Cluster 0567 — BG-17.5 — *aśāstra-vihitam ghoram tapyante ye tapo janāḥ — dambhāhankāra-samyuktāḥ kāma-rāga-balānvitāḥ*
BG-17.5
अशास्त्रविहितं घोरं तप्यन्ते ये तपो जनाः । दंभाहङ्कारसंयुक्ताः कामरागबलान्विताः ॥५॥
"Those people who perform terrible austerities not enjoined by scripture, joined to hypocrisy and egoism, driven by the force of desire and passion..."
This is the asura-tapas verse — the dark frame against which chapter 17 will measure true austerity. Krishna isolates the counterfeit of tapas: penance that has cut itself loose from the śāstra-measure (aśāstra-vihita), turned cruel (ghora), and is powered not by faith but by the wish-to-be-seen and the ego (dambha-ahankāra) harnessed to raw desire (kāma-rāga-bala). Jñāneśvar follows the verse across twelve ovis, but he refuses to keep it abstract: he builds a gallery of specific horror — knives to flesh, victims in fire-pits, children offered to godlings, men starving themselves for petty deities, men tearing out their own eyes in spite — and then names the karmic mechanism (self-and-other-torment is seed sown in the field of tamas) and lands the charge that gives the whole cluster its weight: such a person buries Me, the indwelling Krishna, under a heap of sorrows.
Ovi 17.93
Original (Marathi): ना शास्त्राचेनि कीर नांवें । खाकरोंही नेणती जीवें । परी शास्त्रज्ञांही शिवें । टेंकों नेदिती ॥९३॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (chapter-17 exposition; the asura-portrait opens)
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ना शास्त्राचेनि कीर नांवें | not even in the name of scripture (śāstra) |
| खाकरोंही नेणती जीवें | they do not even know how to cough / clear the throat, in their life |
| परी शास्त्रज्ञांही शिवें | yet even the scripture-knowers (śāstrajña) — to touch / come near |
| टेंकों नेदिती | they will not let (them) lean in / approach |
Literal translation
English: They do not even know how to so much as clear their throat in the name of scripture — yet they will not allow even those learned in scripture to come near or touch them.
मराठी (आधुनिक): शास्त्राच्या नावानं जे साधं खाकरायलाही जाणत नाहीत — तरीही जे शास्त्र जाणतात त्यांनाही ते जवळ टेकू देत नाहीत, स्पर्शूही देत नाहीत.
Metaphor-unfold
No extended metaphor in this ovi. खाकरोंही नेणती ("can't even cough in scripture's name") is a hyperbole for total scriptural illiteracy, not a sustained image.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi. This is chapter-17 polemic against scripture-defying austerity; no esoteric frame is active.
Cross-references
- Internal: Sets up the aśāstra-vihita thread completed at 17.103 (निंदूनि शास्त्रांची सोये — reviling the very track of the śāstras).
- Tukaram parallel: (none specific to this ovi)
- Source citation: Bhagavad Gītā 17.5 — अशास्त्रविहितम् ("not ordained by scripture"); the खाकरोंही-नेणती + शास्त्रज्ञांही शिवें टेंकों नेदिती amplifies the bare aśāstra into total illiteracy plus arrogant gatekeeping.
Modern application
- When the least-qualified person in the room is the most territorial about the practice. The one who can't read the text guards the gate against those who can — the "self-taught" expert who will not let a trained person near, because the training would expose the emptiness.
- When ignorance is defended as authenticity. "I don't need the scriptures / the science / the manual — I just feel it." The खाकरोंही नेणती stance dressed up as purity of intuition.
- When someone barricades their version of a tradition against anyone who actually knows it. The gatekeeper who keeps the learned out precisely because they are learned.
Sādhanā
Today, find one practice or belief you hold that you've never checked against anyone who actually knows the field. Spend five minutes letting one genuinely knowledgeable source "come near" it — read it, don't argue with it yet. Just notice if you'd rather keep them out.
Arc
17.93 establishes the scriptural-illiteracy-plus-gatekeeping; 17.94 turns the contempt outward — mocking the elders' rites and jeering at the learned.
Ovi 17.94
Original (Marathi): वडिलांचिया क्रिया । देखोनि वाती वांकुलिया । पंडितां डाकुलिया । वाजविती ॥९४॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| वडिलांचिया क्रिया | the rites / observances (kriyā) of the elders |
| देखोनि वाती वांकुलिया | seeing them, they make mocking grimaces (वांकुली — a twisted/jeering face) |
| पंडितां डाकुलिया | at the paṇḍitas — jeering taunts / mimicry (डाकुली) |
| वाजविती | they sound off / make (the taunts) |
Literal translation
English: Seeing the observances of their elders, they pull mocking faces; at the learned they sound off with jeering mimicry.
मराठी (आधुनिक): वडीलधाऱ्यांचे आचार-विधी पाहून ते वेडावून दाखवतात, तोंडं वाकडी करतात; पंडितांना हिणवत, टिंगल करत राहतात.
Metaphor-unfold
No extended metaphor in this ovi.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi.
Cross-references
- Internal: Continues the aśāstra-vihita derision begun at 17.93.
- Tukaram parallel: (none specific to this ovi)
- Source citation: Bhagavad Gītā 17.5 — अशास्त्रविहितम्, amplified into active contempt (mocking the elders' rites, jeering at paṇḍitas); the Sanskrit names scripture-defiance abstractly, the Marathi stages it as social derision.
