Gyaneshwari -Sant Gyaneshwar
|
|
Chapter-13
The field and the knower of the field
He feels nausea for birth and decides that he will not perform any actions which will result in future birth. Just as a gambler plays with care after losing a bet, or the son takes revenge on his father’s enemy, or a person avenges the death of his elder brother, with the same tenacity he fights against rebirth. Just as an insult rankles in the mind of a respectable person, so the sense of shame of his birth never leaves him. Even though he thinks that his death may not occur for a long time, he remains alert from his very birth (541-545), like an expert swimmer who, coming to know that the river water is deep in the middle, ties a gourd to his waist on the bank itself or like a warrior who prepares himself before going to the battle-field and puts forward his shield to ward off a blow or like a traveller who is cautious that his companion, a polished thief, will not rob him at the next camp or like a patient who rushes for prompt medical help, while he is still alive. Otherwise, it is not possible to dig a well, when the house is on fire and extinguish the fire with its water. If, like a stone which falls and sinks in deep waters, he founders in the sea of worldly existence and raises a shout at the time of drowning, no one hears it and so who will tell that he is drowned (546-550)? Just as one who has incurred deadly enmity with a powerful foe is ready throughout the day, brandishing the sword or just as a betrothed girl prepares herself to leave her mother’s home or a monk is indifferent to his household, so he remains indifferent to the world while alive, thinking of the death to come. So in this very life he checks death and wards off rebirth and remains merged in the Self. Thus, the knowledge of one who has got over the pain from birth and death, does not diminish. |
 |
