Verse 14

The vessel that we use
To make jaggery from
Cane juice
Cannot take the sweetness.
The impressions that we
form of the world
Cannot take its essence.

Look at it this way. You have followed many practices to attain the ultimate. Now you know their nature and would not equate them with the ultimate happiness. Would you? Rather know their real nature as another set of worldly impressions.

åååå

Verse 13

Impressions gather
Around the form of the world
In the light that sheds itself,
Like pictures
Shown on the wall
Which alone is there.

Impressions gathered by the senses can fool us into believing that they constitute the world. But Changya, we can go on projecting, painting or putting up pictures on a wall. It doesn’t matter to the wall, isn’t it?

Verses 11-12

Ornament in name,
it is in reality only gold;
Organs there are many,
but the person is one.
Light falls on earth
and shows up different objects.
But that is an impression.
Light remains one.

Do you see it is the same energy and same matter of which we are made? It is a false appearance that we are different persons.

Verse 9-10

Cloth is the name
given to what otherwise
is yarn in warp and weft.
pot is earthen in the same way.
We perceive each other
as objects of perception,
but it is possible only
because there is the Supreme
Reality of which we are made
And beyond us.

Let us not get entrenched in the ‘you’ and the ‘me’ in the ordinary way of perceiving situations. Instead, see the whole reality of which we are parts and in which the game of perception goes on.

Verse 8

It’s ignorance
That gives rise to
This notion that
I the observer am separate
From the world that I observe.
It is not so and you know it.

Changdeva, you know very well that our perception stems from the notion that I am separate from that which I perceive. And you know that we get caught up in the web of illusions. You also know that IT simply IS.

Verse 7

The moon only appears in the garment
Of the phases. Vanish it cannot.
The fire is not
Separate from
The flame of the lamp.

We undergo transitions and changes; we rise and fall to rise again. Yet the Eternal principle remains unaffected.

****

Verse 6

In this immeasurable World, molecules
Do not lose their earthiness
And pulsations of the world
Do not overshadow
The one Essence.

We go about our affairs in different ways. You have followed your own path of Hath yoga and so have I walked the way of Realization under our respective mentors. That should not rob us of the awareness of the essential unity of our beings. The world manifests in a hundred ways the same truth of the essence.

Verse 5

Do the waves on the surface
Shield the water from our view?
In the same way
The Supreme forms
The entirety of the world.

I am different from you in what I have done and what I do in the world. But am I different from what you are in essence? Can we not be in touch with that of which we are made?

***

Verse 4

Gold does not lose
Its goldness
In becoming ornaments.
The Supreme Essence
Does not detract
In its worldly manifestation.

You seem to engage in the exercise of fixing superiority and inferiority. That is fine. Remember we are of the same substance and essence, though manifest in different personalities.

*****

Verse 3

When he multiplies forms
He remains formless
And is the entire
Universe when forms
There are none.

You and me are but different forms made of the universal essence. If I identify with the form and look at you in your form, the essence slips out of my grasp. Going beyond forms we are but shoots of the same Supreme Eternity.

Verse 2

Whenever he appears
He is unseen.
Whenever out of sight
He spins illusions.
He simply is,
Neither appearing nor
Hiding.
He is not something that can be
Stuffed.

These happenings and worldly matters that you wish to put me in are simply reminders that the Essence that is our Lord is going out of sight. Isn’t it befitting us that we lose not connection to his ineffable presence?

Verse 1

May the lord of the eternity
do good to us –
he who stays hidden
to project the sound-lights-motions of the world;
when he comes out in the open
the whole show is finished.


Changdeva, you have created this wonderful scene of sending me a blank message. If you think, you are playing this prank or trick on me, think again. It is the Lord that makes us play these games by endowing us with the ego. Where will our ego be when he touches us? What games will we play then?

Introduction

In reply to Changdeva

Translation of sixty-five verses written in Marathi by Jnaneswara (1275-1296), known as Changdeva Pasashti.

Jnaneswara, younger brother of Nivruttinath, is regarded as the great spiritual leader of Varkari sect in Maharashtra that unified the Vedantic traditions of salvation through knowledge and worshipful works with the native Indian Natha tradition of salvation through devotion. The Nathas were spiritual masters who had achieved self-realization and passed it on to their successors in an unbroken chain. Jnaneswara’s elder brother Nivruttinath was one such master in the Natha sect. He initiated Jnaneswara into the mystical practices of that sect. Their two younger siblings, brother Sopandev and sister Muktabai were also drawn into mysticism at a young age, following the death (by suicide) of both the parents. The four siblings wandered from place to place, as they were excommunicated, until at Paithan, Jnaneswara demonstrated his mastery of the Vedas before an assembly of pundits in a miraculous manner. His recital of the sacred hymns influenced a buffalo nearby, who reportedly joined in the chants. Their travails having thus ended, Jnaneswara on the directive of his mentor, Nivruttinath, started his exposition on the Bhagavad-Gita. During their wanderings the four had received support and help from the downtrodden castes. Jnaneswara carried on his expositions in a language they could understand. His fame as a realized soul possessing miraculous powers spread far and wide.

It reached a hathayogi of great repute, known as Changdeva. Changdeva had extended his life span by the practice of hathayoga, in which physical postures and practices were supposed to dissolve the body-consciousness of the mind. Changdeva had tamed a tiger and used it as the beast of travel. When he heard about Jnaneswara, he scoffed at his miraculous powers. He sent him a blank paper as a message, signifying among other things that Jnaneswara was still green behind ears and blank in wits. In reply Jnaneswara composed sixty-five verses, put them to the blank paper and sent it back to Changdeva. When he read the verses, he was overcome with guilt of having insulted a great soul and immediately started for Alandi riding his tiger. When the news of his arrival in Alandi reached Jnaneswara, he moved to welcome Changdeva. Little did Jnaneswara realize that the wall, on which he was perched, had started moving. Seeing this spectacle, Changdeva got down, prostrated before the young boy, Jnaneswara and surrendered his ego completely. The beauty of the verses lies in the tender quality of affection with which Jnaneswara wins over the arrogance of the hathayogi.

I am thankful to my friend, Shirish Kulkarni, who suggested that I translate this work of Sant Jnaneswara. This is the third work of translation, following that of Haripaath (To the Being) and Taatiche Abhang (Verses to the Brother – Open the Door). It is an occasion of great joy for me. But for Shirish, I may never have turned to this important work of Jnaneswara, which reaches the pinnacle of poetry and philosophy.