Wager of Ambrosia

Chapter 12

Jnaneshwari: Some Perspectives

Jnaneshwar is regarded as the first poet in Marathi, Adi Kavi of the vernacular, who wrote his commentary on the Gita a little more than seven hundred years ago. It is a work as fresh and living even today as it was at the time of its composition. Jnaneshwari’s poetic sweetness and charm, its enchantment, its spiritual ambience, its overhead quality of expression have remained alone and unsurpassed. Its spell is cast on all writings that have nobility of thought and feeling and aesthetic delight. Jnaneshwar’s yogic excellence,—and later Tukaram’s household yet deeply experiential poetry,—is the accomplishment which no time can wane. Since then there has been a steady flood which in the overflowing of psychic-lyrical surge brought up generations of devotional songs and poetry. There have also been works of saintly and learned poets; but nowhere in Marathi do we come nearer to the inspired marvel of this revealer of the mystery of the creative Word.

There are devotees who read Jnaneshwari regularly and derive from it spiritual guidance and happiness in an unceasing way. They find it to be the best escort to lead a life in search of God of their adoration. Whenever a conscientious literary or a learned person arrives at an important stage of creative activity he appears greatly attracted towards it and, according to his capacity, feels compelled to write something about it. The wonder of wonders is that Jnaneshwari always provides him the need0ed impulsion or gives inspiration that can take him to higher levels. That is indeed the power of yogic enterprise itself and living in it is to profit from it in an endless way. That is why it proves to be enduring. In it all the diverse as well as profound demands of the seekers and learners of spiritual lore are fulfilled. In whatsoever a way one may look at it, whatever is the call, it has the merit of answering it. The sky has no bounds and unplumbable are the depths of the sea; so are the spiritual philosophy and poetry in this creation of Jnaneshwar, bottomless and without limit, agadha-ananta. In one word: Jnaneshwari is the work of a Yogi-Poet.

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Our approach towards it has therefore to be intuitive-perceptive. In it there may be an aspect of scholarship also, but it has to be in the deeper sense of understanding the scripture that has lived for centuries. It is a literary work that belongs to another era and the yardstick of the present-day appreciation may not be really pertinent or applicable, may not be binding to it. It has a vocabulary of another time, the association of words and phrases has other connotations which may not be understood or appreciated by us today. The spirit of the language carries in its breath the values of another aesthetic enjoyment. It is therefore necessary for us to enter into it to read it in its true and original sense. Yet the essential poetry remains timelessly authentic and noble, ever agreeable.

That should also mean that there is a certain obligation which we have to fulfil, that we cannot be close-minded in our approach towards it. The precaution that is necessary is to avoid criticism for the sake of mere criticism; also, engaging ourselves just in discussions of yogic experiences by taking them as problems of metaphysics for their own sake can hardly be the right method of looking at Jnaneshwari. There are in Marathi at least three hundred books published on it covering several aspects of the work. This has been a fertile field of occupation and authors and commentators have revelled in the enterprise. Naturally, this will entail differences of opinion and at times even acrimonious confrontations. But, scholarship particularly when it is a seeker's scholarship, also brings its own rewards that can be pretty valuable to the pursuer of the truth of things.

In that sense the scriptural writings always act as an infallible guide and they have the power to put us directly in contact with the revelatory spirit,—witness the Word of the Veda or the Upanishad or the Gita, and we remain secure in it. More often than not this is also true in the case of Jnaneshwari, its Word of Truth having the power that can make that Truth living. In fact it would not have braved this long passage of time had it not been so. Hence there is a chance for our perception or intuitive understanding to enter into its spirit and it depends entirely upon us how, and how much, to profit from it. The test of scholarship lies in the context of a scripture’s revelations and

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that is also a kind of internal check on the acceptability of its consequences. This method may therefore prove profitable when there are textual variations or there are dubious readings or inconsistencies or inadvertent copying mistakes or literary or stylistic differences. The sense of a particular word or phrase also has a certain bearing in the idiomatic formation of a language at the time of its composition. Such multifold factors will have to be taken into account if we have to go into the temper and disposition of a scriptural poem.

