or turns and the body, which is an easy prey to emotions and passions. The last two couplets allude to Yogic science. As described earlier, the vital breath of the body is fragmented into various types (breath, belch, fart12, etc). When yogic power increases, all breaths do not disappear but act in unison, rendering a person uniquely serene and tranquil (please see Chapter 51, Alternate Pathways) and the mind is not susceptible to the graft13 that the sensorium14 offers.

Raj courage is materialistic as under Karma used as the means With hope to reap profits The courage with which done Is raj in sum …2660 Heaven is what he wants And the world is his stage Desire’s ship he steers And karma becomes his cage …2661 Karma is stated to be an instrument of liberation if rewards are not sought. Instead, in a raj man, it becomes his cage. Every act is undertaken with a profit motive and it is with desire that he steers his life’s ship.

Tam courage is good for nothing. Neither is it exalted15 nor productive.

When one is lazy Sleep is his kith and kin16 Sorrow does not leave Those who are in sin …2662 To call tam a temper Is an insult of that word

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Though demons are bad They exist in this world …2663 Like coal is always black Or a rock is always hard Fear of losing money Is always on his chart* …2664 * Astrological chart

All things of this world Are very dear to his heart Because of this wretched trait From sorrow he cannot part …2665 Like garlic always stinks Or gluttony17 will make you ill Till death comes calling With sorrow he is filled …2666 Heat means fire And lingers in the embers18 A snake once injured Always does remember …2667 Youth, money and sex Is all that he will think Pride never leaves him And makes a home in his mind …2668 Like the world is stalked19 by fear And death follows life Tam temper means Pride will always thrive …2669 These verses are explicit and need no elaboration. Dnyaneshwar ends this section by describing the role of courage as an entity.

The sun shows you the path Then legs do the rest Reason defines karma And the body does its best

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The three types of courage Each has a different fate …2670 The sun is compared to reason and courage. The sun shines and the way becomes clear according to each temper and thus follows the fate of a man.

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cull – select, choose, gather variegated – diverse gauge – measure rake – metal rod with tooth-like crossbar bane – curse simile – compare one with another discern – see clearly en route – on the way spurn – avoid, reject, get away from perturbation – violent, disturbing motion terrestrial – of or relating to earth fart – to pass gas from the anus graft – an offer to induce corruption sensorium – network of sensory organs (eyes, ears etc.) exalted – raised in stature, elevated, high kith and kin – relatives gluttony – excessive eating embers – hot glowing pieces of coal stalk – follow with an undesirable intent

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Dnyaneshwari Verses 772–817 Geeta Chapter 18

Chapter 115

Pleasure, Joy and Bliss

Generally speaking, across different languages, pleasure is associated with the body, joy or happiness with the mind, and bliss is something that deals with absolute consciousness independent of the mind and body. The latter is an Upanishadic 1/Buddhist concept which envisages that that the mind and the body can indeed be left behind yet man can be filled with awareness. This philosophical idea is based on the theory that the primordial2 energy or Brahma without any material fetters3 has a certain consciousness, also called universal consciousness from which man borrows his personal consciousness.

As things stand, man, made of three tempers (always mixed in various degrees) viz. sattwa (exalted), raj (active and involved) or tam (indolent and unproductive), remains a material creature and cannot realistically hope to attain true bliss lugging4 as he does, at least some material baggage till his death. (Please see Chapter 96.)

But joy bordering on bliss is an attainable reality and is most likely to accrue5 when the sattwa principle is preponderant or in the ascendant. This ascent needs effort, behavioral modification (Chapters 37, 43) and time. It can also be hastened with yogic6 and meditational7 practices which Dnyaneshwar mentions briefly in his verses but are not translated here.

The sattwa principle is discussed first, and there is a stress on the difficulties that are encountered, and also the fact that it is a lifelong process which needs practice and perseverance.

After a prolonged effort And persistence Life meets The very soul Of existence And pleasure and sorrow Are no more existent ‌2671

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When medicine is Ritually taken Or salt with water Is repeatedly shaken With a chemical Metal is coated and beaten With such persistence Life can meet The very soul of existence …2672 Notice the similes in the latter half of the verse, all relating to common things—medicine, salt shaken in water or making or coating of metal—to inform man that the sattwa mode of behaviour needs to be practised continuously with a certain zeal, and over a long period of time.

What comes in the way of this effort is the material world with its temptations.

The sandalwood tree Is surrounded by snakes Elfins8 and witches Guard hidden riches …2673 Heavens cannot be got If rituals are missed Smoke has to be suffered When a lamp is lit Medicines do cure But their bitterness is the hitch …2674 The difficulties encountered, viz. the snakes around the sandalwood tree and witches guarding wealth are narrated first.

Then in a slightly milder tone, the smoke around an oily wick, bitterness of a good medicine and the boring(!) rituals to attain something beyond this world are mentioned.

Then comes the ladder that needs to be climbed.

First must come Denial of love and affection Bliss remains far Life is so full of distraction But with perseverance And patience

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The ideas of heaven and hell Can be subject to destruction …2675 The idea that ‘I do’ to achieve that (heaven) which is full of pleasure and joy must be given up. Love and affection need to be denied because they lead to entanglement and what is repeated again is patience and persistence.

The pangs Of Chakravak’s separation At the death of her calf A cow’s torment and desperation Or from an eatery A hungry man’s eviction …2676 9 The Chakravak bird is a part of a fable in which the male and the female bird are separated by a mere leaf when in fact they sit on the same branch of a tree and yet pine10 for each other. The dying calf and a cow, and the ravenously11 hungry man being denied food are all examples to show the pangs that a man suffers when he gives up this world’s pleasures. Some more examples are given of this torment.

Fish without water A child’s death for the mother But such pangs The ascetic12 bears Without any bother …2677 The ascetic can do this because he knows that The tongue can be lanced13 By a green raw grape But when ripe It is sweet to taste …2678 And therefore he is full of patience.

Then Ignorance comes to vanish With asceticism on the ascendant Man is filled with bliss* And with peace is resplendent …2679 * Please see the first para of this chapter

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Here the word ignorance is used to denote the lack of knowledge of the nature of this world. The final result is depicted as under Like Ganga meets the sea Realization reveals truth For man to see Blissful* becomes he And then he attains peace …2680 * refer to the first para of this chapter

The joys and pleasures of a raj man are of a different kind, those of the mind and also of the body. The indulgences of a raj man mean Body and senses meet Pleasures spill over the brim …2681 This is how these pleasures are described by Dnyaneshwar For the royal agent’s visit The town is decked up fine Only on borrowed money A wedding can be made to shine …2682 In both these instances, the joyous aspects of the events are forced or borrowed. More examples follow You are put at ease By a gentleman thief Or Bachnag* poison Tastes very sweet …2683 * a type of poison

A whore14 uses her tricks So that her client is pleased Or the wonder that follows When the conjurer15 shows his tricks Short-lived moments these Pass away like dreams Leaving behind grief …2684 The pleasures of this world Hinder a good life And they act like a poison When to heavens you come to rise

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Heavens deny you a place When on your senses you have thrived And hell is what you get When your deeds are finally appraised16 ‌2685 The verses begin with a whore, a gentleman thief or a poison which is sweet but has fatal effects. This is followed by a conjurer who mesmerizes you. The point is then made that the raj pleasures are thus short-lived, pass away like dreams, and leave sadness in their wake. For the common man who had come to listen to Dnyaneshwar, the images of heaven and hell are invoked. And then comes the conclusion that the raj mode of pleasure denies him heaven and man is finally consigned17 to hell, the very thing that he was trying to avoid. The attempt to rise to heaven and its denial to man over a time span is poisonous to his mental equanimity18, as evident from the earlier verse.

The tam pleasures are narrated as under.

When on animals or birds You feed Or wine or spirits Are your daily need With whores you spend your time Or to hunt or kill, your pastime When by buffoon bards19 you are pleased Or you enjoy cheating with ease When laziness is the rule of your life Or your greatest joy is to sleep ‌2686 What is depicted here is the nature of the tam diet, the tam man’s ideas of recreation, his tendency to steal and to be pleased by false praise and the nature of his routine which is marked by indolence20 and his weakness for sleep.

In the Geeta, and the Dnyaneshwari, men as social creatures are now to be classified into four types, depending on their ability. This is a subject surrounded by great controversy in the history of India and needs to be looked at in some detail and this will be done in the next chapter. But before that here is what Dnyaneshwar says about nature and classification.

There is nothing in this world Where nature is not in three parts (sattwa, raj, tam) Wool makes a blanket

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And the two cannot be taken apart It is this nature of men Which divided them into four sorts And God, heaven, hell and earth Must in this manner Also play their part …2687 What is being said is that sattwa, raj and tam, the basic tempers, are prevalent in everything that inhabits this world. Even God, conceptualized by man, is made in the images of man’s thoughts, and must be part of this triad of sattwa, raj and tam. Heaven and hell too are populated by these three. Specifically in man, the nature of the mix of these categories results in a certain character. This character expresses itself to be fitted in the social fabric and it is the thesis21 of the Geeta that these characters are mainly four in type— the scholar, the warrior, the trader, the farmer, and lastly, the servant or the server, or the serf22. More of that in the next chapter.

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Upanishadic – of the concluding portion of the Vedic literature primordial – present from the beginning fetters – restraints, bonds lug – drag with effort accrue – come as a natural increase yog – a set of physical postures accompanied by breath control meditate – think, ponder, reflect elfins – fairies, mythological creatures fable – myth, legendary tale pine – yearn, long eagerly ravenous – extremely hungry asceticism – severe self-discipline, denial of pleasures lanced – prick whore – prostitute conjurer – magician apprise – inform consign – send, dispatch equanimity – mental composure buffoon bards – jesters, court jesters indolence – laziness thesis – a proposition to be proved serf – a slave, a menial low servant, a labourer

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Dnyaneshwari Verses 818–855 Geeta Chapter 18

Chapter 116

Four Types of Mankind

Are all men born equal or rather should they all be treated equally?

These questions in today’s context must be answered in a resounding affirmative. They must be equal under law, without any discrimination based on race, culture, language, colour, gender and nationality. Be that as it may, the ground reality is that this idea or idealism does not quite live up to the standards that we set because of prejudice1 arising from an inbuilt sense of insecurity. It is all very well to say that opportunities must be equal for all but in most free societies (!) with capitalism as the inherent and dominant economic order, that ideal cannot be achieved. True, in these societies the underprivileged and the poor, can rise with hard work but that does not take away the fact that there are some who are already ‘there’ while others must strive to get ‘there.’ In totalitarian2 societies particularly with communist/socialist ideologies, at least to all outward appearances, opportunities are better distributed. But the very nature of those societies breeds a powerful political class and the education in general is too doctrinaire3 to be called free.

Historically, Plato4 had said that Rulers should be philosophers, they should abjure5 wealth and pleasure, must not have families and also be above temptation so that they may rule over others who are given to normal dispositions towards money, comfort, sex (within marriage) and forms of recreation that appealed to their common instincts. The former were protectors, the latter the subjects. But the irony6 was that Plato espoused7 this philosophy in a Greece where slavery prevailed and in addition there was also a distinction between the royals and the commoners. Socrates, considered the Guru of Plato, belonged to the royal party and was sentenced to death, for spreading weird8 ideas (!) by a court presided over by carpenters, blacksmiths and such others. Socrates insisted that they did not deserve to be judges, refused a pardon offered by them, stood by his principles and had to pay with his life.

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This brief note is presented here to highlight ideas with which mankind has always struggled. If Plato thought of philosopher kings, contemporary Indians thought of Brahmins. If Plato wanted to inculcate martial9 and Spartan10 qualities in his rulers, Indians invented ‘Kshatriyas’. At a slightly lower level came the ‘Vaishyas’, who were traders or farmers and lastly, for slavery (a slave’s son was a slave) India offered the alternative of the ‘Shudra’ (from Kshudra to mean small in Sanskrit). The Greek and Indian orders were not identical but the idea behind the division was not different.

In India where the material world or the nature of man was dominated by the three tempers or qualities, the Brahmin (with sattwa preponderance) was learned, detached from the material world, and served as an advisor, the Kshatriya also had a sattwa temper, was learned but ruled over his subjects by way of his innate martial traits11. The Vaishya with the raj temper was both productive and acquisitive and the Shudra with the tam temperament lacked initiative, remained unprepared for education and therefore served the first three.

Unlike in the first paragraph of this chapter, questions now get raised not about equality but about similarity. Are all men born similar? Probably not. Should dissimilar personalities have work given to them according to their abilities? Probably yes. Should this distribution be done by the state, by rulers, or should it be judged and ordained12 according to the scriptures?13 Leaving aside these comes the last poser14. Are abilities, traits, proficiency, determined solely by birth and do they run in families? Or rather should a Brahmin’s son be called a Brahmin as a birthright (not withstanding his lack of appropriate temper or qualities for a variety of reasons)?

India said yes to that last question giving rise to the caste system.

Like violence begets violence, divisions at birth gave rise to even more divisions solely based on birth, so much so that even the socalled lowly castes (!) divided themselves into as many as fifteen layers within their community.

The caste system is by no stretch the subject of this chapter but the subject is broached because the Geeta has been blamed for this historical ‘error’ (!). The Geeta however needs to be exonerated15 in this regard. True, the Geeta says in an earlier chapter (Chapter 3) that four types of people flow from me (in the words of Shrikrishna, synonymous16 with the primordium17) but she never avers18 that the types run in families or are decided by their birth. All she does is to state that when tempers, traits or inherent qualities mix, the mixture

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assumes a certain nature, a certain potential and a certain capability.

That description as narrated by Dnyaneshwar and based on the Geeta is given below. The preliminary verses are in general and the latter verses are about the nature of a Brahmin.

Brahmins above the other two But Kshatriya and Vaishya Can be thought as equal too Because the scriptures They can read and review And the sacred rituals They can do The fourth the Shudra With scriptures has nothing to do …2688 The focus is on the scriptures and rituals, the former a repository of the extant 19 knowledge and the latter the methodology to propitiate20 the Almighty, the God or the Brahmin. The word Brahmin derives from Brahma, the primordial singularity from which the universe evolved because the Brahmin was well versed with the nature of this principle. Lower down in the order because of his uninitiated state due to his indolent21, lazy and wasteful temperament, the Shudra was barred from dealing with or reading the scriptures. As a rider22, it is added that they too are a part of the social structure because They (the shudras) depend on the three And are therefore a part of the scheme …2689 Dnyaneshwar however, is charitable and defensive of the Shudra rather than the scriptures A garland When you smell Flowers you do smell But smell you do The thread as well …2690 The thread binds the flowers together and is the real uniting agent in a garland. The next verse is about serving one’s purpose or in other words doing one’s duty and this duty is to be done with the faith that ‘this work’ I must do.

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So that they can escape The cycle of life and death Each must do his karma With utmost faith …2691 This work springs from nature, which in turn endows natural tendencies, abilities and traits. The following verse describes how nature works Like a father Amongst his sons Divides all his wealth Or the sun When it rises Shows the way Or a master Tells his servant The work for that day Nature And its bounty23 In everything comes to play …2692 Notice the active principles. A father, the sun and the master being compared to nature. Further Brahmin and Kshatriya Sattwa their mainstay Mainly raj and little sattwa In the Vaishya Come to play Thus the differences In the same species Be that as they may Like the light Reveals the objects Scriptures show the way …2693 The scriptures which classify the population according to their qualities are compared to light.

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Now comes the description of a Brahmin Like a wife obeys And follows her spouse His reason Searches for the soul All his senses are shackled24 And he is calm on the whole The senses Are kept in check By a method and set of rules The body is thus tamed And his fervour25 Comes to get cooled …2694 Like the Satwi’s* lamp Must be alight On the fifth day of the new moon The thought of God In your mind Must never leave that room** …2695 * Satwi is a female mythological figure who snatches infants from their cradles on the fifth day of the new moon, and therefore a light is kept aglow to catch her. ** The mind is considered an empty space inhabited only by thoughts.

Next comes the purity of the mind With the body set to rules The mind is pure and clean Like the earth forgives all He must never be mean Like the fifth* note in music This virtue is most serene …2696 * The author has been unable to find the import of the fifth note sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni (underlined here)

Further The river might turn and twist But the water runs straight The sugarcane is knobby But sugar sweet to taste Friendship for one and all Whether foe or mate …2697

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The river is a collective expression of flowing water and she must change course but not water, which by a physical law, at any given time, flows straight. Knobby sugarcane appears twisted but tastes sweet and such is this Brahmin’s relationship with one and all, sweet and straight.

A Brahmin must contemplate Brahma or the ultimate truth.

When a gardener waters his plants The water goes to the roots Brahma or the soul That is the final fruit …2698 Notice the corollary and the parallel, water is thoughts, roots are the daily activity and Brahma is the fruit.

Contemplation26 and faith in the word Sets this man en route27 A coin stamped with a royal face The subjects know is good …2699 Contemplation and faith in the scriptures are the foundation for all that he hopes to do (en route). Like the king’s face on the coin makes it the official currency and is exchanged in the market, such is faith for his realization of the goal.

