Water Becomes Ice Without Becoming Other
Bala Kanda, Chaupai 116
Doha 116 · Movement 1 of 2
Keep this contemplation
Preserve, print, or share
Shiva declares what sages, Puranas, wise ones, and Vedas sing together. Nirguna and saguna are not divided. The One beyond attributes, form, knowledge, and birth assumes a visible form through the love of devotees. Water gathers into ice or hail, yet nothing alien has entered it. Love gives the formless a form that hands may worship and eyes may adore.
Ram's very Name destroys the moth of delusion, so bewilderment cannot belong to him. He is the sun of sat, chit, and ananda. No night of ignorance approaches that radiance, and no new dawn of knowledge is needed to illumine the self-luminous Lord.
Joy and sorrow, knowledge and ignorance, and the proud claim of individuality belong to the jiva. Ram is the all-pervading Brahman, ancient Lord and fullness of bliss. The prince who walks within Leela does not cease to be the boundless Reality in whom the walking, the world, and the witness appear.
In the warmth of devotion, the formless water of Brahman gleams as the beloved form of Ram.
Read the passage from the Manas
सगुनहि अगुनहि नहिं कछु भेदा। गावहिं मुनि पुरान बुध बेदा।। अगुन अरुप अलख अज जोई। भगत प्रेम बस सगुन सो होई।। जो गुन रहित सगुन सोइ कैसें। जलु हिम उपल बिलग नहिं जैसें।। जासु नाम भ्रम तिमिर पतंगा। तेहि किमि कहिअ बिमोह प्रसंगा।। राम सच्चिदानंद दिनेसा। नहिं तहँ मोह निसा लवलेसा।। सहज प्रकासरुप भगवाना। नहिं तहँ पुनि बिग्यान बिहाना।। हरष बिषाद ग्यान अग्याना। जीव धर्म अहमिति अभिमाना।। राम ब्रह्म ब्यापक जग जाना। परमानन्द परेस पुराना।।
Between saguna and nirguna there is no difference whatsoever. This is what the sages, the Puranas, the wise, and the Vedas all declare. That which is nirguna, formless, imperceptible, and unborn, that very One, bound by the love of His devotees, becomes saguna and takes form.