Gyaneshwari -Sant Gyaneshwar
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Chapter-18
Release
47. Better is one’s own duty, though defective; than another’s duty well-performed. In doing work as dictated by one’s own nature, one does not incur sin. Even though one’s own duty is difficult to perform, one should keep in view its ultimate result. If one feels better by eating the seeds of the Neem tree, one should not mind its bitterness. Would it be wise to cut down the banana tree, before it has borne fruit (921-925)? In the same way, if a person were to give up his duty, on the ground that it is hard to perform, he would be deprived of the bliss of liberation. Even if a child’s mother is ugly, the motherly love on which it is sustained is not ungainly. The mothers of other children may be more beautiful than the nymph Rambha, but of what avail are they to the child? O Arjuna, the ghee has better qualities than water, but can the fish live in it? Look, what is poison to the world is like nectar to the germs and what is jaggery to the world, proves fatal to these germs (926-930). For this reason, a person should perform the prescribed duties, by which alone, he can hope to attain liberation, though it may be difficult to accomplish. If he were to perform another’s duty, thinking it to be better than his own, it is like walking on his head instead of his legs. Therefore, if one performs one’s duty, which has fallen to his lot according to his birth, he alone triumphs over the bonds of action. Then why should one not make it a rule, that one will observe only one’s own dharma and not follow another’s duty? Can one really stop work, before one has had the vision of Self? And if there is action to be performed, it is bound to entail physical labour (931-935). |
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