Wager of Ambrosia

Chapter 4

Exordium

(Jnaneshwari: 1.1)

Om! Salutations to the venerable Foremost, the Veda-propounded, the Pre-eminent; glory be to the Self-Aware, in the nature of Being. Victory! Victory!

With this invocation to the Supreme Jnaneshwar begins his poetic composition. The greatness of the Gita is its subject; the leader of the path is none other than Rishi Vyasa himself; the grace of his Guru Nivritti gives him the necessary confidence and capacity to undertake the daunting task; the rapt and attentive audience of saints and simple people encourages him and makes him speak what he is going to speak. The dimensions of the poem thus perspicuously extend into all the three regions, into the terrestrial, the universal, and the transcendental; at the same time their unifying relationship creates a harmony whose basis is the delightful Brahmic consciousness itself. Matters pertaining to the divinities, adhidaivic, to the entities and beings, adhibhautic, and to the manifest spirit’s supremacy, adhyatmic, find their natural place in it, as does the sunshine in wide- ness of the unclouded day. The watermark—or, shall we say, the honey-mark?—of the Yogi-Poet is present on every page; the gleaming sweetness of the speech speaks well of its authenticity. In it the Ineffable finds expression and acquires features with all their vibrant qualities. The Unapproachable comes nearer and takes a recognisable shape; to him we can offer our worship and obeisances and we can receive from him gifts of benedictive riches.

The Bright One comes to us now in the aspect of Ganesha who illumines every meaning in the light of his understanding. Word the Eternal, all-potent and inexhaustible, outside of which there is nothing, shabdabrahma ashesha as Jnane­shwar says, gets beautifully iconified in that deity. Vedic hymns and the Scriptures define in their orthographic exquisiteness the shape of the God.

Page 15

The easy flow of the poetic verses is the movement of his limbs and the deep esoteric sense of these stanzaic delineations gives to his poise comeliness. Eighteen Puranas bejewelled with fundamental propositions of things adorn his shining godhood. Literature and poetry and art in their spontaneous fondness are indeed the jingling bells of the silken belt around his waist. Carrying the simile further, Jnaneshwar says that the quiet musical sound or arthdhwani of these little silvery jingling bells is in the nature of nuances and shades, the delicate expository details, that in their import and signification revealingly tell of his many-glowing attributes. The Six Systems of Philosophy, shaddarshana—Patanjala, Sankhya, Vaishshikha, Nyaya, Mimansa, and Vedanta in its profound and joyous con­tents—are the weapons in the hands of this Ganesha. It is the followers of the Nyaya School who attacked and demolished the Buddhistic Doctrines and established the Ancient Wisdom once again. The two parts of the Science of Vedic Interpretation, the Ritualistic and Theological parts, Karmak­anda and Jnanakanda of Mimansa, the introductory and the culminating texts, are the two ears of this God of universal knowledge. Around him swarm, like bees, the wise and the learned to gather the honeyful essence of the exegetic principles and affirmations. The discussion in which the final differences vanish is the white tusk of this God with the elephant’s head. Reinstitution of the concept of Absolute Brahman in the Metaphysical Debate and the assertion of the Good of Religion, dharmapratishtha, are indeed the boons extended to us by him. He is the one who removes all obstacles and grants us the great fortune of happiness, mahasukha. In the glint of his eyes is the exultant lustre of subtle perceptive sight and his two temples merge into each other, indicating that duality and non-duality in the end arrive at the same conclusion. The ten Upanishads look beautiful in his crown, like lotuses fresh and fragrant and full of splendent lore, udarjnanamakaranda. So is his wide forehead scripting the entire vastness of Thought. The One who is beyond descriptive enumerative details is now in the seed-state from which sprouts all that is. The Self of Knowledge is in the Image of Ganesha. In the manifest creation it has assumed the form of the Word, the primal Syllable, the syllableless creative syllable Om; that gives rise

Page 16

to a thrilled manifoldness of the spoken speech, soft as well as gorgeous in colours and with harmonious sounds. Its joyous sensibilities with sense carrying and tying them together in the manner of the soul of aesthetic delight gives us a deeper satisfaction. The incomprehensible Divinity is present now as Omkar and it is to him that the hymning obeisances are offered.

Jnaneshwar next proceeds to worship Sharada, the Goddess of Learning, the expressive dynamism of the manifest Word:

(Jnaneshwari: 1.21)

Now to the one who enjoys variously the eloquence of the tongue, beautiful, and endowed with sagacity and connotative sense, and artistic skill in expression, to her, that Sharada, the enchantress of the World, I bow.

The supplication of the poet to the Goddess is not just a formality or mannerism of the mediaeval age, nor a mere façon de parler; in it there is a certain spiritual spontaneity that makes it truly meaningful as much as appealingly genuine. There is in it an occult element which puts us directly in contact with the source of inspiration itself. This we can perhaps better appreciate if we compare Jnaneshwari with, say, Paradise Lost. The Celestial Patroness used to visit Milton in the night, or when “Morn purples the East”, and it is she who gave him the easy “unpremeditated Verse”; she made him see and tell “Of things invisible to mortal sight.” But after a while her visits started becoming infrequent and what greatly entered into his poetry was thought-stuff and thought-strain. On the other hand, we notice in Jnaneshwar the uninterrupted flow of what Sri Aurobindo would call the “overhead” expression, the language that comes with the power of word-sense and sound-sense native to some high spiritual plane above the mental. There is in it thought; there is in it the image; but the soul of its melody belongs to another world giving new values to thought and image; it is that soul who has taken birth here to sing his exceptional song. Being a Yogi par excellence, Jnaneshwar was in

Page 17

intimate contact with Sharada to receive her gifts which he could transcribe into our language without disfiguring or spoiling them in the process. The sustained level of expression bears ample witness to the poetry’s genuine quality. Everywhere is present the delight of the spirit. It enables us also to live in its bright and wondrous presence. In contrast to this, a theological theme which is developed in intellectual terms can hardly attain such a stature or can touch at this grandeur. But in Jnaneshwari with its tranquil sublimity we understand what spiritual poetry can really be.

