Gyaneshwari -Sant Gyaneshwar
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Chapter-13
The field and the knower of the field
Just as a stream in the desert place gets flooded or the buffaloes fight, so he is infatuated with youth. With old age, his plump body becomes lean and feeble, his complexion loses its lustre, his neck and head begin to shake, his beard becomes white and his neck becomes slack, but even then, he goes on increasing his wealth. Just as a blind person does not see the pillar in front of him, until he actually knocks against it or a lazy person becomes very pleased when his eyes become dim (hoping that he will be able to take rest), so, O Arjuna he who does not, in the midst of youthful enjoyments, think about the approaching old age is really and truly ignorant (756-760). If he then happens to see a cripple or a hunchback, he proudly grins and mouths at him. The thought does not occur to him that he is also going to be like that one day. Even if he enters old age which is a forerunner of death, he does not give up the delusions of youth. Know for certain, that he is an ignorant person. Now, I shall tell you some more characteristics of ignorance. A bull which has come back hale and hearty after grazing in the forest inhabited by a tiger, again goes there for grazing without fear. When a person retrieves safely the treasure from the hole of a serpent, he does not believe that a serpent was guarding it (761-765). So even when one or two mishaps occur, a person does not know that there is great risk to life in going on the way he does. He who becomes reckless in the belief that the enmity has come to an end, when in fact his enemy has gone to sleep, he loses his own life and his children also meet the same fate. In the same way, as long as he has good appetite, sleeps well and is in good health, he does not take precautions against any (possible) ailments. The more he acquires riches while enjoying the company of his wife and children, the more his eyes become dimmed by the smoke screen of his wealth. |
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