Modern application
- When mockery substitutes for the work of learning. It is easier to pull a face at the tradition than to study it. The वांकुली — the eye-roll, the smirk, the "boomer" dismissal — that lets you skip the thing you're sneering at.
- When jeering at experts becomes an identity. The person whose whole stance is contempt for "so-called experts," not from any rival knowledge but as a posture.
- When you ridicule the elders' practice because you don't understand its point. The ritual that looks absurd from outside — and the grimace you make is a way of never having to ask what it was for.
Sādhanā
Today, catch one moment of reflexive contempt for a practice older or more learned than you — a ritual, a discipline, an "old-fashioned" rigor. Before the eye-roll completes, ask one question: what is this actually for? Hold the question for thirty seconds without answering with a sneer.
Arc
17.94 gives the contempt for the established order; 17.95 names the engine — self-will and pride-of-wealth driving genuinely heretical penances.
Ovi 17.95
Original (Marathi): आपलेनीचि आटोपें । धनित्वाचेनि दर्पें । साचचि पाखंडाचीं तपें । आदरिती ॥९५॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| आपलेनीचि आटोपें | by their own self-contrivance / arbitrary management (आटोप) |
| धनित्वाचेनि दर्पें | by the pride / arrogance (दर्प) of wealth (धनित्व) |
| साचचि पाखंडाचीं तपें | genuinely (साच) heretical (pākhaṇḍa) penances |
| आदरिती | they take up / undertake with respect |
Literal translation
English: By their own arbitrary contrivance, in the arrogance of wealth, they take up — and truly so — penances that are sheer heresy.
मराठी (आधुनिक): स्वतःच्या मनमानीनं, धन-संपत्तीच्या गर्वानं, खरोखरच पाखंडी अशी तपं ते मोठ्या आदरानं अंगीकारतात.
Sanskrit-root note
pākhaṇḍa = heresy / counterfeit-religion; dṛpta/darpa = arrogance, swelling-pride — the same darpa named in the asuri-sampad catalogue (BG 16.4, 16.18).
Metaphor-unfold
No extended metaphor in this ovi. धनित्वाचेनि दर्पें ("pride-of-wealth") is the engine named plainly, not imaged.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi. The तप here is explicitly the wrong, heretical austerity — the opposite of disciplined sādhanā.
Cross-references
- Internal: Names the dambha-ahankāra engine that the atrocity-catalogue (17.96-98) then concretizes.
- Tukaram parallel: Abhang 98 — माया ब्रम्ह ऐसें म्हणती धर्मठक... विषयीं लंपट शिकवी कुविद्या ("'maya is brahman' say the dharma-thugs... lust-attached, they teach false-knowledge"), with the corrective तरावया आधीं शोधा वेदवाणी ("before crossing — search the Veda's word"). The धर्मठक whose "religion" is powered by desire and ego while bypassing the Veda is exactly 17.95's धनित्व-दर्प-driven पाखंडाचीं तपें — scripture-defying religiosity, the dambha-ahankāra + kāma-rāga practitioner.
- Source citation:
- Bhagavad Gītā 17.5 — दंभाहङ्कारसंयुक्ताः, rendered as धनित्वाचेनि दर्पें + पाखंडाचीं तपें.
- Bhagavad Gītā 16.17 (echo) — आत्मसम्भाविताः... धनमानमदान्विता... दम्भेनाविधिपूर्वकम् (the self-conceited, wealth-pride-intoxicated, performing rites against ordinance out of dambha) — the asuri-sampad root of this aśāstra-vihita + dambha portrait.
Modern application
- When money buys the costume of holiness. The wealthy patron whose extravagant "spiritual" project is really a monument to their own standing — पाखंडाचीं तपें undertaken धनित्वाचेनि दर्पें. The bigger the donation, the louder the ego.
- When you invent your own rigorous "discipline" precisely to avoid a real one. आपलेनीचि आटोपें — by your own contrivance — you design a practice that flatters you, calling it austerity while it answers to no measure but your will.
- When self-styled spirituality is a performance of seriousness. The elaborate self-made regimen that exists to be admired (or posted), not to transform — heresy that "truly" (साच) looks like devotion.
Sādhanā
Today, name one "discipline" of yours and ask honestly: who designed its rules, and what would happen if I checked them against a real authority in the field? If the only authority is your own preference, you've found an आटोप. Write one rule you've never let anyone else question.
Arc
17.95 names the heretical-penance category; 17.96 begins the catalogue of its concrete atrocities — knives to one's own and others' flesh.
Ovi 17.96
Original (Marathi): आपुलिया पुढिलांचिया । आंगीं घालूनि कातिया । रक्तमांसा प्रणीतया । भर भरु ॥९६॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| आपुलिया पुढिलांचिया | of their own (बॉडीज) and of others' (पुढिल — those ahead/others) |
| आंगीं घालूनि कातिया | laying knives (कातिया) to the bodies (आंग) |
| रक्तमांसा प्रणीतया | of blood (रक्त) and flesh (मांस), as offerings (प्रणीत) |
| भर भरु | heaping up, filling up (भर — heaps) |
Literal translation
English: Laying knives to their own bodies and to others', they heap up offerings of blood and flesh.
