verses on a blank slate
DESCRIPTION
This is a translation from Marathi to English of 65 verses written by Sant Jnaneswar in reply to a blank letter received from Yogi Changdev. Aliashesh is the translator, whose other works include "To the Brother" (Sant Muktabai) and "To the Being" (Sant Eknath), both translations from Marathi to English.TRANSCRIPT
Verses on a Blank Slate
Sant Jnaneswara
1275-1296
Translated from Marathi by Aliashesh
About myself
I always wanted to write. My friends' encouragement led me to write and
publish. I owe a lot to them. Writing gives me tremendous satisfaction, as
I am able to express myself better in this form. My pen-name is a curious
amalgam of two names: Ali and Ashesh. In 1994, I attended a devotional
quawwali concert, dressed in a long jacket and a fur cap. That prompted
the revered host to remark that I resembled Nawab Ali Ahmed Khan. I
took that as a compliment and a blessing. In the same year, later, I
attended a programme during which my facilitator said that it was
rebirth for me and he would give me the name Ashesh meaning without
keeping anything back. The poems that I wrote in that period were
published under the name Aliashesh. It is with this name that all my
subsequent poetry is published.
These verses were published first on my blog from 2005 to 2008. It is
only now in 2015 that they are coming out in the form of an eBook.
Pune
20 January 2015
About Changdev Pasashti or
65 verses
In reply to Changdeva
Introduction
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.
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?
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 9-10
Cloth is the name
given to what otherwise
is yarn in warp and weft.
A 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.
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 sheer appearance that we are different beings.
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?
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.
Verse 15
Light fills the chandelier
and takes its shape.
The cosmic energy
fills the being
and flows through it.
Mistake it not for
the personal expression.
Both of us are expressing the Universal self, you in your own way
(through the blank paper) and I in mine (through these verses). Let us
not lose sight of That which flows through us.
Verses 16-17-18
Though happiness and sorrow
do not stick to us,
in a moment of excitement
we see ourselves as happy or sad
giving rise to objects of seeing.
These impressions conjure up
the seer, like the reflection
bringing to life the (separate) person.
This three-way split impression of the seen,
the seer and the seeing
we establish by flowing with
impressions.
In treating me and the message to me as separate from you, you are also
treating yourself as somebody separate from this flow of energy. What is
this excitement about?
Verse 19
In the turns and twists
of the yarn
there is nothing but the yarn;
In the same way, the seer, the seen
and the seeing are not threesome
but one and the same trinity.
The three-way split is an appearance, but in essence we are together, one
and the same, but appear made and unmade of the same.
Verses 20-21
When you see your face
in the mirror,
do you attribute seeing
to the mirror?
Futile is such
seeing of impressions.
I am the seer, the seen
and the seeing. Distinctions
lead to impressions,
Sages have said.
When you delve deeper into perceptions, you realize that perceptions are
nothing but confirmations of your impressions, which take off from the
distinction of you as separate from the reality.
Verses 22-25
Scenes conjured up
make for the seer of the world
And seeing is lame
to bridge the gap
between the seer and the seen.
When there is nothing to see
what use of sight?
When there is nothing to see
where is the seer?
Thus the scene brings along
The sight and the seer.
Once dissolved, the other
two disappear as well.
So the one reality
divides itself into three
and once the illusion goes,
it’s the same reality back again.
The underlying process of seeing, scene and the seer escape our
attention. The act is what brings the categories into existence. So dear
Changdeva, attend to this a little, will you?
Verses 26-27
And before the mirror is there,
you have a face
that
standing before the mirror
watches its reflection.
Watching seems like
seeing self,
but it is not.
Changya, we are like mirrors to each other. Don’t get fooled by the
reflections that we are different beings. Different persons, yes
Verse 28-29
So if you fix
on the seen outside,
it is different from you
the seer.
Everything you see
the seeing is within.
It is like the sound
separate from the instruments
the fire, apart from the wood,
Beyond the details, which
we swallow, when we experience.
If you just stay with the experience of hearing a sound, beyond the
myriad forms and tunes, there is the sound and that is within you.
Beyond our specific differences, there is just the experience of touching
another human being. And that is within us.
Verses 30-33
You can’t put it in words
nor know it;
You can be it
while it is there.
It’s like not being
able to see your
own wounded pupil
in the eye.
No use trying to
gather its knowledge.
There is nothing to
not know and what is there
to know?
So let’s converse
in silence
such that all there is
gets spoken
without words.