Jnaneshwari is a precious and beautiful necklace adorning the Goddess of Literature of Maharashtra. The Gita in the form of a dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna has revealed the great secret of spirituality and it is that which is given to us by Jnaneshwar in the Marathi tongue. It has provided inspiration to seekers and saints, to people of wisdom and knowledge, to those who are engaged in kingly politics and governance, as well as to the creative writers down the centuries. Jnaneshwar has taken the occasion of the Gita and worked out several themes of Yoga, occult sciences, metaphysical issues, and matters pertaining to creative literature of the spiritual-devotional kind. That is why he calls the work as the Purported Sense of the Gita, bhavartha deepika, thus giving him enough scope to make detours in the contexts of the original text.

Everywhere we have genuine spiritual phrases kindled with yogic fire. However, there are variations in its quality and the poetry may not always seem to be equally elevated. At a number of places it has become flat and one wonders if the original text has not been tampered with or recast at places. This may be a difficult question to settle, particularly when we are seeing the problem from such a distance in time. The author never revised his work and no draft was made in his own handwriting. Besides, the earliest available copy of Jnaneshwari belongs to the fourteenth century and we do not know what could have happened during the intervening period of some two hundred years. Even during the later period considerable variation had occured as is witnessed in several copies discovered by the tireless researches of the recent scholars.

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One of the literary and historical problems of Jnaneshwari which has yet to be resolved is the expurgation of spurious material from the text. The status of a religious scripture it has traditionally acquired may come in the way of such an enterprise even if it were to be undertaken with a free and enlightened unprejudiced attitude. It may immediately hurt the feelings of thousands who reverentially recite or read it regularly; it may draw the wrath of Vedantic adherents who go only by the philosophy of Shankara following whom, it is said, Jnaneshwar wrote his commentary. It will even be retorted that such an arrogant if not foolish thought is typical of Anglicised or Westernised mentality. Often it is said that this mentality does not understand or respect the glory of the long-established belief or custom that has come down to us through the hands of hundreds of well-read as well as wise and worthy shapers and keepers of society of the past.  Then, it may disturb the pious credulity of the simple folk for whom Jnaneshwar is the king among the knowers of the Brahman, jnaniyancha raja, without realising that in his superb work a lot of subsequent inferior admixture has also crept in. But, at this stage, we can only point out that such has not been the fate of this work alone. Thus we know too well how the great epic of Vyasa has extensively suffered the easy mediocrity of later generations. To edit and bring out the original composition from the mass of defective and at times even puerile verses is quite a difficult and responsible task which can be handled only by entering into the poetic and spiritual ambience of such a marvellous creation.

In the case of Jnaneshwari Ekanath in the sixteenth century, three hundred years after the work was composed, had done the editing. Unfortunately, he did not leave any clue behind regarding the method of his approach or the type of source material he had at his disposal. We can only say that he felt the need to edit the work. It is generally believed that he had received in a dream the command or adesh from the author to undertake the task of bringing out a properly edited version of the Commentary. In the process the editor himself acquired a kind of legendary status. He also uttered a malediction that it will be spoiling a good dish if any further attempt to look into the aspect of editing the work is attempted. The task of re-looking into the problem is therefore not only daunting; it is also hazardous, laden as it is with a curse.

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Yet this has got to be done with a rational as well as an intuitive understanding, remembering that we are dealing with a Yogi’s poetry, a fact which is rarely recognised. We must remember that there are verbal differences between various editions and there is no way to know which could really be the original version. The test is the spiritual-poetic aptness of expression. As the modern mind is antithetical to such a demand and is very likely to make a mess of the whole thing, the imprecation of Ekanath may as well stand valid.