Moon and moonlight Always together Sandalwood and fragrance Together forever Fully covered Champa with flowers Like the sun wears A mantle of light In the virtues Brahmins delight …2700 The Champa tree grows in the tropics and it flowers in abundance almost covering the whole tree and only the flowers are seen from a distance. That is true of sandalwood as well, because it is synonymous with its fragrance, smelt at a distance as also the moonlight which is inseparable from the moon which unlike the sun can be easily viewed.

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The Genius of Dnyaneshwar prejudice – bias, preconceived opinion totalitarian – absolute, centralized dictatorial form of government doctrinaire – seeking to apply a theory or doctrine regardless of circumstances Plato – Greek philosopher abjure – swear perpetual absence from, renounce an oath irony – the use of language with a double meaning espouse – adopt or support (a cause, a theory, a doctrine) weird – strange, queer martial – appropriate for warfare Spartan – rigorous, stern, hard, strict trait – distinguishing feature ordain – order in religious terms scripture – religious law or sacred writing poser – a puzzling question exonerate – declare free from blame synonymous – having the same meaning primordium – an organ or tissue (or a thing) in the early stage of development aver –formally assert extant – still existing propitiate – appease, placate indolent – lazy rider – a corollary from a theorem bounty – gift, reward, generosity shackled – a restraint, usually on the ankles, manacles fervour – passion, zeal contemplation – survey with en route – on the way

The Genius of Dnyaneshwar Dnyaneshwari Verses 856–883 Geeta Chapter 18

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Chapter 117

The Martial1 Rulers (The Kshatriyas)

The word Kshatriya is derived from the word ‘kshatra’ to mean dominion,2 power, supremacy or might and therefore the Kshatriya classes denote martial power and historically, the ruling class. Unlike the Brahmins who were scholars, sages or advisors, the Kshatriyas were kings, noblemen, warriors or generals or even soldiers if not leaders in one way or another. Dnyaneshwar describes them as under The sun shines without help Or a lion preys by itself The Kshatriyas are Strength themselves (and valour) …2701 In the sun’s presence Stars must fade But by the moon and stars The sun will not fade …2702 So also the Kshatriya They surprise the world With their strength Nothing in the world Upsets them …2703 The sky may fall But their reason will hold Shining and splendrous3 Courageous and bold …2704 However deep the water may be The lotus will rise and bloom

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However tall things may be Above them, the sky will loom …2705 So also the Kshatriya Whatever the state Joy, sorrow or fear They will face and pierce Their reason won’t veer …2706 Whatever the time The sunflower faces the sun Whoever the foe They won’t turn and run …2707 The grace with which Trees give their fruit Or the moonlight spills From the gracious moon They offer their wealth For their subjects to loot …2708 You care for your limbs And your work is done The subjects are cared for And their hearts are won …2709 These sterling4 virtues Are their shining studs5 Men they are not But the mountains, the Ganga Heaven and earth …2710 Such is their magnitude6 This description is followed by a short narration on the characteristics of the farming and trading community which is awarded only two or three verses by Dnyaneshwar. This is certainly a travesty7 judging by the importance that agriculture, trade and finance have assumed in recent times. As one translates these verses about the four different kinds of mankind a distinct impression continues to linger that Dnyaneshwar is neither comfortable nor enthusiastic about the division. He sums up this section by stating

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in a verse that the shudra* or the servant class must do whatever the others don’t do. This is very unlike Dnyaneshwar and reinforces the impression that he must carry the burden of the then existing social laws, which in turn purportedly8 derive their strength from the Geeta, but he fails to vigorously espouse9 them. In the next chapter too, where the inevitability of karma is explained but which must be sanctified10 by the texts (which in turn seem to suggest a relationship between the creed11 and karma) he appears uncomfortable but less so than he appears here. * The lowest of the four castes.

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martial – appropriate for warfare dominion – rule, authority, control splendrous – brilliant sterling – excellent, superior shining studs – as in diamonds magnitude – greatness, extent, size travesty – mockery, misrepresentation purportedly – seemingly espouse – adopt or support (a cause, theory, doctrine) sanctify – make inviolable creed – as a way of life

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The Genius of Dnyaneshwar

Dnyaneshwari Verses 884–913 Geeta Chapter 18

Chapter 118

Karma leading to Liberation

Having somewhat unenthusiastically described the division of labour amongst various types of people (read castes), Dnyaneshwar is in a more eager frame of mind to discuss the nature of just ‘karma’ and its ultimate devolution1 into a state of bliss or ‘that state’ where life proceeds in and around an individual without becoming a burden. As has been repeatedly said earlier, karma by definition is a chain of inexorable2 events occasioned by the evolution of the world from a singularity or Brahma in which man appears as only one embodiment amongst a trillion trillion other created things. When this man does his karma naturally as nature demands or when it is probably ordained3 through human idealization4 without a trace of pride or fear of consequences, he emerges unscathed5 yet released.

Here are the verses Like words and actions Match a body at large Karma by nature Is in four different parts …2711 That karma or action is not similar for all is stated here and this is stressed by giving an analogy6 of the body which must produce action and speech according to its type.

Rain from the clouds In rivers must fall The river in turn On the sea must call Fairness and fair skin Are one after all Karma must be done As divided in four parts …2712

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Here too, a naturally flowing river, and the sea on the one hand, and a person’s natural complexion is mentioned to support the thesis7 that the division of karma into four types is a spontaneous phenomenon of nature.

Your jewel it might be But it must be put to a test Whatever your karma The books must attest8 …2713 9 This verse is about the so-called sanctified religious laws which must approve of a man’s karma. This leaves open the question as to whether the laws forced a creed10 or caste on a man by birth.

Eyes you have But are useless without light Your legs may be able But the road must be right …2714 About your duty and your creed The books give you an insight Your deeds are then done In that very light …2715 Here too religious or traditional laws are in focus and there is scope to believe that some of them are hierarchial and could be unfair.

Then with whatever is your lot Without a thought for rewards With that Remain steadfast11 Down along a steep slope Water runs fast You are at the door Of realization at last …2716 What is bad and banned Must not be in your thoughts And because any rewards You have never sought Hell or heaven Neither are your lot And detached as you get Liberated are your thoughts

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And you land like a bee A flower holds you aloft …2717 That flower is of course, realization that comes by in a natural way and is referred to as ‘that’ in the next verse. Notice that hell and heaven are relegated to an inferior place.

‘That’ comes to shine When realization dawns And anointed12 with wisdom Asceticism13 easily spawns14 That is why I say That karma is what I want …2718 This is an unqualified statement from Shrikrishna that what he wants from man who is seeking realization is karma.

The passion of a wife With her husband her man A fish in the Ganga Meets with every holy land A child clings to the mother For its every need and want A woman, a mere servant Into a mistress turn she can A royal servant, a mere man Rises in his clan The power of karma is such Even god folds his hands …2719 In the original verse God is depicted as finding it difficult to cope with good solid karma. The expression ‘with folded hands’ conveys something similar. A chaste15 wife indulging in passion is something that was not often described in Dnyaneshwar’s time. Chastity on the one hand and intramarital passion on the other had been difficult to reconcile and even more the fact that a woman has sexual feelings was something that could not be explicitly stated in a book of this nature. In the original verse Dnyaneshwar says that the sexual play of a chaste wife is her karma, comes to her naturally, and is done naturally. What is being described is a wife, not a woman. The fish in the Ganga is similarly fortunate with his karma of being in the Ganga because whatever she touches is a centre for pilgrimage. A child in relation to a mother, a woman in relation to her employer

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and a man in the royal service are all examples of a certain dependence, which when followed by good conduct ensures a rise in the material world. Central to them is karma, the ladder to ultimate liberation. (The mention of the word mistress in the verse referring to a woman servant is not used in the sense of a keep or a concubine16 but as the mistress or a housekeeper of a large household.)

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devolution – descent by natural or due succession inexorable – relentless ordain – decree, confer holy order idealization – regard or represent in ideal form or character unscathed – without suffering an injury analogy – correspondence or partial similarity thesis – a dissertation, proposition meant to be proved attest – confirm, verify sanctify – purify creed – principles, belief steadfast – firm anoint – apply oil etc. as in a religious ceremony asceticism – severe discipline of abstaining from pleasure spawn – give birth, bring forth chaste – pure, without any extramarital sex concubine – a kept woman, secondary wife

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Dnyaneshwari Verses 914–984 Geeta Chapter 18

Chapter 119

Ignorance ➝ Karma ➝ Realization ➝ Brahma1

Lane Wagger, the international director of the Maharishi corporate development programme wrote the following in the Times of India of February 23, 2005, under a column called the Speaking Tree: “Natural Law is responsible for the origin and evolution of everything in the universe. The unmanifest field of Natural law is characterized by perfect orderliness, infinite creativity, unlimited energy and pure intelligence. In Vedic2 science, this field of perfect peace is called Brahma or the Will of God. It is like the sap in a tree which gives rise to, and nourishes, all aspects of the tree. Physicists refer to it as the Unified Field of Natural law (UFNL).

“Since Brahma or UFNL is all-pervading, it can also be located in human life. The simplest form of human awareness, where the mind is completely silent and fully alert, is the home of Natural Law within us. This vacuum state or ground state of the mind is called pure consciousness, the Self. So each person already has the field of perfect peace within.

“Maharishi Mahesh Yogi says, ‘It’s as if we live in a house which has a vast treasury in one of its rooms. Only we’ve forgotten about it. So, instead of living a life of royalty, we go about in poverty.

Transcendental3 Meditation (TM) is a simple effortless procedure for locating this inner treasury, by allowing the mind to dive within, and experience pure consciousness.”

This is perhaps one of the finest précis of the philosophical basis of the Indian systems that one can find. A quarrel can be picked up about the author’s use of the words ‘the will of god’ to describe the idea of Brahma, which in the later Vedic literature is quite categorically described as having no wish, will, design, motivation or purpose. That apart, an addendum can also be supplied to the above by stating that in addition to meditation, action (karma), contemplation (of knowledge) or devotion (to a carnate 4 manifestation) can also lead to realization and to a state of pure

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unfettered5 awareness or consciousness. Those are the four pillars on which man’s religious (from the word re-align) pursuits must be based.

When your karma you do To it your head must be bowed That God* you obey From which everything flows …2720 * Brahma/the singularity

In tatters of ignorance We dolls are wrapped And by the strings of nature The dolls come to dance As light waves flit In and out of a lamp* …2721 * Notice the description ‘in and out of a lamp’ showing a flow of energy

The image of a tattered doll takes one aback somewhat but that is what we really are because most of the time we are so engrossed in the external world by way of our nature which actually pulls the strings, that we fail to understand our real essence. The last two lines of this verse refer to this essence, the light in a lamp which not only fills it but makes it into an object which we call a lamp.

In the whole of this world Is that nature and that God* Your karma as flowers When you offer to this God* Pleased He is Beyond all that he has got The man is thus blessed And from the world is detached Only of God* he thinks And in the world he is not Like a wife without her man Has only sorrow in her thoughts In the doings of this world This man is not And in his heart There is only that God* …2722 * Again God is equated with natural forces or their predecessor, the Brahma

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The verse explains the nature of this world hinting that karma too is the nature of this world which is not to be appropriated6 to oneself but offered back to the God, an idea, which constitutes the essence of all that is. The image is that of a man offering flowers to God. It is also clearly stated that these strings of flowers is what God likes best and it is by this act that a man comes to be liked by God more than anything else. A piquant7 metaphor8 is also added of a woman whose heart is filled with sorrow because of the loss of her man. By a kind of reverse imagery this man who offers all his karma to God is shown to have lost the world and his heart is also filled with nothing but the thoughts of God. Whatever will help your karma That you must do Neem* might be bitter But it has to be used A tree** you cannot uproot If it is to give you fruit Karma might be tough But you must perform and do If karma is given up You won’t get your due …2723 * Neem – a common tree in India. All parts of this tree have medical value. ** The tree mentioned here is the banana tree. It is known to flower and fruit and then automatically wither away. Trying to uproot it prematurely is not the thing to do. Karma will, over a period of time, bear the fruit of realization and patience is the way to realization. Bitter things have to be endured on the way, and therefore the example of neem (medicinal plant) is given. (The neem has recently been patented by India as a traditional remedy under the WTO regime.)

Your mother is a hunchback But her love is straight On that very love You come to depend Other beautiful women Cannot be the same …2724 Ghee* is precious And water is cheap But only water not ghee Is good for the fish …2725

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Do what you must By what has been laid (by the scriptures9) Walk on your legs And not on your head …2726 * A fat derived from butter

The naturalness and the true nature of your own mother’s love, however deformed she might be, is first narrated to contrast it with the beauty of other women who cannot give you the same love. Ghee and water are compared in the same manner. An injunction of sorts is issued not to cross the beaten track or what has been laid down by tradition about your karma. Karma once decided must not be constantly scrutinized by intellectual debate and that is why the humorous verse about walking on legs and not on your head. The verses that follow are meant to show how karma over successive years delivers man from what is considered the burden of life. The burden comes about because one is loaded with an ego which motivates the mind and then converts the body into baggage. The Geeta as well as Dnyaneshwar refer to a transformation from a burdened man to an unburdened soul as a sequential happening and this is referred to as ‘krama marg’ in Sanskrit. The word ‘krama’ means ‘in a certain order’ or ‘sequence’ ‘and the word marg means path or a road. The subject of the ‘krama marg’ is again referred to later in the Geeta as well as in the Dnyaneshwari.

The theme of a certain method and persistence is continued in the following verses When karma is done By what the books have told You overcome its shackles10 And loosen the Karmic hold …2727 Strive you must Till you feel your soul To strive is difficult But that is your goal …2728 You can take a bypass Or take a high road Legs have to be used Whatever your road …2729

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You may carry a brick Or carry a pack of food Both weigh the same But food will stand you good …2730 Your natural karma is mentioned here and how by doing it regularly its monotony and drudgery is reduced. Karma is no more a burden under these circumstances. The last verse about a brick and a pack of food is carried forward with similar ideas in the following verses.

Seed or chaff11 Either can be milled12 Water and milk Both can be rinsed A crusher can be used For both sand and til* A fire for a ritual Or an arsonist’s13 deed You can live with a wife Or spend on a ‘keep’ A foe can be faced Or you run and get killed Suffer a husband’s abuse Or your boyfriend’s evil deeds …2731 * a seed used to extract oil

The last verse rings true even today and no social comment is offered. A similar verse about a wife and a keep is also pithy14. The seed of the Til tree is rich in oil and is quite expensive and is compared to sand. The lighting of a flame for an obligatory ritual and to indulge in arson, both involve fire. Milk and water are two opposites when compared for the byproducts they offer. And the example of seeds and chaff is also obvious. In general, contrasting options are provided

by Dnyaneshwar and it is obvious to what side he tilts.

One way or the other Life is a tease Do your deed As to what is decreed15 Matters it not, whatever it costs Karma is the road to release …2732

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Why try a poison Which surely will kill A boat is needed When you set out to sea Medicine is a must For a dire disease Your nature and traits Through them you must see …2733 *The sattwa, the pure You must seek This the world and the heavens These poisons then recede The seeker is then Completely free …2734 The oft-repeated theme of Indian philosophy that enjoying this earth, to be afraid of hell or to await the heavens are not what man is supposed to do is reiterated16 here. Normal ordained17 karma (the boat, the medicine) is what is expected to be done and that something to the contrary must not even be tried (the poison). As you go through life your intelligence must be focused on how you are behaving as per your nature and an attempt must be made to strive towards the better part of your nature, namely sattwa (see Chapter 96) and in this journey realization slowly dawns on the individual.

The wind can never be Caught in a net The fruit will fall Only in its ripened state A dish laced with poison Is nobody’s plate A hand is withdrawn From a red hot grate This man will withdraw From his family and friends …2735 The last two lines do not indicate a total severance from kith and kin18 but only hints that they are a source of entanglements19 and the roots of worldly emotions. A man totally given to karma can go away from the world in two different ways, like a ripe fruit falls away or the way a breeze easily escapes a net. He is also averse20 to

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a flood of emotions as one would be to a poison or as one withdraws with great haste from a red hot object.

A maid keeps her promise Made to a king The mind of this man Takes no flings ‌2736 The smoke will vanish When the ashes are turned Wishes and desires Are quickly burnt ‌2737 When ashes are strewn on smoking embers the smoke is smothered. That is how emotions and passions related to your karma are smothered in order to be able to go through this life.

Interspersed in between all these verses are some of a purely philosophical nature. As has been explained in the introduction to this chapter the word transcendental meditation21 transcends the boundaries of the mind-body complex to reveal pure intelligence. It is also the theorem in the Geeta that karma too can achieve this objective.

The well-known triad22 of the doer, the doing and the deed or the one who sees, the act of seeing and the sight that is observed are mounted on that undefinable pure consciousness or Brahma and as man goes through life doing karma dispassionately that state where the triad arises can be overcome and man reaches back into the infinite. That state is described in several verses which in this translation is converted into free verse.

