Gyaneshwari -Sant Gyaneshwar
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Chapter-14
The Three Qualities
24. And who remains self-poised, same in happiness and sorrow and same to a lump of clay, stone and gold, who remains firm and same to pleasant and unpleasant things and to censure and praise, O Arjuna, just as there is nothing except yarn in the cloth, so when he becomes one with Me, he sees nothing but Me in all the things, animate and inanimate. Just as God gives the same salvation to his devotees and enemies, so he treats equally pleasure and pain when they come his way, like the scales which are well balanced (346-350). He remains in the body like fish in water and experiences pleasure and pain. Now he has given up body-consciousness and become one with the Self. When the seed is sown in the ground, it grows and produces grain or the rattling noise of the river subsides, when it joins the sea. In the same way, when a person has become one with the Self, he is not affected by pleasure and pain, even though he remains in the body. Just as the day and night are the same to a pole, so pleasure and pain are the same to the Self in the body (351-355). Just as a man in sound sleep feels the contact with a serpent, as very much like the touch of the nymph Urvashi, so a person immersed in his essential nature treats equally, pleasure and pain which come to his share. So dung and gold seem alike to him and a jewel and a stone make no difference to him. Even if heaven visits him or the tiger assails him, his Self-hood is not disturbed. Just as a dead person does not become alive, or a roasted seed does not grow, so his equanimity is not disturbed. Whether he is praised as god Brahma or blamed as a base person, he remains unaffected like a mass of ashes, which can neither burn nor become extinguished (356-360). Praise or slander does not cause any pleasure or displeasure in him, in the same way, as there is neither darkness nor a lighted lamp in the Sun’s abode. |
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