The Soul Must Not Imitate the Lord
Bala Kanda, Doha 69
Doha 69 · Movement 2 of 2
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A clear boundary is drawn around the sacred examples. What arises from divine freedom cannot become a pretext for human pride. The Lord's acts belong to the one who is never mastered by the forces through which he moves.
A foolish person who casts aside discernment and imitates sovereign Leela from ego does not attain equality with Ishvara. The same outward act carries a different truth when performed from bondage rather than freedom.
The individual soul must receive the Lord's conduct as revelation, not costume. Reverence ripens into transformation; arrogant imitation only deepens the prison it claims to transcend.
The jiva bows before the divine fire instead of pretending that borrowed flame is its own.
Read the passage from the Manas
जौं अस हिसिषा करहिं नर जड़ि बिबेक अभिमान। परहिं कलप भरि नरक महुँ जीव कि ईस समान।।69।।
But if foolish men, stripped of viveka (discernment) and swollen with pride, harbor such desires, they fall into naraka (hell) for an entire kalpa. How can the jiva (individual soul) ever be equal to Ishvara (the Lord)?