मराठी (आधुनिक): स्वतःच्या आणि दुसऱ्यांच्या अंगाला सुऱ्या लावून, रक्त-मांसाचे ढीगच्या ढीग ते नैवेद्यासारखे रचतात.
Metaphor-unfold
No extended metaphor in this ovi. This is literal atrocity — knife, blood, flesh — not figurative; the rendering deliberately refuses to soften it into image.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi.
Cross-references
- Internal: First in the atrocity-catalogue (17.96-98); the self-AND-other cutting prefigures 17.99's आत्मपरपीडा (self-and-other-torment).
- Tukaram parallel: Abhang 257 — आणिकांच्या कापिती माना — निष्ठपणा पार नाहीं ("they cut others' necks — there is no end / shore to the cruelty"). 17.96's पुढिलांचिया आंगीं घालूनि कातिया (laying knives to others' bodies) is the identical portrait: violence-to-others under a religious frame, the निष्ठुरता / ghora that has no measure because it has abandoned the śāstra-measure.
- Source citation: Bhagavad Gītā 17.5 — घोरम् ("frightful / cruel"), literalized as knife-to-flesh and blood-offering; Jñāneśvar begins here pulling BG-17.6's शरीरस्थं भूतग्रामम् (tormenting the body's elements) content forward.
Modern application
- When "discipline" becomes self-harm wearing a halo. The regimen that injures the body and calls the injury devotion — the cutting, the punishing fast, the deliberate damage reframed as rigor. कातिया to one's own आंग, blessed by a story.
- When a cause licenses cruelty to others as righteousness. The movement whose members will hurt outsiders and feel holy doing it — others' necks cut, with no पार, no shore, to the cruelty.
- When the body is treated as an enemy to be subdued by force. The war on the flesh — not its disciplined care, but its mutilation — sold as the price of the sacred.
Sādhanā
Today, examine one thing you do to your body in the name of "discipline" or "purity," and ask: is this care, or is it a knife I've learned to call devotion? Name one way the practice hurts you that you've been calling virtue.
Arc
17.96 lays the knives to flesh; 17.97 escalates to human sacrifice — fire-pits and children's morsels offered to godlings as vows.
Ovi 17.97
Original (Marathi): रिचविती जळतकुंडीं । लाविती चेड्याच्या तोंडीं । नवसियां देती उंडी । बाळकांची ॥९७॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| रिचविती जळतकुंडीं | they pour / empty (victims) into blazing fire-pits (जळत-कुंड) |
| लाविती चेड्याच्या तोंडीं | they set / apply (them) to the mouth of a चेडा (a malign spirit / godling) |
| नवसियां देती उंडी | as vow-fulfilment (नवस) they give the morsel (उंडी) |
| बाळकांची | of children (बाळक) |
Literal translation
English: They pour victims into blazing fire-pits, set them to the mouth of a malign godling; in fulfilment of a vow they offer up the morsel that is a child.
मराठी (आधुनिक): ते लोकांना धगधगत्या अग्निकुंडात लोटतात, चेड्या-भुताच्या तोंडी लावतात; नवस फेडण्यासाठी चक्क बाळकाचा घास त्या देवतेला देतात.
Metaphor-unfold
No extended metaphor in this ovi. The उंडी ("morsel") for a child is a grim metonymy, not a developed image; the horror is literal.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi.
Cross-references
- Internal: Escalation within the atrocity-catalogue (17.96-98), peak of the ghora-cruelty.
- Tukaram parallel: Abhang 257 — सेंदराचें दैवत केलें — नवस बोले तयासि ("they made a painted-vermilion stone into a deity — and a vow — नवस — is spoken to it"). 17.97's नवसियां देती उंडी बाळकांची (as a vow they give a child's morsel) shares the exact नवस-to-a-counterfeit-godling structure — Jñāneśvar escalating it to the horror of a child offered in the vow's fulfilment.
- Source citation: Bhagavad Gītā 17.5 — घोरम् at its cruellest extreme (child-immolation to petty deities); wholly Jñāneśvar's concretization of the Sanskrit ghora.
Modern application
- When a vow to a small god demands a terrible price. Not literal sacrifice, but the bargain struck with a petty deity — a superstition, a cult, a transactional "if you give me X I'll do Y" — whose Y turns out to cost something precious, even a child's wellbeing.
- When children pay for adults' fanatical promises. The vow the parent made, the regimen the child is forced into, the future spent to discharge someone else's bargain with their god.
- When the sacred is invoked to justify what is plainly monstrous. The नवस — the holy obligation — that ends in harm, defended because it was promised to the deity.
Sādhanā
Today, look at one promise or vow you feel bound to "for spiritual reasons," and ask: who pays for this, and is it someone who never agreed? If a vow of yours is costing another person — especially someone weaker — name that cost out loud, once.
Arc
17.97 gives the vow-to-godling extremity; 17.98 turns the same fanaticism on the self — self-starvation bound to base deities out of sheer insistence.
