Dnyaneshwar Maharaj and Vithoba

This is part of a discourse between Dnyaneshwar Maharaj and his father Vithoba. Dnyaneshwar the young son, who has achieved Realisation, is arguing with his father Vithoba who is  still practicing intensely and wanting to go to the forest to practise asceticism seeking enligtenment.

Vithoba : Is it possible to conquer the grief-causing sense-objects and to become one with the all-pervading blissful Self by not doing any other practices but merely Jnana Vichara (meditation on true self) that one is himself Brahman?

Dnyaneshwar: If even a live cow cannot kill a tiger, can a dead cow do so? Similarly, what can the sense objects do to the Pure SelF which is eternal, free from all defects, which extends every where and is of the nature of bliss? As even a fat cow will be afraid to face a tiger, sense objects will not dare to come to a Jnani who by steady wisdom has attained perfection. But even if they do, they will be extinguished, as the cow by the tiger.

Vithoba : What if the Jnani (he who knows), by mixing with ajnanis (the ignorant) should get entangled in sense-objects, yield to disturbances of the mind and become entitely sorrow stricken, like a chaste woman becoming unchaste by mixing with prcstitutes?

Dnyaneshwar : The steadfast chaste woman will maintain her chastitv in spite of the company of any number of prostitutes. The unsteady one will find occasion for erring even without any evil company. Similarly. lhe firm jnani will never lose his perfect realisation though surrounded by any number of ajnanis [ignorant ones]. The unsteady one will lose his wisdom even when in solitude.

Vithoba ; How can one become a sahaja Jnani [one who has spontaneously realised] if engaged in domestic affairs?

Dnyaneshwar : Though the jnani (sage) mixes with ajnanis and acts many roles with them, he will always remain experiencing the supreme bliss, just as a brahmin though acting the part of scavenger on the theater stage, and performing accordingly ever remains only a brahmin without becoming a scavenger.

Vithoba : However firm the jnana (wisdom) or the spiritual insight of a man may be, unless he contemplates at least for some time every day that he is Pure Self, it is very difficult for him to become enlightened.

Dnyaneshwar : Is it necessry for the sage who is acting the part of a scavenger, to frequently think that he is a sage? Will he become a scavenger if he does not think so? Are sacred strings necessary to distinguish one, whom all the world knows to be a brahmin? After the annihilation of the ego, "I", should one still retain the knot of the ego-consciousness and go on meditating "I am Pure Self"? As the world-known brahmin is adored as a brahmin by everybodY, even when he does not wear sacred strings, one who has renounced notions of "I" and "Mine" will always be respected by all and will always be enjoying the supreme bliss of SeIf, even if he does not practise any meditation.

Vithoba: Even if one is equal to Supreme Self, if one does not daily practise the meditation "l am Supreme Self" he will undoubtedly become an ajnani (ignorant ) the ego-sense which identifies one with body, etc. will never vanish.

Dnyaneshwar : If one holds the light in his hands and asks darkness to remain, will it remain?

Similarly, if, after vanquishing the ignorance that one is the body/mind or sense organs, one has attained the knowledge that one is the Supreme Self itself, will ajnana remain even if it is bidden to remain?

If one holds the cat in one's hand and asks the parrot to talk, will it talk?

After realising that ego, Ishwara and the world etc, are all unreal projections, will Maya come, even if it is invited?

The eunuch will stand ashamed to declare himself a man before a woman who knows his impotence.

Similarly, to one who has recognised beyond all doubt, in the presence of his Guru, that the Real Self Brahman alone is real while Maya is unreal, that Brahman is tanscendent of all thought projections, while maya consists of desires and aversions, and that one is Brahman and brahman is one's Self, where is the desire or aversion, bondage or freedom, birth or death, country or forest, charity, penance, renunciation or family life? Can the power of maya avail even a bit against one, who sees the world like through the eye of a dead sheep, which seems as if it seee the illussory world while it does not? can it turn him again into ignorance? Please consider deeply.

There upon Vithoba agreed with his son and dropped the idea of going to forest and went back home.