The Extinguished Lamp Returns the Soul to the Wheel of Affliction
Uttara Kanda, Doha 119
Doha 119 · Movement 2 of 2
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The inward chamber is dark again. The knot remains, the clear flame is gone, and the soul returns to the turning roads of worldly existence. Birth, loss, desire, and bewilderment gather once more in countless forms.
Bhushundi names the passage across Hari's maya exceedingly difficult. The teaching is hard to express, hard to understand, hard to practice, and hard even to discern correctly. Every stage demands a precision the restless senses continually threaten.
A woodworm may accidentally carve the shape of a letter through timber, and by a similarly rare coincidence a seeker may appear to advance. Yet even then, obstacles wait in numberless ranks. The image removes every trace of spiritual vanity. Knowledge has not been denied, but its unaided path has been shown in the fierce weather of actual embodiment. Garuda looks upon the gulf between a flash of insight and the irreversible freedom for which the soul longs.
A momentary letter may appear in the wood, yet the ocean of maya still waits beyond it.
Read the passage from the Manas
तब फिरि जीव बिबिध बिधि पावइ संसृति क्लेस। हरि माया अति दुस्तर तरि न जाइ बिहगेस।।118(क)।। कहत कठिन समुझत कठिन साधन कठिन बिबेक। होइ घुनाच्छर न्याय जौं पुनि प्रत्यूह अनेक।।118(ख)।।
Then once again the soul suffers worldly affliction in countless forms, through the cycle of birth and death. Hari's maya is exceedingly difficult to cross; it cannot be transcended, O king of birds. Difficult to speak of, difficult to understand, difficult are the practices, difficult is discernment. Even if one follows the 'worm-in-wood' logic (ghunakshara nyaya), still there are countless obstacles.