Jnaneshwari (Bhavartha Dipika)

by Ramchandra Keshav Bhagwat | 1954 | 284,137 words | ISBN-10: 8185208123 | ISBN-13: 9788185208121

This is verse 16.23 of the Jnaneshwari (Bhavartha-Dipika), the English translation of 13th-century Marathi commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita.—The Dnyaneshwari (Jnaneshwari) brings to light the deeper meaning of the Gita which represents the essence of the Vedic Religion. This is verse 23 of the chapter called Daivasura-sampad-vibhaga-yoga.

Verse 16.23:Whosoever, relinquishing the prescribed ways of the Shastra, acts under the promptings of lust, he does not achieve success, nor happiness, nor the Highest Goal. (445)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

And (there is) that self-destroyer (stealer), who does not like all this and who reclining (and thus supporting) his head on passion and other demerits, defies the fatherly Vedas, which are uniformly kind to all and which are the headlights, showing what is (wholesome) to one’s advantage and what is not. He who shows no respect for the mandates of the Scriptures, neglects his own interests, and goes on indulging the senses; he who never lets go his grip on Passion, Wrath and Greed keeps his promise (word) with them and who wanders freely through the jungle of unrestrained way-ward conduct—such a one does not get a single drop of water (to drink) of the river of liberation, what to say then of (the bliss of swimming in) the river itself, which he cannot enjoy even in a dream. He cannot have the enjoyment even of the ordinary, common objects of the world; what then of enjoyments pertaining to the other world (from which he is definitely excluded)? Getting deluded at seeing a fish (on the surface of the water) a Brahmin dives in with the greed of catching the fish; but instead of catching it he only incurs the risk of losing his own life: in that way, one just tries hard for the attainment of the other world, solely out of temptation for the enjoyment of the sense-objects; but while so striving, Death snatches him away somewhere else (before his desire is satisfied). In short he gets neither Heaven’s nor this world’s enjoyments; what then of securing liberation? Therefore, one who on account of the strength of desires, strives for the enjoyment of the sense-objects, gets neither the enjoyment nor the Heaven, nor yet can he ever expect to have salvation.

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