What do you want to know from me? What do you want to tell me? You
know it very well what there is to know and not know, dear Changdeva.
Verses 34-37
Several realizations later
the real remains one,
like water from
the foam, waves after waves.
You are, so you are able to see
even when to see,
there is nothing.
Just being there,
just seeing and
just experiencing the experience
links you
unbroken
to the antiquity of
this knowledge.
Let us
both listen
to that voice.
Let us just immerse ourselves in the being and hear what there is to
hear. Otherwise, this dialogue of me and mine with you and yours would
go on pointlessly.
Verses 38-40
Says Jnanadeva,
‘you listening to me is
like
clasping
one’s palm by the palm
words listening to words
taste tasting itself
light looking at itself.
or gold dressed in gold
face becoming mirror to face,
So is our dialogue
with each other.’
When we center in our being, where is the need for me to tell you
anything? We just enjoy that state. Even this description is misleading.
It’s like saying that I look at myself in your mirror and you do the same.
Verses 41-43
The mouth cannot
satiate itself
when it tastes
its own sweetness.
That’s the way
each other’s company
we relish.
On the pretext
of meeting you
I would touch the supreme
Being.
Meeting you
its true form
the mind
would See.
And the courtesies
I might just forget.
All said and done, meeting you is still an attraction, for it will give me the
experience of unison. My only worry is I might just forget to extend due
courtesies, if overcome with joy.
Verses 44-47
The thought
in your case
does not arise:
what shall I do,
what shall I say,
what shall I think
or
what shall I not do
not say and not think.
In your name and
thanks to you
I give up my Self
and so the thought
of what to do and what not
to.
Like salt absorbs
not when dissolved
in water,
in my worldly frame
I will remain not
as I meet you in
your being.
I am fortunate that I am in dialogue with a realized soul such as you. I
have no worry, no plan, no message, no measure, since in your Being,
transcended are action and inaction, thought and thoughtlessness,
speech and silence. Everything simply melts into the Being.
Verse 48
Once woken up
how can I sense
the sleep?
In seeing you
there is no
face, mine
and yours -
only seeing.
You have awakened in me that seeing of the seeing which is a pure flow
beyond the self and as such beyond separateness.
Verses 49-50
In the darkness after
the sunset
I am there still
experiencing it.
When you meet me
it is the same.
There is experiencing
beyond
the you and the me.
In the duality of the world, and me, there are phases of presence and
absence of things. In the Oneness of experience, there is only that
continuity of experience. With you, the experience alone jingles, not this
division of you and me (that leads to discord of you against me).
Verses 51-53
The eye rejoices
in witnessing
scenic wonders
and with that sight
in darkness
gropes without stumbling.
Scenes emerge and fade
the sight does not.
Being -
the experience
of oneness.
Our persona – the pictures
that appear and fade.
Let us rejoice in the meeting.
Amid the transience of the world, permanent is the Being that
experiences and not the Person who is but an amalgam of experiences,
emerging and fading. Let us meet to touch the level of Being and not
simply as Persons.
Verses 54-56
It’s the palate that
delights, delicacies a pretext.
It’s me that I admire,
the mirror a means,
the image but an impression.
I stuffed here
theses and postulates
and with
the alphabet of silence
composed this prelude
to our meeting.
It’s only a means,
if you wish to look at yourself,
like a lamp needs light, its own,
to be able to see.
I have composed all this merely as a means, an image of your self and
mine to see in this mirror.
Verses 57-59
May this dialogue
open our eyes
to meet our Self
in our Selves.
Like in the deluge
it’s the ocean everywhere,
where does one search for source of the river?
Says Jnanadeva
your existence is real
without the particularities
of name and form.
Rejoice in the living self
and be happy.
Verses 60-61
Dear Changya
when the whole wealth
of knowledge is unloaded
in front of your house,
sweep all questions
to the backyard.
Changya
this reply is only an indulgence
of my Guru;
Like a mother to her child,
he feeds me with these
delicacies with so much
fondness.
Verses 62-63
It was like Jnanadeva
sitting face to face with
Lord Krishna,
two mirrors
facing each other
discovering both
can see with eyes.
Where is the separateness?
Same way
make these verses
a mirror unto you.
And rejoice in the joy
of the Being.
Verses 64-65
Is it possible
to be ignorant of
that which does not exist?
Would you be ignorant of
what you see in front?
How then that ignorance
of what exists?
There is sleeping
beyond sleep.
There is an awakening
beyond waking up.
Jnanadeva says, tried I have
to run a thread through them.