The Lord Beyond Neti Neti Plays Among the Vanaras
Lanka Kanda, Doha 118
Doha 118 · Movement 2 of 2
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Sages search through meditation for the one they cannot reach. The Vedas approach through neti, neti, releasing every object that can be named and saying the truth is not limited to this.
That same ocean of compassion laughs and plays with vanaras beneath a rain of ornaments. The one beyond thought becomes intimate through love, allowing rough forest hands and open delight closer than intellect can travel.
Shiva tells Uma that yoga, japa, charity, austerity, sacrifice, vow, and observance do not accomplish what pure, exclusive love accomplishes. The verse does not despise sacred discipline. It reveals the door through which all discipline hopes to pass. The infinite whom negation cannot capture freely gives himself to companions who want no philosophy from the jewels, no status from service, and no reward beyond the joy of Rama's presence.
Where neti neti cannot arrive by search, pure love finds the infinite Lord laughing among friends.
Read the passage from the Manas
मुनि जेहि ध्यान न पावहिं नेति नेति कह बेद। कृपासिंधु सोइ कपिन्ह सन करत अनेक बिनोद।।117(क)।। उमा जोग जप दान तप नाना मख ब्रत नेम। राम कृपा नहि करहिं तसि जसि निष्केवल प्रेम।।117(ख)।।
"He whom sages cannot reach through meditation, whom the Vedas describe as 'not this, not this'; that ocean of mercy sports playfully with the monkeys in countless ways. O Uma, yoga, chanting, charity, austerity, various sacrifices, vows, and observances; none of these can accomplish what pure love alone achieves."