DNYANESHWARI

The Fountainhead of Marathi Literature

Prof. Gangadhar gadgil

Maharashtra is celebrating this year the 700th anniversary of Dnyaneshwari, the monumental and many splendoured literary creation of dnyaneshwar. Dnyaneshwari is the fountainhead or the Gangotri of Marathi literature and also of the great Bhakti movement of Maharashtra. It is also one of the finest and to many the most acceptable interpretation of the Bhagavadgeeta. It gives the Advaita philosophy of Shankara, a positive content and makes it relevant to the mundane life and concerns of man and society. The world we live in and perceive is not regarded by Dnyaneshwar as merely an illusion, but as a manifestation of the ultimate reality which lies beyond the perception of senses and the grasp of logic. Dnyaneshwari achieves, what might be considered impossible, by being literature and philosophy at the same time. This it does by using images and analogies for a cogent and reasoned presentation of a philosophical standpoint. It brings not only philosophy but also ultimate salvation within the reach of the common man by pointing out that the best way of attaining it is through Bhakti which anybody can practise even though he is not a scholar of a Yogi. It forges a bond of love not only between man and man but also between man, the animal world and the natural environment. It accomplished a social and spiritual revolution and yet stayed within the framework of a tradition. It is a work that was not only a beacon of light in the times when it was written, but also continues to show us the path even today.

Dnyaneshar and his works have deeply fascinated and moved millions in Maharashtra. He was one of the four children born to a Sanyasi, who returned to his wife and Grihasthashram on the orders of his Guru, who had discovered that he had wronged his wife by abandoning her. What Dnyaneshwar’s father did by resuming his life as a married man was a breach of the rigid social code of those times. The entire family was there fore ostracized and children suffered humiliation. Under such circumstances it would have been natural for Dnyaneshwar to be embittered. One would have expected the flame of hatred in his work. They are, on the contrary, suffused with a serenity, joy and a deep love for all beings around him. He had tread himself from eitherness and hatred and achieved spiritual serenity.

Dnyaneshwari reveals that Dnyaneshwar was well versed in the shastras, was a trained philosopher and had mastered yoga. How he could accomplish all these things, when he was merely in his teens has fascinated me endlessly. He must have had a very disciplined life both mentally and physically to imbibe this learning. Yet he carries all this learning with such ease and thinks and writes with such freedom, that one is amazed by his combination of discipline and freedom. Moreover, after having practised Yoga and mastered philosophy, this teenager evaluates them and concludes very easily that Bhakti provides a better path to the ultimate realization of one’s identity with Brahma.

Dnyaneshwar must have lived a life of austerity and self-denial due to social ostracism and long years of training. He belived in Advaita philosophy, which calls upon one to move beyond sensuous experiences to experience the identity with Brahma. One would therefore expect in him a certain lack of interest in the sensuous world. Yet Dnyaneshwari is a youthful and joyous celebration of sensuous experiences. Dnyneshwar receives a veritable flood of these experiences with open arms without restraint and inhibitions. All his senses exultantly receive these experiences. At the same time they perceive things in minute detail and with great precision. Images varied and enchanting form themselves out of these experiences and these become the verses of Dnyaneshwari. Images, expressive, apt and beautiful carry on their shoulders the palanquin of the philosophical content of Dnyaneshwari and as a consequence the philosophy itself becomes poetry.

Another fascinating trait of Dnyneshwar is the combination in him of deeply felt humility and supreme confidence. He gives all credit for his accomplishments to his Guru, Nivruttinath, who was his elder brother. He acknowledges his deep debt to the earlier commentators of the Bhagavadgeeta. I have progressed by asking them the way, he says. He also gives credit to his audience for making him write his great work. He humbly mentions how he is inadequate to fulfill the great task he has undertaken. Yet he handles the task with such supreme self-confidence that one is awed by it.

Dnyaneshwar is not overawed by the fact that he is writing about Brahma, which lies beyond reason and perception. One can see that he is writing out of personal experience. He had experienced the Brahma. He had merged his identity with it. Having had the experience first hand, he refuses to be guided by what Shankara says about it. He rejects the Mithyavad of Shankara and enunciates his own chidvilasvad according to which the perceptible world and the individual soul that perceives it are also real and are manifestations of Brahma. He further concludes that Karma is unavoidable and the only option one has is to perform it either to serve certain personal ends or in a disinterested manner. Knowledge, Karma and Bhakti are three paths of realizing and merging one’s identity with Brahma. The path he advocates or holds in highest regard is the path of Bhakti rooted in knowledge and not divorced from a life of action. Dnyaneshwar has thus given his own interpretation of the Bhagawadgeeta.

It seems to me that Dnyaneshwari is not just a commentary on the Bhagavadgeeta. It seems to be a statement of Dnyaneshwar’s own spiritual experience, in seeking which he was guided by the Bhagavadgeeta. This is seen in the way in which it has been composed. Dnyaneshwar disposes off briefly or even skips some of the verses of the Bhagavadgeeta and he elaborates others at very great length. Thus he devotes a large number of verses to the interpretation of Ahimsa. Similarly he gives an elaborate account of Kundalini Yoga in the sixth chapter, although Bhagavadgeeta it self makes a brief reference to Yogic experience and no specific reference to Kundalini Yoga. There are numerous other instances of this kind which indicate that Dnyaneshwari is much more than a commentary on the Bhagavadgeeta. It is also a statement of the spiritual experience of Dnyaneshwar. He was very much aware of the liberties he was taking and confessed so to the audience in the Dnyaneshwari.

