The Genius of Dnyaneshwar
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The moon as it shows its face The lotus blooms at a languorous26 pace And only the lotus knows Of this loving embrace …59 Like the fable It would seem Where the partridge feeds27 On moonbeams …60 Dnyaneshwar adds Feel her without touching Converse with her Without speaking Within a gentle quiet heart …61 The preceding verses need some discussion. Is the Geeta a subject for the brain or for the heart? In other words is she a province of intelligence or emotion? What is Dnyaneshwar conveying through his similes39 and metaphors of the lotus and the partridge? What indeed are the mechanics of the transfer of philosophy? Are they words? Here, Dnyaneshwar enjoins us to converse with the Geeta without speaking, the very Dnyaneshwar who is to unleash a cataract28 of a hundred thousand words on us, the very same Dnyaneshwar who is to admit later that he has indeed caused a stampede of words and phrases. Without doubt, Dnyaneshwar, in the last four verses, is hinting at contemplation40 as the best resort for understanding the Geeta. But even ‘contemplation’ is a word. Dnyaneshwar is aware of the power of words; he knows that man would be nothing without language. We are after all the creators, masters, servants and victims of our language. In a verse not translated into English for this chapter because of difficulty of expression, Dnyaneshwar refers to a philosopher’s stone29 (a predecessor of alchemy30) by which iron is transformed into gold by its mere touch. The bee, the lotus, the partridge and even alchemy are in the natural zone, a zone devoid of language. Dnyaneshwar is not rejecting language, he admits it as a tool, and lays great store by