Ovi 17.98
Original (Marathi): आग्रहाचिया उजरिया । क्षुद्र देवतां वरीया । अन्नत्यागें सातरीया । ठाकती एक ॥९८॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| आग्रहाचिया उजरिया | on the blaze / flare (उजरी) of fanatical insistence (आग्रह) |
| क्षुद्र देवतां वरीया | they court / choose (वरीया — as one chooses a bridegroom) base, petty deities (क्षुद्र देवता) |
| अन्नत्यागें सातरीया | by renouncing food (अन्नत्याग), withered / emaciated (सातरीया) |
| ठाकती एक | some (एक) become / are reduced to (this state) |
Literal translation
English: On the flare of sheer insistence, they court base godlings; some, by renouncing food, are reduced to withered husks.
मराठी (आधुनिक): हट्टाच्या आवेशात ते क्षुद्र देवतांना वरतात; कोणी कोणी अन्न सोडून, सुकून-वाळून खंगून जातात.
Metaphor-unfold
No extended metaphor in this ovi. क्षुद्र देवतां वरीया ("court petty deities like a bridegroom") is a single live-verb (वरणे, to wed/court), not a sustained image.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi. The अन्नत्याग (food-renunciation) here is explicitly the ghora, scripture-defying mortification — the opposite of measured yogic discipline, framed as the asura's self-injury.
Cross-references
- Internal: Closes the atrocity-catalogue (17.96-98) on the self-directed pole (self-starvation), setting up 17.99's diagnosis.
- Tukaram parallel: Abhang 257 — the vow-to-the-सेंदरा-painted-deity portrait names exactly 17.98's क्षुद्र देवतां वरीया (courting base petty-deities); both target the fanatical religiosity bound to a counterfeit godling. 257 holds the देवता-fake; 17.98 adds the अन्नत्याग self-starvation done in its service.
- Source citation: Bhagavad Gītā 17.5 — कामरागबलान्विताः + अशास्त्रविहितम्, rendered as आग्रह-driven क्षुद्र-देवता-courting + अन्नत्याग self-mortification.
Modern application
- When stubbornness masquerades as devotion. आग्रहाचिया उजरिया — the flare of insistence. The fast or vow held past all sense not because it serves anything but because backing down would mean admitting it was never wise.
- When you bind yourself to a small, unworthy object with great intensity. क्षुद्र देवता — a petty deity. The disproportionate fervor poured into something minor — a diet-cult, an influencer's regimen, a fringe ideology — courted with a bridegroom's single-mindedness.
- When self-denial becomes self-destruction and is praised for it. अन्नत्यागें सातरीया — withered by food-renunciation. The eating-disorder logic that the surrounding "wellness" culture rewards: the more you waste away, the more disciplined you must be.
Sādhanā
Today, find one austerity you're holding out of आग्रह — pure stubbornness — rather than benefit. Ask: if a wise friend told me to stop this tomorrow, would I, or would I dig in? If you'd dig in, that is the उजरी, the flare. Name it.
Arc
17.98 completes the atrocity-catalogue; 17.99 delivers the diagnostic core — all this self-and-other-torment is seed sown in the field of tamas, and it is that which ripens.
Ovi 17.99
Original (Marathi): अगा आत्मपरपीडा । बीज तमक्षेत्रीं सुहाडा । पेरिती मग पुढां । तेंचि पिके ॥९९॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (the vocative अगा... सुहाडा addresses Arjuna directly)
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| अगा आत्मपरपीडा | O (अगा) — this self-and-other torment (ātma-para-pīḍā) |
| बीज तमक्षेत्रीं सुहाडा | is seed (बीज) in the field of tamas (तम-क्षेत्र), O noble one (सुहाडा) |
| पेरिती मग पुढां | they sow (पेरिती) it, and then afterward (पुढां) |
| तेंचि पिके | that very thing (तेंचि) ripens / is harvested (पिके) |
Literal translation
English: O noble one — this torment of self and others is a seed sown in the field of tamas; they sow it, and then it is exactly that which ripens.
मराठी (आधुनिक): अरे, ही जी स्वतःला आणि दुसऱ्यांना दिलेली पीडा आहे — तेच तमाच्या शेतात पेरलेलं बीज आहे; ते पेरतात, आणि मग पुढं तेच पीक म्हणून उगवतं.
Metaphor-unfold
| Literal image | Philosophical referent | Modern equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Seed (बीज) sown in a field | The cruel act as a karmic cause deposited in consciousness | Every act of self/other-harm planted as a habit that will grow |
| The field of tamas (तमक्षेत्र) | The tamo-guṇa as the soil that determines the crop — darkness/inertia breeding more of itself | The mental "soil" — a mind already darkened, in which cruelty takes root readily |
| "That very thing ripens" (तेंचि पिके) | Karmic like-yields-like: torment sown yields torment reaped | You become what you practice; the suffering you inflict returns as the suffering you are |
Metaphor-family: seed-and-field (sowing-and-harvest), here in the negative register. The same agricultural karmic image recurs across the Dnyāneśvarī for puṇya and pāpa alike; the darkness is in the field (tamas), so the crop is guaranteed bitter.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi. तमक्षेत्र is the guṇa-soil of Sānkhya/Gītā psychology, not a cakra or subtle-body locus.
Cross-references
- Internal: Ring-companion to 17.104 — the seed sown here (आत्मपरपीडा) ripens there into मातें पुरिती दुःखाचा गुंडां (burying the indweller in a heap of sorrows).
- Tukaram parallel: (none specific to this ovi)
- Source citation: Bhagavad Gītā 17.5 — घोरम् + the tāmasa-register of chapter 17's grading, amplified into the seed-field-harvest karmic diagnostic; the mechanism is Jñāneśvar's elaboration locating the ghora-tapas in the tamo-guṇa.
