Even a Treasury of Knowledge May Tremble before Vishnu's Maya
Uttara Kanda, Doha 116
Doha 116 · Movement 2 of 2
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A sage may sit steady beneath forest branches, his senses restrained and his understanding clear. Yet the moonlike face of a doe-eyed maiden enters his sight, and the fortress of resolve suddenly feels the pressure of a power older than argument.
Bhushundi speaks of Vishnu's maya, the manifest potency that can bewilder even a treasury of knowledge. The warning is neither contempt for knowledge nor blame cast upon woman. It reveals how swiftly a mind still governed by desire can be carried away from Raghuvira's feet.
Garuda listens as the path narrows. Learning may describe the snare precisely; detachment may keep far from it for a time. Still, the wandering current of the senses can seize an unprotected heart. The image of the learned sage becoming helpless stands like lightning against the blue mountain sky. Knowledge sees the force of maya. Devotion lives beneath the favor of the One whose force maya is.
The keenest mind may know the storm, but refuge at Rama's feet carries the soul through it.
Read the passage from the Manas
-पुरुष त्यागि सक नारिहि जो बिरक्त मति धीर।। न तु कामी बिषयाबस बिमुख जो पद रघुबीर।।115(क)।। सोउ मुनि ग्याननिधान मृगनयनी बिधु मुख निरखि। बिबस होइ हरिजान नारि बिष्नु माया प्रगट।।115(ख)।।
A man may renounce women, being detached, wise, and steadfast, but not one who is lustful, enslaved by desires, and turned away from the feet of Raghuvira. Even that sage, a treasury of knowledge, beholding the moon-like face of a doe-eyed maiden, becomes helpless. For she is Hari's power, a form in which Vishnu's maya is manifest.