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A Brief
Biography
The
"King of Saints" was Jnaneshwar (1271-1293),
who, while living only twenty-two years, made an indelible
mark on the whole of Hindu spirituality. Before Jnaneshwar's
time, the scriptures of India were in the secret language
of Sanskrit and completely unavailable to the lower
classes. Breaking from tradition, Jnaneshwar not only
translated the central Sanskrit text, the Bhagavad Cita,
into the common language of Marathi but added a magnificent
commentary which expounds the complete path of yoga
and spiritual practice. His commentary, the Jnaneshwari,
still stands among the greatest spiritual works ever
written.
Source
: Jonathan Star, The Inner Treasure
Saint
Jnaneshwar was the second of the four children of Vithalpant
and Rukminibai Kulkarni, a pious couple from the village
Apegaon near Paithan (old Pratishthan) in Maharashtra
on the banks of River Godavari.
Vithalpant studied
Vedas and Shastras and became well versed in them at
a very young age. Being extremely pious and detached
towards worldly matters he spent much of his time on
pilgrimage. During one of the pilgrimages he visited
Alandi about 30 Km from Pune and camped in the local
Hanuman temple. Sidhopant, a local brahmin, was very
much impressed with the youth and thought him as a suitable
match for his daughter Rukmini. He met Vithalpant and
after making enquiries proposed the marriage. Not having
any interest in setting up a family, Vithalpant declined
but because of instructions received in a vision he
later consented.
After marriage
Vithalpant remained at Alandi for some time but due
to his lack of interest in family life his father-in-law
took him to Apegaon where Vithalpant's father Govindpant
and mother were happy to see their married son. Unfortunately
both passed away shortly thereafter leaving the family
responsibilities to Vithalpant who could not make the
two ends meet due to his disinterest in worldly matters.
Finally Sidhopant took the couple back to Alandi under
his shelter. But that did not make any difference to
Vithalpant who one fine day went for bath on the river
and instead of returning home, went to Varanasi.
In Varanasi
Vithalpant met a great saint Ramanandswami. Suppressing
the fact that he was a married person he requested Ramanandswami
to be accepted as a disciple and to be initiated as
a sanyasi. Now, according to the rules, a married person
cannot become a sanyasi unless he is permitted by his
wife. The ritual of adopting the sanyas requires undergoing
the rituals performed for a dead person. All his past
is supposed to be erased and he is given a new name.
Vithalpant was renamed as Chaitanyashram.
One day Ramanandswami
set upon a pilgrimage to Rameshwar and on the way halted
at Alandi. While he was camping there Rukminibai who
now spent her time in worship and other spiritual pre-occupations
to drown her grief, went to meet Ramanndswami who uttered
the words of blessing to her Putravati Bhava or "May
you have children". Rukminibai started laughing
at these words and when asked to explain told the Swamiji
the situation that her husband had deserted her. Swamiji
probed her and realised that the description of her
husband fitted his disciple Chaitanyashram. According
to the shastras he was also to blame for having initiated
Vithalpant. He immediately abandoned the pilgrimage
and returned to Varanasi and accosted Chaitanyashram
who confessed to his guilt. He ordered Chaitanyashram
immediately to return to his wife and establish a family.
Vithalpant returned
to Alandi but was excommunicated from the community
because it was unheard of and against shastras to abandon
sanyas and adopt family life again. Vithalpant managed
to spend his time in the study of Vedas and Shastras.
In the course of time four children were borne to the
couple: Nivrutti in the year 1273, Jnaneshwar (Jnaneshwar)
in 1275, Sopan in 1277 and the fourth a daughter Muktabai
in 1279. Everything was fine until Nivrutti was seven
years old which is the time when a boy of brahmin parentage
has to undergo thread ceremony and be inducted as a
brahmin. He approached the brahmins of Alandi to be
permitted to perform the thread ceremony but the conservative
orthodox community refused.
In a state of
extreme distress Vithalpant went to Triambakeshwar (near
Nasik) with his family for performing worship at the
Shiva temple. Triambakeshwar is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas
or luminary lingas of Lord Shiva. While they had gone
for performing pradakshina (circumambulation) of the
temple one night they encountered a ferocious tiger
(in thirteenth century the area was a deep forest) The
members of the family ran helter skelter and were dispersed.
Nivrutti wandered into a cave in the Anjani mountain
where Gahininath, one of the nine Naths was staying
for some time. He was attracted towards Nivrutti and
in spite of his young age initiated him into Nath sect
assigning him the mantra "Ramakrishna Hari"
instructing him to propagate devotion to Shri Krishna.
That is how Nivrutti became Nivruttinath. The matter
of excommunication did not affect this because the Nath
sect does not bother about caste system and though socially
it may be observed it is ignored in spiritual matters.
All the four
children were very intelligent and pious. They studied
the Vedas and Shastras under their father but because
they were excommunicated they could not join the brahmin
community or study in schools run by them. In desperation
Vithalpant went to Apegaon and appealed to the brahmins
there who after studying the shastras opined that death
was the only atonement for the sin. In a hopeless state
of mind Vithalpant and Rukminibai abandoned their children
at Apegaon, travelled to Prayag and drowned themselves
in the River Ganges.