Take an example. There is a striking linguistic study pertaining to certain words appearing in Jnaneshwari which cannot be easily understood. As the language itself was taking birth around that time, we do not know what influences might have entered into its making and given it a shape to become a literary vehicle. Influences from other vernaculars also might have affected its growth in a considerable way. Notwithstanding the lack of communication between different parts of the country in those days, the possibility of their drawing upon each other cannot be off-hand ruled out. Thus, it is suggested that the study of Kannada words entering into Marathi will shed considerable light on several obscure owis of Jnaneshwari. It is claimed that there is one-third of the Kannada vocabulary in this composition and by understanding the Kannada words the meaning of some of the otherwise indistinct or beclouded verses can become immediately clear. Maybe; but it seems to be too big an assertion. There could be an element of truth in it but the study itself is rather restricted. If the presence of such words or such an influence is a fact, then we should also find similar instances in other works of the author, for instance, in Jnaneshwar’s Amritanubhava, or works belonging to that period. But when this comparative aspect is not presented or when the historical connection between the two languages is not established, then one will have hesitation in accepting whole-heartedly such a sweeping thesis. Also, such a study might turn out to be somewhat directed or personal and hence of doubtful utility. It has the danger of robbing the naturalness of interpretation which otherwise should flow with easy spontaneity and felicity. Even from the point of view of scholarship, there are too many loopholes in our theories of Jnaneshwari and none of them is really convincing,—

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nor would a combination of these produce a satisfactory result. This is particularly so when there are too many missing data. We don’t have Jnaneshwar’s own composition with us and we do not know how Ekanath handled it. Nor was the Indian mind of those days scientific or meticulous enough to attend to minute particulars of any writing. It is well known that copyists made their own variations, their own departures which maybe at times inadvertent, as the work went from hand to hand through the successive generations.

The theory that the original Jnaneshwari was put in the Samadhi-cave and later taken out by Ekanath in 1628 doesn’t seem convincing; for, that would mean that it was not available for about three hundred years in between. But it seems to be more a belief and an expression of respect for tradition. We should remember that Jnaneshwar wrote his commentary on the Gita for the benefit of the common Marathi people who did not have access to the original in Sanskrit. Besides, he wanted to win the wager of ambrosia in this simple tongue by which the darkness of the ill-minded or the evil of the world could be dispelled. This purpose would then get defeated if the composition were taken away from men for whom it was meant. Nor would have such a thing happened without the permission of his brother-guru Nivritti. We cannot believe that Nivritti the Yogi would have allowed this to happen knowing very well its spiritual value.

Surely there were copies in circulation prior to Eknath’s edition which had prompted him to look into the matter as he thought that they had got corrupted in lesser hands. The mystery is also concerning the very disappearance of Ekanath’s edited copy itself. And then the curse upon those who would alter and disfigure the text that was prepared by him! To the modern mind it is all religious credulity to be of any use. It is more a threat, a medieval threat, than an appeal to the good sense of a knowledgeable and discerning reader or devotee or critic. For a worshipper or upasaka of the scripture alteration in its copy-text is altogether unacceptable, as it would amount to mutilation of work that was inspired by the Goddess of Speech or Vagdevi herself. And yet today we do see divergences between several versions.

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In fact we notice that there are at least ten different wordings in the very first twenty-five owis. Considerable research work has therefore yet to be got done on Jnaneshwari, a task which is indeed very arduous. But it will be worthwhile to do it.

But what we have to steadfastly understand is that the external paraphernalia a Yogi-Poet uses is after all not so important. Instead what matters is the revelation that he brings to us which undoubtedly is the most valuable aspect of his work. A spiritual creation must be seen in the spiritual context and not in any secular or exotic or analytical mode. Which does not imply that these cannot be present there, but they occupy a secondary position. Should that spiritual context be not our approach in studying works like Jnaneshwari? Linguistic considerations unmistakably have their own utility or acceptability, their own precious value; but then there are too many factors which a scholarship would demand to be taken note of. Evolution of languages, their interactions with each other, linguistics, spurious accretions in the course of time, interpolations, miscopying, personal biases entering in while dealing with the revelatory writings, metaphysical prejudices in expressing the truths of the spirit although the poetry may still be pure gold,—all these are quite important and they do deserve a completer study. Simultaneously, a comparative evaluation of the works is also very necessary. Then, we should also admit that a Yogi-Poet or a Seer-Poet or a Devotee-Poet’s creation must be seen in the light of intuition rather than intellect, a difficult undertaking for the rationalist’s approach.