What is the method by which spiritual poetry can be written? Is there a mechanism, a technique, a guiding principle of aesthetic creation which can be summoned by the writer to help him in this respect? And is not that demand as wrong as suggesting that Kalidasa or Shakespeare follow classroom texts for writing a poetic composition or drama? A poet with great art at his command has to be either a rich and ready instrument to receive genuine inspiration, or he must be himself a denizen of the overhead world where spiritual poetry is born. Jnaneshwar avowedly belongs to this latter class. He could move with quick and luminous ease in these realms of gold, and savour the fragrance of flowers of the Edenic garden, and ride the rhythmic melody of a crystalline stream in the fields of calm. “There is a profound intrinsic delight and beauty,” says Sri Aurobindo, “in all things and behind all experience...which makes to a spirit housed within us...a revelation of the truth and power and delight of being and our feeling of it a form of universal Ananda...the calm yet moved ecstasy with which the spirit of existence regards itself and its creation. This deeper spiritual feeling, this Ananda is the fountain of poetic delight and beauty.” Jnaneshwar drank freely and abundantly of that fountain of poetic wonder and joy.

But how has this come about? who must have led him to this wondrous joy? making that a sudden occurrence, a miracle? But to Jnaneshwar it does not come as a surprise. His gracious preceptor Nivritti is seated in his heart and it is indeed he who has wrought the miracle. It is like possessing a great treasure, mahanidhi, or discovering the heavenly stone chintamani which brings to fruition

Page 18

all noble longings; such is the alchemic power of the Guru. Now the worthy disciple has found the Guru and the Guru has accepted the disciple. Jnaneshwar bows to Nivritti and turns his attention to the greatness of the tale narrated by Vyasa in his vast Epic of the Bharatas.

This is a tale from which issues out every happiness; all the propositions of existence are present in its splendid formulations; the ocean of its nectarine utterance is filled with the nine felicities that go with aesthetic delight. Here resides the Goddess of Word-Fortune, shabdasri, who has established for our benefit scriptural codes and texts. Wisdom has by it acquired adulthood and maturity, and the demonstrated theorems and conclusions their taste, and prosperity her excellence and appeal. By it the sweet has sweetness, and the sensuous beauty and pleasing elegance and shapeliness, and the worthy things of propriety and dignity:

(Jnaneshwari: 1.36)

There every quality possesses the capacity and authority of the one who is All-quality, guna sagunapanache bik. By the brilliance of Vyasa’s verses knowledge in the consciousness of the society has acquired right discernment and sharp perceptive sense, a working intuition in the dynamics of the day-to-day. Just as a person acquires manners and urbanity when he lives in a city, or as youthful beauty is visible in the bright flush of a maiden, so has human life acquired wondrous merit from this remarkable tale given to us by Vyasa. The poet acknowledges the gift of the Rishi.

Now, as if zooming his camera, Jnaneshwar comes to the Gita proper which is a part of the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata. Churned from the ocean of eternal literature, shabdabrahmabdhi, by the genius of Vyasa, it is the cream of spiritual experiences which the ascetics long to have, the saints perceive and get, and those who are established in the oneness of the Infinite ever enjoy. This is the song that has been well appreciated in the three worlds, a song that has been praised even by Brahma and Shiva.

Page 19

Therefore in order to understand and grasp the Gita one has to be very alert and sensitive to its beauty and sweetness, to its evocative sense and to its truth. A right kind of listener is needed for its poetry, one who is with a sober and calm heart, steady, but driven by the passion or zeal of a seeker, who appreciates the subtleties and profundities of expression; Jnaneshwar draws the attention of his audience to that effect and makes it aware of it. Here are words which convey the contents even without their being uttered, of which the refined senses seize the implications much before they reach them. In order to embrace the sky one has to grow vaster than the sky. “But I know,” says Jnaneshwar, “I have made myself very audacious, if not impudent. I know it is like a lapwing that ventures to sound the depth of the sea with the measure of its beak. The glory of the Gita is so dazzling that Shiva compared it with the wondrous beauty of Bhawani herself, devi jaise ki swarup tujhe. Even the Vedas are puzzled or are at a loss to comprehend and describe it.” But Jnaneshwar feels confident; for, he has been touched by the fabled stone which can transform a base metal into lustrous gold. There is no doubt that by the favour of Saraswati the dumb gets the siddhi of speech. And, in the same way, does not ambrosia bring back the dead to life? Such is the power of the Guru’s grace and hence he need not harbour apprehension, argues the devout saint-poet.

Finally, Jnaneshwar pleads for the indulgence of the respectable listeners attending the sessions. If there are defects, remove them—requests he. Nay, he goes a step farther and proclaims that it is from them that he is going to derive courage and strength to rise to the exceptional occasion; whatever they are going to make him speak it is that he is going to speak—tumhi bolawila mi bolena. This is how he considers himself favoured and blessed by the knowledgeable and competent elders in the gathering.

But now the benedictory command has come: “It is indeed not very necessary for you to speak all this. Hurry up and concentrate on the composi­tion; please proceed without any apologies.” Jnaneshwar is extremely happy with this patronising as well as inspiring approbation of Nivritti and requests everyone in the Mhalasa Temple to listen attentively to his words that are aflame like little lamps in the adoration of the Gita.

Page 20