On the banks of the calm and stately Pravara at Newase people hailing from different walks of life have gathered in the temple of Mhalasa. They have come to listen to Yogi Jnaneshwar’s discourses on the Gita. In the assembly there are children and women and the simple-minded villagers of the Deccan in the late twelfth century. There are also scholars and learned men, devotees, sages and saints who are keen to listen to his sweet and enchanting composition in their own homely vernacular. His yogically powerful and revelatory poetry in the new language is not only a great attraction; it is also an experience for them. The poet is endeared to the audience.
The tongue of these people is the unsophisticated candid and plain Marathi. Very few of them know Sanskrit and still fewer the text of the Gita in any depth of its contents. It is to these people that Jnaneshwar has to explain the rich and marvellous Scripture in its many shades and nuances. But there is something more to it than just that. He has to expound the yogic philosophy of the Great Dialogue the sage of the Mahabharata has given to us in majesty of the classical diction and speech. He is also quite conscious of the fact that Vyasa’s work is not an ordinary dialogue at all; it is the supreme Word, the benedictive Assurance coming from a person no other than the Avatar of Kurukshetra himself. It is the most benevolent Word for the individual’s as well as for the collectivity’s wide and benign progress. It is a teaching full of spiritual lore, rich in substance, rich in thought, rich in poetry, rich in literary style and expression. But these are very formidable qualities,—and add to them the dignity and sublimity of Sanskrit with its quantitative massiveness,—that have to be rendered in a local or provincial language which has yet to demonstrate its capability and merit to handle such a difficult theme.
Will Marathi stand up to that demand of the Gita, come up anywhere close to the measure of excellence and aesthetic flawlessness that is there in the ancient speech?
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Such is essentially the question posed by Jnaneshwar to himself. Apart from the difficulty of finding the effective and expressive word, if not the inevitable word, there is a much greater difficulty presented by the deep metaphysical and esoteric issues themselves. These are issues of a very fundamental character and the poetic word of the Gita has raised and tackled them with such mastery that to recreate it with that abounding and liberal expository power is well nigh impossible. It has a certain epic sweep and vastness, a certain sovereign power and majesty with so many moods and manners that it cannot be easily grasped and much less rendered into any other language. In fact it has created its own vocabulary as well as idiomatic form for the needs of its presentation and therefore is an utterance self-effective for its own great purpose. Its images and figures, its symbols, its thoughts are bright nationals of the world from where comes inspiration. The mantric and revelatory affirmations cannot be easily shifted elsewhere or transplanted to another soil. This is particularly so when the language happens still to be very green in her age, undeveloped and without any literary background upon which it could build up its structure, without the richness of subtlety, of hints and suggestions that would carry with them the corresponding shades of meaning and understanding. The creative delight has not yet found the sublimity of its voice in it.
Furthermore, the set of circumstances under which Jnaneshwar is presenting us his work contains additional complexity. His audience is a mixed audience and he has an immediate problem regarding the level at which he should address it. The speaker is fully aware of the fact that it is going to be a very onerous undertaking with people of different backgrounds and qualifications, and having different expectations, attending the talks.
To get the Gita or even a bit or part of it in another medium may prove a formidable task. Perhaps only by going to that world of inspiration where the mantric voice finds its first utterance it may become possible. It is only by listening to its original sound and by seizing the original sense and by seeing the original form of its beauty in the sheer joy of creation, that something of its greatness may be received in the new expression.
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Jnaneshwar has to a great extent done that in Marathi. It is a feat that was acknowledged and applauded not only by the people who attended his sessions, but also later by thirty odd generations that came in the long centuries after him. Those perceptive ones who had gathered around him were stunned by his accomplishment and those who came afterwards in the succession of time praised him and rightly adored him as the first poet of Marathi, Adi Kavi. Everyone spoke of the work with veneration but more so in sheer astonishment and admiration that such a thing could have been done at all in their tongue:
(Jnaneshwari: 6.133-34)
See what a marvel this is! Surely this language could not have been the language spoken by common ordinary people. It would also be wrong to say that this utterance, this extraordinary articulation is at all plain and simple Marathi. Its art and its literary qualities enhance further its sweetness and its charm. These are such that diverse shades and hues spread by it in the sky easily inspirit more and more of the difficult subjects, subjects such as the nature of the oneness of the Self everywhere. Knowledge shines in it with soft and pleasing whiteness of moonlight. A cool and soothing esoteric sacredness is present in its living idiomatic expression. With its happy abundant gifts the lotuses of the teaching of the Gita bloom in these waters in fragrant profusion.
By the import of the words in the delight of truth and by the sweetness of the flowing rhythmic measure, by its oratorical power and great eloquence in the warm intimate language, the language of their hearts, the serene and saintly yet alert audience got swayed and started nodding in its joy,—even as Jnaneshwar derived encouragement from them while giving his presentation of the Gita.
