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The Genius of Dnyaneshwar
Dnyaneshwari Verse 4
Chapter 5
Laws of the Land
India as an ancient cradle of civilization had to have its own ethical values, a certain legal code and a system of justice. These three together were called the ‘Smriti’. The word smriti in Sanskrit literally means memory but can also be construed to mean ‘historical’ or ‘out of experience’. The ethical code or the law of the land was therefore labelled as ‘Smriti’ because it had evolved in history. Another Sanskrit word that needs to be introduced here is ‘Shruti’, to mean ‘what was heard’. The Shruti literature occurred to man through sheer inspiration and dealt with the nature of this world, cosmogony1 and the role of man vis-à-vis his environment. The ‘Smriti’ on the other hand dealt with social affairs albeit based on what the ‘Shruti’ envisaged about the cosmos in general. The Shruti, for example, stated that there is an inherent logic in all that happens in our universe but the source of this universe is likely to remain beyond human comprehension. The Smriti therefore based itself on evolved logic and belonged to the temporal2 world. Dnyaneshwar refers to the Smriti in Verse 4 having briefly glanced at the Shruti in Verse 1, Chapter 2. The fourth verse is as under and again addresses the idol of Ganesha in a metaphor. Your body limbs and sinews3 Are the laws that abide Their shape and curves tantalize4 But their motives are the real delight …4 That laws shape a society is brought out in the first two lines, the word sinews3 being crucial. That the society is aware and awed by the laws is brought out in the third line but Dnyaneshwar attempts to clinch the issue in the fourth line of the verse by referring to the motives behind the laws. If a law can be misused notwithstanding