Millions of Outer Remedies Cannot Cure the Diseases of the Heart
Uttara Kanda, Doha 122
Doha 122 · Movement 2 of 2
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One bodily illness can carry a person to death. Bhushundi asks Garuda to behold the inward condition: countless incurable maladies press upon the soul at once, each feeding the others without rest.
Under such affliction, samadhi seems like a mountain seen through fever. The mind reaches toward stillness, then pain, desire, pride, fear, or jealousy pulls it away. The disease is not occasional. It shapes the very instrument attempting the cure.
Vows, righteous conduct, austerity, knowledge, sacrifice, repetition of sacred names, and charity gather like a vast pharmacy. Millions of remedies stand in ordered jars, revered and potent in their proper place. Yet without the medicine that reaches the root, the fever remains. Bhushundi does not discard sacred discipline. He reveals its helplessness when separated from Hari's grace and living devotion. Garuda waits for the physician, the proper regimen, and the life-restoring herb that alone can enter the deepest wound.
The shelves may hold a million medicines, yet only grace can carry healing into the root of the soul.
Read the passage from the Manas
एक ब्याधि बस नर मरहिं ए असाधि बहु ब्याधि। पीड़हिं संतत जीव कहुँ सो किमि लहै समाधि।।121(क)।। नेम धर्म आचार तप ग्यान जग्य जप दान। भेषज पुनि कोटिन्ह नहिं रोग जाहिं हरिजान।।121(ख)।।
From one disease alone, men die; but these many incurable diseases constantly torment every soul. How then can anyone find samadhi? Religious vows, dharma, right conduct, austerity, knowledge, yajna, japa, charity: even millions of such remedies cannot cure these diseases, O devotee of Hari.