Amritanubhava

[Guest guest]

Namaste,

 

To continue where Nirmalaji had left off:

 

http://www.nonduality.com/jnan.htm

 

Nonduality

 

NONDUALITY: JNANESHVAR

 

Please include the following text when copying any of this material

elsewhere:

 

This material is edited by Jerry Katz, http://nonduality.com/jnan.htm

 

The book from which these excerpts are taken, is entitled "Jnaneshvar:

The Life and Works of the Celebrated Thirteenth Century Indian

Mystic-Poet," by S. Abhyayananda. It is published by Atma Books,

Olympia, Washington, ISBN 0-914557-02-5. $11.95 U.S.,260pp.

 

I encourage you to buy this book at your community bookstore or

through an online bookstore.Nearly half the book details

Jnaneshvar's life and times. There are also translations of works

unavailable elsewhere. If you like what you read here, you will find

yourself much more immersed in the expressiveness of the full work.

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Amritanubhav (The Nectar of Mystical Experience)

 

Chapter One: The Union of Shiva and Shakti

>From Abhayananda's (the translator and author) Introduction to Chapter

One:

 

"This, the opening chapter of Amritanubhav, is undoubtedly one of the

most strikingly beautiful poetic expressions of duality-in-unity ever

written. In it, Jnaneshvar, the poet, portrays, with symbol and

metaphor, that mystery which remains forever inexpressible in the

language of philosophy and logic."

 

The following is a selection of a few of the 64 verses from the first

chapter:

 

I offer obeisance to the God and Goddess,

The limitless primal parents of the universe.

 

They are not entirely the same,

Nor are they not the same.

We cannot say exactly what they are.

 

How sweet is their union!

The whole world is too small to contain them,

Yet they live happily in the smallest particle.

 

These two are the only ones

Who dwell in this home called the universe.

When the Master of the house sleeps,

The Mistress stays awake,

And performs the functions of both.

 

When He awakes, the whole house disappears,

And nothing at all is left.

 

Two lutes: one note.

Two flowers: one fragrance.

Two lamps: one light.

 

Two lips: one word.

Two eyes: one sight.

These two: one universe.

 

In unity there is little to behold;

So She, the mother of abundance,

Brought forth the world as play.

 

He takes the role of Witness

Out of love of watching Her.

But when Her appearance is withdrawn,

The role of Witness is abandoned as well.

 

Through Her,

He assumes the form of the universe;

Without Her,

He is left naked.

 

If night and day were to approach the Sun,

Both would disappear.

In the same way, their duality would vanish

If their essential Unity were seen.

 

In fact, the duality of Shiva and Shakti

Cannot exist in that primal unitive state

>From which AUM emanates.

 

They are like a stream of knowledge

>From which a knower cannot drink

Unless he gives up himself.

 

Is the sound of AUM divided into three

Simple because it contains three letters?

Or is the letter 'N' divided into three

Because of the three lines by which it is formed?

 

So long as Unity is undisturbed,

And a graceful pleasure is thereby derived,

Why should not the water find delight

In the floral fragrance of its own rippled surface?

 

It is in this manner I bow

To the inseparable Shiva and Shakti.

 

A man returns to himself

When he awakens from sleep;

Likewise, I have perceived the God and Goddess

By waking from my ego.

 

When salt dissolves,

It becomes one with the ocean;

When my ego dissolved,

I became one with Shiva and Shakti.

 

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