They all heard Jnaneshwar with rapt attention. The one single point of their interest and absorption was the revelation made to
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Arjuna by none other than the supreme Lord himself, the Avatar who stood on the battlefield as the Teacher of the Gita. To his chosen one did he give the knowledge of his Being and the knowledge of his own Self. He showed to Arjuna his universal form whose brightness surpassed the brightness of a thousand suns put together. Not only that; to him was disclosed the secret of secrets, guhyatma guhyam, the secret of life in the great Spirit’s freedom. Arjuna had fallen into the Slough of Despond, as some unmanly and awkward clumsy weakness had overtaken him. But by the occult power of the words of the Teacher all this ineptness and all this ignorance got dispelled; that unnatural infirmity which had crept in and kept him under its influence got completely eliminated. Now he was free from every bondage and free from the inferior Prakriti’s misleading enterprises and moods. He recovered his true self.
Arjuna has come to know what the right action is and how to perform it and turn it into an offering to the Master of Works. Through it he would identify himself with the supreme Being and win inalienable oneness with him. He would get the fruit of the Adwaitic Yoga, of ever remaining in union with the great partless Self, the supreme Self, Paramatman. Indeed, that state would become his normal state of consciousness, with no sense of possession haunting him, no want, no tinge of desire, no passion troubling him; he would no more be swayed by the buffeting winds of enthusiasm, anger, excitement, commotion, ferment, hostility or exasperation. His firm and immediate gains would be those of self-controlled mind and tranquil heart. He would have purity of feeling and calm poise for doing works according to his inborn nature, his swabhava.
By this merit Arjuna would get yet closer to the Teacher. But that would not be an ordinary kind of closeness. In it there would be something more than that, something very meritorious, deep and intimately spiritual. There on the battlefield of Kurukshetra the warrior would be urged by his Charioteer to take up arms and fulfil himself in the war, the great sanguinary War waged for upholding Righteousness in the world.
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Jnaneshwar is actually suggesting that special inwrought and inborn fundamental relationship which in fact is ever present between Krishna and Arjuna. Quite appropriately he is driving home the point that here is a devotee who has practised in an excellent manner the eighth type of devotion, of friendship and emotional closeness, sakhya bhava, with the supreme Lord himself. And in that respect all merit is indeed his,—as well as is his great rare fortune which comes on account of such fondness with the divine Friend. The receiver of the rewards of the three worlds claimed in that happy and admirable inheritance the best of rewards, the reward of oneness with his marvellous Companion. Not only the devotee but the Lord too enjoys the deep-seated identity which no sorrowful transience can ever touch. So with all the eager spontaneity and openness he expressed his loving and sweet longing for the precious seeker-soul. Though he is formless, amurta, he took a form and became murta. This he did precisely because only so could he delight in the wonderful relationship that is possible between the two. The divine has to become human to have human relationship in which he still keeps his native divinity unaffected, undiminished and undispossessed.
(Jnaneshwari: 6.130-31)
If a language can rise to the occasion and prove itself capable of describing such an extraordinary relationship, of friendship between Man and God, the quintessential happiness of identity between the worshipped and the worshipper, then that language too must be an exceptional language. It ought to be an utterance and articulation of sweetness itself. If this miracle has been accomplished in Marathi, then it will be wrong to say that it is a simple and plain unrefined vernacular without the appeal, the richness and subtlety of the Sanskrit tongue. If it can handle even an abstruse topic such as Non-duality of the Self, and that too with great flourish and exquisiteness, with great élan, in a literary style with another kind of fluency and excellence, surely it must be considered as something very unusual, something praiseworthy and aesthetically acceptable for the creative spirit itself.
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Such was the sense conveyed by the new poetry and such were the feelings carried by people who attended Jnaneshwar’s Gita discourses in the Mhalasa temple at Newase. They became more and more eager to listen to him, even as in their inspiring company the composition proceeded apace. Of this reciprocal gainfulness Jnaneshwar speaks with appreciation and acknowledgment at a number of places in Jnaneshwari. At every important step of the exposition he quite proudly tells how indeed his Marathi can be an admirable vehicle to bring to them the profundities of the spirit, the wisdom and sagacity which had until then remained for them a sealed book in Sanskrit. There are at least a dozen places in the work where he expresses this confidence of his,—not as a mannerism but as a genuine admission and affirmation of the help he received from them. His gratitude is for all those because of whom he could achieve this remarkable success. He is happy with the inspiring dynamism, with the grace and lyrical freshness of this gifted language that can speak of things of a deeper reality, things of the heart and of the inner being. This is not just a hasty misplaced poetic enthusiasm displayed in immediate and direct response to his own composition, but is genuine and is also luminously felicitous in its quality.
