Jnaneshvar's Amritanubhav

Chapter Eight:

The Refutation of Knowledge

"Jnaneshvar reiterates: Knowledge, which is the complement to ignorance, does not exist in that state either. These two, knowledge and ignorance, exist only relative to each other; they are both illusory, and disappear in the unitive experience of the one Self."

As for ourselves,
We possess neither knowledge nor ignorance.
Our Guru-has awakened us
To our true identity.

If we attempt to see our own state,
That seeing itself becomes ashamed.
What then, should we do?

Fortunately,
Our Guru has made us so vast
That we cannot he contained
Within ourselves.

Our identity is not limited
Solely to the universal Self,
But we are not disturbed

By perceiving our separative existence;
We remain, after final liberation,
The same as we were before.

The word that can describe our state
Has not yet been uttered.
The ryes that can see us
Do not exist.

Who could perceive us,
Or enjoy us as an object of enjoyment?
We cannot even perceive ourselves!

The wonder is that we are
Neither concealed nor manifest.
Ah—how amazing it is
That we even exist!

When night falls,
We light the lamps;
But what is the use of such efforts
When the Sun is here?

Likewise.
When there is no ignorance,
Knowledge also disappears;
Both of them have gone,

Since the Sun of Self-realisation
Has arisen in the sky of pure Consciousness,
It has swallowed up
Both the day of knowledge
And the night of ignorance

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