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Download Complete Volume - National Translation Mission

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264 Sachin Ketkarproducing useless husk which metaphorically denotes arid and futilephilosophical debates disliked by Narsinh who lays great stress onaffective rather than rational relationship with the divine. Theseinterpretations are not mutually contradictory as both denote thethings Narsinh disliked and hence have negative associations, butwhile the first one is distinctly Vedantic as well as erotic, the otherinterpretation is more appropriate in the context as the next line usesthe metaphor of husk and grain, and had to be retained. Thetranslation offered is as follows:Serve me the draught of love's ambrosiaOne bedecked with peacock feathers!This futile threshing of arid philosophies tastes so insipid!These emaciated cattle crave merely the dry husk,They pine not for the ultimate release!Serve me the draught of love's ambrosiaOne bedecked with peacock feathers!Another interesting example of ambiguity arises from theclever use of the word bhog which can mean not just enjoyment butalso suffering in the well known philosophical poem Jaagi ne jou tojagat dise nahi, oongh ma atpata bhog bhaase. It means that when Iam awake spiritually I cannot see the phenomenal world, but only insleep do I perceive the bewildering temptations/woes. Sleeping andawakening of course are used as metaphors for the states ofignorance and enlightenment respectively. It turns on the head theconventional belief that we can perceive the phenomenal world onlywhen we are awake. The cognition of the phenomenal world and allits temptations and woes is actually a dream and illusion born out ofthe sleep of ignorance. In English, however, the word that combinesthe signification of pleasure and suffering was not available. Hence,a compromise had to be madeWhen I wake up, the world recedes from my sight.Only in sleep, its bewildering miseries and enjoymentperplexes me!

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