In the following we shall take some of these assertions of Jnaneshwar in their brief contexts to illustrate the accomplishment and perfection that the Yogi-Poet achieved in his magnum opus. We really begin to wonder about the exceptional nature of this creation and that too just at a tender age of fifteen or so. Not only is his poetry esoterically of the first order; it also abounds with any number of references to the secular and household modes of life. His minutiae of social observation and the thoroughness of metaphysical basis only go to show the readiness of his tools and faculties in the service of inspiration that had its direct origin in some overhead world of expressive utterance. This very well indicates that he had directly opened himself to some high source of mystic-spiritual poetry. There is no doubt that he attributes this whole miracle to the grace of his Guru, but then there is also the element of preparedness, the readiness of tools of the remarkable disciple.
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Take the humility of Jnaneshwar with which he speaks while comparing his composition with the original of the great sage. He says that he is going to offer to the Lord of the Gita only some insignificant leaves of grass and not a rich and meritorious garland of flowers, as was prepared by Vyasa to worship him. But the Lord is candid, courteous, affable. Will he then despise his humble offering, ridicule the presents he has brought for him with such tender love and devotion? He has already accepted the words spoken by Vyasa, and will he then reject or say no to him just because of the lowly gifts that are unworthy of his majesty? His glory and magnificence surpass this whole creation and how can a crude and rustic vernacular tongue approach anywhere near the nobility and dignity of the classical expression? It will be wrong to compare the Marathi composition with Vyasa’s revelatory narration that has the elevated deportment of Sanskrit itself. But then there is consolation, even a possibility of fulfilment. It cannot be surpassed and there is no doubt about it, but there can be another lyricism with the sweetness of another soul.
A big herd of elephants goes to the shore of a lake and will that lake refuse the coming of a mere sand fly to drink its water? Where a swift and graceful eagle speeds majestically, will the same wide sky deny a fledgling with its new tiny wings to flutter in it? The stately lounge or saunter of a swan is pleasing indeed, but does it then mean that others should not even walk here on this green and beautiful earth? A pitcher may according to its large size hold in it a great quantity of water, but can I not take just a small mouthful of it? True, rolls of an oil-soaked cloth fixed at the end of a rod may burn with a bright flame, but should not a wick in a small claylamp shed its little light around? The sky reflected in a broad expanse of the sea surely looks very large; yet is it also not present even in a small roadside pool or puddle of water, making itself of that size? In the same way, it does not stand to reason that we should look at this work only with the great mind of Vyasa and others like him and remain quiet without doing anything at all. If immensely large creatures of the size of the legendary Mandar Mountain can live in the wide spaciousness of an ocean, should not a tiny and insignificant fish swim with
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freedom in it? No doubt Aruna the Charioteer of the Sun-God is always very close to his Master, but then can not an ant though wee little in size and crawling at this far distance on the surface of the earth even look at him? That is why it is not appropriate to say that we simple people should not have the Gita in our common country language.
(Jnaneshwari: 18.1711-20)
In justification of his enterprise to render the Gita in a simple and undeveloped unrefined provincial tongue many such poetic arguments did Jnaneshwar pile one upon another, the drift being the possibility of its rising to the demands of the task. Perhaps that nobility and dignity of the original may not come in the vernacular language, but such cannot be the reason for not making an attempt at all. On the contrary, it is very likely that the new attempt may bring another kind of sweetness to us in the felicity of the spirit’s another expressive delight. Jnaneshwar has a conviction that the grace of the preceptor is a sufficient assurance for the realisation of this proposition of his. He is certain that his guru Nivritti is always there to inspire and guide him, to give him help or advice, to give him instructions. Nay, there could be, something more than that. In particular and more importantly for him in the endeavour is the spiritual support from his Guru. He is certain that its merit alone would count as the finest gain, the gain for the good of his soul. He need not therefore harbour any apprehension.
In fact he feels that with the grace of the Guru even his ordinary action of breathing can give rise to extraordinary treatises or
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masterpieces. These will be rich in meaning and rich in literary value. In the richness of their lilt and music newer and newer creations will flow with sweet cadence and rapturous gracefulness. In their silent songs there will be the knowledge of the One, the very delight of the Self. That is why Jnaneshwar has undertaken this task of putting the Gita into Marathi. He has a conviction that through it even common people will be able to grasp its general sense and get some idea of its teaching. Not only that; they will profit from the mystical lore and the creative essence or rasa that makes living worthwhile. Their heart will be full of feeling for the Lord whose concern is always there for them. They do not know Sanskrit and they have still remained in the dark when the marvellous sun of spiritual illumination has been greatly made available to this wide world.
