Verse 9.3

Verse 9.3: “Men lacking credence in this Dharma, O Tormentor of foes, without being able to reach Me, return to the path of this death-dominated world. (57)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

But alas! Don’t you see, pure and sweet milk is there under the covering of the skin (of the cow)? Yet the tick (gociḍa) leaves it (milk) out and sucks only the blood. Or bulbous roots of lotus and frogs dwell in one place: yet the large black bee (bhramara) sucks the pollen in the lotus, leaving the mud for the other (frog). Or in the house of the hopeless beggar may be hidden an immense treasure; yet sitting on it he starves or suffers. Even so I, the home and fountain of all happiness, am dwelling in the heart of all; yet the desires of the deluded (ignorant) run towards the enjoyment of sense pleasures. It is like one throwing out a mouthful of nectar at the sight of a big mirage, or like one snapping the “Paris” worn round the neck, out of lure of a shell. Thus in the bustle of self-attachment and self-delusion the benighted mortals are lost to My Divine Being, and deluged in the flood between the two banks of births and deaths. To speak truly, I am as the Sun to men’s vision, ever steady and straight to the eyes, and yet unlike the Sun, that at times is seen, at times not seen, owing to clouds or night-fall.