The Genius of Dnyaneshwar
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even slightly deceiving simile12 but for the present let us read it. You are born Or you are young And then you grow Worn and old But young or old Both are within the body’s fold …150 This verse then leads on by progression to put the body too in its transient perspective and again introduces ‘that thing’. An important point is also introduced here towards the end of the verse. This concerns the connection between two passing things – sorrow (or more generically4 emotions) and the body or flesh It’s ‘that thing’ Which wears the flesh And bodies come and go This withering flesh Is a sorrowful web That you must always know …151 The questions and the possible answers concerning matter and energy have endured ever since man started thinking. Even when thinking came to be called philosophy, arguments persisted. Religion solved the problem somewhat, but only superficially, by abdicating, so to say, and passed on the mantle to an idea called God who symbolised both matter and energy. As philosophy furrowed10 its own path and also dabbled in science, God took a backseat but continued to lurk in the background. Enter modern physics and an entirely new and fresh chapter began on the nature of matter, which was shown to be ‘transformed energy’. The basic units, as shown or rather theorized by this new physics, were particles and waves, the former representing matter and the latter, energy. The fun part was, the new physics said, that the two were not mutually exclusive but were in fact two states of the same thing at different times. What is more, this duality was only indirectly evident at the minutest level. As matter builds up, it seems to fill human perceptions relegating energy to a secondary role. Matter tantalizes11 man because it is