Jnaneshwar even goes a step farther. He makes himself bold and asserts the superiority of his composition. He has a reasonable feeling that if it is set to tune and sung, then it shall not be wanting in any way in its sweetness and charm and it shall be quite comparable to the classical song. In fact these qualities shall rather make the song itself more adorable and enchanting. So, says he, sing this Gita in the vernacular in a true melodious voice and let it prove to be an adornment to the singer himself. Even if it is spoken in a plain simple manner it shall offer everything,—happy feelings, and the power of its substance and truth, and the joy that is akin to the very expression that originated from its soul.
The exquisite craftsmanship of a piece of ornament may make it look very beautiful, but does it not become more beautiful when it is actually worn by a beautiful woman? Surely a pearl by itself does appear pretty, but then its value does get very much enhanced when it is studded with gold. The large white and roundish jasmine flowers of the spring, whether they are on a plant or strung together in a garland, scatter fragrance everywhere; so whether read or sung this composition of Jnaneshwar shall spread brahmarasa, the sweet essence of the Eternal; it shall scatter abroad in all directions, all where and all wise and in every measure its full abundance of happiness. On hearing the song the listeners will simply slip into deep
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meditation. But if there is an erudite scholar also he will ponder over its text and meaning. Its enjoyment shall prove to him to be greater than that of even enjoying the nectar. He shall be so much in harmonious rapport with its superb poetic substance and quality that it shall become a dwelling place for him, making it a natural abode of rest and tranquillity. When you shall live in that house it will be no more necessary to reflect or intently brood upon anything else; for, that itself shall give the desired experience and knowledge. It shall offer the best of self-bliss which shall foster pleasures of the senses in their true import and significance. Like the mythical bird chakor, which subsists only on the soft and cool radiance of the moon, even ordinary common people will enjoy the cheerful richness and skill of its expression, the felicity of its poetry. This may not be to the same degree or to the same depth as the Gita would offer to those who are advanced on the spiritual path; yet it will certainly put one in intimate contact with it.
(Jnaneshwari: 18.1738- 49)
Jnaneshwar owes much of his success to the excellence of some of the people in the audience who attended his discourses regularly and for several months; among the simple village folk, and children and women, there were also saints and devotees and yogis and they all participated in the sessions with a keen sense of exhilaration. Here they saw not just a literary composition, but a whole world of the spirit opening out to them. In fact he pleaded for their indulgence and
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asked to be forgiven if he should fall below their expectations. He made it clear to them that he was attempting something very unusual, that he was putting the great work which the Gita is in their simple vernacular language, their very rugged and domestic Marathi, in their colloquial idiom. There was a certain diffidence in accepting such an undertaking and yet something prompted and drove him to do it. In justification of this enterprise of his he gave, with considerable poetic fervour, arguments in several respects.
He feels himself to be a small firefly showing its little insignificant glow to the great sun that spreads brilliance everywhere and illumines everything. Can an ornament be really embellished by another ornament? Is it at all possible to make the primal music hear the composition of a song that originates from it? Is there any superior fragrance or another exquisiteness of scent which can be taken and offered to that pleasing sweetness of a flower? Do you need a fan to blow with it soothing air over the very giver of gentle and affable coolness? Can there be any better drink than ambrosia, the drink that has already been served in an exquisite bowl? Can one imagine a place deep enough for the ocean where it can have a luxurious bath or a joyous dip? Or is there an expanse that is sufficiently vast to hold the sky in it?
(Jnaneshwari: 9.9-11)
All this may be perfectly true but then Jnaneshwar puts forward a series of counter-arguments. One may consider it inappropriate if not funny to ceremoniously wave around the sun the little flame of a wick-lamp; one may offer water as oblations to the sea with the small measure of palms; one may even ridicule such attempts. Yet these are the very methods and means by which we can worship the great gods. Howsoever defective this whole enterprise of putting the Gita
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in Marathi may therefore appear to be, yet it has its own intrinsic and enduring worth. Then, there is the discerning audience who will ignore the blemishes and even the blunders,—as the faults of a little child are ignored by thoughtful and well-disposed elders. Entreating his listeners thus, Jnaneshwar continues further:
(Jnaneshwari: 9.20)
Can anyone really hold or circumscribe the sky, or can anyone sway or direct the blowing wind the way one would like it to blow, or can the moonlight be ripened as does one ripen the raw fruits by putting them in a bed of straw?
