Verse 9.11

Verse 9.11: “Those under delusion, not cognisant of my real Nature, misprize Me, the great Lord of (all) beings who have assumed a human body: (140)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

If out of mortal dread of mundane existence of birth and death, you shrink from it and feel the desire for uniting with My own life, you must hold on to this path-way of truth: or else you will fall into the path of gross error. To persons affected with jaundice, the moonlight appears yellow: in that way the errant soul sees in My pure Essential Being impurities (imperfections). To one who has his palate spoilt through fever, even the milk tastes bitter: in the same way, I am mistaken for a personal being though I am not one. Therefore, oh Dhananjaya, I repeat this caution: do not lose sight of this secret truth. A superficial vision (sthūladṛṣṭi) (of seeing Me) or a crude way of knowing comes to naught. Seeing Me through a superficial vision is no real vision, since no one can become immortal with unreal nectar (taken) in a dream.

Ordinarily people claim to know Me from such crude and superficial vision; but this sort of outward knowing keeps them from real knowledge (about it), just as the greedy swan is deluded and ruined by mistaking the reflections of stars in water for jewels; of what avail is it to run to a mirage as if it were the holy Ganges, or to hold in hand a Babul tree taking it as a Kalpataru (desireyielding tree), or to hold in hand a boa-constrictor, taking it to be a wreath of jewels? What avails it again to pick up flints taking them as jewels, or to hold in a four-mouthed bag (jholī) live coal of the catachu wood, taking it to be a treasure (nidhāna) or to imitate a lion that mistakes his own reflection in a well for a real lion and leaps into death? Even so, is the reflection of moon in water—not the moon—clasped by them that give themselves up to My visible form in worldly life. And to cling to such fond conceit blindly is as vain as to make a porridge meal yield the effects of ambrosia.

How on earth would My everlasting Essence be disclosed to them that set their mind’s faith blindly on things of the earth? Can one setting along the Easterly direction ever hope to reach Western shores? And could one ever know My changeless, pure and perfect being merely knowing this gross universe of a ceaseless flow of changes? Can one be said to have drunk water merely by tasting foam or froth? Thus it comes to pass that men that have their minds blinded by this delusion try to take the universe as My real Being, and then attribute to Me earthly fortunes like births and deaths. Me, whose being has no name, they call by a name; to Me they attribute activity though I am free from all activity; and My incorporeal Essence they imagine to be embodied: (they) impute form to My Being which is without a form: My personality that is above attribute they endow with attributes and make Me subject to rules of duty, though I am beyond good and evil: (they) impute to Me caste, when I am not of any caste, quality to one who is without it, feet and hands, when I am without them: also (they) impute limit to My unlimited being, a local habitation to one who is Omnipresent (all-pervading). It is all like dreaming a forest while you are asleep in your bed.

And further, they invest Me with ears when I am beyond them, eyes when I am free from this limitation, and make Me belong to a clan when I am without it. They impute manifestation to Me who am non-manifest; desire to one who is beyond all desires; contentment to one who is himself the source of self-contentment. They offer clothes and ornaments to Me, who am above clothes and ornaments, and consider Me as being created when I am the cause of all. Into an idol am I—the self-existent—embodied and installed and invoked. They invoke Me and bid Me farewell, when I am eternal. I am eternally self-identified, and yet they impute to Me all stages of life, such as childhood, youth and old age. One without a second, I am made manifold; free from all touch of action, I am made the doer of action; above all enjoyment. I am made the subject of enjoyment.

Eulogies are bestowed on what is taken as My clan and family, though I do not cling to any clan. I am eternal, and yet they are distressed at My passing away. They fancy Me having friends and foes, though I am the indweller of all. lam the very abode of supreme bliss, and yet they attribute to Me desire for different sorts of pleasures, and I am abiding evenly everywhere and yet they attribute to Me a definite place of residence. Verily I live in all beings, yet they attribute to Me taking sides with one and wrathfully killing another. Thus I am made the subject of almost all the human frailties; such indeed is their false belief. They devotedly worship as God any idol they see before them, and throw it away as Godless as soon as it gets cracked. In such manifold ways they imagine Me as an embodied human being, and their erroneous belief keeps out of their reach real knowledge of My true Being.