Jnaneshvar's Amritanubhav

"This, the openwg 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 remams forever inexpressible in the language of philosophy and logic."

Selected Verses

I offer obeisance to the God and Goddess, The limitless prima! parents if the universe.

They are not entirely the same, Nor are thry not the same. We cannot so 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 rf the house sleeps, The Mistress stqys 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 '!Yes: one sight.
These two: one universe.

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.

So long as Unity is undisturbed,
And a graceful pleasure is thereby derived,
Why should not the water find delight
In the flora 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.