We need not elaborate the point any further here except by presenting an example. Let us just touch upon the salt image of the female elephant, lavanachi kunjari, before we put it in a tub of water. (Jnaneshwari: 15.318; also see 18.986, 1380, 1414) Jnaneshwar is explaining the complete immergence of the knower of Brahman in Brahman when the identification with it is complete. One of the images he puts forward is that of salt dissolving in water. Why does the poet pick up the image of a female elephant and not that of a lioness or a butterfly if any one of them can very well serve the purpose to illustrate his idea? Indeed, why bring in an animal at all and not simply say a pinch of salt?

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We may as well argue logically about it; but in doing so we shall miss the poetry whose function is also to reveal an intimate relationship, even oneness, a psychological association which brings a certain warmth and ardour that is there in its many-directional mutuality. A female, a charm, a tenderness, a sense of offering and surrender, a beloved’s joy of giving herself to the lord of her heart, the lover; not a beast of prey, but an elephant, impressive and large and majestically tangible, not insignificant in any sense, yet pretty homely, one in whose friendship we feel happy, whom we love and whose gentle nature has a sort of godliness with its massive strength which is without malice,—that is what the image conveys to us. And then add to it the subtle element of poetry borne by the rhythmic sound! How atrocious, how aesthetically unpleasant it will be to say lavanache shvan (dog) instead of lavanachi kunjari! We will be immediately thrown off from the speeding horse of joy. Even Jnaneshwar’s own lavanachi kanika or a lump of salt is not that poetic or effective.

In this connection we may well take note of what Sri Aurobindo says about poetry: “Poetry comes into being at the direct call of three powers, inspiration, beauty and delight, and brings them to us and us to them by the magic charm of the inspired rhythmic word.”  (The Future Poetry, SABCL, Vol. 9, p. 216) In Jnaneshwari we have such an “inspired rhythmic word” though not everywhere but in great abundance and it is that which takes us to the magic charm of a world that is full of happy sounds and pleasing images and noble ideas. In it is the authentic flow of poetry which is both beautiful and joyous. Such is its true inspiration. Educative or didactic it may appear at places, yet it is done in the élan of revelation.

Regarding the philosophical aspects, we may have differences of opinion about the metaphysics of Jnaneshwar, metaphysics which is essentially the Shankarite Adwaita interpretation of life here in this world. It is also likely that Jnaneshwar was not able to resolve or else didn’t care to resolve the conflict of the inexplicable Maya and the reality of Brahman giving rise to an illusory creation. Shankara’s stock images of snake and rope or the children of a barren woman are

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present in Jnaneshwari at a number of places. But there cannot be any doubt about the quality of Jnaneshwar’s poetry. Is it not for the same reason that it has a wider as well as a deeper appeal than his Amritanubhava? We go to spiritual poetry not necessarily for thought, but for the power it has to put us in contact with the spirit itself. That is what Jnaneshwari does and that is why it is great. It is overhead, in the parlance of Sri Aurobindo. All other studies are only aids towards this. We ought to enter into the poetic Yoga of Jnaneshwari if we are to receive its benedictive happiness which is there in its luminous generosity and fullness.

