The King of Wisdom! The Monarch of Divinity and Spirituality! The Emperor of Devotion! The only Bosom Friend, Boon Companion, Soul Mate the Lord truly cared for! Whom do you think I am thus describing? Yes, the saint of saints, Sant Dnyaneshwar.
2025 marks the seven hundred and fiftieth birth anniversary of this unique presence who defined Marathi-ness. Yes, it was his translation of the Sanskrit 'Bhagwad Gita' that 'made' Marathi. How puny appear the contemporary (f)rigid fights over dialects in comparison with this genuine contribution!
What a Himalayan presence he is! A brilliant scholar with infinite awareness and deep knowledge of Hinduism (and the antagonistic traditions), a subtle thinker without any ideational obscurity or deluding obfuscations, he is divinity itself.
He is, moreover, a great poet. His brilliant, deep, subtle thought reaches us through great poetry that is both rich philosophy and simply superb verse. His "Haripathache Abhang" are such sweet simplicity that the illiterate of the illiterate can easily grasp them, and learn them by heart most naturally.
He initiated the Bhakti Panth in the thirteenth century Maharashtra. Actually, his guru, his elder brother, Nivruttinath, belonged to the Shaivite tradition. His Nath Panth would not be a road to spiritual awareness that can easily be traversed by the common man. Sant Dnyaneshwar made it accessible to each and every one, beyond caste, gender or ethnicity.
And, mind you, he was hardly twenty-one when he decided that he had fulfilled his mission, and chose to welcome "samadhi" on Kartik Vadya Trayodashi (the thirteenth day in the dark phase of the lunar month 'Kartik') to be felicitated tomorrow. In a lifetime, he completed to immense perfection achievements most would need generations to complete!
All such brilliant performance was attained against, and despite, an extremely difficult life full of conscious harassment for crimes never committed, neither by him nor by his family! And yet such was the power of his empathy that he could make a he-buffalo narrate the first 'Rucha' from the 'Rigveda'. Why, he could make his back in to an oven so that his sis, Muktai, could prepare a simple sweet denied to them by the vicious, jealous, mean status quo-ists. Wonder of wonders, an inanimate wall would listen to his gentle will! He literally (and not merely as spiritual symbolism) awakened the dead, too!
A towering presence, and yet such was his genuine piety and pity that this young man of twenty-one continues to be the gentlest motherly presence since the thirteenth century! Hence the title of our blog, the 'King of Wisdom'!
The 'pasaydan', the final farewell in 'Dnyaneshwari', the great commentary on the 'Gita' by this wondrous, wise soul ends with a fervent prayer that the wicked would lose their wickedness, and would flourish in the ways of righteousness! No wonder, he is 'mauli', a kind gentle motherly presence till eternity!
Pratima@I can comfortably write a book each on his poetry, on his philosophy, on his contribution to the Bhakti Panth which revived Hinduism. That much I adore, venerate, respect him!
Well, I am aware that readers of blogs believe in the short-n-sweet format. Hence this temporary full stop to a tale that never fails to inspire, to fascinate and to liberate!
Quote of the day: Here is my attempt at a translation of the first quatrain of a much loved 'abhang' by this phenomenal presence. "At the divine doorstep, await awhile/ Thus attain liberation quadruple// Let lips " Hari" reiterate/ Who then can bliss enumerate?// Of course, work very much in progress!
Word of the day: martyr. A martyr is person who is made to suffer immensely, even unto death, for holding (mostly) religious opinions inimical to the powers that be.
Sant Dnyaneshwar and his family were in a way martyred by the orthodoxy of his times. Why, his parents paid with their lives for a sin never committed.
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