The mind turns within All follies fall Into nothing Stored water has been drunk The past is unhinged Nothing to do Except being Work comes to happen As the guru arrives The night ends As the sun comes to rise The banana plant’s Fruition and demise23

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The full moon, full of shine Darkness goes follows the night Ignorance and blight24 Come to vanish Also disappears Me myself and mine A pregnant deer* Falls and dies* Death in a dream Vanishes when you rise The mirror is removed Yet the seer survives …2738 * The line ‘Doe a deer a female deer’ to describe the lowest note in music was not an accident but was used for its vivid imagery of a beautiful, sleek animal with lovely eyes. In fact, girls in India are named after the deer indicating that their eyes resemble those of a deer. A pregnant deer is even more evocative25 ‘a lovely animal vulnerable because of its gravid26 state’ and is likely to evoke a welter27 of sympathetic and tender emotions. The death of such a deer therefore is an epitome 28 of severance 29 of all emotions ‘in a realized man’ who is now completely bereft of any tenderness. The imagery is harsh and ruthless but is used even by a man as compassionate as Dnyaneshwar to drive home a point about absolute detachment.

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Brahma – ‘that thing’ from which the world evolved Vedic – of Ved, India’s philosophic religious literature transcendental – beyond the material things carnate – in bodily form unfettered – free appropriate – take possession of piquant – intense, incisive metaphor – imaginative use of word, term or phrase scriptures – religious law, sacred writing shackle – bind, tie up chaff – husk of grain as opposed to seeds mill – to grind corn arsonist – one who sets fire pithy – condensed, forcible decree – a religious or official sanction reiterate – repeat ordain – give religious or official sanction kith and kin – relatives entanglement – to be caught in a web averse – unwilling meditate – reflect, think, ponder

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The Genius of Dnyaneshwar triad – made of three parts demise – death blight – an obscure harmful force evocation – suggestive gravid – pregnant welter – mess, jumble epitome – a thing embodying a quality severance – separation

The Genius of Dnyaneshwar Dnyaneshwari Verses 985–1245 Geeta Chapter 18

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Chapter 120

The Sequence and the Evolution

The Geeta is now approaching its end. Only 27 verses are now left to be said by Shrikrishna and Dnyaneshwar will narrate roughly 300 verses on what Shrikrishna will say. This chapter deals with 260 of these verses in the Dnyaneshwari. Several amongst these are omitted, partly because they are repetitive. In this section Dnyaneshwar expounds1 an important aspect of man’s spiritual quest. He argues, based on the Geeta, that this quest is not likely to be an easy path. It is not a deal that can be clinched with speed. And that man having come into this world from Brahma2, (the ubiquitous3 thing which is the basis, the beginning, the middle and the end of all that there is) arrives with a certain baggage. This baggage is a price that he must pay to savour and enjoy the world. This savouring also necessarily means that man must deal with this world as a separate entity from himself. That is the basis of the theory of duality. It is in this state that a man can become vain or proud, become obsessed with his power or wealth, may seem to feel a certain vigour or might occasionally become insolent or arrogant and from time to time give vent to his anger. He craves on account of his desires and feels falsely and smugly secure in the midst of his friends and family. Even a philosopher is no exception because the tradition he upholds or the institutions he builds are not only a source of fulfilment but also harbour a potential for pride and arrogance. And lastly, says Dnyaneshwar, even a man retired to a forest can become possessive of trees or even of animals.

The task at hand, that of liberation from this natural or God (!)given baggage is therefore not easy and certainly not rapid. One must first feel the need, then must start cultivating suitable thoughts and then practise them (sometimes with great difficulty). The most difficult thing in this life is to overcome one’s nature or in other words overcome oneself. The Geeta and Dnyaneshwar state that by stages and one step at a time this ‘overcoming’ is possible. The verses

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translated from the Dnyaneshwari in this chapter tell the readers of a sequential conversion to a state of restraint, calm, asceticism4, repose5, tranquility and bliss6. The verses, like the effort to arrive at that state, are not easy to understand even in the original. Therefore, to not complicate matters further, very few comments are added to explain the verses and in the latter half of this section the verses are allowed to run without any comments. After all we are coming to a stage in the Geeta and the Dnyaneshwari where most of what had to be said has been said. What is now appearing is only a summarized logical sequential evolution of the seeker who wants to liberate himself from the material world.

Here are the verses.

Like the sun will Light up darkness Or camphor* becomes The lamp itself When sleep and dreams Are dispelled Man is awake And knows himself …2739 * Camphor is used to light a flame in front of an idol of God

Salt from water You cannot tell The Guru in your life Appears himself Duality is then Surely dispelled …2740 The verses above are indicative of a personal transformation towards Brahma which is the beginning, the middle, and the end of this world. To add flavour to the above verse, says Dnyaneshwar of this man Nothing to do Nothing to make The sky doesn’t have Use for legs …2741 The sky is so ubiquitous that it need not go anywhere and therefore has no use for legs. So also this man who is now one with the Brahma.

But during this transformation there are problems galore7. Man must

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overcome his nature (and its three qualities, raj, sattwa and tam, see Chapter 96), must somehow overcome the external world; one’s family and friends must be put in their proper perspective and desires have to be subdued, and the deeds that follow desire must not become burdensome because they are the source of the pride that ensues.

Raj, tam sattwa And desire and deeds In the fire of life Are put as a feed …2742 Family and friends Lovers and mates The thought of heaven And that of hell All become weak And come to abate8 …2743 The body and senses And their sensuous feel Consigned forever And must take to their heels …2744 Life is thus Offered to God And an ascetic life Ensues at last …2745 The mention of the word God is synonymous with Brahma.

That is the time When the Guru is met And he too with cheer Has you blessed …2746 Notice the sequence. The need for this transformation has to be felt by man and as he gets ready with the thought of evolving into the spiritual realm9 the Guru appears to him one way or another and blesses him. But this evolutionary process takes time as under Medicine takes Time to act Sunrise first

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Then the day gets hot The soil is moist But bounty10 must wait The road is easy The company great But arrive you will Only on a certain date …2747 The sequence is narrated further Asceticism in place Then guru you get Ideas of right and wrong Are settled and set That Brahma is one And false is the rest …2748 The falsehood of the rest is only relative And then you walk Towards the truth Not dreamless sleep Nor are you awake Basked are you In a joyous state Where nothing is left Yet all you get Like a hungry man And a delicious plate With every morsel Fullness is felt …2749 Notice in the last verse a very down-to-earth metaphor11 to describe the Brahmic state. What follows is a long sequence of verses which the reader will have to comprehend by getting into the spirit of what is said.

The Guru shows the way Discretion12 prevails Reason is washed clean And the soul is embraced The eclipse recedes And the moon shines And in its own light

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Is bathed When the wife is wed To her husband’s fate Of her parents or in-laws Nothing is said Language fails Only a sublime13 state Comes to prevail The sun withdraws The mirage melts Like you throw up food From an unsavoury plate Senses and passion Are held at bay And through atonement14 Are forced to pay Acts of sattwa Are displayed And come to prevail In the yogic15 state Withdraws he To a forest or cave And is freed From love and hate …2750 He stays by himself In a quiet place With his body and senses With them he plays Games of pacification16 And restraint Without words Talks to himself And in the thoughts of his guru He immerses No thoughts are given To strength or taste Eats just enough For his life’s flame Little he eats And not prone to laze

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Only to pray to God He lies prostrate17 To cross his mind His emotions are forbade What of speech In this state Body mind and speech He transcends18 And the sky of meditation19 He ascends And in the mirror Of his guru’s word He thinks of Brahma As himself Thus meditation The meditator And that for which He meditates All become that The transcendental self …2751 Dnyaneshwar here narrates a few verses on the art of Kundalini which are not translated (for Kundalini, please see Chapter 51, Alternate Pathways) Dnyaneshwar continues Away he drives The enemy, pride The one that clings And takes one’s life Again to be born In turmoil and torture The body its castle He attacks and conquers …2752 Desire and anger Are next on the list And sensual20 pleasures Which add to their grist21 Which invite death Deep in their depth

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With the dagger of meditation Has them met …2753 Then comes the turn of everyday pleasures and arrogance and insolence22 When pleasures are met Happiness we wear And in that state Loudly we cheer Insolence and arrogance Take us astray And like beasts in hell We fall prey …2754 Insolence and arrogance Are vanquished Wishes and desires Are next on the list The very desires The ascetic’s anguish And from which anger Comes to be lit The more you pleasure The more it hits And all of these Are ground to bits …2755 When roots are broken The branches fall When desire is strangled Anger is stalled …2756 Dnyaneshwar gives examples of what traps man, including those who teach spirituality.

What you own Your wife and child Animals and trees When in the wild Followers and students In the monasteries you build …2757

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The staff of discretion Sweeps all sights Friends or enemies Are out of his insight Not a trace of feeling That this is mine That all is one He bathes in that light …2758 The horse of conquest Stands on its heels The ascetic armour He loosens a bit The sword of duality Is not to be seen And for meditation19 There is no need …2759 Sickness and medicine Together they flee When the station arrives Slow down feet When joining the sea The river slows its speed A woman is settled When she becomes a bride The road will end When the town is reached When Brahma approaches Techniques ease And Brahma arrives When there is peace …2760 This then is the sequence of how man overcomes his traits, his worldly fallibility23, his pride and all the consequences of pride, mainly the feeling of being separate from this world. When the end point is reached he abandons the methods used to arrive at this stage.

The last few verses describe in metaphors the end, or realization and the arrival of peace.

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On the bliss of realization He sits astride Like a meal when cooled Is a source of delight When the song is ended Instruments hide Exertions of the past Away they glide The feeling of mine Or is not mine Or the urges that guide Me or mine In his mind Do not reside The stars disappear When the sun comes to rise Everything one Is the thought that presides Letters on a slate Are fully wiped Ignorance and duality Wakefulness and dreams All subside With each morsel Hunger’s demise24 With speed on the rise Longer strides The road when ends The station arrives ‌2761 When one is awake Sleep subsides When the moon is full It is completely bright Objects and aims Are nowhere in sight With me* he merges And there he resides Water is all

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When the big flood arrives When the pot is broken The sky unites …2762 * me = Shrikrishna = Brahma

A very traditional Indian simile to show that the creation of matter (for us the body) somehow is a barrier to the realization of the soul.

However, in this yogic or realized state described above, the barriers fall during one’s lifetime. The sky in the verse above is space enclosed in the pot which is also surrounded by space. The pot is the material man.

This realized soul is ‘me’ And nothing else People call it By many names But I call it Devotion itself And when this devotion Fills and spreads This world for him Is me myself …2763 Asceticism and discretion vanish All bonds are vanquished Ideas and activity And the mind perish …2764 There are no sides Nor a middle Nothing to do Nothing to hide Merged in me And in my tide Like the Ganga mixes In the ocean wide …2765 When you wake The dreams have lapsed Duality goes And unity is grasped A mirror placed

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Against another Nothing is seen Or the one who sees When the mirror is removed And the image is gone Your face remains Only know you can …2766 The sun is not Lit by a lamp To climb the sky Where is a ramp Kingship is known When you are a monarch Embrace the sun Darkness can’t Only the sky knows What is the sky A bunch of seeds Diamonds are not …2767 Unless met ‘I’ am not Youth is felt Only by the lass25 From water it is Waves enjoy A void rolls In the vacant sky Golden things On gold they ply26 Sandalwood smell Only sandalwood has …2768 The one who talks Meets the maker of talk Silence ensues And me is got The one who sees Meets the seer

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The scene goes missing But I am there When the sun lights up Darkness goes When the darkness goes The sun too goes …2769 The sky fills up All the space I fill up All sizes and shapes …2770 In the final flood When water is full There are no streams Nor any pushes or pulls …2771 How can feet Walk with feet How can fire Burn itself And water cannot Bathe itself …2772 A wave might rush From place to place Water it is Whatever the race Like that wave His travels are ‘me’ One with ‘me’ Is pilgrim ‘me’ He may work Or he may think Whatever is he Is only me Whatever he says Is my praise Whatever he sees Is my face

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Wherever he walks Is for my sake …2773 Water and waves Camphor and smell Sparkle in jewels Cotton and thread Or pot and clay He looks at me In this way In dreams and sleep Or a wakeful he All that is seen Or does not see Knows for sure All is me And dance he does Like in a wedding feast …2774 Thus he knows Birth is not Old age just A matter of thought Also that Death is not Drip or drain That thing cannot It is rare It is far Solid it is And cannot fall Utter joy Without change Without a start Formless it is And also formed …2775 Here, switching to the first person singular, Shrikrishna adds Ruled I am And the ruler too Without a beginning

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And without an end Refugee27 I am And refuge28 too I am the king I am all I fill everything And beyond all I am new I am old I am the whole I am nothing Big or small I am one And do not act Without sorrow Beyond touch And the best as such I occupy all …2776 Neither coloured Nor of words Without form And antecedents29 Free I am Of precedents30 …2777 The one who knows me In this way That knowing and knower Come my way …2778 All this oneness If from God he knows That knowing of God From me he knows That I am God And that he prays That feeling goes And only oneness remains …2779

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Neither me Nor is he Words will fail And freedom wins …2780 You subtract one From the number one Or from what is not Any sum Always there Me that one …2781 What of soul Where words are not What is Brahma And what of God …2782 While speaking not Speak you can What you know And know you not Each of which Felt and sought …2783 Knowledge knows knowledge Joy savours joy Profit gains profit Light clings to light Wonder drowns wonder And joy By joy is plundered31 …2784 Then he the yogi And this wondrous state Gives his life And his worldly fate On the church Of deliverance He the spire

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The beatific32 state In the world’s quagmire33 He the Ganga After her twists and turns Into me the sea She no more churns …2785 This is a very long series of verses and they have to be understood, savoured or realized by the seeker. They are suggestive in a hundred different ways. They are based on what one sees in this world but the examples used only reiterate that in the midst of this variety one must seek unity, that unity which is the truth behind this entire phenomenal world.

Wood is fire When it ignites This is devotion Not for that not for this Nothing is sought Is pure bliss That thing on which Ideas exist Before dreams and deeds The light precedes Me is what All he needs Money or desire Or devoted deeds In flesh and blood Bring forth me Like images In mirrors seen Ignorance all That makes him see When they vanish He meets with me …2786 The wood getting ignited is what realization is compared to. It, the ignition, has no external components. When devotion is offered to an external god then the effects generated are also external as in flesh and blood or an image in a mirror which is not real. When

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these apparent external manifestations of god disappear then alone can bliss34 supervene.

Place or time Or objects fine Are not needed To become mine I am always around And beyond time …2787 But there is you And a guru too And thus a way is shown Is in fact true …2788 Fire in wood Milk in breasts Always present In earth is wealth But to gather them Efforts help …2789 The wind may take The clouds away The algae on water Hands can spread …2790 Water is water And sun the sun To show them to you Geeta the one …2791 1.

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expound – explain, talk about, develop Brahma – ‘that thing’ from which the world evolves ubiquitous – present everywhere at the same time asceticism – rigorous discipline of denial of pleasures repose – peaceful state bliss – utter joy galore – in abundance abate – reduce, pass realm – rule, kingdom bounty – harvest metaphor – imaginative use of word, term or phrase

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The Genius of Dnyaneshwar discretion – prudence, care sublime – pure, highly refined atonement – pay for sins yogic – related to harnessing body, mind and soul pacification – make peaceful prostrate – flat on ground as in prayer transcend – go beyond meditate – reflect, ponder, think sensual – related to sense organs grist – advantage insolence – arrogant pride fallibility – the tendency to be at fault demise – death lass – young girl ply – travel regularly refugee – one removed from his normal dwelling place refuge – shelter antecedent – preceding thing precedent – yardstick, criterion plunder – loot, rob beatific – a state of blessedness quagmire – a hazardous awkward situation bliss – utter joy

The Genius of Dnyaneshwar Dnyaneshwari Verses 1246–1425 Geeta Chapter 18

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Chapter 121

Brahma1, Nature, Karma, Man, God, Shrikrishna

The Geeta is now drawing to her conclusion and in a way the verses in this chapter are representative of her philosophy. To recapitulate, Brahma is the source of this universe. It is both immanent2 and transcendental3 in the universe and will outlast the universe and remain in its (Brahma’s) singular and indiscernible4 form. The emergence of this universe is synonymous5 with the unveiling of the natural forces of nature. Nature develops its own laws as it evolves and these laws are called karma from the root ‘kru’ which amongst other things means, to do, to make, to manufacture, to shape, to form, to arrange, to compose etc. Brahma has neither any mind nor any design, it does not plan and has no intention to create.

It has a certain potential, from which nature emerges ‘suo moto’6.

Man emerges in the midst of a variety of natural phenomena of which he constitutes only a very small part. However, man is endowed with intelligence and creativity and therefore is special. This is why man imagines that the world too is created by way of an intelligent design and has a creator. Man calls this entity God who he thinks also sustains this universe and is present at the time of its end when He (!) (God) will judge man and then give him a reward (heaven) or punishment (hell) depending upon how man has behaved in this world or how much faith man had in God. The Upanishads7, a dialogical8 treatise which forms the end of Indian philosophical literature, (also born out of human intellectual effort) do not subscribe to this view, though some earlier parts of Indian philosophical or religious thinking contain a variety of entities which wilfully create the universe including man. In the Geeta, Shrikrishna is depicted as a spokesperson who teaches the nontheistic9 doctrine of the Upanishads, to Arjun, an embattled, confused man who asks him questions about this universe and his (Arjun’s) role in it. Shrikrishna teaches him that he (Arjun) is a creature of nature in general, that he (Arjun) has his own individual traits10 and

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though he (Arjun) can intellectualize and modify his own nature with which he is born, he cannot overcome it completely. Karma being the natural law, Arjun cannot escape it but what he can do is to forsake the effects of karma in his mind. This, however, is not an easy task because nature endows man with sense organs by which man instinctively attempts to savour this world and must suffer its consequences (sorrow) or enjoy its fruits (pleasure). Shrikrishna advises Arjun to prepare his mind to enter into a ‘no pleasure no sorrow’ zone by way of contemplation and also through actions without expectations. This goal needs sustained efforts but it is achievable and once begun, this effort builds as if by compound interest in a sequential evolution called Kram Marg in Sanskrit (kram meaning sequence, marg to mean path or way).