Does it then mean that we give up the study altogether, that we abandon the scholastic approach towards it? Certainly this can never be a wise counsel. But, and more importantly, what is necessary is that we must first recognise the scriptural aspect of the work with its inspiration flowing from the fountains of the spirit, deriving its sustenance from the worlds far richer than those which our mental notions and thoughts offer to us. The stamp of its felicitous ethereality can never be ignored and any attempt to do so will always prove to be disastrous. Besides the substance, we should also recognise that the Yogin was a poet too. The language of a poet breathes differently than the language of a thinker or even that of a contemplator and the poetic word always carries with it several nuances of meaning; it always suggests, through its varied shades and colours, the happy truths of the spirit itself. And then it is the rhythm, the vibrant soul of poetry, which really puts us directly in contact with it. It is that which is what counts the most. That is why perhaps it is always difficult to translate poetry from one language into another and that is precisely why most of its charm gets lost in a prose rendering or paraphrasing of it.

Therefore any representation of Jnaneshwari, be it in Marathi or English or for that matter in any other language, be it in verse or prose form, any aesthetic appreciation or any kind of analysis must take into consideration its poetry first. If this is not done not only we will be doing injustice to the work; we will also miss the power of the

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creative word, the sheer delight of expression, the essential rasa by which such poetry comes into existence and in which it lives and by which it thrives. That indeed is the happy merit of all spiritual writings. Their language is always what Sri Aurobindo calls the overhead language, language that comes from planes above our limited ratiocinative or physical mind. The more we climb the summits of this language the more it reveals the secret truths that are waiting to take form, waiting to bestow on our life the boons of their sweetness and charm, their beauty and their widening truth. Indeed raso vai sa is the first principle of these esoteric compositions. In assessing such works we cannot therefore apply our standards of judgement howsoever aesthetically good or refined or appealing these be. Nor any fixation, again howsoever sound or convincing or comprehensive it be, can at all give us genuine satisfaction when we wish to approach and receive their spiritual revelations. One has to only grow in a kind of warm sympathetic oneness with these inspired utterances, the oneness that has its foundation in the spirit of things, that comes from the world of creative intuition itself. Indeed one has to ascend these upward slopes of intuition if one is to appreciate the play of intuition.

Poetry and Yoga should be our approach to read Jnaneshwari. That indeed is to drink ambrosia from the crystalline stream that is ever flowing from it. But then for both Yoga and Poetry Jnaneshwari itself opens out newer dimensions of the spirit in which our growth can be interminable. It has the power to lift up our limited rational mind to the levels of higher intuition. This should then really mean our seeing it with a suppler and freer luminous intellect with the possibility of perceiving the subtler shades and nuances of the spiritual experience and expression. Jnaneshwar’s work has that scope and it is only the little ingenuous mind  of ours that has prevented us so long from the exploration of these worlds of the magnum opus. Our approach must be to read it with all the openness we can command and benefit from it in the best likely way. If such an approach should invite criticism from the traditional or religious quarters, calling it modern arrogance, then in the interest of a deeper pursuit it need not in any sense distract us from the pursuit, deter us from the path.

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There is no doubt that Jnaneshwar was an accomplished Yogi. But there is a problem also about philosophy which is always different from spiritual poetry or spiritual realisations. Not that it cannot be the subject matter of poetry,—as we have in the Gita itself. But in this regard Jnaneshwari tends to be very much a descriptive manual or else a simple plain narrative that does not quite aim at systematically projecting any school of thought or present any siddhanta or darshana, as is the case with the traditional Acharyas. This non-presentation of philosophical thoughts can be an objectionable shortcoming. Also whatever metaphysics we have in Jnaneshwari, with its heavy leaning towards Shankara’s Adwaitic ideas, that may not be altogether acceptable, particularly so in these post-Illusionist days of our thinking. The Gita is vaster than such an Adwaitic doctrine.