Modern application
- When you tell yourself the harm is "just this once" or "just to myself." The seed doesn't know it was meant to be a one-off. Cruelty practiced — on yourself or others — plants a habit that ripens into character.
- When a harsh practice is quietly making you harsher. The austerity meant to purify is instead cultivating contempt, rigidity, self-punishment — तेंचि पिके, that very thing grows. Watch what the practice is actually growing in you.
- When you wonder why suffering keeps returning in the same shape. The harvest matches the seed. The pattern that recurs in your life may be the exact thing you keep sowing in the dark soil of an unexamined mind.
Sādhanā
Today, identify one "seed" you sowed recently in the field of tamas — a cruel word, a self-punishing act, a contemptuous thought you fed. Ask: if this ripens, what is the crop? Name the harvest in one sentence. That naming is the first weeding.
Arc
17.99 names the self-and-other-torment as tāmasa-seed; 17.100 begins the three-simile sequence imaging the futility and self-destruction of this path — the armless, boatless swimmer.
Ovi 17.100
Original (Marathi): बाहु नाहीं आपुलिया । आणि नावेतेंही धनंजया । न धरी होय तया । समुद्रीं जैसें ॥१००॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (the vocative धनंजया anchors the Krishna-to-Arjuna chariot-frame)
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| बाहु नाहीं आपुलिया | he has no arms (बाहु) of his own |
| आणि नावेतेंही धनंजया | and not even a boat (नाव), O Dhanañjaya (Arjuna) |
| न धरी होय तया | he holds (धरी) none — it becomes for him |
| समुद्रीं जैसें | as (for one) in the ocean (समुद्र) |
Literal translation
English: He has no arms of his own, and holds no boat either, O Dhanañjaya — so it is for him, as for a man cast into the open ocean.
मराठी (आधुनिक): अर्जुना, ज्याला स्वतःचे बाहूही नाहीत आणि धरायला नावही नाही — त्याची अवस्था अथांग समुद्रात पडलेल्या माणसासारखी होते.
Metaphor-unfold
| Literal image | Philosophical referent | Modern equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| A man with no arms of his own | The asura-ascetic with no inner capacity / strength to cross saṃsāra | One attempting a hard transformation with no real inner resource of his own |
| And no boat to hold | The rejection of the śāstra — the vessel that carries one across | Having also thrown away the proven method / teaching / structure |
| Cast in the open ocean | Saṃsāra — the shoreless sea one must cross | The vast, unforgiving situation in which, lacking both, he simply drowns |
Metaphor-family: ocean-crossing, here in the negative register. Where the Dnyāneśvarī elsewhere offers the śāstra/guru/nāma as the boat that carries one across the saṃsāra-ocean, here the asura has neither the swimmer's arms nor the boat — double helplessness, certain drowning.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi.
Cross-references
- Internal: First of the three self-destruction similes (17.100-102), each imaging the asura who has rejected the remedy.
- Tukaram parallel: (none specific to this ovi)
- Source citation: Bhagavad Gītā 17.5 — aśāstra-vihita (no scriptural vessel) + the futility of the ghora-path, imaged as the armless-boatless drowner. The धनंजया (Arjuna-vocative) confirms the Krishna-to-Arjuna voice. The simile is Jñāneśvar's, not in the Sanskrit.
Modern application
- When you attempt something hard having rejected both your own readiness and any method. No arms (you're not yet capable) and no boat (you refuse the proven approach) — the ocean does not care how sincere you are.
- When throwing away the structure leaves you with nothing. The person who scorns the curriculum, the program, the tradition — and discovers they had no independent strength to replace it with. The boat is gone and the arms were never there.
- When intensity is mistaken for capacity. Drowning energetically is still drowning. The asura's effort is real; it is also useless, because he has discarded the only thing that floats.
Sādhanā
Today, name one hard thing you're attempting "your own way," having rejected the established method. Ask honestly: do I have arms — real capacity — or only the refusal of the boat? If only the refusal, pick the boat back up for one task today.
Arc
17.100's drowning swimmer is the first simile; 17.101 gives the second — the patient who spurns the physician and spills the medicine, becoming his own enemy.
Ovi 17.101
Original (Marathi): कां वैद्यातें करी सळा । रसु सांडी पाय खोळां । तो रोगिया जेवीं जिव्हाळा । सवता होय ॥१०१॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| कां वैद्यातें करी सळा | or (कां), one who picks a quarrel (सळा — contention) with the physician (वैद्य) |
| रसु सांडी पाय खोळां | spills the medicine (रस) into the lap-folds (खोळ) of his garment |
| तो रोगिया जेवीं जिव्हाळा | that patient (रोगी) — just as — his own life-vein / lifeblood (जिव्हाळा) |
| सवता होय | becomes his own (enemy) / he becomes [enemy] to himself |
Literal translation
English: Or like a man who picks a quarrel with the physician and pours out the medicine into the folds of his clothes — that patient becomes the enemy of his own lifeblood.
मराठी (आधुनिक): किंवा जो रुग्ण वैद्याशीच भांडण उकरून काढतो, औषध ओंजळीत-पदरात सांडून टाकतो — तो रुग्ण स्वतःच्या जीवाचाच वैरी होतो.