The orphan children
somehow grew up begging for dry alms from sympathetic
people which they would cook and eat. In the course
of time they too approached the brahmin community of
Paithan to accept them as brahmins after whatever purification
rites necessary but the brahmin community refused. However,
considering the excellent behaviour of the children
and their learning they permitted them to live in the
community on the condition that they will observe celibacy
and produce no progeny. This was in 1287 when Jnaneshwar
was twelve years old.
About this time
Nivrutinath initiated Jnaneshwar into the Nath sect and
instructed him to write a commentary on Gita. Thus we
have a unique situation of a fourteen year old Guru
instructing his twelve year old disciple to write something
which has become the hope of humanity. The children
moved to Nevase, a village in Nagar district on the
banks of Pravara river. There Jnaneshwar began his commentary
on Gita. He used to give a discourse on it to a group
of seekers, some of them belonging to the Nath sect
but many were followers of the path of devotion. A local
devotee by name Sacchinanandbaba wrote down whatever
Jnaneshwar said. A prominent person among the audience
was the saint Namdeo known for the miracle where Vithoba
the presiding deity of Pandharpur had eaten the food
offering brought by Namdeo when he was a mere boy. Jnaneshwar
and Namdeo had met earlier at Pandharpur and developed
mutual friendship.
There is a legend
regarding Sacchitanandababa mentioned above. On the
day Nivrutiinath, Jnaneshwar etc. entered Nevase, Sacchitanandababa
had died and was being carried to the cremation ground
accompanied by his wife Soudamini who wanted to commit
Sati. Somebody suggested that a saint had come and she
should get his blessings before going as Sati. She found
Jnaneshwar sitting in meditation under a tree. She bowed
to him when he blessed her with the words "Akhand
Saubhagyavati Bhava" meaning may you never be a
widow. When he came out of meditation he realised the
odd situation but praying to God and Guru and using
his powers he brought back Sacchitanandababa to life.
The latter remained his devotee for life.
Jnaneshwar started
on his commentary which he called Bhavarthadeepika in
the year 1287 when he was merely twelve year old. He
finished it two and half years later in 1290. By that
time he had developed a great friendship with Namdeo.
He had also realised that the path of yoga on which
the Nath sect gives a great stress could not be easily
followed by everyone and the path of devotion was a
key for all seekers irrespective of his or her caste,
creed or gender. Perhaps he was influenced in this by
Namdeo who was a tailor by profession and therefore
traditionally belonged to Shudra caste.
Shortly after
the completion of Bhavarthadeepika, Jnaneshwar joined
the varkari movement probably under the influence of
Namdeo and virtually became their leader. The varkari
sect is known by that name because it is considered
essential to visit Pandharpur at least twice a year,
on the two Ekadashi (11th day by lunar calendar) in
Ashadh (which falls sometime in August) and Kartik (which
falls sometime in November) months. It is a path of
devotion to Vithoba, the presiding deity of Pandharpur
who is same as Shri Krishna. Peculiarity of this deity
at Pandharpur is that it wears a crown with Shivalinga
on it, thus linking the Shaivaites and Vaishnavaites.
This deity used to be in Karnataka and was later brought
to Pandharpur. For the sake of the devotees Jnaneshwar
wrote Amritanubhava, again in verse form dealing with
spiritual and devotional topics. The commentary was
renamed Jnaneshwari (Jnanesvari) later. Both Jnaneshwari
and Amritanubhava are holy texts for the Varkari sect
today.
Jnaneshwar then
accompanied Namdeo and several other followers of devotee
path like Savata Mali, began a pilgrimage of all the
holy places of north, east and west India. Immediately
after returning to Alandi Jnaneshwar (in 1296) expressed
his desire to leave his body by taking samadhi. He chose
the thirteenth day of the dark fortnight of Kartik for
the final samadhi. People gathered and had final round
of bhajans etc. Jnaneshwar embraced his brothers and
sister and close friends like Namdeo. With tears in
the eyes of all he entered the cave and sat in the yogic
posture, The cave was sealed by a stone and Jnaneshwar
left his body by yogic process. Jnaneshwar was only
21 years of age at this time.
Within a year
and a half of this event his brothers and sister also
left the material world. Sopandeo took samadhi at Saswad
near Pune. Nivruttinath travelled with his sister on
a pilgrimage along Tapi river where both were caught
one day in a thunderstorm. In the roar of thunder, rain
and lightning Muktabai vanished without trace. Soon
after, Nivruttinath took samadhi at Triambakeshwar.
Thus was the end of an unusual family who enlightened
the world spiritually and continue to do so even today.
All the children were highly spiritually evolved persons.
Muktabai, even as she was in her teens became Guru to
a highly accomplished yogi named Changdeo who was believed
to be several centuries old.
Soon after this
the Muslim invasions India started in India and affected
the religious and spiritual life of India, ending a
spiritually golden era. It became progressively difficult
to venture upon vari and pilgrimages. But copies of
Jnaneshwari were preserved by many families and were
read regularly. In the course of copying and probably
due to the additions of their own works, many copies
got corrupted. Three hundred years later in 1584 Saint
Eknath collected several available copies and after
careful studies prepared a good copy as free of corrupt
text as possible. Even today different copies available
show slight differences in their contents as regards
some words (and hence the meaning) and also the number
of ovis. But that is not a very serious matter except
to a historian.
V. V. Shirvaikar
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