While he imparts this education, Shrikrishna describes himself as Brahma (or its embodiment11, like everything else is) and gives credence12 to an idea called God (which can be viewed as the cause for unleashing the natural phenomena). He is also a Guru. He is responsible for conveying a philosophy by which man must rise above his own nature. Man, while surrounded by a vast array of natural phenomena, must put pleasure and sorrow behind him and constantly suggest to himself that he is nothing but Brahma. This way he is one with everything else that exists in this universe and gives up ideas of duality or a separate existence.

The Guru in this instance might be addressing Arjun as an individual but in fact is a benefactor13 of the world of man. Here are the verses.

The preliminary verses describe the psychological transformation of the seeker where he comes to understand the nature of this world and its fundamental principle Brahma with which he merges albeit14 slowly and surely.

Thus this man Can evolve and surely can Become one with me And enter my realm15 The flowers of his acts Showers he on me And as realization dawns Becomes one with me ‌2792 To shower flowers on an idol is an Indian tradition, converted here into a sort of metaphor16 where the acts of man are given in

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return for the life that he enjoys and which is sourced to the Brahma.

Devotion springs anew When realized is he Merges he with me And blissful17 becomes he The world gets lighted By the soul, that is me Its universal nature known He follows unto me …2793 Dnyaneshwar then gives a series of examples to explain this Like salt sheds its form And becomes one with water Or the wind sleeps in the sky After its wayward ‘wander’ His reason, speech and mind Get under my shelter He may sometimes sin But like the Ganga takes in the gutters Once with me Virtue and sin don’t matter When fire starts to burn What kind of wood is no matter Gold is in different carats Till alchemy18 has it altered Once merged with me Good and bad lie in tatters When I meet with him He enters the inner altar Beyond country, time and his nature He acquires a unique stature On a visit to the city of the sun Day and night lie shattered What more need be gotten When in me his soul is gathered …2794 Of the above metaphors, alchemy renders everything into the best possible metal and in the city of the sun the idea of darkness or a night just does not exist. Day and night as literary tools to explain this principle cannot apply here.

Shrikrishna then gives a certain sequence as to how the merger

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with Brahma will occur. Says he in the words of Dnyaneshwar, All your acts Offer to me Turn your thoughts within And the strength that You then derive Will bring you unto me Like from the body Its shadow is free From the karmic spring You will be freed And the ignorance of all there is Will surely flee Causes and karma Lose their worth and sheen With your reason wed to me Nothing whatever ‘to think’ And your mind Will be one with me Blessed you will be Birth and death Within your stride No fear of darkness When the sun fills your eyes You will be totally free From the bogeyman called life But if you forget me Because of your pride Life will hit you hard As death comes to ride …2795 The original problem confronting Arjun at the beginning of the Geeta is about death as seen in war and particularly the death of his cousins and those who have taught him martial19 arts, and his gurus in various disciplines. Having just explained above the art of going beyond acts in general, beyond karma, and the technique of relinquishing the idea of self, Shrikrishna offers the following in the words of Dnyaneshwar When care you don’t What you eat Fever is bound to rise

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When care you not For your lamp Darkness will overcome light To think of yourself And your tribe Is wisdom clouded by pride If you decide Not to fight Your nature will not abide To kill your kith & kin Is nothing but sin Are mere ideas that mesmerize That you fight Or that you kill Are thoughts without bonafides ‌2796 It is further added You can’t swim Against the stream Rice must grow as rice Trained you are To battle to fight Those actions Will surely rise Brave are you Careful you Make this war You will Bound you may be Hand and foot But your chariot Will not stand still

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To be poor or sick Cannot be anyone’s wish But eat one must Whatever is served On one’s dish …2797 Though Dnyaneshwar is a firm believer in the Upanishadic theory that Brahma is the source of this phenomenal20 world over which it has no control, he from time to time deals with the human idealization of God as the maker (or creator), the manager, and the destroyer of this universe. He (Dnyaneshwar) also describes the unfolding of natural phenomena and points out that man is incapable of comprehending ‘the whole’. For example, he says, In this world Like in a lake Lotuses come to grow Senses and mind The six-legged bee Comes to think it knows …2798 Notice the use of the flower, a lotus, which grows in water. Water has been used as a metaphor for Brahma and the waves on the water are used to explain the phenomenal world throughout the Dnyaneshwari. The six-legged bee here has five senses (eyes, ears, tongue, skin and nose, in fact like in a man) and a mind, and mind you, it is only a bee’s mind. The last part of the verse mockingly accuses the bee of knowing.

It is in this context that Dnyaneshwar also narrates other verses.

For example, In the heart of man The ideas of God And the sequence of nature Arrive Then Heaven and hell Sleep and dreams Such things Also arrive …2799 Dnyaneshwar has consistently attacked the ideas of heaven and hell because he follows the Upanishadic theory that the two don’t

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exist and that realization of Brahma is here and now by way of understanding the reality, by offering that reality (or Brahma) all one’s acts by leading a life filled with dispassionate work ethic.

However, he seems to make an allusion21 (somewhat) in the following verses to the idea of an active God. God gets donned With ego and pride And takes us around On a ride Behind His maya Hidden He is And shows us all That there is With strings in hand He runs the show And the images dance Before our eyes …2800 Yet Dnyaneshwar quickly recovers to say, A bundle of thread By a thread is tied By straw itself Its bundle is tied An image in water As viewed by a child Our body is all That we surmise …2801 All the metaphors above indicate the world as ‘make believe’, or false. In the case of the straw and thread it is hinted that after all it is the same material for different uses or in different forms. The child for example has no real comprehension of what this image in water is.

In a very modern metaphor he talks of man as a machine.

When the body is mounted Man comes to life When the lever is pulled He comes to fall or rise The straw gets strewn

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When the wind comes to rise Man too is sent On his fate and his demise22 …2802 The pride with which man goes around this world is punctured in the above verse and contains a mechanical analogy23. The verse is being narrated to put things in the proper perspective. Having thus created the background, Dnyaneshwar continues Like the moon and the tides Or magnet and files (iron) That thing in you Takes you many a mile Forget you are Arjun Shed your ego and pride Realize your nature Lest you are swept in her tide The Ganga when she Joins the sea Sweetly merges In its tides God and nature Join you must Body and mind Speech and pride And then it is That peace is your bride …2803 Shrikrishna is now going to go beyond God and nature and will start describing Brahma.

That is where Everything begins Where rest Comes to savour rest In that thing In that place Feelings come to Feel themselves …2804 Dnyaneshwar adds that thus the Geeta hands over to man his soul and ‘this philosophy is the ultimate trophy’. He praises the Geeta

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further. Says Dnyaneshwar, In the Geeta Vedant24 gets explained And thus it is That it gets acclaimed Truth’s images Are revealed to you And me the knower Is felt by you …2805 Shrikrishna adds, Mysterious and mine This truth is my treasure Friend as you are I give with pleasure A child which is Her only love A mother might Sometimes scold I won’t ever Do this to you Because to you I am utterly sold The sky is so Utterly fine Yet I put it through My sieve That which death defies Without a form ‘that thing’ Even that I peel and skin Like a promise Comes to be asked That a promise It may give

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The sun that reveals The smallest atoms Its eyes I anoint25 I know it all Yet I contemplate26 And only then I ask That you do Whatever you believe ‌2806 The last group of verses requires some elaboration. In praising the Geeta, Dnyaneshwar unveils an interesting twist. The Vedant (Ved + Ant) is the culmination of the Indian philosophical systems barring the protestant streams of Buddhism and Jainism. The Geeta has been compiled at a later date, certainly later than the Upanishads which mainly constitute the Vedant. Yet Dnyaneshwar says that it is because Vedant gets incorporated in the Geeta that it gets acclaimed (Verse 2805).

Later Shrikrishna professes a complete trust in Arjun, which is a mirror image of the faith that Arjun has in Shrikrishna (Verse 2806).

Shrikrishna says here that the sky or space is the finest of fine things, yet he has a sieve through which it can be strained, that a deathless thing without a form he can skin and peel, that the idea of a promise or vow itself he can ask to make a promise, that he can anoint the eyes of the sun because of which everything is seen and lastly though he is the ultimate knower, even he contemplates before he gives. And then advises Arjun that he (Arjun) may do only that in which he (Arjun) believes.

Once these verses are narrated, Dnyaneshwar portrays Arjun as having gone quiet, yet seeking more from the Lord.

Arjun then went quiet And the Lord knew Arjun’s mind Like the hungry refuse food And then come to be left behind (was Arjun) The Lord said You want to hear More of what I have taught And Arjun was

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Filled with awe Because the Lord had known His thoughts …2807 Based on the above Dnyaneshwar makes an interesting point of there being a single knower, that is the universal consciousness and that around this knower is everything that comes to be known. In the verse below Shrikrishna is shown to be a knower because he represents Brahma.

There is only the Lord Who is called the knower All the rest Comes to be known Only the sun can shine Like the Sun Like nothing else Has ever shone Shrikrishna in the words of Dnyaneshwar then continues Not because it is important But listen to me with attention Because fortune favours you To you all this will be mentioned …2808 Here the very kernel of devotional religion is being articulated.

What is important is that Arjun is fortunate because the Lord, pleased as he is with Arjun’s total faith in him, has decided to speak to him.

The substance of what is being told is not as important as the fact that the Lord will be speaking to Arjun directly.

Says Shrikrishna, Even the ugly eyes Of the tortoise Are filled with Love and milk There is nothing In the sky Yet for Chatak’s sake With clouds it gets filled …2809 27

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In the Indian poetic tradition the eyes of a tortoise are considered ugly. The verse above alludes to the love that these eyes are filled with when the tortoise looks at its baby and the milk that soon flows for that baby. The Chatak bird, also according to tradition, is usually depicted as being thirsty for water and perpetually looking at the sky. The verse hints that though its requirement is very little, when fulfilling this requirement rain falls for all. To continue on the theme of this ‘windfall’ (when God so wishes ), Dnyaneshwar narrates the following verses In a place where nothing happens Even there you can get rewards When fortune comes to favour One is showered with awards Where you and me are one And unity comes to be known Love is not the reason The subject is that of the soul The mirror comes to be cleaned Not for the mirror but for self You just happen to be here I speak from within myself Like salt takes to water Without feeling shy You reach me as a whole Without questions what and why …2810 All the above verses are steeped in the idea and practice of faith.

The devotee, once devotion springs, becomes insignificant because he as an individual (subject) disappears into the object of his adoration28. And God, or an idol then supervenes completely. All that remains is the feeling of oneself. The verse about the mirror is particularly relevant. The act of cleaning the mirror (devotion) is not for the mirror but for the self (here understood to be one’s soul) which is to become a part of God. Shrikrishna adds, All things that come to happen In your body and mind

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Give them unto me Like the sky is home to the wind Your mind must be my home And yours ears hear only me Like the lecherous29 look at women You see my saints and me …2811 Says the Lord The whole world is my home Yet I am given different names So that I stay in your heart You must mouth those names By your hands Or your legs When you act in this world When you help Anyone else or yourself By your acts or words Or when you serve Think of me And give me all that is worth This way all that lives You won’t envy or hate Whenever you bow Think of me And in peace We will mate When the pond is dry The sun is one with the image The wind in the sky Water and waves That world then Will come to recede And you and me Will remain …2812

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The pond mentioned here is the world in which the Brahma gets reflected. The sky or empty space occupied by the wind or water agitated into waves are worldly phenomena. All this recedes when the devotee focuses on the ultimate truth.

Adds Shrikrishna I swear by you, That this is the Final truth God I may be But I do swear Out of love for you The scriptures say That I am The whole and sole That because of me This world Comes to play its role And for your sake I have shed a part of me And we have become one whole ‌2813 Arjun referring to an earlier verse where Shrikrishna swears that he is telling the truth says, A royal decree No need to read That you teach Is enough for our needs With the ray of the sun A lotus will bloom Yet it lights the world And lifts its gloom The Chatak* is the excuse For drops to fall Yet rains fill to the brim Oceans all * See explanatory note about the Chatak bird in Verse 2809

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It is just by chance That I am around The world will profit By your words and sound ‌2814 Shrikrishna responds There is no need To praise me in this manner By what I tell you You will come to me for ever Salt loses itself When it goes into water Once shed of your ego In me you will be gathered From the start of your karma Till being gathered by me When you offer me your karma You will be blissful like me There is nothing to try Nothing to gain Once with me You will not remain Almost at hand Is this dreadful war But even in this war My words cannot be barred As I give you the Geeta Your ignorance is shed And as I am realized The world will have fled To expect is sorrow To criticize is sin Heaven and hell Ignorance brings

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The snake and the rope Get rid of the snake Disregard your dreams And you are awake …2815 The last two verses are crucial. Sorrow can follow when your expectations are not met. The tendency to criticize arises because one feels different from others. Your karma done with expectations of heaven or fear of hell is also borne out of ignorance. Man confronts life with a certain trepidation30. In fact it is not a great burden. A harmless piece of rope, he imagines to be a snake and recoils from it.

Dnyaneshwar advises to pick up the harmless rope, shed one’s fears, discard ignorance about the nature of this world and go forth with joy in this world.

The moon gets white When jaundice wanes The mouth tastes better When health is regained When wood is discarded There is no flame You know yourself When dreams stop their games You become me When you surrender your name When the pot is broken, The sky is the same However high it rises Water is no wave A volcano in its depth The sea has it tamed When you are with me You lose your name Then to act different Is a matter of shame …2816 The simile of the pot is the only one that needs any explanation.

The space within a pot and outside is construed by man to be separate. In fact they are not. A temporary wall is all that there is in the thing called uninterrupted space. When the wall breaks (that is the pot) man thinks that the space is now united which was never broken to begin with.

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Once butter comes out With milk it won’t mix When wood catches fire Fire cannot be fixed Darkness is not Known to the sun When you are awake Dreams stop their run When you are with me You, my substance and sum When different from me With sin will be overrun …2817 Shrikrishna adds Forget your worries Only think of me The one who sees best Beauty’s epitome31 …2818 Sanjay the courtier who has been narrating what has been happening on the battlefield and between Shrikrishna and Arjun narrates the last two lines of the above verse and adds To the most handsome On view The one who lives In all the states Arjun surrenders And by the Lord is embraced Where speech was of no need And reason was a waste What was In the Lords heart Into Arjun’s heart Was fed And though Two of them In love and faith They were wed When one lamp

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Lights another The light they give Is the same Arjun with joy Was flooded And the Lord came to hide Though not tamed When a sea Meets another Water rises Without a change Their meeting Was beyond bounds And filled with God Beyond the worldly frame …2819

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Brahma – ‘that thing’ from which the world evolved immanent – indwelling, inherent transcendental – beyond the material world indiscernible – not clearly seen synonymous – with the same meaning suo moto – by itself Upanishad – concluding portion of the Vedic literature dialogical – by way of a conversation non-theistic – not based on the idea of God trait – quality embodiment – as in formation of a body from spirit or idea credence – validity benefactor – donor, giver albeit – of course realm – rule, dominion, kingdom metaphor – an imaginative use of word, term or phrase blissful – full of utter joy alchemy – a chemical process to convert base metals into gold martial – appropriate for war phenomenal – of this material world allusion – reference demise – death analogy – corresponding or a parallel idea Vedant – the end of Vedic literature anoint – to declare as arrived in religious terms contemplate – survey with eyes or mind kernel – the very essence adoration – worship, idolize

The Genius of Dnyaneshwar 29. lecherous – lustful, having strong sexual desire 30. trepidation – a feeling of fear or alarm 31. epitome – a thing embodying a quality

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Dnyaneshwari Verses 1462–1792 Geeta Chapter 18

Chapter 122

In praise of Shrikrishna/the Geeta/and the Guru

This part of the Dnyaneshwari is not about the philosophical conclusion of the Geeta. That conclusion has preceded in the earlier verses of the eighteenth chapter. This is more an encapsulation of the description of the persons involved when the Geeta was narrated as also about Dnyaneshwar, the commentator of the Geeta and about the perennial1 nature of its philosophy and its majesty. A brief description is given below of the events proceeding the narration of the Geeta.

Mahabharat is an epic (Chapter 19) compiled by Vyas in which an almost fratricidal2 war is in the offing, between cousins for a kingdom.

But there is more to this war than a mere kingdom. One of the parties to this war is depicted as virtuous and the other as villainous. The patriarch of the villainous side is blind and has employed one of his courtiers (who is in charge of his stables) to narrate what is happening on the battlefield. The name of the courtier is Sanjay who according to the epic has the extraordinary ability to see at a great distance.

