Jnaneshwari (Bhavartha Dipika)

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

This is verse 18.9 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 9 of the chapter called Moksha-sannyasa-yoga.

Verse 18.9:Merely on the ground that it ought to be done, whichever obligatory act, O Arjuna, is performed, relinquishing both attachment as well as fruit; such a relinquishing is deemed Sattva-dominated. (200)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

The (Sattvic) one performs with great skill and as prescribed in the Scriptures, actions that come to his lot in natural course according to his (innate) status, but drops all egotism as, being their doer as also the expectation of their fruit. To disregard one’s mother’s words and to entertain passion towards her-both these lead to one’s complete downfall. Both these should, therefore, be avoided and service should be rendered to the mother. Should a cow be discarded altogether, simply because her mouth is unholy? or should the entire (jack)–fruit be thrown away because its rind and the seed (inside it) are not fit for eating? In that way the egotism of the doer, as also the tempting taste of the fruit, constitute the fettering elements in an action.

A father never entertains any passion for his daughter; in that way when both these elements are not permitted to take a root in the mind, the action as prescribed never leads to any misery; Such a relinquishment is the very Supreme tree yielding fruit in the form of salvation and is well-known as ‘Sattvic’ in the world. When the seed is baked, the prospective entire tree-growth becomes extinct (nirvaṃśa): in that way, he who is free from the fetters of the actions having renounced their fruit, is the one in whom the Rajas and the Tamas have both been destroyed, in the way the iron gets rid of its odious dark colour by a touch of the ‘Paris’. To the one whose eyes of the Knowledge of the Self have been fully opened on account of the pure Sattvic quality, the non-existing but deceptive appearance of the vast universe confronting such a one disappears just as the mirage does (in a desert) in the evening, and such a one ceases to see the deceptive appearance (of the universe) like the (cavity of) sky.

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