Gyaneshwari -Sant Gyaneshwar
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Chapter-13
The field and the knower of the field
And the mental state, which arises when the senses are deprived of their sensuous enjoyments, is said to be hatred. Now pleasure is that mental state, which makes one forget other things. When it is attained, it brings to a stop all the activities of the body, speech and the mind; makes the body forget itself, paralyses the vital air, enforces the sattvika sentiments and gathers all the functions of the senses in the heart and coaxes them to sleep (126-130). In short, that mental state in which the embodied Self comes into contact with the Self is called happiness. And to live without attaining this state is itself misery. Happiness is not attained when the mind is attached to desires, and in the absence of desire it is a natural and self-existent state. So pleasure and pain depend upon the absence and existence of desire. Now, O Arjuna, when the body is under the sway of the Self, which is the detached witness of everything, there results what is known as intelligence. It is ever awake, pervading the body from head to feet and remains unchanged in all the three states of wakefulness, dreaming and deep slumber (131-135). It keeps the mind, intellect etc. fresh and the wood in the form of prakriti in full bloom as in spring. It pervades without doubt all things, animate as well as inanimate, in more or less proportions. Just as the army under the command of a king, who does not know how big it is, defeats his enemy, or the sea gets its tidal wave with the appearance of the moon; or the iron moves in the proximity of the magnet; or the affairs of the world are carried on in sunlight; or the chick of a female tortoise is fed by her mere glance (136-140), so the inner parts of the body are animated by the presence of the Self, dwelling in it. This is what is known as intelligence. Now listen to the description of the distinctive forms of steadiness. The five gross elements are hostile to one another by their very nature. Does not water denude the earth? Fire dries up the water and is opposed to the wind, while the sky easily swallows the wind. Just as the sky pervades everything, but remains separate without combining with it (141-145), so these five gross elements remain in unison in the body. They give up their mutual strife and help one another with their natural qualities. That which brings about and sustains such unity, which is usually not possible, is firmness. |
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