The opposite party has an icon3 of sorts, Arjun, a valiant prince as also a scholar who at the very last moment when the bugles have been sounded for the war, lays down his arms and raises questions of the nature of this fratricidal war, calls it sinful and avers that life spent in this fashion is worthless. The prince’s charioteer is Krishna (Shrikrishna) who has decided not to participate in the war except to wield the reigns of Arjun’s chariot. The epic describes him (see Chapter 19) as a man extraordinaire, incarnation of God, the embodiment4 of Brahma5, as also a Guru, a philosopher and the very spirit of religion. In temporal6 terms he is related to Arjun who has married his sister. He is the king of a distant kingdom, as also a statesman, a warrior and lastly a saviour of women and the oppressed. In short to put it in slightly irreverent7 and modern terms, he is a man for all seasons. It is he who answers all the questions raised by Arjun. The questions and answers form the Geeta, and as

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the questions and answers mount, the Geeta becomes a summary or an elucidation8 of the then extant9 Indian philosophy. The catch is all this narration is in Sanskrit, the classical Indo-European language and remained thus for 1200 years till a person called Dnyaneshwar (full name Dnyaneshwar Vitthal Kulkarni, please see ‘Life and Times of Dnyaneshwar’ at the end) inspired and mentored by his Guru Nivrutti (also Dnyaneshwar’s elder brother) narrated a magnum opus called Dnyaneshwari as a commentary on the Geeta. This work is nearly 9000 verses long and explains the Geeta which has 700 verses.

This chapter is more about the Geeta than what is said in her and about the personalities involved in the narration of the Geeta and the Dnyaneshwari. Here are the verses.

The Vedas10 vast Had emerged from his breath Now he presents them In their measured breadth Like the whole of the tree Rests in its seed Vedas reflect (in the Geeta) Like a bead All three sections Of Vedic thoughts Are seen in the Geeta Part by part Glinting ornaments On her body of thoughts Chapter one Presents the cause The second explains Sankhya* And then takes a pause To describe to man The way to bliss11 To the man Who knows not all Are shown the things** On which he can call …2820 * Sankhya in Sanskrit literally means numbers. The system in which man’s creation and composition is explained numerically (please see Chapter 79). ** The method of work ethic for ordinary men.

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Man bound that he is By karma that is his Rewards must be shunned12 And sin despised13 But perform he must What is his deed And that is how He is released To the Brahma If his karma he cedes14 And to God he offers Body, mind and speech That ends the fourth Then till Chapter eleven Karma is explained In all those seven Including the last The Lord’s haven* …2821 * Shows the cosmos in all its grandeur (see Chapter 74, the chapter that describes the cosmos)

Having thus explained What to do In twelve and thirteen Realization accrues15 Then till fifteen Ripeness rules …2822 The methodology has been described and has now been assimilated.

Thus the Geeta is no different From the scriptures ‘heard’* In fact the scriptures wear The ornaments of her words Then the enemies of truth Ignorance and sin Are explained In Chapter Sixteen

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How to deal with sin Is the seventeenth Up to the seventeenth Is the Lord’s own breath** In the eighteenth is heard Its full scope and breadth …2823 * In the Indian tradition the older scriptures have all been heard and are not considered to have arisen from personal intellectual rigour16. The Geeta is the only scripture delivered orally by a historical figure. ** Tradition dictates that the breath of the Brahma has been interpreted by man in the Geeta.

The Geeta is thus An ocean of truth She is Ved by herself Yet generous to boot* …2824 * In reference to a custom which forbade certain castes and women from studying the older Vedic texts.

Miserly though they were They were rich and full (the Ved) They were called miserly Because they forsake a few (women and some castes) They appeared again To atone17 for this lapse To counter this blame In the Geeta they relapsed18 Via the Geeta they enter our minds It is by her sound, our ears she finds And by way of our mouth We come to recite By those who recite And by way of their books For their hunger for truth She is their food Nicely dressed and also cooked You can wear the sun Though it is high in the sky Because of the sky

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You can soar and fly Geeta gives peace Both to the low and the high The Vedas entered the Geeta Because of the shame of the past And from the mouth of the Lord The Geeta came to be cast All drink the milk Though meant for the calf The rain falls for the Chatak* But it quenches the thirst of all The lotus blooms by its rays But the sun brightens all For the Lord Arjun was an excuse (to narrate the Geeta) But for the vagaries of this world By all men she was used …2825 * a mythical bird thirsty for water

That is to say that the Geeta benefited all.

The Geeta was the sun That shone from Shrikrishna’s mouth Arjun built a fort (of her) From the north to the south And his stock and lineage19 Thus became proud …2826 To mean how Arjun from this light fortified the Geeta for all and thus brought credit to his family The Lord then emerged From the mind of the prince (Arjun) And asked him with love If he was convinced …2827

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Because so far the Lord and Arjun had become almost one.

When the prince said yes The Lord had him warned A treasure once yours Must be secured from harm When the sea was churned By the demons and the Gods With the greatest of efforts ‘Amrit’ was born (A) But the ‘Amrit’ was not Looked after well (by the demons) The demons thus By poison were felled (B) Nahush had risen To heaven as a regent But because he erred Turned into a serpent (C) …2828 ABC are stories from Indian mythology Amrit = A+ mrit / A = without / Mrit = death or mortis / Amrit = a divine potion20 meant for achieving immortality

Because of your virtue The Geeta you got Like the demons you will rot If you stray from your path The cow gives milk But to milk her you must know The guru and the student With the Geeta they flow Don’t give it to those Whose penance21 is short The penance may be long But if with the guru he is not Or when there is no desire For the Geeta and her thoughts

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For a man who is full Food is a waste Pearls without holes Can’t be strung with a thread What use is the rain On the sea that is grave The eyes might be good But how can they smell Guru’s disciples Filled with penance But with no faith in me Keep them at a distance Studded with ornaments And complexion fair But if life has fled She is just stark and bare …2829 Such students of the Geeta are further described as under A house of gold But a snake at the door A divine potion With poison is laced Friendship on show But treacherous goals Great as he is Brahmadeo the God Have no mercy for him If faith he has not …2830 Dnyaneshwar then outlines a sort of framework for learning the Geeta With penance As a foundation In the temple Of guru’s adoration22 Topped with Spires of devotion Within its portals23 Prayer and contemplation24

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Within this temple Geeta’s consecration25 And with me with you To total absolution26 …2831 Then comes a reference to Aum, the uncaused sound (see Chapters 1,16,104) Caught in its letters Was the uncaused sound Rooted in the Ved In the Geeta it resounds Fruits and flowers In versified sound …2832 Eulogizing the Geeta further, Dnyaneshwar adds A child has no life Sans its mother The Geeta and Gayatri* With my devotees I gather And with love for the Geeta They live forever …2833 * Gayatri is a metre in which many scriptures are written and sung.

The devotees might be adorned By a mortal shell But their essence and their breath Is me myself A Scholar or a doer Is because of me But when he adores the Geeta My most favoured is he The one who recites the Geeta With a throng of devotees In the whole of this world Incomparable is he …2834 Dnyaneshwar then narrates a complicated verse in which he says that this singer has his hair standing on ends like spring leaves, he sways in a gentle wind like a tree, he appears like a flower laden with dew, with tears of joy in his eyes, and his words appear like

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those of the Myna bird, as the spring approaches (Myna has a melodious call).

Dnyaneshwar adds To reach me in the end In the midst of saints The one who showers Geeta’s gems Is my favourite Amongst all the men …2835 And then tells Arjun Between the two of us The Geeta came to grow Realization the goal Its way, she showed …2836 And then Shrikrishna makes this bold statement The verses of the Geeta Who recites by heart Its meaning might be lost But he is nearest my heart Whatever else there is Follow them or not When the Geeta enters the ears Sins flee on a trot When a forest burns Animals are on the run Or the sky swallows darkness When from the hills peeps the sun When the Geeta is sung All sins will burn The world comes to be conquered As life’s fortune turns The next stop is the heavens Where happiness flows and runs Joy and bliss are his When to me he finally comes (beyond heavens) …2837

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Shrikrishna then asks Arjun You have heard all of this With rapt attention Has it entered your mind And made an impression We poured it all Through your ears Have you passed it on To the mind’s interior Or have you spilt some On its way to the exterior Have you got rid Of the false image of this world Do you still think Greatly about your worth That you can do This and that And all this is In your hands This brought Arjun Out of his trance And he stood on the edge Of Brahma and his form (from bliss to his worldly state) …2838 To mean that he had earlier merged with Brahma His hair stood on their ends And shaking were his hands His breathing was uneven Yet he stood quiet and calm Eyes teared with joy Throat filled with thoughts Yet he spoke with a plan …2839 Says Arjun Temptation and greed Have departed and gone

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When the sun meets the eyes Darkness is not The fact, you are with me Is enough to fill all And you had me taught Like only a mother can No temptation from now Can take me from you, it can’t That I am Arjun Is what I had thought But because of you Realization has dawned I have become you Blissful and calm On ignorance of ‘you and me’ I have put a ban And that I do this Or I do this and that Such thoughts forever Are vanished and gone Only because of you I know what I am And nothing left to do Except your commands The world except you Has vanished and gone I will hope for you Wherever I am or gone Duality is crossed You my guru and my form And me with your love Have now lost my form To become Brahma means Deeds and doing Are a distant past

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The Ganga meets the sea Ceases to be And becomes its part You too, to your devotees Give them your part And that you are my guru Means the curtain is torn (between you and me) Allow me to serve you With all my heart And now I will do Whatever you command The Lord who is this and more Was swaying with joy The Lord was the tree Arjun the fruit Is what the Lord thought Like they are marriage vows On this altar of a dialogue Is what Sanjay* thought ‌2840 * Sanjay the courtier who is narrating what is happening on the battlefield to his master, the blind king (See Chapter 22).

Said Sanjay to his worldly Lord, the blind king You might be blind To these worldly bits and odds But lucky that you are Beyond this world you saw To man your stables You had me called And me too could partake These words of Vyas* In this terrible war Between cousins fought Both and all will lose Matters not win or loss

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Yet such great wisdom Was heard because of Vyas* …2841 * The author and editor of Mahabharat (See Chapter 20).

But the blind king Was at a total loss Like rays of a gentle moon Fall on a rock But Sanjay could not stop He happily swayed and talked Though he knew his master Was not deserving of these thoughts Your nephew’s (Arjun) words Said Sanjay to his Lord (the blind king) Were to Krishna’s ears Melodies made from thoughts Whichever the ocean Water is the same The words were one Though from different names (Arjun and Shrikrishna) So that they could speak They bore different names But what they spoke Made them one and the same One mirror opposite the other In different frames Which will see what Is the name of this game One lamp near the other Who can light what When one sun rises against another There is no this and that Around a pile of salt When two streams merge

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Such was my state Such was my urge My hair stood on their ends My body seemed to melt My eyes were flooded With the joy that I felt My inside felt odd And my throat appeared to be stuffed Words just left me And with sobs I was stuck But Sanjay came to revive In due course of time As always happens When faith is pure and sublime27 ‌2842 Continued Sanjay What the scriptures did not know Vyas had me taught With Brahma I was one And thus fled my ignorant thoughts These words of the Lord Were meant for you as well But as your servant On my ears they fell as well When the cosmos28 was on view Still and quiet were you What is not seen When we could view You may want to forget But it will stay with you That fantastic thing Is still sweeping me anew ‌2843 Then the blind king said Here you were brought Only to describe the war

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Such nonsense you talk You have gone too far …2844 Sanjay then thought What is a palace For a man from the woods For ghosts on their rounds Sunlight is no good …2845 Then says the blind king My sons are brave And their army is large What do you think Will happen in this war …2846 Said Sanjay, I don’t know about this war Things will live If there is life Moonlight will be Till the moon comes to shine Where there are saints Thoughts will be fine Where there is love Two will entwine When there is mercy Faith will survive Where faith comes to live Joy is sublime And hid is the divine Leaves will emerge When the spring arrives First come the leaves Flowers come from behind And when flowers come to bloom Bees surely thrive Where there is the sun All is bright and shine Knowledge comes calling Where the guru comes to reside

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A firm rule by the king On a strong army thrives On Shrikrishna’s words The scriptures29 survive Arjun blessed by Krishna His win cannot be denied As Laxmi and Vishnu’s child (Shrikrishna) The Kalpa* tree will be reaped And would not their land Like the spirit move free Why would not his words Be the scriptures that came to be And heavens and realization He is bound to get, and does he Clouds count in your eyes Though made from the sea Alchemy30 turns iron to gold But gold is what precious is The guru might be great But the student is who will shine Light may be the source But the lamp comes to shine God gives the might But it is Arjun who delights And even God does not mind And if victory goes to another It will not be facile31 * A wish tree

Thus in this verse Vyas did summarize The scriptures, the Bharat and the Geeta And all that there was and is To replace the sun as if Vyas lighted this wick32 Thus said Sanjay To complete this treatise33 And this one verse is enough To fulfil life and wish

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The Geeta with its verse From the sky nectar divine Her seven hundred pillars Are Geeta’s spiritual design She overtakes the world And is Goddess divine The one who serves the Geeta With body, speech and mind Will ascend the royal throne Of joy and bliss sublime By a single verse of the Geeta Ignorance comes to vanish Faster than by the sun Darkness gets banished On the difficult paths of this world She is a shady vine34 Or in a lake called Krishna Lotuses in a line Her premises are open arms To meet the divine On the lotus called the Geeta Her verses are like bees Or they are like waves On the Geeta a virtual sea Or if the Geeta is the chariot They are horses on the leash Geeta or her verses Is the tree that grants your wish Like many a lamp Each verse is vital Whichever way you see The light from them is equal Sun as young or old Is not the way to see A sea that is divine* Cannot be shallow or deep

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Young, middle or old A Kamdhenu can never be** All verses are equal Krishna is what she is * a mythical sea of milk ** a divine cow which grants every wish

Her meaning in your grasp Or her you just recite Benefits one and all Equally she is kind Because of God divine Literary idol she is Unlike other texts Disappear after they teach Geeta is Brahma Forever she is The bliss of pristine Brahma Krishna was born to teach The moon cools the world Because of the Chakor’s wish*** Shankar let go the Ganga **** So that evil was rid Arjun the calf, Krishna the cow And milk for the world is supplied *** a mythical bird which feeds on moonbeams **** Shankar – a God who brought river Ganga from heaven and let her flow on the earth

If you bathe in the Geeta Brahma you will be Or touch it to the tongue as you recite You realize your Brahmic dreams Turn your back on her Yet she will shower thee Like a thing on your palm She can be read with ease Small morsels of food Is what the mother feeds Or the maker of fans

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Brings the power of the wind in your limbs What is beyond words Vyas brought for all Also for women and those deprived Water becomes pearls And on women they come to shine Sound put through bellows or strings Fills up the ears as they sing Fragrance and flowers when together Nose comes to smell and it rings Sweetness of sugar when mixed with food The tongue is tickled by that thing Your eyes without the mirror How can they be seen If the guru was not born as a man How can you pray or sing Brahma the vast, Brahma the far Without the Geeta you can’t feel It is the clouds from whom you seek Huge though the ocean is It is from the Geeta with her verses That even the Brahma you can seek Thanks to Vyas and Krishna’s words Geeta got her shape and size And this Geeta now I think In Marathi I will narrate and speak Even Vyas is sometimes lost In the wisdom that Geeta is I also think I stutter and mutter As I get ready to speak Geeta is the flower-bedecked God Flowers, Vyas’s brilliant speech But generous he is and won’t refuse My garland of grass and weeds Elephants roam to savour the water Of the great milky sea But even a thirsty gnat35 Not refused by the milky sea

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A baby bird with fluttering wings Flies the sky there is The eagle big, majestic too Owns the sky he thinks Me like the baby bird The sky is mine I think Struts the earth the royal swan But others too can limp An earthen pot is full of water But a mouthful of water can rinse A royal torch with its regal glow But also shines a tiny wick Fish as big as a hill Are known to roam the sea But there are other small little fish Their home is also the sea Varun the angel, a neighbour of the sun Is always the first to see But a tiny ant from the grass The sun can easily see For these reasons, Geeta in Marathi Can surely be told by me When a son follows his father’s steps He too will surely reach With Gurus of yore Small though me, I will know What Geeta is Like the earth does pardon Every and each The moon will cool All the heat By whose spark The sun is lit By whose power Full is the sea

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And by whose power Water is sweet

By His push The wind gets speed The sky is wide

By His wish Knowledge is king That thought is His it is He Who makes the scriptures speak But for Him The world won’t be In Marathi it is I will speak And the Geeta Will come with ease And my every breath Becomes books umpteen ‌2847 The last few concluding verses are of such extraordinary beauty and so rich with local and ethnic flavour that to translate them would be to mutilate them. The temptation is therefore avoided.

Dnyaneshwar says in these verses that his Marathi narration will stand in its own right with or without its Sanskrit source, the Geeta.