Why have fear then? why desist? But even the Veda Purusha, the Eternal in the form of the Word, finds himself ill at ease in describing the Gita. If such is the diffidence for him, that he should prefer to retire rather than speak about it or characterise it, then surely it would be very audacious on the part of Jnaneshwar to attempt rendering it in the simple language that Marathi is. But the genuine and kind-hearted appreciation from the listeners can assuredly be warm and enthusing. It can be more encouraging, or else more cool and soothing than even the moonlight. In fact it can be more efficacious than ambrosia which gives to its drinker the full breath of living life. Therefore Jnaneshwar does not see any reason for hesitation in carrying out the undertaking. A knowledgeable and discerning congregation of this kind has the power to inspire the speaker and the words of eloquence that are then uttered can begin to reveal and unravel the great premises and truths that operate in this world. With meaning flowing in natural spontaneity the occasion then turns out to be a happy feast for everybody. Many are such things that can be won precisely because of the zeal and sincere generosity of the competent in the gathering, even as they would be fond of pure and frank true-tongued speech. When there is such a gracious disposition, then the discourse itself attains a greater height of sublimity:
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Eloquence bears the weight of the first principles in their several connotations. Meaning waits for the words to come out and the implied sense carries in it innumerable shades and nuances, enhancing their implications further,—as if in their tenor and drift has blossomed a wreath of sweet and fragrant flowers.
(Jnaneshwari: 9.27)
Jnaneshwar does indeed possess such a remarkable confidence in the very potentiality and capability of his vernacular that he can wield it for his purpose. In the great tranquil repose he feels that it is assuredly lending itself to express the bhavas and rasas, it is able to present or deliver the perceptive feelings and rhythmic essentialities of the original Sanskrit poetry that are there everywhere in gleaming abundance in the verses of the Gita. Thus, towards the end of the fourth chapter of Jnaneshwari we have the following:
(Jnaneshwari: 4.211-14 )
Soon the narrative of the Gita will arrive at a point where poetry will be full of Shanta Rasa, the feeling of wide and happy calm, of deep tranquillity. There, at that point, the wise and virtuous shall find a true resting place for all their seeking and their pursuit. It is this Rasa of Tranquillity that I shall try to get in my words of Marathi, though direct and simple in their nature these may be. Yet the words shall bear the full profundity of sense and substance, shall be full of meaning and shall be deeper than the depths of the ocean. The disc of the sun in the sky above may appear to be pretty microscopic and insignificant in size when reflected in a puddle; but then even the three worlds prove to be too tiny and diminutive to use up its illumination. Rather this Marathi expression
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of mine, this poetic creation, shall turn out to be an excellent wish-fulfilling tree or kalpavriksha that ever yields every kind of desirable fruit.
Jnaneshwar speaks about Rasas or the subtle essentialities of a literary creation at the beginning of the eleventh chapter. He likens them to a confluence of three streams, the streams which in the manner of the Ganges, the Jamuna and the subterranean Saraswati join at Prayag. The three rivers in the Song of the Lord are Shanta Rasa, Adbhuta Rasa and the third invisible which we may call as the Gita Rasa. By them other Rasas also find their happy fulfilment. The Tranquil, the Wondrous and the hidden Meritorious of the celestial Song come at this triple holiness and pour their sacred waters for the good of those who are full of faith and who long for liberation from the worldly life’s worries. The devout go there to have a dip for the benedictive delight which flows from it. But this Gita Prayag is a place difficult to reach and deep knowledge of Sanskrit is required if one has to benefit from it. Too profound and esoteric is its expression and one has to be a very learned master, a master of the language to understand and grasp the truths it proclaims. However, Jnaneshwar has by the exceptional grace of his guru Nivritti made it simpler in the provincial tongue of Marathi.
(Jnaneshwari: 11.9)
The great statements of the dharma have been rendered into common speech and the easy flight of words on this riverbank can now be very conveniently used to step down into the water to have a pilgrim bath at the confluence. Not only that. The listeners of this remarkable composition will realise that in it also participate other Rasas or the subtle essences of poetry in their full abundance and that these will make the enjoyment yet completer. It is with this confidence that Jnaneshwar is proceeding to put the Gita in a plain lucid country or household dialect, clear and unsophisticated, that it shall yet possess the creative originality which always comes from the expressive spirit itself.
