Jnaneshwari (Bhavartha Dipika)

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

This is verse 18.33 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 33 of the chapter called Moksha-sannyasa-yoga.

Verse 18.33:By which unflagging tenacity one is able to sustain the activities of the mind, the vital functions, and the sense-centres with equanimity: that tenacity, O Son of Pritha, is Sattva-dominated. (733)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

With the sunrise all robbery is at a standstill, vanishing in darkness, or with the royal mandate, cease all undesirable and objectionable dealings: or with the blowing of strong winds, get swept out all clouds with their thunder: or with the appearance of sage Agasti (Sirius), the ocean stands dumb-folded (i.e. it becomes tranquil): or with the rise of the Moon the day lotuses close. This apart, an elephant in ruts, once it raises its leg up, (in order to attack its adversary) does not put it down, even if faced with a roaring lion. In all these ways with the rising up of (Sattva) tenacity in the heart, all activities of the mind etc. come to a standstill, the ties between the senses and their objects get automatically snapped, Oh Kiriti, and all the ten organs enter the womb of their mother, the mind. (It) breaks up the structure of the fivefold wind blocking its upward and downward paths (adhorghva [adhordhva?]), and tying together as a sheaf i.e. blocking and driving inward to a central point the nine exits (in the body) the principal life wind (prāṇa) jumps along with them, into the middle passage (‘Sushumna’—suṣumnā[1]—the air passage of breath or air in the human body between the two others called ‘Ida’ and ‘Pingala’).

The mind is made naked by stripping it off of all its apparel in the form of fancies and ideas, and then the intellect sits quiet (behind the mind). The King-courage (tenacity), who compels the mind, the life winds, and the organs, to give up their mutual converse made possible by their several functions, and who putting them in a blank state shuts them up in the hermitage of spiritual meditation (heart) through Yogic powers, is that tenacity which, without falling a victim to any sort of temptation (bribe—lāñca), keeps them shut up there until they are delivered up to the paramount—the Supreme Self;-that tenacity is the Sattvic tenacity” said the Lord of Goddess Lakshmi to Arjuna.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

For details see Note under verse 40, Chapter VI

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