I honor the God and the Goddess,
The eternal parents of the universe.
The Lover, out of boundless love,
Takes the form of the Beloved.
What Beauty!
Both are made of the same nectar
And share the same food.
Out of Supreme Love
They swallow each other up,
But separate again
For the joy of being two.
They are not completely the same
But neither are they different.
None can tell exactly what they are.
How intense is their longing
To be with each other.
This is their greatest bliss.
Never, even in jest,
Do they allow their unity
To be disturbed.
They are so averse to separation
That even though they have become
This entire world,
Never, for a moment, do they let a difference
Come between them.
. . .
They sit together
In the same place,
Both wearing a garment of light.
From the beginning of time
They have been together,
Reveling in their own Supreme Love.
The difference they created
To enjoy this world
Had one glimpse of their intimacy
And could not help
But merge back into the bliss
Found in their union.
Without the God,
There is no Goddess,
And without the Goddess,
There is no God.
How sweet is their love!
The entire universe
Is too small to contain them
Yet they live happily
In the tiniest particle. . . .
Jnaneshwar (1271?-1293?)
Indian poet-saint, author at age 16 of exquisite commentary on the sacred Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita
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