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Those devotees who make the Lord himself as “their supreme aim and follow with a perfect faith and exactitude the immortalising Dharma” are exceedingly dear to him,—so declares the Gita at the end of the twelfth chapter. But what exactly is that Dharma-immortality or dharmamrita which the Teacher is speaking about? that shining amulet or protective charm? There is no doubt that this stream of immortality or amritadhara irrigates the well-prepared field for a golden harvest in the abundance of life and therefore it cannot be any inferior occult-vitalistic talisman, or a thick and dark sedative to make one dull-witted; but it has to have the very quality of the Spirit itself, luminous and ennobling that can breathe happiness in the glory of its dynamism. Which means that the meaning of this immortalising Dharma should be seen in the unimpaired context of the Gita’s postulation of the divine works or divya karma the liberated soul is enjoined to perform in the Will of the Master of the Works. Arjuna has been asked to abide by this fact of spirituality and do the works according to the innate law of his nature. Only such desirable actions issuing from the inborn character of his soul will prove rewarding to him. But then who are those who actually take this Path of the immortalising Dharma, the bright Path of Righteousness? Who are they yearning sincerely to proceed towards their goal with faith and exactitude and confidence in the supreme Guide? Jnaneshwar comments:
(Jnaneshwari: 12.230-37)
Those who listen to this absorbing story of Bhakti Yoga, the Yoga whose nature is that of the stream of immortalising ambrosia, amritadhara, those who put it in active practice and
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thereby experience its joyous beatitude, those who grow in its faith, and keep it ever fixed in their heart and, like a field well-prepared and ready for sowing, thus cultivate the mind, those who offer the fruits of their works and are full of devotion for the supreme Being, those who consider him as everything in their life and in the entire world,—they are the true Bhaktas and they are the true Yogis for whom he ever waits anxiously and with favoured eagerness. Indeed, even as he longs to be with them without cease, without any break in relationship and contact, his concern for them is always there. They are the holy places for his pilgrimage and the sacred fords for him to have a dip in those waters, pure as they are always in the world, and true associates or companions for an affectionate and devout friendship. He stays with them, dwells with them, meditates upon them, he worships them; they are the gods of his adoration. Nought else, none else but only they are present in his seeing and in his vision. They are his obsession and they are the house of his riches and prosperity and in them is all his satisfaction. His entire happiness is in his being with them.
Such is the intimate and fond benevolent sweetness of the utterances of the Teacher of the Gita and Jnaneshwar assures that the divine felicity will also flow through his simple and household Marathi composition, that this young lyrical language in its expression shall admit all its absorbing enchantment, shall bring forth its sweetness and mellifluity. This mellifluous creation in the common man’s vernacular has its own appeal and attractiveness, its own fascination, and therefore the patronising audience present for his discourses should pay keen attention to it. At the same time with due but genuine humility the poet submits himself to the listeners and asks them to be indulgent towards him:
(Jnaneshwari: 15.594-95)
In the gusto and flourish of the composition in this Marathi there
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might have crept in a lot of inferior stuff, any number of crudities, and it is likely that the meaning given to the text might have been just according to my own sense of understanding it. But then it is indeed the black-bee herself who knows where in a jasmine flower lies concealed the pleasing fragrance; in the same manner the enjoyer of poetry will surely be perceptive to its compelling spell and to its subtle happy charm and gracious wholesomeness.
At the beginning of the twelfth chapter Jnaneshwar hymns the Goddess of Purity and the Goddess of Perfection, addressing them as Shuddhé and Siddhé. But then they are none other than the benedictve glance, the luminous and assuring gaze of the preceptor himself, gurukripadrishti. It is by his generosity and compassion, by the Grace that the singer of glory enjoys the bliss of yogic attainments in which is the realisation of his oneness with the supreme Spirit. She feeds him with the milk of her breast and rocks him in the cradle with the songs of the unstruck and unheard sound, anahata nada. She is the mother for all his wants and she is the one who inspires him in every one of his creative activities. All spiritual knowledge comes to him in great plenty even as she bestows her benignity and kindness upon him. Therefore, implores Jnaneshwar, only she the all-potent and all-affluent Mother should command him to discourse on the Gita, exceptional as this work is. Let the seas of nine delights or nine essences of poetry flood it; let it prove to be a treasure house of rare and precious wonderful gems; let it rise like a mountain of true and invaluable interpretations. Let there open out in the land of Marathi the gold mines of well-inspired and rejoiceful pleasing literature and let, in row after long glowing row, the creepers of right thinking and discernment be planted:
(Jnaneshwari: 12.12)
In this flourishing city of Marathi let there be the plenty of knowledge, the knowledge of the Eternal, and let its citizens carry in happy abundance and prosperity its commerce:
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(Jnaneshwari: 12.16)
Such is the invocation of the Yogi-Poet addressed to the Goddess of Purity and the Goddess of Perfection. He implores them to take a recognisable form of the kind and compassionate disposition of the Guru. It is then that he shall approach the Gita who may creatively reveal the marvellous spiritual secrets to him and that he may be able to speak of them in all their trueness in his vernacular. Jnaneshwar is not asking poetry only for the sake of poetry; he is asking it for the sake of enjoyment of the creative spirit in all expressions.