This my narration (Dnyaneshwari) says Dnyaneshwar, can certainly serve as an ornament on the Geeta yet when viewed by herself she will be like an ethereal serene beauty without any semblance of glamour or make-up. Like the round Mogra flowers whether single (each verse) or in a garland (together as the complete work) the same heavenly fragrance will come from her. She (Dnyaneshwari) will be like the pearls which can embellish a golden ornament (Geeta). Yet like the pearls by themselves, she (Dnyaneshwari) will have her own regal elegance. Dnyaneshwar also states proudly that the construction of the Dnyaneshwari and the metre used therein will allow both the uninitiated and the wise (or the young and the old) to grasp her meaning and substance. Dnyaneshwar in the end refers again to his Guru (Nivrutti) and thanks him for asking him and enabling him to explain the Geeta and admits that he (Dnyaneshwar) was a wayward child without the Geeta, his mother and it is because of his Guru, that he was reunited with her.

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perennial – lasting a long time fratricidal – of killing brothers and sisters icon – an image or a statue embodiment – to take form (from spirit) Brahma – ‘that thing’ from which the world evolved temporal – of this world as opposed to spiritual irreverent – disrespectful, irreligious elucidation – explanation extant – till that time Vedic – of Vedas, India’s philosophical and religious literature bliss – utter joy shun – avoid despise – hate, treat with distaste cede – give up accrue – to come naturally rigour – effort atone – to make efforts to rid of guilt or sin relapse – recur lineage – of ancestral line potion – a liquid medicine penance – act of punishment to self adoration – worship, idolize portals – a doorway or a gate contemplate – survey with eyes or mind consecration – declaration of sacredness absolution – formal release from guilt sublime – of a high order, lofty, heavenly cosmos – the whole of the universe in a certain order scripture – religious law or sacred writing alchemy – a chemical process to convert base metals into gold facile – fluent, easily achieved wick – thread or piece of cloth dipped in oil for a flame treatise – a written work dealing formally with a subject vine – a creeping or climbing plant gnat – a very tiny insect

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Dnyaneshwari Verses 1793–1800 Geeta Chapter 18

Chapter 123

The Prayer and the Entreaty

The Dnyaneshwari is an extraordinary work. She is huge, entirely in verse, each verse is sweetness personified and yet properly metred.

Though the purpose of the Dnyaneshwari is to explain the Vedant1, the final outcome of the Vedic2 philosophy or religion, and must necessarily be somewhat abstract3, Dnyaneshwar never loses sight of the human condition and the world in which man lives. In fact, he revels 4 in the world—Dnyaneshwari is full of enchanting 5 descriptions of the natural phenomena and to give just two details, employs fifty-five types of animals, birds and insects and sixty types of plants and trees in his verses to explain what he wants to prove.

His description of the cosmos6 and its origins in Chapter 75 is fascinating and gloriously inspired and far surpasses that in the Geeta.

Let it also be mentioned for the first time in this book that Dnyaneshwar has his own interpretation of the Vedantic philosophy (please see ‘Life and times of Dnyaneshwar’ after this chapter) and in a way he is hemmed in by the Geeta which must traverse various philosophical paths before setting her (Geeta’s) seal on Vedant1 as the final destination. Yet Dnyaneshwar exhibits an impartial spirit while dealing with materialism7 and mysticism8, the yogic9 and liturgical schools, and the logical and scientific trends that together weave the Geeta’s fabric, and gives each one their due.

On this rather heavy background Dnyaneshwar’s final prayer and entreaty10 is sheer simplicity, tenderness, goodwill and a sense of surrender. The Dnyaneshwari began with philosophical, metaphysical and abstract terms and here ends with sincerity, a soulful piety and an expression of humble vulnerability before the all-encompassing spiritual God. Reason gives way to prayer, he offers himself through his words and seeks blessings for all that is living.

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Here is the prayer May the spiritual God Of this world be pleased With these words And bestow on me This my prayer May the villains be rid Of their vile nature Perform pious deeds And turn good-natured And let there be love and friendship Amongst all living creatures Let the darkness of sin Be dispelled And let the sun of religion rise Within each creature And let religion be really felt And whatever whomever craves I pray that everyone may get Congregations of the faithful Who shower blessings and beatitude12 May join forever With all creatures on this earth Those pious, virtuous men Like the moon without its stains Or the sun without its heat and flames Whose words come out of an immortal vein Gardens of wish trees Or a bunch of Chintamani* gems Let everyone adore and praise These virtuous men And in this manner Let joy in the universe reign13 And engrossed should be all men Into that from where they came in deep faith Those who in this mortal world Live by this book and its words May transcend14 this world

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And also that Which goes by heaven’s name For an explanation of the construction of the first stanza of this prayer the reader is referred to the first three chapters of this book.

That this universe is mainly spirit or is spiritual, and that the spirit manifests into matter (this world) and therefore in our mind arises the idea of a personal God was discussed in those chapters. The word ‘spiritual God’ is a conjoint expression of these ideas. In the second part of the stanza Dnyaneshwar presents ‘this offering of my words’. In the original expression ‘yadnya of words’ is used.

The idea and ritual called yadnya has been discussed at some length in Chapter 5 (36, 43). In the mind of Dnyaneshwar a yadnya is not a mere ritual but a life led in consonance with the nature of this world of ‘give’ as well as ‘take’. Here Dnyaneshwar is offering his words and asks that his prayer be answered.

In the second stanza, as the prayer begins, the very first thing that he asks for is that the villains be rid of their vile deeds. Unlike in the mid-eastern religions, the ethos of Vedant does not subscribe to ‘the devil’ as a distinct entity. In fact even the ideas of sin and piety are relative terms (the Geeta herself advocates a righteous war, no matter if it is violent) and life is described only in two terms, nature and nurture15. The latter includes upbringing, education, counselling and the presence of a guru. To become good is therefore an individual process by internal changes not by as in exorcizing16 the devil from without.

What follows in the next stanza is a reference to moral leaders with virtue as a foundation for their position in the society. In characteristic fashion he chooses the moon and the sun in his metaphor17. Dnyaneshwar points out that they are like the moon (cool and soothing) without its dark spots and bright like the sun, without its fearsome heat. He compares them to a wish tree and to gems which bestow all that a man seeks (Chintamani, Chint =think of, mani = gem). Dnyaneshwar himself then wishes that these moral leaders may be adored and praised by the lay population and then lastly in the stanza hopes that man by way of reason, should think and then sublimate himself in the source from where he came, but also with faith.

In the end, referring to the Geeta and/or Dnyaneshwari he hopes that those who live by this book (or by preaching make a living out of this book) may transcend not only this world but the heavens as well which are only an idealization18 of man’s thoughts so that they

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are liberated and become one with Brahma19 that perennial20 thing which was, is and will be the source, centre and envelope of all things at all times.

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Vedant – the concluding portion of the Vedic literature Ved – from the root ‘vid’ to know abstract – non-figurative, conceptual, theoretical, intangible revel – celebrate, have fun enchant – charm, captivate, fascinate cosmos – the whole of the universe in a certain order materialism – a science that deals with matter without its spiritual basis mysticism – religion, spirituality yogic – dealing with the technique of harnessing body, mind and soul entreaty – appeal, plea, request piety – godliness, holiness, piousness beatitude – a state of utter blessedness reign – rule transcend – go beyond nurture – care for, look after, raise, cultivate, cherish exorcize – get rid of, banish, drive out metaphor – imaginative use of word, term or phrase idealization – adulation, respect, admiration Brahma – ‘that thing’ from which the world evolved perennial – recurrent, permanent, lasting

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The Life and Times of Dnyaneshwar

Dnyaneshwar Vitthal Kulkarni Can one translate a vast body of a philosophical work? Or does one roam through it freely, then walk through it carefully, be content that one has somewhat understood it, and not take another step either to discuss or translate it? Dnyaneshwar is on record to have stated that if you are infatuated by an ornament you are ignorant, if you realize that the ornament is made of gold, you are a scientist, but if you appraise the ornament in its essence and its beauty, and yet stand apart, then you raise yourself to the status of a philosopher.

Be that as it may, all experience, inclusive of the intuitive and the purely subjective, knocks on the walls of your mind to find expression. These expressive knocks, altered as they are from the original when expressed, are further complicated when one deals with ancient philosophy. M.V. Dhond, a noted student of Dnyaneshwar’s work, has said that he had met Dnyaneshwar, via the Dnyaneshwari and he cannot transfer the essence of this meeting to another person nor did he need another person, for this meeting with Dnyaneshwar. Dhond is right on a purely subjective plane, and his statement is reminiscent of Dnyaneshwar’s own verse which says I have drawn this Out of my heart And put it lovingly In your heart But on an objective plane ideas will spread, like water will flow, air will roam and light must shine.

A lot of ancient philosophy is available to us second-hand.

Socrates, perhaps the most well-known philosopher in the western world, is a classic example. Socrates is revealed to us by Plato, not immediately after the death of Socrates but many years later when

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Plato returns to Athens, from where he had fled to avoid possible persecution, on account of his proximity to Socrates. Suppose Socratic philosophy was to be summarized in the following manner: (a) Socrates used dialogical technique to arrive at the truth, (b) Socrates was preoccupied with questions of ethics and virtue and stressed that virtue and ethics reveal ‘real’ knowledge, (c) Socrates deprecated enquiry into the physical properties of the world. Would this be fair (to Socrates)? What about the nature of his trial which led to a death sentence which he refused to avoid by paying an inconsequential fine? And what about his righteous indignation at the judges who consisted of farmers, blacksmiths and such others? Was Socrates an elitist? And what would one say to an accusation that Greek philosophy was later manipulated, by intellectuals, in the service of vested interests, and that Socrates or Plato or even Aristotle for that matter, never took a just stand, on the question of slaves who laboured, so that these thinkers could think at leisure? What use is Socratic ethic and virtue when slaves remained enslaved in Athens?

And what assurance do we have that Plato, who shed tears because he loved Socrates dearly and the same Plato who fled Athens (out of fear) lest he be persecuted, was completely rid of human weakness, by the time he was ready to unravel Platonic philosophy based on the method of Socrates? Can an emotional animal discuss and devise a cold accurate philosophical doctrine? Were Newton’s formulae rigid and mechanical because he was brought up in a tight monarchial social ethos? And was Einstein more flexible in his deductions, and could he conceive that even light bends, and was receptive to the idea of intermittent release of packets of energy because his circumstances had been more tumultuous? The idea that the perimeter and precision of human perceptions are determined by his circumstances has endured for many centuries. Yet at any given time, till date, information and thoughts are sifted and analyzed, judgements are delivered and conclusions drawn on all kind of matter, with a confidence comparable to medieval fundamentalistic religious fervour. Notice the recent attempts to convince one and all, by hook or by crook, that both Robin Hood and Greta Garbo, the former, a folk hero, and the latter a tragic lonely figure, were homosexuals.

It is on this background that I approach the work of Dnyaneshwar Vitthal Kulkarni (Vitthal is his father’s name and Kulkarni is his family name). I give his full name because beyond his name there is

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not even an iota of solid evidence which will allow anyone to reconstruct the life of this man or his family. Most of what we know of him has come to us through tradition and that too as related by his biographers almost fifty years after his death. What has survived is not what he wrote but what was supposedly narrated by him and taken down by others. There is even a dispute as to whether his name was Dnyaneshwar or Dnyandeo. But his work, which has survived mostly by the oral tradition in different parts of Maharashtra, is remarkably similar in substance and style. Most scholars agree that except for grammatical or pronunciational variation and a few dozen verses which are omitted in some editions, the three main philosophical renderings, namely Dnyaneshwari, (approximately 9000 verses), Amritanubhav (800 verses) and Changdeo Pasashti (65 verses) are indeed a body of work by a single author.

Dnyaneshwari is entirely based on the Geeta. Amritanubhav (realization of the immortal) is a broad-based metaphysical work without any references and the Pasashti consists of 65 verses written as a letter to a sage called Changdeo and is also metaphysical.

Though the first biography of Dnyaneshwar was written nearly fifty years after Dnyaneshwar passed away, Dnyaneshwar himself has mentioned the domain of a particular king, and the year by the then Indian calendar of the domain, in which he narrated his Dnyaneshwari in her text. The language of the narration, the description of various professions of the time, the cultural milieu and references to styles in clothes and ornaments (including the mention of the various strengths of gold in Indian carats) confirm that Dnyaneshwari was narrated towards the end of the thirteenth century AD. The crucial question is, why was such an extraordinary philosophical and metaphysical work, in verse, produced at this time? Not only did the work tower over everything that existed at the time but nothing since then has come anywhere near it in scope, length, substance and beauty in the Marathi language. It bears repetition to state that the combined work of Dnyaneshwar is equal to anything produced anywhere in the world.

It is a moot point if the old religion of Dnyaneshwar’s time (what is now called Hindu religion) was under a threat either from Islam, Buddhism, Jainism and some Protestant offshoots of the then existent old (Hindu) religion. Islamic culture was well settled in the north of India five hundred years prior to the thirteenth century, but the Deccan and peninsular India was not under Islamic rulers. The

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language that Dnyaneshwar used has not even a trace of Arabic, Persian or any other language from the middle east. Dnyaneshwar mentions Buddhism and its metaphysics as a ‘broken tooth’ in Ganesha’s hand, probably implying that the metaphysics of Buddhism is somewhat deficient but that is the only cognizance that he takes of Buddhism. He does mention, in passing, the length that the Jain religion will go to, to practise non-violence, and mentions somewhat critically, the practice of pulling one’s hair, as a form of penance that Jains advocated. But that is about all. The other Protestant streams more allied to Hinduism in their theology do not find any mention in Dnyaneshwari. Both Buddhism and Jainism are atheistic protestant streams. Their religions are based on natural laws and they deny a personal as well as a transcendental God. Dnyaneshwar belonged to the transcendental party as we shall see later but he never refers to Buddhism or Jainism specifically in this context. Lastly there was a purely materialistic stream of thought in India at that time, significantly different from Buddhism and Jainism.

This school, led by Charvak, rejected all forms of formal religions and propounded a way of life based on ‘here and now’, ‘nothing before and nothing hereafter’ and is said to have inclined to hedonism. It has been said that this was a modern school of thought but was before its time and it has been alleged that this school was persecuted and destroyed by the Brahmins or the priestly class of that time. But as with everything else there is no viable record as to what happened to the Charvak doctrine. Dnyaneshwar without referring to Charvak, objects to everything that is not spiritual and castigates hedonism. But hedonism has been an ancient, even prehistoric problem for any thinking rational Homo sapiens.

Dnyaneshwar probably only followed the Geeta in this connection and the presence of the Charvak school could only be incidental. If one is to look at Dnyaneshwar’s work in its entirety, it is difficult to deduce that he was reacting to his religious environment. He was certainly not hectoring at a lectern.

How and in what circumstances is exceptional talent unveiled?

Was Socrates moved by his circumstances to proclaim his philosophy? When he alluded to listening to an oracle was he in fact listening to himself? And what was the nature of Mahatma Gandhi’s genius? For a man to protest against injustice in South Africa and then change and mould his actions to Indian conditions would appear to be a cause and effect phenomenon. And in case of Einstein,

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what forced him to discover such a fundamental thing called relativity? What was in his circumstances that allowed him such deep introspection? The mysteries surrounding the unveiling of a genius will probably never be unveiled. But it might not be improper to classify geniuses into two classes, the ‘retiring’ and the ‘activist’.

Mahatma Gandhi was a classical activist. Einstein was probably inclined towards being the retiring kind till he was dragged into quasi politics because he was a Jew. Socrates too was dragged into the public glare and faced retribution, not because of what he said but because of the manner in which he said it. Unlike Gandhi he made no efforts to collect people around him. People had to collect around him.

To what category does Dnyaneshwar belong? If the traditional biography of Dnyaneshwar is to be believed his parents were ostracized by the then priestly class and the parents were to later take their own lives. It was after a spirited intellectual battle with the same priestly class that the social boycott against the children of the couple was lifted. Yet Dnyaneshwar spent his short life eulogizing the Geeta which the spiritual powers of his time upheld as one of the most important religious documents of the time. Dnyaneshwar has not mentioned a single event in his life, in any of his writing. Neither the persecution nor the later triumph find any echo in his verse. His work remains aloof and majestic. He alludes to the rigid caste system of his time and suggests a philosophical solution to the problem with a mildness which one does not associate with a radical reformer.

He gives the impression of a man too well-versed in human nature and social attitudes to force a solution.

Could it be that here was exceptional talent bursting forth suo motto without a reason? And even more important were the stories that now go as his biography, woven by well-meaning men and women to justify a magnum opus called the Dnyaneshwari? Did Dnyaneshwar say to himself somewhat like Bhavbhooti, a great Sanskrit poet, several hundred years before, to himself I am not In the business Of reform and treason It is just that It is my heart That gives me reason

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The world is vast Time unfolds Future and past Somewhere someone In some future Elegant season May read What I have given And empathize with my reason Dnyaneshwar’s Metaphysics Though one says it with some trepidation it must be said that the metaphysics of the Geeta is somewhat buried in the social custom and theology of her (Geeta’s) age. By the time the Geeta as it is available to us today, was compiled by its editors, from the earlier material, several hundred years had elapsed. It has been alleged, that the original Geeta was more metaphysics than anything else, but the final document had to be rounded up to include, the then current theology and had to be adapted to social custom.