In fact Dnyaneshwar himself does not call his book a commentary on the Bhagavadgeeta. He describes it as Dharmakeertana, i.e., a poetic presentation on Dharma. The choice of poetry as a means of interpretation of a religious philosophy was a basic or radical departure from tradition. What Dnyaneshwar did was to give poetic expression to the spiritual experience, with which Bhagavadgeeta is concerned. Logic can perhaps lead upto that experience. But it cannot be attained through logic. Vishwaroopadarshan in Bhagavadgeeta was not attained through logic but by the grace of Lord Krishna. Shankara himself acknowledges that the Brahma is beyond the categories of logic and cannot be described except in negative terms. Dnyaneshwar, therefore, decided - so at least it seems to me - that the experience had to be presented as experience and elaborated in terms of the categories of experience. To do this poetry seemed to him the most appropriate vehicle.

The whole presentation, however, is not divorced from logic. It is through images that the theme is expressed and meanings are conveyed. But images and analogies are so apt and so convincing that they do or can lead the reader to logical propositions. It is through images that philosophical propositions are stated, elaborated and logically justified. It is through images that unacceptable propositions are rejected. Yet what the reader experiences is a spiritual journey.

When Dnyaneshwar decided to give poetic expression to the experience of Brahma, he was faced with another challenge. If the experience of Brahma transcends logical categories, it also transcends the categories of perceptions and emotions. In fact, it being ineffable it transcends language itself. How, then can it be expressed in poetic terms.

Dnyaneshwar was very much aware of this problem. But he contended that what seemed impossible could be achieved. With supreme self-confidence he claimed that with his words he could give form and substance to what was insubstantial and could bring within the embrace of the senses, experiences that transcended sensuous perception.

His contention that words could express supreme spiritual experience of identity with Brahma is based on what he perceives as the limitless expressive power of words. The supreme spiritual experience transcends logic and perception, it infact involves the elimination of the separate identity of the man who experiences it. Yet it is experienced. If what lies beyond the categories of experience can be experienced then it must be capable of being expressed. It can be expressed by words which themselves are insubstantial. It is not the words of the logician, but the words of the poet that can express that experience.

The analogy of the experience of a Bhakta or devotee would aptly explain the situation. The love and devotion of a Bhakta toward God presupposes the separate identity of the Bhakta, the world in which he lives and the God he worships. But when the Bhakta’s devotion reaches its highest level, he experiences a loss of identity and unity with God. What the Bhakta experiences can be expressed by words in poetry.

Not only does Dnyaneshwar boldly contend that it can be done. He does it. This atleast has been the experience of many devotees, whose lives have been transformed by the experience. This is an amazing feat of genius.

It was inevitable that while doing so, Dnyaneshwar should have examined in depth the nature of words, the meanings they can convey and the nature and expressive power of poetry.

Words are insubstantial. Yet they can convey sensuous experiences with greater intensity than can be done by musical notes, fragrances etc., which directly reach the senses. They also contain within them meanings that are charged with energy or pulsate with life. It is with these words, says Dnyaneshwar, that he would convey the supreme and ineffable spiritual experiences.

Dnyaneshwar propounded a view of poetry, which in some ways differed from the one embodied in Sanskrit poetics. For him the Shanta rasa is the highest Rasa and poetry to achieve its supreme excellence has to carry at least a whiff of the transcendental experience of the Brahma.

Dnyaneshwar thus gave a new interpretation of the Bhagavadgeeta; used a novel means like poetry to express its essential meanings, and propounded a different view of excellence in poetry.

These were revolutionary achievements. But his revolutionary impulse did not stop here. He challenged the monopoly of Sanskrit language as a vehicle of highest intellectual and poetic creations. He used Marathi, which was the language of the ordinary people to writer his poetic commentary on the Bhagavadgeeta. The deep love he expresses for the Marathi language is very moving and what he says about the expressive power of the Marathi language thrills every Marathi heart. It will excel nectar in its sweetness, open the mines of literary gold and build with Marathi words the steps that lead to the deep meaning of Dharma itself he claims. He not only makes such claims but fulfills them to the very hilt.

The sweetness with which he invests Marathi words, the music, which he pours into the simple Marathi ovi, the rich and varied imagery he creates and the aptness and precision with which it is used, the complexity of the reasoning his words embody the ineffable spiritual experience they express and the undercurrent of love for humanity which flows through them are beyond compare. Dnyaneshwar is one of the greatest treasure of Marathi language. One feels very inadequate as a writer after one has read Dnyaneshwari.

By writing the Dnyaneshwari in Marathi, Dnyaneshwar laid the foundations of a social revolution. Dharma or spiritual experience in its highest form was brought within the reach of the ordinary people.