One can appreciate that there are always, and understandably so, variations in the quality of poetry in a long composition of this kind running over several thousand verses. It is not too very unoften that inspiration becomes less certain and the gifts of its spontaneity seem to be hesitant or wavering. Perhaps Jnaneshwar didn’t care about all these details or matters and left the work in the form as he received it in the first flush of his writing. The belief is that Bharati or the Goddess of Inspiration and expressive Word always gives sweetness to the sweet and elegance to the beautiful and charm to the enchanting and one can leave all finer aspects of aesthetic perfection to her. Perhaps this is what our author felt even as he didn’t concern himself about possible disinclination towards his creative writing. Alternatively, these passages got interpolated later, an eventuality which is not altogether unlikely. If the latter is a distinct possibility, as a working principle it is unfortunately beset by the lack of dependable data. On the other hand, the first is a matter of perception and subjective judgement, entirely introspective in its character, and it can prove to be risky in several ways, including the danger of running counter to the tradition and our long-established associations with it. But actually it is this approach which must be picked up in editing Jnaneshwari. When done in the proper spirit to grow in it, there is no doubt that it will draw happy approbation of the author himself.

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Jnaneshwari has in it poetry, philosophy, science of Yoga, literary criticism, inherited knowledge and it is necessary for us to profit from it. The problem will therefore be to preserve this lore, assuring that yogic-spiritual aspects will not suffer in any way. Can this be gainfully done? The answer will lie in sorting out such themes and putting them in the form of several appendixes in the nature of archival documents. But this approach will have the demerit of accepting the available versions of Jnaneshwari as fully authentic which do not seem to be so. There is very clearly a lot of inferior stuff which got incorporated into the text. One quick method could be to consider these topics as accretions and re-edit the entire work.

In this respect, however, the approach should be first to undertake the preparation of a universally acceptable draft of Jnaneshwari. This would imply removing all defective accretions which have, in a certain sense, brought down the overall quality of the scripture. Another point,—and perhaps most desirable in terms of it acting as a guiding principle,— which one has to bear in mind is the evaluation of poetry itself. People often bring in aesthetic theories of Bharata in its evaluation and therefore miss its essential significance and Rasa. This is not altogether correct and therefore the method is greatly inapplicable in this case. We have to understand in what manner Jnaneshwar was successful in making his Marathi a vernacular that could win the wager of ambrosia. The quality of the spiritual poetry in Jnaneshwari is so very genuine that it can easily guide us to prepare an acceptable text. Its overhead character should be our main criterion.

Take an example. The supplicatory verses in the eleventh chapter of the Gita are absolutely mantric and they carry a spiritual force that can really work wonders. Jnaneshwar’s rendering of them into Marathi is also an inspired marvel. It is another creation, psychic-lyrical with a powerful spontaneity which can lift up the soul to the supremacy of the vision it embodies. In it we see the arrival of genuine Bhakti exaltation and eminence of newer times bringing with it another wide dimension of the spirit. There is no doubt that the Marathi Bhakti movement was a vigorous rush of psychic-spiritual activity and that it has greatly moulded our way of life and our thinking; it has given a

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distinctive character to us and we should be proud of it. But new horizons have now to open out and we must go to the world of poetry where revelatory word comes in the absoluteness of its utterance, in the absoluteness of its mantric image and sense and rhythm. Spiritual or devotional ideas and experiences are one thing and can be the subject matter of poetry, but poetry by itself is another matter. In this respect Jnaneshwar has no peer in Marathi literature, perhaps even in Tukaram when we consider the wide-ranging nature of his composition in the richness of its sounds and colours and feelings and thoughts, its echoes and shades and nuances, its many-sided perceptions. Its reach is sublimely overhead ranging beyond the mental worlds, bearing in them at times the native expression of the overmental globality. It becomes Vedic. It is at times said that the Vedas are the expression of Nature, that their poetry is Nature poetry; but it is the inner Nature with its esotericism that expresses deeper realities which can put us in direct contact with the luminous powers of the Spirit. Jnaneshwari’s esotericism lies in its yogic lyricism. Indeed, in that respect its greatness and distinction, its dignity and importance cannot be overemphasised. The exposition of ideas is beautiful and through them shines the Sun of Truth as much as in that truth smiles the Sun of Beauty. In it is aglow the Sun of aesthetic Delight that sustains the creative ardour in the multiplicity of spiritual existence. It is another kind of mantric songlike poem that has come to us in a new way to make our life richly meaningful and happy.