Towards the end of the seventh chapter Jnaneshwar once again endearingly alerts his audience, telling the attentive to get ready to listen to what the Teacher of the Gita is soon going to speak about the seven Words pertaining to things spiritual, brahma vakya. He will speak of tad brahma (that Eternal), adhyatma (the soul’s abiding in the conduct and law of the Spirit), karma (active and creative dynamism in the working of the world), adhibhuta (the manner of the mutable becoming and its thousand operations), adhidaiva (the consent for and the enjoyment of the activities of Prakriti or Nature by Purusha who is the enjoyer of all her works), adhiyajna (the offering or sacrifice of the works to the Master of Works), and how at the critical moment of death, prayanakale, is the supreme Being to be known by the one who is established in the Self. Such are the important issues to be taken up by the Scripture in its subsequent revelations. But these are all in the Sanskrit language and in their depth are very difficult to grasp. Unfortunately, therefore, these seven wonderful Words have so far remained untasted by the common people; about their secret and inner meaning they the poor lot have all along remained ignorant. They are not aware of these seven great and salutary assertions, satahi pade anuchhishthe navale ahati. These are the esoteric utterances Jnaneshwar is going to present in the plain and direct speech of Marathi. He is informing his keen watchful listeners in advance so that the vision, even before the ears receive these seven Words of Knowledge, gets ready and settles immediately on their significance:
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(Jnaneshwari: 7.206)
Although inaccessible to the eyes, it is not only the sweet perfume but also beauty of the form of flowering malati that is always pleasing to them. Quite the same way the perceptive listeners will in every respect enjoy this twofold rendering in the local speech of Marathi. Even as it shall gladden the senses, in the metaphysical town of premises and first propositions they shall also discover their originating truths; thus they shall fulfil themselves in them. Such is the expectation of Jnaneshwar, that the Gita can indeed be given to the common folk who are keen and inwardly prepared to appreciate it in order to benefit from it by living in it.
(Jnaneshwari: 7.208-09)
Vyasa the sage of boundless wisdom, aprantamati, has put the Gita in the Bhishma Parva or the Book of Bhishma of the Mahabharata and it is in the form of a dialogue between Arjuna and Sri Krishna. It is that dialogue which Jnaneshwar is presenting to us in the metrical composition of owi in his Marathi tongue. The narrative shall speak of the great propositions and shall prove to be full of Rasa of Tranquillity, Shanta Rasa. Not only that; it shall triumph over the Rasa of Sensuous Delight or Sringara Rasa and it shall win for us the Gita itself in this new composition. It may appear to have been done in an ordinary country dialect, but it will have such literary excellence or merit, such poetic fineness and superiority, it will be so living and invigorating that in comparison with its cheering eminence even the sweetness of ambrosia will taste less satisfying. This speech will be soothing and pleasingly agreeable and it will vie with the comforting softness of moonlight which always is delightful to everybody. Its melody with the gentle charm and tonal soothness, the resonance, the harmonies of its subtle strains will cause even the original sound or rhythmic surges, nada, to merge into it. Those who are evil-minded or ghostly or possessed they will immediately abandon their wickedness
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and will acquire well-poised sattwic qualities of deep and meditative serenity when they shall listen to its music. With it even the saintly people will fall into contemplative trance. Jnaneshwar has confidence in his creation that its literary idiom and eloquence, its revelatory word growing in conscient wideness, shall fill the whole world with the essence of the Gita and bring its very province of joy right in our common midst. The discerning perception and wisdom shall find in it their fulfilment; in its song the ear and in its thought the mind shall have fully accomplished the objective of their complete realisation. Through it the knowledge of the Eternal, the Brahmic lore or gnosis shall become dear to everybody. The eye shall see the supreme Reality present everywhere and there shall be always the happy festival in its celebration. In the richness of that Great Understanding, mahabodha, shall come to the universe the days of plenty and prosperity, of spiritual richnesses. The claim has been well acclaimed.
(Jnaneshwari: 13.1154-62)
In the introductory verses of the tenth chapter Jnaneshwar speaks of the superiority of Shanta Rasa over Shringara Rasa. But he also says that his composition is in a simple provincial language which, though greatly lyrical, is not yet good enough to hold this most difficult essence in the calm demeanour of its literary style and creative ardour; however, he feels that that very essence shall flow all through his owis with gentle and agreeable felicity. In fact he goes a step farther and asserts that its compositional distinction will be in every respect comparable to that of the original in Sanskrit itself. If its meaning is grasped, and its poetry felt and discerned, it will be hard to say which
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is the original text and which the commentary on it. We may appreciate this when we recognise that a beauteous form has its own beauty and it does not need any adornment to enhance it; it is an ornament to its own beauty and therefore it becomes difficult to speak of one embellishing the other. In the same manner, both the languages occupy here the same happy seat of eminence,—presenting a picture that indeed is very appealing and pleasing to sight. Whichever poetic essence shall then stand out prominently, it shall pour in abundant streams its sweetness. When this happens, wisdom blossoms forth and gets acknowledged in that composition’s unsurpassable glory. So shall the charm and youthful vigour of the homely tongue in her elegance win for herself the limitless Truth given by the Gita in all the dignity of Sanskrit.
