Jnaneshvar's Amritanubhav

''Jnaneshvar appears to have demolished the old concepts of Sankara and the Vedantists, but the astute student will easily perceive that, when aU the destruction IS through and the dust has settled once more, J naneshvar has brought us to the same destination to which Shankara led us.

"Like all others before or after him w1,a had succeeded in unwrapplOg the jewel of Self-knowledge,]naneshvar, in his attempt to reveal that jewel naked of wraps, succeeds only in presenting it wrapped in yet another fabric of mere words. Yet, his words, like those of other great teachers in possession of that jewel, possess an 111tnnslC transparency through which the lustre of Truth shines forth, exciting us with its beauty and inspiring in us the desire to make it our own,"

The word is the flower
Of the sky of the Infinite;
Its fruit is the Universe. There is nothing
That cannot be determined by the word.

However, the word,
So well-known as a reminder,
Cannot coexist with the Self.

However there is a case where the word is
useful as the destroyer of ignorance;
But I’m afraid to even think about this.

For it is foolish to say
That the word destroyed ignorance,
And then the Self becomes conscious of Itself.

If ignorance Was something
That could be destroyed the word,
Then could we not set fire
To an imaginary city-in-the-sky?

A shadow does not exist where it does not fall;
But it also does not exist where it does fall.

If ignorance were as real as it seems,
Men would have been drenched
By the rain painted in a Picture.
Fields would have been irrigated with it,
And reservoirs would have been filled

The ultimate Reality
Does not prove or disprove Itself
With the help of some other kind of knowledge;
It is self-evident, being the knower,
And is beyond proof and disproof.

Right understanding shows that the word
Cannot in any way approach the Self.