There is no denying that Arjun was being told that he had to fight the war because he belonged to the warrior class (read caste, in later centuries). The fact that he was told about an individual soul or even a universal soul in the process, was not just incidental but it was also certainly an argument to goad him into war. In fact the Geeta has been denounced by modern social activists as a retrogressive document because of a single verse, which says, in the words of God (Shrikrishna) ‘It is from me that four types of men flow’ (they are the intellectuals, the warriors, the businessmen and the rest who serve the first three). In retrospect probably the Geeta or the collective wisdom of that time was only attempting to classify people and this attempt is not very dissimilar to that of Aristotle in Greece. That this classification was torn out of context (and certainly it was vulnerable to being misused) and was to be later adopted, as a hereditary rigid class and caste system, is a fact of history. Dnyaneshwar’s stand on this social structure, which was well entrenched and strong during his time, is a subject that will be discussed a little later. Here the focus is on Dnyaneshwar’s views on the metaphysics of the Geeta, as stated in the Dnyaneshwari and his independent views in his Amritanubhav based not only on the Geeta but also on all the other

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relevant material that might have been available to him.

This is what Dnyaneshwar has to say about the kernel of the Geeta: These words are not about Just the external world They reveal the very soul These enchanting words The Geeta, according to Dandekar, a renowned commentator on the Dnyaneshwari, is not about, ‘what I should do?’ but about ‘what am I?’ and ‘who am I?’ Dandekar has rightly pointed out that much before the Geeta dwells on the nature of the evolution of the universe and the evolution’s relevance in man’s life, in her eighth chapter, Dnyaneshwar, as early as in the fourth chapter, narrates a verse which says to Arjun, The birth of the universe Was a spontaneous deed And understanding that deed Is crucial to your needs Dnyaneshwar also admits (in the eighth and thirteenth chapters) that the spontaneity with which the birth of the universe took place remains a mystery.

Why the blue sky Should be suddenly Covered with clouds Is a matter That will remain Covered with a shroud If the singularity with no describable qualities is to evolve into a universe, with so much variety, how does one describe the process?

Indian philosophy usually depends on five descriptions to elaborate the process, and they are all used by Dnyaneshwar to ask ‘Is this evolution like, curd out of milk, an ornament out of gold, froth on water, a tree out of a seed or is it like a mirage because of the rays of the sun?’

Shankar, one of the greatest intellectuals that India has given to the world belongs to the ‘mirage party’. He avers that only the singularity is the truth and therefore knowledge. The rest according

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to Shankar is a myth (Sanskrit word Mitthya) and therefore ignorance. Ramanuj a later philosopher, belongs to the ‘seed and tree school’. Both the seed and tree have independent validity though they are locked into each other. It is likely that in some future cosmic event, the tree might return to the seed which will continue to harbour its potential, for another tree. By this theory, theology is easier to explain, because once a tree is considered, as real as the seed, incarnations, personal Gods, prophets and prayers attain validity.

In the Dnyaneshwari, perhaps, no clear judgement is delivered on these questions by Dnyaneshwar except in the eighteenth chapter.

He roams about, with his usual sweet and almost manic, poetic excess to embrace all theories. But in Anubhavamrut he does indicate what he thinks. But before he delivers his judgement he admits that there is not enough material available to reason out a theory. For example, he says When the pond becomes dry The birds away they fly Here the pond is the substance on which a reasonable speculation (birds) can be based but a drying or dry pond is not a suitable location for birds and therefore for theories. Dnyaneshwar is also aware that any metaphysical conclusion can always be challenged and defeated by intellectual dialectics. The word ‘bodh’ in Sanskrit is of masculine gender and means a conclusion or a deduction. The word ‘buddhi’ in Sanskrit is of feminine gender and means intelligence.

Dnyaneshwar’s verse says, The bodh is shy and shamed In defeat When he returns to buddhi And they meet Karandikar, a renowned Indian poet who has written an all-time great treatise on Anubhavamrut and rendered it into modern Marathi and from which I have drawn liberally in this text, thinks that Dnyaneshwar is hinting at a warrior in defeat when he meets his wife, in the above metaphor. He might well be right.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, an Englishman and a poet, in his ‘Ancient Sage’(appropriately!) says

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For nothing worthy proving can be proven Nor yet disproven, wherefore thou be wise Cleave ever to sunnier side of doubt Creation and Procreation If metaphysics includes speculation about creation, procreation cannot be far from this speculative effort. If standard English dictionaries are to be followed the difference between creation and procreation is rather subtle in that the word offspring appears consistently while giving meaning to the word procreation. The procreative effort, joyous and fulfilling as it is, and also instinctive and biological, has been the centre of all old religious literature. It is true God only made a man (or was it a boy) and also a garden for him according to the old testament, and a woman or a girl was conceived later and so manufactured, anyone who reads any kind of fictional or non-fictional literature, can easily surmise, what was likely to follow under the circumstances, even if he was totally unaware of the original full story as it happened in the Garden of Eden. The old testament is full of stories of how men and women sleep with each other (the original expression “he or she lay with her or him”). The modern American expression “he or she got laid” is a reminder and a current statement of what has been happening for centuries from the time of the Old Testament. In case this description is faulted for being insensitive and profane about a document, which is the fountainhead of three important religions of the world, let it be stated that one of the most popular religious artefacts worshipped in India and that too with far greater reverence by women than men consists of a phallus jutting into an orifice anatomically identical to the female vagina. And one of the earliest Sanskrit poems now a part of religious literature, compares the colourful rising dawn on the eastern horizon, to a young woman in her bloom, with bare breasts, astride a galloping horse. Modern man might have given a graphic description, of the moving breasts as well, in such a poem, but perhaps in days gone by, men and women though as randy as they are now, were more subtle when they put their thoughts into words.

Several parallel, indigenous, Indian metaphysical systems also speculate about creation from the (male-female) procreative process.

But unlike the biblical historical narration, the material in India is speculative. Here too in India there is a garden of Eden but this

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garden is the whole of the creation with all its variety and it follows the copulation of the male and female principles which are entwined and locked into each other. They are equal and complementary. Their actions are instinctive, but they are somewhat disinterested, in what gets created.

Dnyaneshwar in the early part of Anubhavamrut evokes frank erotica while on the subject When in her undulations She becomes small He bursts forth with a thunder And when he is limpid and small She moults the universe In all its splendour She arouses him And serves him with desire After he feeds himself He is doused of his fire Then he sleeps And she brings forth the world If she too were to sleep He would be not of any worth and of her attachment to him Dnyaneshwar says The universe is hers Such a grand child But even the thought of losing her man Has her pensive angry and riled Is the creative or procreative impulse different in the female as compared to the male? Is a woman more particular and organized towards her immediate environment and is she more caring of what happens within and around her? And is man indifferent and lackadaisical in this respect and is only incidental to creation? What does the story of Adam and Eve indicate? The serpent and the apple notwithstanding, was she saying that all this would be incomplete unless we procreate? And is it natural even for an exalted animal like man to just stay in the garden of Eden in perpetuum without consuming the sexual instinct? What was it that Adam and Eve

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indulged in? Was it sin or misadventure or just ignorance? And how does one decide what is sinful or misadventurous or what constitutes ignorance and an urge? And lastly and most crucially in what manner did they communicate? Was it as Indian linguistic science would have, (1) a language that was articulated with sound and words, (2) a language that was perceived without articulation, a mere matter of sensations or (3) was it a language that had neither sound nor sensation but only an instinctive deep primal urge? If it was the third, were Adam and Eve two creatures or were in fact one, almost as in God. And this is how we arrive at another section of Anubhavamrut which deals with language. The treatment of language, in this section, is not traditional in terms of grammar, diction or pronunciations but more in terms of the ability as well as the inability of any language to deal with the ultimate reality.

Dnyaneshwar’s arguments in verse take the following course: 1. If reality is to be known then knowledge of reality is needed.

2. The opposite of knowledge is ignorance therefore this journey is from ignorance towards knowledge.

3. Traditionally ignorance is portrayed as darkness and knowledge as light. This has historical significance. Both the Greeks and Indians gave great importance to light. The words vision, video, vidya (knowledge in Sanskrit) and idea have to do with sight and therefore light.

4. When the journey starts from darkness to the source of light, (e.g. the sun) the object which was dark, successively becomes brighter with reflected light.

5. The problems arise when the sun is very near. The sun is pure light. It is neither dark nor does it have reflected light.

6. To merge with the sun, the object has to lose both darkness as well as reflected light. It therefore will have to give up both its characteristics.

7. The object therefore loses its identity.

8. And this is only proper because a singularity has no objects within it.

Says Dnyaneshwar Can space enter itself Fire burn itself Can you sit on your head Yourself

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Can the sights you see Be seen by sight The tastes, that you Savour be tasted by taste The rhythm that sets you dancing Dance itself Can the sun light itself Not even the sun Can light itself Because it is not the sun But light itself And light cannot light itself Here one remembers Einstein who explained that nothing can equal the speed of light, in the following manner. As energy is imparted to an object to increase its velocity, some of this energy results in an increase in the mass of the object. The mass that will be created when the object approaches the speed of light is huge and unimaginable. Also with the increase in mass, the velocity cannot increase at the same rate. It is like a conundrum. Language is not helpful in such a situation. Language fails when the ultimate reality is approached.

The most fascinating example of the interplay of mass and energy occurs when one looks in a mirror. If the thing that looks in the mirror is mass, then what is the nature of the reflection? Is it energy?

When it is said that an image shines in the mirror, what is shining, the mass, the energy or the mirror? The whole interplay depends on a play of reflected light made possible by mass. And as S. Radhakrishnan, the great Indian commentator on philosophy has asked, ‘what happens to the mirror when no one is looking into it’ Does it shatter?

As Dnyaneshwar asks in the Dnyaneshwari One mirror Opposite another One knows not What shines in what When how and where A woman devotee of Shrikrishna says to him in a lyric by Dnyaneshwar made immortal by India’s nightingale Lata Mangeshkar,

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I went to the mirror To view myself Blank was its stare Till you appeared All by yourself This fanciful poetic expression apart from the metaphor of the images in the mirror comes nearest to Dnyaneshwar’s ideas about the reality of the world. We appear and disappear in this house of mirrors which reflects only the basic (divine?) stuff of the universe.

The English expression ‘he values his image’ is significant in this context. The oft-repeated expression by women, ‘Oh! What a mess I was in’, when having to confront the world without ‘make-up’ is another example of the image phenomena. Without make-up she is in fact real, yet thinks she is in a mess and with her make-up she thinks she becomes real.

To put it from the mirror’s point of view It is not I Who will shatter It is your skin and bones That will slowly tatter The basic stuff never leaves. And we imagine that we leave because our image drops out.

In the words of Dnyaneshwar in Anubhavamrut At the height Of a hot Indian summer In the driest of dry beds Of a seasonal Indian river Water lingers as moisture It is forever If Schopenhauer’s stress on that thing called will’ which permeates all living organisms and manifests most tellingly in the procreative effort had already been portrayed by Dnyaneshwar in some of his erotic verse, Kant’s ‘thing in itself’ (Ding an Sich) is the ‘moisture’ of the preceding verse and the ‘appearances’ of Kant (Erscheinung) are the images and mirrors that Dnyaneshwar used to establish ‘the thing in itself’. But it is Kant’s demolition of ‘time and space’ as only an arrangement in the human mind and Kant’s vigorous argument

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in support of virtue, which transcends all worldly arrangements to shine as God in man which is almost identical to what Dnyaneshwar stated several centuries earlier. In two separate chapters on ignorance and knowledge Dnyaneshwar like Kant demolishes both ignorance and knowledge as transit points in search of a thing in itself ‘that essence’ and that ‘transcendental God’. Space and time are not adequate to gather oneself to God because they are relative and not absolute. Everything together is what matters. In the matter of seeking ‘that thing in itself’ information is neither valid nor a useful tool. To be ignorant of physics and to be knowledgeable about Shakespeare, or vice versa, or to be knowledgeable about both or to be ignorant of both, are not a valid spring-board from which to plunge into the realm of the absolute. If the world is in our mind and the mind resides in this world, both will have to envelop each other to make sense. But after this merger, the so-called sense will disappear because the mind will lose its mind.

A word about virtue as well. To paraphrase Kant, ‘Virtue is not an active means to God’. Virtue only renders the mind into a state which makes it worthy of God. Dnyaneshwar too had warned man that awareness of this virtuous state is not the worthy state.

To know believe and aver That you are virtuous Leads you to a path Which is unfructious One does not have to travel in space, time and thought to a destination called ‘that thing’, because it does not have a specific location nor a clock. It is forever and everywhere. And to walk down to a temple, church, synagogue or mosque is like New Castle carrying coals to another New Castle.

In the words of Dnyaneshwar, The whole of the nature Is ‘that thing’ In all its splendour and therefore he says Whomever I meet I know It is God I meet The story of Bal Gangadhar Tilak who was sentenced to a long period of incarceration in a Burmese jail in the early twentieth century

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for his seditious (!) editorials in his Pune daily is worth narrating here. Both the acts of sentencing and its acceptance by Tilak were done with a calmness which surprised the general public. Tilak is supposed to have said then, that the cause which was so dear to his heart was likely to be best served by his serving a term in jail and so be it. It was when he served his term in the Mandalay jail in Burma that Tilak wrote his enduring book on the Geeta. It is said that Tilak did not have a copy of the Dnyaneshwari when he wrote. Yet while writing, in the chapter on the universal and individual soul, he quotes Dnyaneshwar accurately from memory and says that a man closest to the universal soul is consistently even-handed in his actions.

For example, and he quotes Dnyaneshwar The lamp gives The same light To a foe or a friend To those who plant it And to those who come to uproot it The tree gives the same shade The breath of life is not partial to the queen or her maid Water is the same When their thirst is quenched For a cow, tiger or a snake To the good and bad, The earth offers The same home, hearth and bed To have quoted so little from Dnyaneshwar and to have then selected these verses to quote, in his most important chapter in the book, is remarkable. Notice that Dnyaneshwar uses water, earth, air and a tree to make a point. They are probably more soulful than man. In spite of his intelligence and his abilities, man has been a difficult, even a disgusting creature. What indeed has been his contribution to the earth and how much has he mutilated her?

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This enchanting luminescent splendour How carelessly we squander or to quote Shakespeare in the words of Hamlet What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable in action, how like an angel in apprehension, how like God the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals and yet to me what is this quintessence of dust Man delights not me, no, nor woman neither.

Shakespeare, when he takes one on a voyage of his tragedies, deceives, in a manner of speaking. He cuts one’s ship adrift at the end of the last act and scene and compels one to chart one’s own course on the rest of the voyage, to mull over, what could have been or what ought to have been, in what one had just seen. Was Horatio, Hamlet’s friend, a poor counsel to have under the dire circumstances in which Hamlet finds himself? And was it fair on Hamlet’s part, to generalize on the character of all women, just because his mother had been tempted into a marriage to his father’s brother, so soon after his father’s murder? And did she know that her husband had been murdered and that too by her current husband, her dead husband’s brother?

The demand for revenge in a ghostly rumble by Hamlet’s father, and the pitiable pining for pardon by Claudius the murderer, Hamlet’s mother torn between her motherhood and her recent queenhood, Ophelia the innocent fiancee of Hamlet, not just torn but literally torn apart and driven to death by drowning because of Hamlet’s rejection of her, and Hamlet’s own manic outbursts interspersed with his melancholic soliloquies are of a genre which do not have even a trace of redemption. When the two principal characters in Hamlet, Hamlet himself and Claudius, contemplate after-life, they travel in different directions. Hamlet calls it, ‘that dread of something after death from whose bourn no traveller returns’ and therefore ‘puzzles the will’. Claudius, who has

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murdered for a kingdom, wonders if he can be pardoned for his sins (by God) and yet have his kingdom his ambition and his queen.

According to Shankar, the sixth century Indian philosopher, man lives in three porous compartments. There is the world of objects, affairs, customs, conduct and usage; then there are the perceived images, impressions and ideas; and lastly, the unseen world which seeps into everything that we do. In the story of Hamlet all three compartments are clearly seen. The world of customs and the world of images appears to predominate but spirituality, God, philosophy, truth, after-life are also discussed. Even the clown, in the gravediggers scene, wonders if Ophelia can have a Christian burial in view of her suicide.

Mahabharat, the epic, might appear to be a pleasing work because the virtuous win and the vile are vanquished, but in fact, it is a tragedy of a far greater proportion than Hamlet in terms of the number of deaths and the duration in which so many vile things happen.

Oscar Wilde has said that the good end happily and the bad unhappily is what fiction means. Be that as it may there is no denying that Arjun like Hamlet was in a quandary. The world of customs, usage and affairs forces him into war, the world of impressions and images renders him ineffective and he is deficient in the area of spiritual understanding. The Mahabharat is an epic Hamlet, in two parts, and the Geeta sits in between. The Geeta is the green room where actors and actresses are asked to put on and then peel off the paint as they enter the stage via the wings and then exit, also through the wings. Shakespeare says in ‘As you like it’ All the world’s a stage And all the men and women merely players They have their exits and their entrances And one man in his time plays many parts In fact Dnyaneshwar’s verse recalls the stage of his time and asks man to emulate the actors of that time.