(Jnaneshwari: 10.42-47)
In the high-soaring flight of his poetry’s lyricism Jnaneshwar, without being carried away by it, speaks glowingly about the creative-expressive possibility of Marathi. The subject of the Gita is too sublime and noble to be easily rendered in any other language; its thought is too profound and far-reaching in its implications. Its yogic proclamations as verities of the Spirit bear significances of that Spirit’s full dynamism itself. But, more importantly, the Godhead of the Gita is the Avatar himself who has come here to destroy all that is evil and crooked and retrograde and establish in Becoming the Dharma that promotes divine manifestation in the fulfilment of this creation. His word is the supreme revelation effectuating itself in the greatness of his nature and it is that which shall reshape and mould in its self these thousand manners and moods of the lower and inferior modes presently under the sway of ignorance. Its principles are the truth-principles
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and its operations are the progressive workouts of the truth-conscient in the subconscious stuff of this world. The Scripture declares such a possibility and thus proves itself to be a rich treasure-house of yogic knowledge which, even in life’s misleading directions, gives us the very freedom which is enjoyed by the Spirit. In it is the happy repose of the primal Nature; in it falls mute for ever the Word of the Veda, the expressive-descriptive Will of the Eternal, shabda brahma. Such truly is the wide and tranquil ocean of wisdom of the Gita; but for the common man that wisdom has remained all along inaccessible, because for him it has stayed sealed in Sanskrit. Now, however, Jnaneshwar has taken upon himself the task of putting it in the daily idiom and phrase. His belief, his beneficent consideration is that this rendering will turn out to be of immense value not only to him in his spiritual pursuits, but also to other aspirant seeker-souls. He has a certain kind of yogic confidence that his effort will yield fruits of very exceptional sweetness, fruitful in every respect for the well-being of the common man in search of true liberation from the phenomenality of this world. Though colloquial in character, though devoid of literary quality, and artless the vernacular expression is, as the word marathi itself means that, within he feels himself assured that it can be a very powerful as well as felicitous medium to express in its joyous self-awareness the revelatory knowledge belonging to the higher planes of reality. He says:
(Jnaneshwari: 6.14-21)
True, my Marathi tongue is simple and plain yet I shall speak in its fondness. I shall speak and endearingly gather such tasteful
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and succulent, such enrapturing expressions that it shall even win the wager of ambrosia. In comparison with the fresh gentle harmony of its rippling sounds, and its tenderness, the softest tunes of music would all appear lacking in symphonic quality. Indeed the captivating charm of its fragrance will humble even the best of the perfumes. For the delicate and sweet taste of it the ears shall put forth sudden tongues to enjoy it and different senses shall start quarrelling with each other in a friendly way to acquire it and possess it. Strictly speaking association of word-sound is with the sense of hearing, yet the sweetness of its taste would be claimed in its entirety by the tongue itself. Nose and smell are interconnected and they have nothing to do with speech, but the perfume of Marathi words would bewitch the very sense of smell. It shall then no more be a wonder that the owi-metre shall emerge in the form of a composition which will appeal to sight and please it. It will consider that a veritable mine of elegance and beauty has disclosed itself for it. And when the meaning shall issue out from these verses, mind will run in haste to grasp it and clasp it. Thus every window of appreciation will fling itself open to see it, as if each one of them will be pouncing upon it to seize it and hold it for itself. But the marvel is, these words of Marathi will satisfy each one of them according to their characteristic nature. The way one single sun in the sky illumines everything underneath it, the scope of the words in their widest sense will also prove to be extraordinary. Those who are perceptive to a fine degree of sense and sensibility, those who are awake to various shades and nuances of meaning will consider that they have quite truly won the mythical wishing stone itself, chintamani which has the strange extraordinary power to give to its possessor whatever he should wish to have, to realise whatever he should imagine to be.
And indeed whatever Jnaneshwar had claimed in his metrical composition has been amply proved to be perfectly just and right. It is not a boast or bravado of a young poet still in his teens, nor an assertion of misplaced confidence, nor a vaunting of an immature mediaeval professional or careerist in hurry. On the contrary, in it the creative
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spirit has found a new expression holding in that expression the very joy of existence, the felicity that makes life meaningful, and living worthwhile. About the inspiration of Jnaneshwari we might as well say that, to quote a line from Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri (p. 39):
She brought immortal words to mortal men.
The long-sustained overhead flow of poetry in the lucidity and directness of its utterance cannot come without the high yogic and spiritual achievements of the poet. This is not the work of an ordinary kind, not the work of a man howsoever great a literary figure he might be. Nor would it run dry or turn archaic in the hastening of the ever-creative spirit that brings out newer enduring marvels in the glory of the Muse herself. Not only for the last seven hundred years is this opus Jnaneshwari a standing proof for such a unique claim; its fertilising streams have produced in the course of time rich harvests of both esoteric and secular literature. Saint after saint and bhakta after exceptional bhakta have acknowledged without the least reservation the yogic and spiritual debt they owe to the Lord of Knowledge as his name Jnaneshwar very aptly suggests.
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