Gyaneshwari -Sant Gyaneshwar
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Chapter-14
The Three Qualities
This, O Partha, one realises only when one attains the knowledge of the Self. Just as one realises on waking up, that the dream was false, or one standing on the bank of a river, sees one’s many reflections in the ripples of water, or an actor plays different roles with great skill but is not deceived thereby, so the embodied Self does not regard himself as possessed of gunas, but knows that he is their mere witness (286-290). Just as the sky does not change in the three seasons, so the Self, though united with the three gunas, remains in his self-existent nature, which is beyond them. But he always retains his original nature throughout, and when he realises this, he says ‘I am not the agent of actions, but their mere witness and it is the gunas which determine and control all activity’. All actions result from the modifications of the three gunas; so they are all the products of gunas. I am related to the gunas in the same way, as the spring is to the beauty of the woods (291-295). Though with the sunrise the stars become dim, the sunstone sparkles, the lotuses bloom or the darkness is dispelled, the sun is not the cause of them. In the same way, although actions take place under My authority, I am not their agent, though I dwell in the body. The gunas become perceptible, as I display them and I support their power. I am that which remains behind, after their extinction. In this way, he who has attained this knowledge, has transcended the gunas and become gunatita. |
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