THE AMRITANUBHAVA OF SRI JNANESHWARJI

Amrita-anubhava
The following is an english rendering of Jnaneshwar's AMRITANUBHAVA.
A brief biography of this saint is available at Biographies.

Amritanubhava consist of ten chapters of verse. I have presented only
the first chapter here.


INVOCATORY VERSES

1. I take shelter in the deity, who is well known as the glorious
Nivrittinatha, who is indestructible, indescribable, the bliss itself,
unborn and imperishable.

2. I pay homage to the very Divine Wisdom who showers blessing, who is
known in the world as Guru, whose command is ever victorious and who
overflows with compassion.

3. Siva and Sakti are identical but frequently appear as two. So it is
not possible to know whose half part is united with the half part of
the other.

4. I bow to the parents of the worlds, who reveal their essential
unity to each other, so that I may understand the same.

5. I respectfully salute the Perfect Shambhu who is the cause of the
beginning, the preservation and the end of the world, who is the
manifestation of the beginning, the middle and the end, and who is
also the dissolution of the three.

Chapter I - The Union of Shiva and Shakti

1. Thus have I paid homage to the God and Godess who are the limitless
primal parents of the universe.

2. On the charming spot, the Lover Himself, out of overflowing love,
becomes the Beloved, who is made up of the same flesh, and who eats
the same food.

3. Out of deep longing they swallow each other, and again emit each
other because they like to be two.

4. They are neither completely identical nor completely different. We
do not know their real nature.

5. How strong is their desire to enjoy themselves ! They become one
through it and never allow their unity to be disturbed even in jest.

6. They are so afraid of their seperation that although they have
given birth to the child in the form of the universe their duality is
not disturbed.

7. Even though they perceive the animate and inanimate nature
emananting from them, they do not allow any third object to touch
them.

8. They are seated on the same ground ( existence ) and they wear the
same ornament of light ( knowledge ). From time immemorial they dwell
happily in union.

9. The difference itself that tried to discover duality for enjoying
it, was abashed to see their intimacy merged itself in their sweet
union.

10. It is through God that the other is Goddess and without Her the
Lord is nowhere. As a matter of fact their existence is due to each
other.

11. Oh ! How sweet is their union ! The great world is too small for
them to live in, while they live happily even in the smallest
particle.

12. They treat each other as their very life and they do not create
even a blade of grass without mutual help.

13. These are the only two inmates in the home of the universe. When
the Lord goes to sleep, the mistress remains awake and plays herself
the part of both.

14. If either of them happens to wake up, the whole house is swallowed
up and nothing is left behind.

15. Each became a half part of the whole for the process of diversity.
Both are trying to melt their forms into one.

16. Both of them are objects to each other. Both are subjects to each
other. Both are happy in each other's company.

17. Shiva alone lives happily in the nominally different forms of the
male and female. The whole universe is due to the coupling of the half
part of each.

18. Two lute produce one musical note. The flowers are two but the
fragrance is one. Though the lamps are two the light is one.

19. Two lips utter but one word and two eyes give but one vision. In
the same way the two ( Siva and Sakthi ) create one world.

20. So the eternal couple manifesting duality is enjoying the dish of
the same flavor.

21. The chaste and well devoted Sakti cannot live without her Lord.
Without Her the all doer has no existence.

22. The two cannot be distingushed because the appearance of her Lord
is due to her while her existence is due to him.

23. We cannot distinguish sugar and sweetness, camphor and fragrance.

24. While trying to gather the rays we get hold of the flame itself.
We get Siva while trying to catch hold of her essence.

25. The sun shines on account of his lustre, but the essence of his
nothing but the sun. So the One Supreme Beauty shines swallowing all
the difference.

26. An object is the cause of its reflection. The reflection is the
cause of the inference of the object. ( The one object appears as an
object and its reflection ). In the same way one Reality shines as
two.

