The World Kneaded of Opposites
Bala Kanda, Chaupai 6
Doha 6 · Movement 1 of 2
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Tulsidas stands before two oceans, the faults of the wicked and the virtues of saints, both too deep to sound. He draws only a little from each, enough to teach the eye what should be gathered and what should be left behind. Without recognition, acceptance and renunciation become blind movements.
Creation opens as an immense field of paired forces. Sorrow and joy, sin and merit, day and night, saints and the unholy, gods and demons, high and low, nectar and poison pass across it. Maya and Brahman, the individual soul and the Lord of the universe, fortune and deprivation, the pauper and the king all appear within the same manifested vastness.
Kashi stands beside roads of ruin. The Ganga flows while impure rivers also cut through the land. Heaven and hell, attachment and detachment, fertile ground and desert remain woven through the world described by Veda, history, Purana, and Agama. Wisdom does not deny the mixture. It learns to choose while walking through it.
Across the mingled earth, discernment bends to gather one seed and leaves another in the dust.
Read the passage from the Manas
खल अघ अगुन साधू गुन गाहा। उभय अपार उदधि अवगाहा।। तेहि तें कछु गुन दोष बखाने। संग्रह त्याग न बिनु पहिचाने।। भलेउ पोच सब बिधि उपजाए। गनि गुन दोष बेद बिलगाए।। कहहिं बेद इतिहास पुराना। बिधि प्रपंचु गुन अवगुन साना।। दुख सुख पाप पुन्य दिन राती। साधु असाधु सुजाति कुजाती।। दानव देव ऊँच अरु नीचू। अमिअ सुजीवनु माहुरु मीचू।। माया ब्रह्म जीव जगदीसा। लच्छि अलच्छि रंक अवनीसा।। कासी मग सुरसरि क्रमनासा। मरु मारव महिदेव गवासा।। सरग नरक अनुराग बिरागा। निगमागम गुन दोष बिभागा।।
The sins of the wicked and the virtues of the saints are both vast, like fathomless oceans. From these I describe a few virtues and faults, for without recognizing the difference one cannot know what to gather and what to discard. Brahma created both the good and the base. The Vedas counted their qualities and faults and set them apart. The Vedas, the Itihasas, and the Puranas all declare that Brahma's creation is kneaded together with virtue and vice.