Metaphor-unfold
| Literal image | Philosophical referent | Modern equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Picking a quarrel with the physician (वैद्य) | Reviling the śāstra / guru — the one who holds the cure | Sabotaging your relationship with the very teacher / therapist / mentor who could heal you |
| Spilling the medicine into your lap | Throwing away the remedy out of spite | Refusing or wasting the actual remedy because you're at war with the source |
| Becoming the enemy of his own lifeblood | Self-murder by rejection of the cure | The patient who, to win the argument, destroys himself |
Metaphor-family: healer-and-cure, negative register. The physician is the śāstra/guru, the medicine is the remedy, and the asura's quarrel with both makes him जिव्हाळा सवता — enemy of his own life.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi.
Cross-references
- Internal: Second of the three self-destruction similes (17.100-102); the physician-spurned prefigures 17.103's शास्त्रांची सोये निंदून (reviling the śāstra-track).
- Tukaram parallel: (none specific to this ovi)
- Source citation: Bhagavad Gītā 17.5 — the reviling-of-the-śāstra (made explicit at 17.103) imaged as the patient-against-physician; Jñāneśvar's simile, not in the Sanskrit.
Modern application
- When you wreck the relationship with the one person who could help you. The patient quarreling with the doctor; the client at war with the therapist; the student who needs the teacher and spends every session fighting them — and pours the medicine into his lap.
- When being right matters more than getting well. सळा — the quarrel — is chosen over the cure. To win the argument with the source of help, you forfeit the help. The ego's victory is the body's death.
- When you reject good advice because of who gave it. The remedy is sound; you spill it because you can't bear to be in the debtor's position. जिव्हाळा सवता — enemy to your own lifeblood.
Sādhanā
Today, identify one source of genuine help — a person, a method, a discipline — that you've been quietly quarreling with. Ask: am I spilling the medicine to win a fight? For one interaction today, take the remedy and skip the quarrel.
Arc
17.101's medicine-spilling patient is the second simile; 17.102 gives the third and most graphic — the man who tears out his own eyes in spite and stands self-blinded.
Ovi 17.102
Original (Marathi): नाना पडिकराचेनि सळें । काढी आपुलेचि डोळे । तें वानवसां आंधळें । जैसें ठाके ॥१०२॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| नाना पडिकराचेनि सळें | or (नाना), out of an adversary's / rival's (पडिकर) contention (सळ) |
| काढी आपुलेचि डोळे | he tears out his very own (आपुलेचि) eyes (डोळे) |
| तें वानवसां आंधळें | that — blind (आंधळें) for nothing / pointlessly (वानवसां) |
| जैसें ठाके | as he stands / is left |
Literal translation
English: Or like a man who, out of spite in a quarrel with a rival, tears out his own eyes — and stands there blinded, for nothing at all.
मराठी (आधुनिक): किंवा शत्रूशी भांडण्याच्या आवेशात जो स्वतःचेच डोळे काढून टाकतो — आणि मग विनाकारण आंधळा होऊन उभा राहतो, तसं.
Metaphor-unfold
| Literal image | Philosophical referent | Modern equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Tearing out one's own eyes in a spiteful quarrel | The asura destroying his own faculty of discernment / sight to "win" against an opponent | Self-sabotage in spite — wrecking your own capacity to spite someone else |
| Out of a rival's contention (पडिकराचेनि सळें) | The reactive ego that injures itself to harm another | The "I'll show them" act that costs you more than them |
| Standing blind for nothing (वानवसां आंधळें) | Having gained nothing, lost everything — discernment gone, quarrel unwon | The pointless self-inflicted ruin left over when the spite has spent itself |
Metaphor-family: self-mutilation-from-spite. The eyes are discernment (the faculty that would have read the śāstra); destroying them to win a quarrel leaves the asura permanently, pointlessly blind.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi. The डोळे (eyes) here image worldly/discriminative sight, not the divya-cakṣus or third-eye/ājñā-cakra.
Cross-references
- Internal: Third and most graphic of the three self-destruction similes (17.100-102); the cluster's last image before the plain naming at 17.103.
- Tukaram parallel: (none specific to this ovi)
- Source citation: Bhagavad Gītā 17.5 — the self-directed ghora (BG-17.6's शरीरस्थं कर्षयन्तः, body-tormenting, pulled forward) imaged as self-gouged eyes; Jñāneśvar's simile, not in the Sanskrit.
Modern application
- When you destroy your own capacity to spite someone else. Quitting the job to "show" a boss, burning a bridge to wound a rival, sabotaging your own work to deny someone a win — काढी आपुलेचि डोळे, you tear out your own eyes, and stand वानवसां आंधळें, blind for nothing.
- When reactivity costs you the very faculty you needed. The spite-fueled decision that removes your own ability to see clearly afterward — discernment gouged out in the heat of a quarrel you've already half-forgotten.
- When "winning" the conflict means losing yourself. The rival walks away intact; you are the one left blind. Check whether your grand defiant gesture harms its target at all, or only you.
Sādhanā
Today, catch one impulse to do something self-damaging in order to spite, defy, or "show" someone. Before acting, ask the one question: whose eyes am I about to tear out — and will they even notice? If the answer is "my own, and no," set the gesture down.
