kākaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ pikaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ ko bhedaḥ pika-kākayoḥ |
vasanta-samaye prāpte kākaḥ kākaḥ pikaḥ pikaḥ ||
(Unknown source)
“A crow is black, and a cuckoo is black. What is the difference between a crow and a cuckoo? When spring time arrives, a crow is a crow, a cuckoo is a cuckoo.”
apasaraṇam eva śaraṇaṁ maunaṁ vā tatra rajahaṁsasya |
kaṭu raṭati nikata-vartī vācālaṣ ṭiṭṭibho yatra |
(Unknown source)
“A royal swan simply retreats or takes recourse to silence there where a nearby talkative ṭiṭṭibha (lapwing, Vanellus indicus) bitterly bawls.”
kas tvaṁ lohita-locanāsy acaraṇaḥ haṁsaḥ kuto mānasāt
kiṁ tatrāsti suvarṇa-paṅkaja-vanāny aṁbhaḥ sudhā-sannibham |
ratnānāṁ nicayāḥ pravāla-maṇayo vaidūrya-rohāḥ kvacit
śambūkā api santi neti ca bakair ākarṇya hīhīkṛtam ||
(Unknown Source)
“[Cranes inquire:] ‘Who are you, O red-eyed one? You are legless.’
‘I am a swan [whose legs are invisible while floating on water].’
‘From where?’
‘From Mānasa [Sarovara].’
‘What is there?’
‘Clusters of golden lotuses, water like nectar, stores of gems, coral ingots, and lodes of cat’s-eye.’
‘Are there also snails there?’
‘No.’
Hearing this, the cranes laughed [at the swan].”
haṁsās sarvāṅga-śucayaḥ padmebhyo bahir āsate |
antarviśānti madhupāḥ śrīmatāṁ gatir īdṛśī ||
(Unknown source)
“Swans, who are white all over their body, remain outside lotus flowers. Bees [lit. “nectar-drinkers”] enter within [them]. The way of the exalted is such.”
haṁsaḥ śveto bakaḥ śvetaḥ ko bhedo baka-haṁsayoḥ |
nīra-kṣīra-viveke tu haṁso haṁso bako bakaḥ ||
(Unknown source)
“A swan is white; a stork is white.
What is the difference between a swan and a stork?
In discriminating between water and milk,
A swan is a swan, and a stork is a stork
[i.e., one can do so and the other cannot].”
yāra yemana bhāva tāra temana lābha |
(Bengali saying)
“As is one’s bhāva, so is one’s attainment.”
yathāveśas tathā praveśaḥ |
(Sanskrit saying)
“As is [one’s] absorption, so is [one’s] entrance.”
māre kṛṣṇa rākhe ke? |
rākhe kṛṣṇa māre ke? ||
(Bengali proverb)
“If Kṛṣṇa wants to kill you, then who can protect you? If Kṛṣṇa wants to protect you, then who can kill you?”
jananī janma-bhūmiś ca jāhnavī ca janārdanaḥ |
janakaḥ pañcamaś caiva ja-kārāḥ pañca-durlabhāḥ ||
(Unknown source)
“Mother (jananī), the land of one’s birth (janma-bhūmi), the Ganges (Jāhnavī), Janārdana [i.e., Bhagavān], and fifthly, Father (janaka)—these five j’s are most precious to attain.”
rātrir gamiṣyati bhaviṣyati suprabhātaṁ
bhāsvān udeṣyati hasiṣyati paṅkajaśrīḥ |
itthaṁ vicintayati koṣa-gate dvirephe
hā hanta hanta nalinīṁ gaja ujjahāra ||
(Unknown Source)
“The night shall pass, the fine dawn shall arrive, the bright sun shall rise, and the beautiful lotus shall bloom—as a bee remaining inside the whorl [of a lotus] is thinking thus, alas, alas, an elephant has uprooted the lotus.”
