Gyaneshwari -Sant Gyaneshwar
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Chapter-9
The Esoteric Knowledge
How often should I repeat to you the same thing again and again? If you wish to attain Me, do not shrink from devotion to Me (426-430). One need not boast of a high family or bask in the splendour of a noble birth and why should one crave needlessly for learning? Why pride oneself on one’s youthful charms, why blow the trumpet of one’s wealth? All this is so much vain talk without devotion to Me. Of what use is a good crop of corn without grain, or a splendid but unpopulated city or a lake which is dry, or the meeting of two sufferers in a forest, or a tree with profuse blossoms but without fruit? All that wealth, high birth, family, caste, respect are worthless, like a body of beautiful limbs without life in it (431-435). Cursed is that life, in which there is no devotion to Me. Are there not many stones on this earth? Just as the wise avoid the shade of a prickly pear, even so merit turns away from a person without devotion. When the neem tree becomes laden with fruits, it provides a feast to the crows; so a life without devotion to Me becomes a seedbed of vices. Just as a rich dish served in a broken earthen pot and kept in a thoroughfare becomes a feast to the dogs, similar is the life of a non-devotee. Not knowing piety even in a dream, he drinks the bitterest cup of sorrow (436-440). So one need not have a noble birth; one may belong to the lower caste or be endowed with the body of a beast. You know how an elephant seized by a crocodile devoutly and piteously prayed to Me and, through My favor, got rid of its beastly life and attained to Me. |
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