Arc
17.102 closes the three-simile sequence; 17.103 names the referent plainly — the asura who, reviling the śāstras' track, runs headlong in delusion through pathless wilds.
Ovi 17.103
Original (Marathi): तैसें तयां आसुरां होये । निंदूनि शास्त्रांची सोये । सैंघ धांवताती मोहें । आडवीं जे कां ॥१०३॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| तैसें तयां आसुरां होये | thus it becomes for those asuras (आसुर) |
| निंदूनि शास्त्रांची सोये | reviling (निंदून) the track / way (सोय) of the śāstras |
| सैंघ धांवताती मोहें | they run (धांवती) everywhere (सैंघ) in delusion (मोह) |
| आडवीं जे कां | through pathless wilds / off-road wilderness (आडवी) — those who [do so] |
Literal translation
English: So it becomes for those asuras: reviling the very track of the scriptures, they run everywhere in delusion through trackless wilds.
मराठी (आधुनिक): तसंच त्या आसुरी वृत्तीच्या लोकांचं होतं: शास्त्रांची वाटच निंदून, मोहानं ते रानोमाळ, बिनवाटेनं सैरावैरा धावत सुटतात.
Metaphor-unfold
| Literal image | Philosophical referent | Modern equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Reviling and abandoning the track / road (शास्त्रांची सोय) | Rejecting the śāstra — the marked path across saṃsāra | Throwing away every map, method, and tradition |
| Running everywhere in delusion (सैंघ धांवताती मोहें) | Frantic, directionless effort driven by moha (delusion) | Furious activity with no orientation — busy, lost, sincere, wrong |
| Through pathless wilds (आडवीं) | Saṃsāra navigated off-road, with no way through | The trackless wilderness of a life with no guiding measure |
Metaphor-family: path / road (the śāstra as सोय, the marked track), negative register — having reviled the road, only off-road wandering remains.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi. आसुर here is the Gītā's daiva/āsura moral typology (continued from chapter 16), not a tantric or Nāth category.
Cross-references
- Internal: Names the referent of the three preceding similes (17.100-102); शास्त्रांची सोये निंदून ring-completes 17.93's खाकरोंही नेणती (the aśāstra-vihita frame).
- Tukaram parallel: (none specific to this ovi)
- Source citation: Bhagavad Gītā 17.5 — aśāstra-vihita + the आसुर-class named explicitly (matching BG-17.6's तान् विद्ध्यासुरनिश्चयान्); शास्त्रांची सोय निंदून precisely renders the scripture-defiance, आसुर names the agent.
Modern application
- When rejecting all structure leaves only frantic wandering. सैंघ धांवताती — running everywhere — is what's left when you've reviled every path. Motion without direction reads, from inside, as freedom; from outside, as being lost.
- When contempt for "the system" becomes a permanent off-road life. Having sneered at the road, you spend your life in the आडवी, the trackless wild, mistaking exhaustion for adventure.
- When delusion (मोह) feels like conviction. The asura is not lazy — he runs hard. But मोहें, in delusion: the certainty that propels the running is itself the disorientation.
Sādhanā
Today, notice one area where you've rejected "the track" entirely and are running on conviction alone. Ask: am I on a path, or am I just moving fast in the आडवी? Find one trustworthy marker — a method, a mentor, a measure — and step back onto it for one decision.
Arc
17.103 names the asura reviling the śāstra-track; 17.104 names what drives the running — desire and anger — and lands the cluster's climactic charge: they bury Me in a heap of sorrows.
Ovi 17.104
Original (Marathi): कामु करवी तें करिती । क्रोधु मारवी ते मारिती । किंबहुना मातें पुरिती । दुःखाचा गुंडां ॥१०४॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (the divine first-person मातें "Me" is Krishna naming Himself as the buried indweller)
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| कामु करवी तें करिती | they do (करिती) whatever desire (काम) makes them do |
| क्रोधु मारवी ते मारिती | they kill (मारिती) whatever anger (क्रोध) makes them kill |
| किंबहुना मातें पुरिती | in short (किंबहुना), they bury (पुरिती) Me (मातें) |
| दुःखाचा गुंडां | under a heap / mound (गुंडा) of sorrows (दुःख) |
Literal translation
English: They do whatever desire drives them to do, kill whatever anger drives them to kill; in short — they bury Me under a heap of sorrows.
मराठी (आधुनिक): कामना सांगेल ते ते करतात, क्रोध सांगेल त्याला मारतात; थोडक्यात — ते मलाच दुःखाच्या ढिगाऱ्याखाली पुरून टाकतात.
Metaphor-unfold
| Literal image | Philosophical referent | Modern equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Burying Me (मातें पुरिती) under a mound | The indwelling Krishna (the antaryāmin of BG-17.6's mām caivāntaḥ-śarīra-stham) entombed by the self-torturer's grief | The divine spark in oneself smothered under self-inflicted suffering |
| A heap of sorrows (दुःखाचा गुंडां) | The accumulated harvest of the ghora-tapas seed (17.99) — torment piled on torment | The mound of suffering one's own desire-and-anger-driven acts pile onto the self |
Metaphor-family: indweller-entombed — Krishna present within the body (the antaryāmin) is the one buried; rendering BG-17.6's claim that the self-torturer torments Me who dwell within along with the body's elements.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi. The "Me within" is the Gītā's antaryāmin / kṣetrajña (cf. BG 13, 17.6), the indwelling Lord — not a kuṇḍalinī or cakra locus; reading the brahmarandhra-indweller of Nāth-yoga here would over-specify what the verse states in plain bhakti-Vedānta terms.