To quote Sri Aurobindo: “…the poetic mind sees at once in a flood of coloured light, in a moved experience, in an ecstasy of the coming of the word, in splendours of form, in a spontaneous leaping out of inspired idea upon idea…” (The Future Poetry, SABCL, Vol. 9, p. 213) This is exactly what we have in Jnaneshwari, though not everywhere on a sustained level. Jnaneshwar’s is not a philosophic but a poetic mind, alert and supple, opening out to the answering demands of the Goddess of Inspiration who has bestowed her varied boons upon him. His unpremeditated melodies issue forth from the usual mind that has fallen silent, making room for the true and the beautiful to fill it.

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In the background of such achievements our modern understanding of Jnaneshwar at times seems unfortunately to be wanting in its gripping essentiality. Very often there is the stress on his metaphysics or on the aspect of Bhakti alone which can be quite misplaced. We may cite an example or two.

In his introduction to Dnaneshwar's Gita by Swami Kripanand, S. G. Tulpule of Indian Institute of Advanced Studies writes as follows: “If Jnaneshwari teaches anything, it is the way of devotion. It is an easy but a long, long way. In fact, it is endless. The aspiring mystic goes on continuously approaching God, and instead of reaching a final and perfect identity between these two, the devotee meets God at infinity. There is only a little difference left between them which disappears upon the mystic’s giving up the ghost. The reason for this asymptotic approximation to Reality, as Ranade calls it, is the physical, mental and other limitation of the seeker. As long as he has a body, a mind and a world to live in, he must fall short of total Divine Attachment. Says Jnaneshwar: ‘Even though a devotee may reach unison with God, yet he remains a devotee.’ The doctrine of asymptotism can be said to be a veritable landmark in the history of the philosophy of mysticism.” The author continues: “It is surprising to find parallel thoughts in the writings of the Chinese philosopher, Confucius, who lived in the 5th century B. C. To the question ‘How can the finite man attain the infinite Cheng?’ he answers: ‘Cheng is actually to be reached only by the sage, but it is the business of the ordinary man...to seek and strive with all his faculties to approach it. It is true that the path of this approach, though convergent, is endless—asymptotic, like the mathematical straight line that draws ever nearer to a curve, yet never meets it. There is no need for dismay on that account, however, for the path is rich in compensation and promise.’ Jnaneshwar says: Granted that one completely renounces the world, meets the proper Guru, gets initiated in the right way, granted all this, granted that the seed that is sown is the best of its kind and is sown in the best of the land, yet it is only in the course of time that a rich harvest can be reaped.” Can mysticism accept the concept of asymptotism?

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In his book Maharashtratil Sant Mandaliche Aitihasik Karya (The Historical Work of the Saints in Maharashtra), B.R. Sukhtankar says: “In Dnyanadeva, devotion, yoga, knowledge and karmayoga had an excellent blend. He was the philosophical Guru of the Varakari Movement…He thought that Truth is dynamic and rejected Shankaracharya’s doctrine of ‘the world is an illusion’ saying God and Creation are the same; just as Fire and Flame, Lotus and Petal, Diamond and Lustre, Ocean and Wave are not different, God and Creation are not different…He accepted age-old principle of Hinduism that ‘liberation (moksha) is through knowledge’ and broke that ground for women and lower castes. He was Maharashtra’s greatest philosopher. In fact, the Medieval Indian Philosophy reached its climax in him…It is a pity that nobody came forward to develop his philosophy, else he too would have been established as a founder of modern philosophy like Spinoza and Berkeley.”  We should ponder whether such a western approach is at all proper to look into the work. It is well known that Jnaneshwar in Jnaneshwari had never set himself to deal with any philosophy per se and whatever philosophical he had said it was purely in the context of the Gita. Even that was not a systematic or a very original exposition of the issues dealt by it. His poetic expression was always in the contextual details and nowhere an attempt was made to bring out any doctrinal principle for its own sake, as was done by Shankara. In fact one wonders whether Jnaneshwar himself would have relished being a Spinoza or a Berkeley, nor even a Plato. Therefore such a discussion in the context of his phenomenological-experiential attainments will be our misplaced enthusiasm to call him a philosopher. It is through the poetry of his creation that one can really meet him and be one with him. Jnaneshwari is not a treatise on metaphysics or spiritual philosophy or a tract of yogic practices though all these abound in it in their functional richnesses. After all it has a far greater appeal to our inner being than his deeply philosophical Amritanubhava.

