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The Genius of Dnyaneshwar
Dnyaneshwar adds, as Shrikrishna narrates the Geeta, it is as if Musical notes float with fragrance And a delicious taste joins this fragrance …502 Note that Dnyaneshwar excludes the eyes and the skin from this experience. Perhaps this celestial song, the ‘Geeta’ has to be heard but cannot be touched or seen. A little later, however, Dnyaneshwar makes a clever suggestion The eyes and the skin Must enter the ears So that this wondrous Geeta They can hear …503 From the time of Plato (427–347 BC) the Greek philosopher and of course from (probably) the same time when the Geeta was compiled, the debate has raged about the organs of perception and their ability to discern what is the truth. Modern times are no exception. Physics, for example, says that the very act of seeing has an effect on what goes on at the subatomic level leaving us with conjectures3 as to what we see. Russell (English philosopher, 1872– 1970) while explaining Plato makes a point that the mind can do things without the aid of sensory organs. Contemplation4, perhaps, belongs to this category. Dnyaneshwar indirectly participates in this debate and asks that the organs of sensory perception need to congregate and then understand what the Geeta says. When we perceive the sound of the Geeta through our ears, Dnyaneshwar says, we experience ‘a joyous exuberance5 that reverberates6’. However, Arjun is not the only one who is listening to the Geeta. Everyone who has come to battle is able to hear what is being said. Dnyaneshwar comments on their fortune and says that their penance has as if fructified and that the very river of wisdom and its immortality has descended at their doorstep. He then brings the courtier and the blind king into focus and reveals what the courtier is saying to the king about the ‘goings on’ between Shrikrishna and Arjun. Says the courtier Arjun must have a divine touch That Shrikrishna loves him so much …504