Kagga 106 - Mankutimmana Kagga

The borders of the painting (and hence the canvas) is infinite. The painting itself is finite, definite and shortlived. In the infinite formless sky, we see objects that are finite (like clouds, moon, starts, sun etc...) and have forms. For a person enlightened about the truth, all worldly objects are to be measured and valued against the value of the universal truth. Any other valuation is false. - Mankutimma. [Translator's note: It took some time for me to arrive at my understanding of the verse. Here it is - Most of what we see is limitted - by space, by time, by intellectual depth. To understand the objects or phenomena we observe we use our own scale which are inherently finite and hence incomplete. But, it is good enough for the time being. For example, to explain the distance between two wickets on a pitch - we use yards (or meters); between two cities - kilometers; between two stars - light years; between two electrons - angstroms. All the units are measuring space, that too in one dimension only - yet so different and so imperfect when applied where they are not intended for. Another example is about object valuation. Most of us (even countries as entities) think Gold is very precious and hence valuable. But that is true only in a context. Ask a starving man whether he wants assured supply of three square meals a day or a truck load of gold with no food for years, you will know how distorted was our valuation. When one realizes the essence of being one with the universe - he starts seeing things for what they are and valuing everything / every phenomenon against the only scale he knows; against the universal truth.]