Of a level beyond
   Date :10-Dec-2019
Of a level beyond_1 
 
By Vijay Phanshikar :
He vishwachi maze ghar/
(It is my abode -- this universe)
Aisee mati jayachi sthir/
(With a stable belief like this)
Kimbahuna charachar/
(Merging with the animate and the inanimate)
Aapan jahala//
(One becomes the ‘universe’)
- Dynaneshwari (Chapter 12, Verse 213)
 

Prose_1  H x W: 
 
WHAT a sublime realisation! The words appear so easy, so simple, yet so full of deep meaning! The verse suggests how one gets unified with the universe, losing one’s sense of distinctness, one’s sense of being different from the rest of the universe! In that state of elevation, the whole universe emerges as one’s own home -- where one gets ensconced in the warmth of assurance that one belongs there, and that everything, everybody belongs to one. And the belief does not stop there. It travels deeper and farther and further, in the zone where any sense of distinction or separateness vanishes or gets dissolved and one attains the state of total merger with everything around -- animate or inanimate, seen or unseen, sensable or beyond senses. Such is the feeling a home offers: Yes, this is my home. Yes, everything here belongs to me. Yes, I belong to everything here. Once the intellect stabilises itself in this belief, it starts assuming certain divine dimension. And that state is the point of beginning of a great journey to the merger of self with the sublime, of the atmaa with the parmatmaa. Every distinction melts, every wall -- of separateness -- collapses, and a sense of total oneness with the surroundings emerges unmistakably. That is the state Saint Dnyaneshwar is talking about -
 
Kimbahuna charachar/
Aapan jahala//

Yes, I am divine.
Aham brahmasmi!
I am that, and that is me.
Tatvam asi!
This elevation to the zone sublime is actually the goal of human journey -- towards the complete dissolution of one’s sense of distinctness; and merger into the divine losing one’s identity. On a slightly lower level of comprehension, this expression by Saint Dnyaneshwar also suggests another ancient belief -- Vasudheiva kutumbakam! (One Earth One Family). Yet, the two expressions operate at a different level. The first one -- He vishwachi maze ghar -- has a high and fine spiritual or metaphysical context; and the second one -- Vasudheiva kutumbakam -- has a more temporal or physical context. Yet, both the statements indicate the depth and the height and the penetration of the idea of the relation of the individual with the collective and the divine. Both talk of a level beyond!