Actors perforce play Today a king tomorrow a queen How casual of what they are And what they have been In an age when only men played both parts the switch across the hormonal divide must have been difficult but was done. It is our

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fate to play a variety of roles in our life. As we go along playing these roles it is in our nature to have to play with images and shadows. To repeat a verse from an earlier chapter of this book, You cannot fell a body By striking at its shadow And of the everlasting soul The body is only a shadow And it is worthwhile to quote Shakespeare in Macbeth Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage Indeed. As long as we have a body and a mind we will be forced to play with images and shadows.

Dnyaneshwar in another context in his chapter on the demolition of ignorance in Anubhavamrut says of shadows: When the sun Is on your head Must you imagine That the shadow has fled and in the reverse: When the shadows are long You cannot fold them Bag them And carry them along The images and shadows are and will be a part of our life. To recognize them and successfully work with them is the art of life.

And work one must whatever one’s circumstances. To be static is alien to the world of nature. In a humorous verse in which Dnyaneshwar alludes to the practice of putting vermilion on one’s forehead (even men did it routinely in Dnyaneshwar’s time), You can change The vermilion dot, If it is not In the centre of your forehead, But alas, Change you cannot An off-centre head

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Skewed (or to use a modern expression screwed up) your life might get but you must labour through and work your way nevertheless. In the western parlance You can change the knot Of your necktie But you cannot change the neck Around which the knot you tie If nature, unceasingly hums with a certain rhythm man too, necessarily participates in the rhythmic hum. If God is ‘nature in all its splendour’ as Dnyaneshwar would have it, to be aware of the natural hum and to proceed with life in tune with the rhyme of this natural hum, would be ideal and reasonable. But unlike a rhyme, reason has other dimensions. Reason is in the intellectual province unlike a rhyme which belongs to the natural world. Reason deals with objects and events from the outside and to be on the outside necessarily means duality. Reason teaches primarily to stand apart and see, feel, analyze and deduct.

It is reason which analyzes our most natural rhythms, namely emotions. Love is the birth of all emotions and it is with birth that love is most felt and stirred. Though it is true that man loves himself the most, he also fulfils himself by loving another. Unrequited and unexpressed love might have their lofty poetic pedestals but for the ordinary mortal loving a known, describable, objective entity is an emotional necessity. The eyes of a grandmother which scan the shopping columns of a newspaper to select a gift for her grandchild on its birthday and the same eyes looking at a well-known baby, born in a stable to a divine mother express the identical thing. The latter baby belongs to the whole world, the former to her, but the babies show, through her, the need for love of a living object.

If reason says that an ‘absolute being’ is a reasonable, intellectual proposition, sufficient to take one through the journey of one’s life, reason also explains that to codify this absolute being into an object and preferably a living object might be a dire practical, emotional need for most. That is why there is God, a personal God, son of God, incarnation of God, prophet of God, or a founder, or a teacher or a Guru. If idolatry is forbidden there is the tooth of a founder or the hair of a Prophet or a historically important location with a stone.

Man can think loftily but is also trapped by his nature and his necessity and habit of dealing with objects.

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Dnyaneshwar says these words on behalf of God, Form, shape or figure I have none I have no name or names As suggest some.

I do, perform or achieve nothing because I am not born to get anything done I have no body Nor appearance I have no class nor creed I don’t love nor censure Have no limits nor a frontier Yet, Dnyaneshwar says, People say I was born and celebrate my birth, they give me a name, imagine a father and mother for me, they clothe me, bathe me and make a decor around me. They love me and hate me, quarrel about me, they give me feet and hands, eyes and ears. They make idols of me and then, when the idols are made, they pray before me, anoint me, and when time, according to them, comes they immerse me in water and invite me in the next season. They say I am fair, they say, I am black and surround me with a shack, they in fact, lack a vision.

And then Dnyaneshwar proceeds to describe a dream In my dream I dwelled in the sun Not against one But against many, I won The rest out of fear I saw them run Men clapped and cheered And said ‘What a heroic deed done!’

Yet, when I woke up I was alone, the only one No swords nor armour And to clap and to cheer There were none Dnyaneshwar’s explanation, of these verses, is fascinating. If such multiplicity can be created out of a single individual in a dream and

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it disappears on awakening, then a philosophical (or religious!) awakening, in an individual, too, can take away the unnecessary and unreal multiplicity about the ideas of God. Our very existence is God. And of those who rely on this feeling, Dnyaneshwar says, in words said by God, You may not find me In wondrous heaven Or the bright rays of the sun But in the hearts and minds of these men I come to stay And with them become one That clinches what Dnyaneshwar had to say about God and man and therefore to repeat the earlier verse, Whomever I meet It is God I meet And it is because we meet God, in everyone as well as in oneself Dnyaneshwar says One must serve oneself So that one can serve Everyone and everything else and in the process Dnyaneshwar’s says The world will tease you And with you it will toy It will make you cry with pain Or fill you with passing joy But the fervour in you to serve Must not die And adds At all times You must be fervent In the cause Of being a servant The Society During Dnyaneshwar’s Time From this perch, of a sublime yet practical philosophical doctrine, of a transcendental God, the tempting flux of natural processes, and

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service as a faith and a cure for the temptations that the world offers, one views the society of Dnyaneshwar’s time. There was the king, and the generals and the ministers in the capital city. There were also a few towns but the focus needs to be on the villages of that time. These habitats were totally bereft of science as we know it today but many indigenous technologies were used by a variety of professions, e.g., masons, carpenters, weavers, goldsmiths and so on.

There were also the ubiquitous trader-cum-grocer, a headman and a Brahmin, who was sometimes shared by more than one village.

The population was small, and most agricultural holdings were uneconomical and at the mercy of the monsoon. The most alarming feature of this habitat was a caste system which allowed no horizontal or vertical movement in terms of professions or in terms of individual growth. A cobbler’s son had to become a cobbler, further he could only marry a cobbler’s daughter, and either produced another cobbler or produced a girl who was married to another cobbler in due course.

The women of all castes had no say in the process of how the village should be run. The total quantum of what one would call knowledge or information, were the scriptures written in Sanskrit and these were the privy of the Brahmin. At birth, marriage, death and during festivals this Brahmin held sway. Without his concurrence and consent a person could not become a functioning unit of the habitat.

The most revolting and despicable feature of this structure were the lowermost castes used for scavenging work. They were forced to live on the outskirts of the town, were prohibited from holding any land, their human rights were almost nil and they were denied even water from the village tank or well. Even the animals could drink from the village well, but not these castes. They bred in their small ghettos, served the village, the village in turn exploited them and then they died in the ghetto and were cremated at funeral sites which were kept apart. Wonder of wonders this vertical fossilized hierarchy was justified on the basis of the old scriptures including the Geeta.

The Geeta had done nothing to justify this except to state that human nature could be classified into four types. And never had the older scriptures or the Geeta even hinted that these four types are genetically inherited. But over the centuries the scriptures as well as the Geeta had been so conveniently and cunningly manipulated that the die was cast and so were the castes. With an extraordinary philosophical doctrine near its bosom, India first winked, then

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napped and later was to pass into a deep slumber. It was from this deep sleep that Dnyaneshwar attempted to rouse India nearly seven hundred years ago.

Brahmins at the top of the pinnacle Watched the society in manacles Till Dnyaneshwar arrived as an oracle And took the first step to undo the shackles.

From sporadic references in the Dnyaneshwari, one can imagine what Dnyaneshwar might have said, Please give me Those Sanskrit books Which you have kept In your private nook I want to download them From their high Sanskrit hook And for the Marathi tongue I will soften them and cook So that people can savour and look And decide for themselves What to do and at life How they should look But from all traditional accounts as well as the text of the Dnyaneshwari, it also appears that It was not as if Dnyaneshwar carried a sickle and a hammer Or unfurled a new banner He knew better This man with a gentle manner And explained the same old Geeta In people’s tongue and grammar Because this is what he said to the Geeta A matching ornament I will make for you It will so match with you That people will not know Which is better The ornament or you

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and of the older scriptures he said How can the scriptures Be called holy When they are So utterly miserly To women entirely And to men born in castes Labelled as lowly and then said If the old scriptures Were indeed unfair The Geeta has now appeared To set things straight and fair and reminded the high and the mighty, of the crucial role that the lower castes played in society In a colourful garland Of scented flowers It is the thread that matters That holds together the flowers All this was written in Marathi. It was late thirteenth century, nearly 200 years before William Tyndale was to translate into English the bible from its original Greek version.

With hindsight this comparison would appear to be ridiculous, because India and Europe were to follow diametrically opposite paths, in the centuries that were to follow. Between the fourteenth and the sixteenth century, Europe witnessed the renaissance in art and literature and it was from this renaissance that people marched forward to improve their political systems, fearlessly discussed the nature of this world and man’s role in it. Soon science took centrestage to unleash the industrial revolution and created enormous wealth. It was not as if science was used only for creation of wealth. It explored every frontier that man could think of. Even the sky was not a limit. In two hundred years from the middle of the seventeenth century, Europe and England were to produce such a large number of brilliant minds as to boggle the mind of any student of history.

India continued to slip into a deeper morass during this period.

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India was by then a completely fossilized society which only looked inwards. Parts of this society indulged in almost cannibalistic internal colonization of its masses. While the people of the western world broke the confines, of national boundaries to go on adventures for conquest and commerce, till the middle of the nineteenth century any Indian who ventured abroad and then came back was boycotted by society because he had crossed the seas and had contaminated himself with an alien touch. Fifty years after Dnyaneshwari was narrated the Mohammedans entered the Southern Indian peninsula and conquered it almost completely. They carried with them a new faith which prohibited idol worship, and most crucially and forcefully advocated an equal brotherhood under God. It was no surprise that people left the old Hindu religion to embrace Islam.

What is more surprising is how only less than seven or eight per cent of the population gave up their old religion. India is perhaps the only country where in spite of an Islamic invasion and later the advent of the Portuguese, French and English rulers, all together over a period of 1000 years, only 10 per cent of her people changed their religion either voluntarily or by force.

It is difficult to fathom why so few got converted. Perhaps India was an old country and had already seen through three major religions and had realized the futility of a formal organized religion.

India was also vast and diverse and had allowed a majority of its inhabitants a certain freedom in spite of the Brahmanical stranglehold on rituals, to practise their little faiths on the side, outside the Brahmanical hierarchy. Perhaps India instinctively realized that social oppression was a feature of human civilization and its derivation from religion was only a smokescreen and that the malady called oppression lay deeper in human nature itself. It is pertinent to point out that fifty years after India became a Republic in 1950 when she adopted her Constitution, which enshrined a quota system for the lower castes amongst the Hindus, both the Christians and the Muslims are now demanding a quota under the Constitution for Christian and Muslim lower castes. India was right. The malady of oppression and prejudice is much deeper and neither temporal laws nor a superficial organized religious balm can cure this malady completely. While there is no denying that the Indian Hindu caste system was abominably cruel, parallel examples of similar atrocities can be dug out across time, and across all continents and cultures.

But that subject has to do with the animal in man.

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More to the point is what happened to the people who spoke Marathi in the 600 years after Dnyaneshwar passed away.

Dnyaneshwar had lit a protestant flame with the help of an indigenous oil and this flame flickered from time to time, but such was its indigenous supply that it did not extinguish. The Marathi people had acquired a viable identity through their language and through a book called Dnyaneshwari.

Dnyaneshwar did not speak with any great gusto but spoke with a spiritual calm which as expected was far more durable in its influence. This calm confidence was to give birth to a tradition of several spiritual saints who sang and wrote in Marathi for the next 250 years. These saints belonged to all castes and creeds and one of them was a Muslim. The last of these saints was the political guru of Shivaji, the Maratha king who evicted the Mohammedan rulers from the Maratha country and the Mohammedans never ventured back into the Deccan. By this time the British had found a strong foothold in India. A Britisher was present at Shivaji’s coronation. The Mohammedan rule in the north was set to disappear out of exhaustion. They had spread too far and too wide and could not control a country of subcontinental proportions. In fact the last of the real powerful Mohammedan rulers was to die in the Maratha country after he exhausted himself in trying to subdue the Maratha upsurge. The British by the early eighteenth century were not just merchants but were slowly becoming de facto rulers through the British India Company and it was only in 1818 near Pune that they finally subdued the Marathas and could say with confidence that India was at last theirs. This last battle took place less than 30 miles from Alandi, a small habitation in those days where Dnyaneshwar had taken his last breath.

The British were different from the earlier Mohammedan invaders in many respects. They also belonged to a different era. The British had come into India as traders and were not active proselytizers either out of political considerations or because they did not owe allegiance to the Vatican which had a tendency to actively proselytize.

They had a nascent yet promising democratic polity at home. The European Renaissance had by then touched England with force, the liberal arts were flourishing and at least in India, where they met a moribund yet great historical culture, they were not to behave as marauders. It is true they ruled India with a somewhat ruthless hand but one must realize that those who conquer too have their problems

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and their compulsions. It must never be forgotten that the British changed India perhaps as much as the Greeks had done nearly 2000 years ago.

The British did this through the numerous educational institutions that they helped establish in India, by exposing India to the scientific temper, and by creating a formal administrative machinery so that they could rule this vast, unwieldy and a somewhat puzzling subcontinent. Some of them studied Indian literature, philosophy, languages and the Indian systems of medicine.

A large number of modern Indian schools were opened and though the medium of instruction continued to be the numerous Indian languages, English too was taught first by the British and later by the Indians themselves. British history was taught in great detail and this contained the ‘Magna Carta’ which asserted the right of a people to control their destiny though a parliamentary system of governance. Macaulay who framed a single uniform Indian penal code and was mainly responsible for the advent of English education in India had said then, ‘It may be that the public mind of India may expand under our system, until it has outgrown that system, that by a good Government we may educate our subjects into a capacity for better government, that having become in European knowledge, they may in some future date demand European institutions. To have found a great people sunk in the lowest depths of slavery and superstition, to have ruled them, as to have made them desirous of all the privileges of citizens, would indeed be a title of glory all our own.’ India’s affair with the English language and British traditions was thus begun. Though Macaulay had also said ‘inter alia’ that he did not know if such a day would ever come the day was not far away. Within seventy years of the final battle near Pune in 1818, Dnyaneshwar’s Maratha country was aglow with a protestant flame, this time armed with the English language and modern ideas. From 1880 till India gained independence in 1947, the Maratha country threw up giant after giant, in a broad spectrum, from the very moderate to the armed ruthless revolutionary. Savarkar tried to smuggle arms from England for a patriotic battle but also argued for social reform, Agarkar argued for social reform before political freedom. Tilak argued for political freedom through his newspaper, Phule and Karve strove for education for women, Gokhale a moderate politician became Gandhi’s guru. Kane rose to become a great Indologist and wrote 3000 pages in English on Indian religious

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literature and last but not the least Ambedkar, a lower caste Hindu fearlessly bargained with the British for greater rights to the lower castes. He had the audacity in those days to oppose Gandhi and say ‘We would any day prefer the British to the Brahmins and the Banias who are likely to rule the country after the British leave.’ Ambedkar had said that he was born a Hindu but will not die a Hindu and kept his word by becoming a Buddhist with a large number of his followers. It was an act of ultimate protest and it was not surprising because Ambedkar’s father was a great believer of the Dnyaneshwar school. Even today scholars argue that Dnyaneshwari is more Buddhist than Hindu. India, however, had the last say because she chose Ambedkar as the head of the Constituent Assembly which framed India’s Constitution. Last but not the least, after India became a republic and was ruled by a somewhat monolithic and hegemonistic Congress party through Parliament, the leaders of almost all opposition parties in the Parliament belonged to the Maratha country and the protestant flame continued to glow in another form. And each and every one, named or unnamed, in the above description, grew up in a perimeter not more than 200 miles from Alandi, where Dnyaneshwar, according to tradition had voluntarily embraced death by entering a crypt which is the centre of great devotion for the Marathi people! Even this book can claim to be a small distant ripple in the tradition that Dnyaneshwar started and is written in English because of Macaulay.

But it would be despicable on my part to so imprison Dnyaneshwar in a parochial frame. It is true that Dnyaneshwar aroused the Marathi mind once and for all but towards the end of his Dnyaneshwari, he has narrated a few verses whose appeal is nothing less than universal and these verses are sung whenever Marathi people gather at any formal social occasion. Here he appeals to the universal soul, as opposed to describing the Ganesha idol to which he took recourse to, at the beginning of the Dnyaneshwari. He thus crosses the sectarian rubicon and arrives at a destination to which his mind always belonged, a fact obvious to any discerning reader of the Dnyaneshwari.

Dnyaneshwar says to the universal soul This to you is my offering In return will you give me your blessing

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so that The villains of the world will Be rid of their evil designs And they do deeds That are benign and fine And all that lives May in love join And let the darkness Be dispelled of sin and I want A benevolent religious sun Over the universe risen And whoever wishes whatever Their wish by you be given I want people to meet men and women who are Gentle as the moon and moonshine Without its dark craters And without its oppressive heat Like the sun as bright as ever and I pray to you to see that The universe immerses in bliss And that people will pray to God As they go about with their deeds.