27. The essence of all void became Purusha through her, while the
Sakti got her peculiar existence through the Lord.

28. Siva Himself formed His beloved without whom Siva loses His own
personality.

29. Her form is the cause of God and His glory manifested in the
process of the world. But Her form itself is created by Him out of
Himself.

30. Blushing at her formless husband and her own graceful form, she
adorned him with the ornament and names and forms as great as the
universe.

31. There was scarcity even of unity. But she, the fortunate one,
playfully presented the rich manifold of the world.

32. She manifested the glory of her Lord by melting own body, while by
belittling himself he made her wellknown.

33. He assumes the form of a seer through his love to see her. If he
fails to see her he throws himself away.

34. He assumes the form of the universe through her importunities and
he is left naked without her.

35. He is so subtle that he is not visible though manifest. He assumed
the form of the universe through her grace.

36. The Siva awakened by her, is satisfied when he eats the dishes in
the form of the objects that are perceived as well as one who serves
him.

37. When her husband is asleep she gives birth to all the things
living and non-living. When she takes rest the husband himself
vanishes.

38. When the husband hides himself, he is not discovered without her.
Both of them are like mirrors to each other.

39. Siva enjoys his own bliss by embracing her. Though he is all
enjoyer he enjoys nothing without her.

40. She is his form while her beauty is due to him who is her lover.
They are enjoying the feast by intermingling with each other.

41. Siva and Sakti make up one whole just like air and its motion,
gold and its lustre.

42. Sakti is inseperable from Siva just like the musk and its
fragrance, fire and its heat.

43. If night and day would go to the abode of the sun both of them
would vanish. In the same way their duality would vanish in their
real essence.

44. As a matter of fact, Siva and Sakti (because of their duality) are
antagonistic to the state from which the sprout of Pranava (Om)
springs.

45. Jnanadeva says, "I show my respect to the couple of Siva and Sakti
who by swallowing the sweet dish of name and form, enlighten the
underlying essence."

46. By embracing each other both of them merge into one unity, just as
the darkness of night is transformed into light at the break of day.

47. Para with Vaikhari remains silent in the process of discovering
their real nature, just as the ocean merges along with the Ganges into
the waters of Pralaya.

48. The air with its motion merged in the sky. The sun with its lustre
is merged in the light of Pralaya times.

49. In the same way while trying to see them, the seer and his sight
vanish. I pay homage to the inmates of the universe again and again.

50. Both of them are like a stream where not only the knower cannot
drink its water in the form of the known but also throws himself away.

51. Under these circumstancesif I remain separate to pay my homage, it
would be a meaningless verbal separation.

52. But my salutation is like that of an ornament which is not
different from gold and yet worships it.

53. Where the word 'tongue' is uttered by the tongue, is there any
difference between the word and the object meant by it ?

54. The Ocean and the Ganges intermingle and though their names are
different, would there be any difference in their waters ?

55. The Sun shows in himself the object as well as the subject of
illunination, yet he does not lose his singleness.

56. If moonlight brightens the surface of the moon, or if a lamp is
enmeshed in its rays, is there any degradation ?

57. When the lustre of a pearl plays upon it, its beauty and purity
are enhanced.

58. Is Pranava divided into different parts because it containd three
components ? Or is the letter 'N' divided into three parts because it
is formed of three lines.

59. If the capital of unity is not lessened and the advantage of
gracefullness is obtained, why should not water smell the buds of
flowers in the form of its own ripples.

60. Therefore, without differentiating Siva and Sakti, I proceed to
bow to them in this manner.

61. By giving up the mirror, the image merges in its object. A ripple
vanishes when the air is still.

62. A man comes to his own as soon as he wakes from his sleep. In the
same way I have bowed to the God and Goddess by giving up my ego.

63. The salt giving up itself becomes the ocean, so giving up my ego I
am united with Siva and Sakti.

64. I have paid my homage to Siva and Sakti by uniting with them just
as the inner empty space of the plantain tree is unites with the
outward one.