Look beyond, that you may see what’s at hand

Poem 246

Look beyond that you may see what’s at hand,

go deep within, see Him as the universe.

Nivritti gave us the divine vision.

Now the whole play is over.

The doings, undoings, the prescribed, the proscribed,

the night, the sun, along with the sky,

all peacefully dissolved in the end;

turning everything at home into heaven.

You have done something wonderful,

pleased with me, you have blessed me sweetly.

Jnandev takes refuge at Nivritti's feet,

Drinking the nectar beyond all imagining.

our thoughts

Our inner and our outer worlds have us tied in knots. We are set up in a perpetual chase. It takes all the running to keep in the same place, as Lewis Carroll would put it. We try endlessly to squeeze something out of it all, that is, when we are not trying to get out of its squeeze. Jnaneshwar says, these doings and un-doings all vanish when we see the essence of things. When Jnandev says, “see Him as the universe .. and.. drink the nectar beyond all imagining,” we hear echoes of Chandogya Upanishad saying, Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma/ tajjallani-iti – shantamupaaseeta - “It’s all just Brahman, the absolute. Knowing that it is the beginning, the middle and the end, be at rest.”