Gyaneshwari -Sant Gyaneshwar
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Chapter-15
The Supreme Person
7. A part of Myself becomes the eternal Self in the world of beings and draws (to itself) the (five) senses with the mind as the sixth, abiding in the prakriti. In this way, the knowledge of Self gets solely confined to the body and because of its smallness, it appears as a part of Myself. When a ripple is formed on the sea as a result of a breeze, it appears to be a part of the sea. In the same way, though I give consciousness and egoism to the inert body, I appear as the individual Self in this body (341-345). The activity that appears to go round due to the intellect of the embodied Self, is known as the world of the living (jivaloka). Where birth and death are regarded as real, I call that the world of the living or mundane existence. Just as the moon, though different from water, is reflected in the water, so I exist in this world of the living. If a crystal is placed on red powder it appears red, but in reality it is not so. In the same way, My original nature as beginningless and inactive remains unaffected. If I appear to be the doer and the experience, know that it is due to delusion (346-350). In short, this pure Self coming into conjunction with the prakriti attributes its properties to himself. Then he regards the mind and the senses, which are the products of the prakriti, as his own and becomes involved in worldly affairs. Just as a monk becomes his own family in a dream and, becoming infatuated, exerts himself to maintain it, so the Self, forgetting his essential nature, takes himself to be the body, and dances attendance on it. Then he rides in the chariot of the mind and passing out through the ears, he enters the woods of speech (351-355). When he holds on to the apron of prakriti, he goes through the door of skin into the thick forest, in the form of touch. Sometimes he comes out through the door of the eyes, and roams freely on the mountain of form. O warrior, he passes out through the passage of the tongue and wanders in the valley of taste. Or when this part of myself comes out through the exit of the nose, he roves in the dense forest of smell. In this way, taking the help of the mind, the embodied Self, who is the Lord of the body and the senses, enjoys the sense-objects such as the sound (356-360). |
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