If we were to see Jnaneshwari merely as a literary creation we would miss much of its aesthetic delight which flows from its spiritual inspiration and spiritual word. We should not look at it as the

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work of a poet like Milton, Wordsworth, Shelley, or Keats, even like that of Dante or Kalidas. It must be seen as the work of Valmiki or Vyasa though not on that level of aesthetic-spiritual creativity. Textbook or academic criteria are certainly not applicable to it nor should we judge it as “noble” or “elevating” merely in the Arnoldian sense. Nor should we look at it hastily in terms of “formal beauty” based on standardised measures or theoretic-prosodic considerations. In it we have a calm rush of language and thought which are alien to our perception of things. Take for example the following statement: “Literature begins in the creative possibilities of human language and in the desire of human beings to use their language creatively. Though its origin lies in the joy of creation, literature can be intensely serious. It can use its formal beauty as a way of enabling us to contemplate the most painful and terrible aspects of existence, or as a way of celebrating those things we value most highly in life. In the end, literature enriches our lives because it increases our capacities for understanding and communication. It helps us to find meaning in our world and to express it and share it with others. And this is the most humane activity of our existence.” (Elements of Literature edited by Robert Scholes, Nancy R. Comley, Carl H. Claus and Michael Silverman, Oxford University Press) Jnaneshwari goes beyond that. In it human language acquires the character of transcendental speech. Its scope is the revelation that can become a part of our existence. Something that is unknown and unreachable is brought closer to us. In it is the greatness of Jnaneshwari.

We may restate it differently: the function of poetry should be to help spiritual realisation by which poetry too can realise the deeper sense of its creative functions. In it the means and aims get united as if an artistic urge found expression for the spirit’s delight in universal oneness. To put it in Sri Aurobindo’s words: “The voice of poetry comes from a region above us, a plane of our being above and beyond our personal intelligence, a supermind which sees things in their innermost and largest truth by a spiritual identity and with a lustrous effulgency and rapture and its native language is a revelatory, inspired, intuitive word limpid or subtly vibrant or densely packed with the glory

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of this ecstasy and lustre.” (The Future Poetry, SABCL, Vol. 9, pp. 279) While presenting his vision of the kind of poetry that will be given to us in future, he writes: “It is in effect a larger cosmic vision, a realising of the godhead in the world and in man, of his divine possibilities as well as of the greatness of the power that manifests in what he is, a spiritualised uplifting of his thought and feeling and sense and action, a more developed psychic mind and heart, a truer and deeper insight into his nature and the meaning of the world, a calling of diviner potentialities and more spiritual values into the intention and structure of his life that is the call upon humanity, the prospect offered to it by the slowly unfolding and now more clearly disclosed Self of the universe.” (Ibid., p. 288)

In a certain sense we may therefore say that Jnaneshwari is generally future poetry which has the mantric power to mould our lives in the triple greatness of the spirit. Thoughts, feelings, our will all grow in proportion as we live more and more in it. It brings insights, it brings to us diviner potentialities, it brings spiritual values closer to us; we embody in us the realities that are elevating and enduring. We expect this spirit to be renewed in our creative activities, giving to life a nobility which will transform our anguish and suffering into delight of existence. Thus we shall relive in Jnaneshwari.

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