Cross-references
- Internal: Ring-completes 17.99 — the आत्मपरपीडा seed sown in the field of tamas (17.99) ripens here into मातें पुरिती दुःखाचा गुंडां (the indweller buried under a heap of sorrows).
- Tukaram parallel: Abhang 261 — न बाणतां स्थिति अंगीं — कर्म त्यागी लंड तो — तुका म्हणे अधम त्यासी — भक्ति दूषी हरीची ("without the state — स्थिति — arising in the body, one who abandons karma is a laṇḍa / cheat; Tuka says such a low-one undermines — दूषी — the bhakti of Hari"). 17.104's मातें पुरिती (they bury Me) is the same charge from the divine side: ego-driven, scripturally-unsanctioned austerity does not merely fail — it actively buries / damages the indwelling Lord and true devotion.
- Source citation:
- Bhagavad Gītā 17.5 — कामरागबलान्विताः, rendered as कामु करवी तें करिती / क्रोधु मारवी ते मारिती (they do what desire makes them do, kill what anger makes them kill).
- Bhagavad Gītā 17.6 (direct-paraphrase) — कर्षयन्तः शरीरस्थं भूतग्रामम्... मां चैवान्तःशरीरस्थम् — तान् विद्ध्यासुरनिश्चयान् (tormenting the body's element-host and Me who dwell within — know them of demonic resolve). मातें पुरिती दुःखाचा गुंडां precisely renders the mām caivāntaḥ-śarīra-stham; Jñāneśvar pulls the next śloka's content forward to close this cluster. (Verified at holy-bhagavad-gita.org.)
Modern application
- When "discipline" is really desire and anger in a costume. कामु करवी / क्रोधु मारवी — the practice that claims to be austerity is actually doing what craving dictates and striking what rage dictates. Examine whether your rigor serves the spirit or just licenses the appetite.
- When self-punishment smothers the best in you. मातें पुरिती दुःखाचा गुंडां — the indweller buried under a mound of self-made sorrow. The relentless self-cruelty that, far from purifying, slowly entombs the very spark it claimed to serve.
- When you realize the cost of false rigor is borne by what is most sacred in you. The Gītā's point is not merely that this austerity is ineffective but that it harms the Lord within — the divine presence in yourself and others is what your desire-and-anger-driven "discipline" is burying.
Sādhanā
Today, take one "discipline" or "principle" you hold strictly, and trace it to its real engine: is this serving something sacred, or is it desire and anger wearing the robe of austerity? If you find काम or क्रोध at the root, name it plainly — and notice what in you it has been burying.
Arc
17.104 closes the cluster by burying the indweller under sorrows — the harvest of 17.99's seed; the next śloka, BG-17.6, formalizes in Sanskrit what this ovi has already rendered (शरीरस्थं भूतग्रामम् + मां चैवान्तःशरीरस्थम्), naming such self-torturers explicitly as of demonic resolve (āsura-niścaya).
Cluster summary
Core teaching: BG-17.5 isolates the counterfeit of true tapas — austerity that is scripture-defying (aśāstra-vihita), cruel (ghora), and powered not by faith but by the twin-root of religious-show-plus-ego (dambha-ahankāra) yoked to the raw force of desire (kāma-rāga-bala). Jñāneśvar explodes the laconic Sanskrit across twelve ovis into a gallery of concrete atrocity — scriptural illiteracy plus arrogant gatekeeping (17.93), mockery of elders and paṇḍitas (17.94), wealth-pride-driven heretical penances (17.95), knives to one's own and others' flesh (17.96), fire-pits and children's morsels to godlings as vows (17.97), fanatical self-starvation bound to petty deities (17.98) — then the diagnostic core (17.99): self-and-other-torment is a seed sown in the field of tamas, and that is what ripens. Three self-destruction similes follow (the armless-boatless swimmer 17.100, the physician-spurning patient 17.101, the self-gouged eyes 17.102), the plain naming of the asura who revives the śāstra-track and runs in delusion (17.103), and the climactic charge (17.104): driven by desire and anger, they bury Me — the indwelling Krishna — under a heap of sorrows (मातें पुरिती दुःखाचा गुंडां).
Chapter arc position: This is the opening of the negative pole of chapter 17's tapas-grading (śraddhā-traya-vibhāga). Before laying out the sāttvika threefold austerity, Krishna first isolates the counterfeit — the religious face of the asuri-sampad that chapter 17 inherits from chapter 16's daivāsura-sampad-vibhāga. The cluster is the dark frame against which true austerity will be measured.
Connects to BG-17.6: कर्षयन्तः शरीरस्थं भूतग्रामम् अचेतसः — मां चैवान्तःशरीरस्थं तान् विद्ध्यासुरनिश्चयान् — the next śloka completes the asura-tapas portrait: the body's elements and the indwelling Self tormented together, the self-torturers named of demonic resolve. Jñāneśvar has already pulled this content forward into 17.104's मातें पुरिती दुःखाचा गुंडां, so BG-17.6 formalizes in Sanskrit what this cluster has already rendered in Marathi.