Potters, cobblers, tailors, maidservants - all shared this spiritual experience and their hearts overflowed with Bhakti. The Varkari movement was founded and it still has hold on the hearts of ordinary Marathi people. It preached that God or Parabrahma was accessible to all irrespective of their caste or family background. Even the ignorant and illiterate could have access to God through something as simple as Bhakti. Much has been written about the revolutionary social impact of the Bhakti movement. Scholars have argued and will continue to argue about it. But nobody can deny its tremendous impact. It is but appropriate that the founder of this movement himself should have been a socially ostracized son of a sanyasi.

The lives and deeds of Rama and Krishna have provided the basis for Bhakti movement in other parts of India. But in Maharashtra a philosophical-poetic treatise has been its fountain head. One is often amazed by the deep spiritual and philosophical insights of ordinary people who read or listen to Dnyaneshwari in the towns and villages of Maharashtra. Dnyaneshwari has played not only an inspiring but also a unifying role in the spiritual life of Maharashtra. It reconciled the conflict between the Advaita philosophy and the path of saguna Bhakti. It softened the sharp differences between the Shaivas and Vaishnavas and brought home to the people the underlying unity of the many deities they worshipped. It also brought all the castes on a common platform of Bhakti and the Varkari Pantha.

It is remarkable that Dnyaneshwar, who was a great scholar and Yogi, should have realized the superiority of Bhakti as a vehicle of supreme spiritual experience. His spiritual experience did not make a recluse out of him or isolate him from ordinary people. On the contrary he considered spiritual duty to share this great experience with ordinary people. Even more than a duty it was a compulsion born out of love for humanity. It is this love that makes Dnyaneshwar such an endearing figure in the pantheon of the makers of Maharashtra.

His closest friend in his spiritual quest was Namdev who was not a learned man but who had reached great spiritual heights through his Bhakti. Dnyaneshwar went on a pilgrimage with him in the North.

It is both interesting and full of deep meaning that Dnyaneshwar, who was a revolutionary in so many ways and who had every reason to be angry and bitter because of the social ostracism he had to suffer, did not attempt a break with society. He did not reject the existing social order and try to lay the foundations of a brave new world. In fact he underplayed the revolutionary element in his life’s work and emphasized its close links with tradition. He tried to reinterpret, rejuvenate and enrich tradition rather than attempt to destroy it. He like other Indian revolutionaries knew that revolutions that destroy tradition do more harm than good. They create more problems than they solve. It is curious that many modern historians seem to be coming to the same conclusion about revolutions in modern times.

That a teenager Dnyaneshwar, embittered by social ostracism, should have had such mature wisdom is another interesting and remarkable facet of his genius.

Dnyaneshwar is credited with having performed miracles. These miracles by and large did not solve any mundane problems. He did not cure anybody of a fatal disease or bring back to life a dead child or husband. He did not by his miracles change the social order or destroy an invading army. His miracles only concern the spiritual quest of man. He made a wall fly to meet changdeo who was coming to him astride a tiger. This was to teach him humility and the proper use of Yogic powers. Yogic powers were not to be used to impress or intimidate other people. They were to be used to experience the Brahma and merge one’s identity in it.

The way Dnyaneshwar ended his life is quite intriguing. In a way it is logical that a believer in Advaita should seek Moksha or salvation by finally and once for all merging his identity with the Brahma. But Dnyaneshwar could have done it much earlier. He did not do so because he wanted to open for the ordinary people the path of Moksha through Bhakti which was opened for him by his Guru or preceptor. This he did by writing the Dnyaneshwari. In Dnyaneshwari he did not preach that people should withdraw from their mundane concerns and cease to earn their bread or discharge their duties towards their families and society. This is not a part of the teaching of the Varkari Panth which he founded. Why then did Dnyaneshwar choose to end his mundane existence through Samadhi. How could he conclude that he had completed his assigned role in this world, when millions needed to be initiated into the Bhakti movement? Moreover he ended his life through Samadhi, which is a Yogic method of completely merging one’s identity with Brahma. How then could Dnyaneshwar, who looked upon Bhakti as the best path to Mukti or Moksha, choose to attain his Mukti through Yogic means?

I am sure that these questions must have occurred to the great devotees who followed in his footsteps and to the scholars who have studied his works in great depth. They must have sought their answers. In fact, Dnyaneshwar himself could not have been unaware of these questions and he was not the one who avoided answering questions. If he did not answer them when he took his Samadhi, he must have done so in Dnyaneshwari and his other works.

One would expect that realization of identity with Brahma would create a certain detachment. The heart of a Bhakta is full of love for all beings and things. This seems to imply that Bhaktas do not have a special attachment to specific persons or things. Dnyaneshwar, however, had a very special attachment to Nivruttinath, his Guru and also to Marathi language. He has expressed this love in some of the most beautiful and moving verses or ovis he has written. I do not know the answers to this apparent contradiction. But to me the contradiction makes him even more a lovable person.

One is dazzled by the multifarious achievements of this precocious genius, who was a scholar, a Yogi, a Bhakta, a Poet and a Social reformer rolled into one. One is bewitched by the exuberance, beauty and aptness of the imagery he uses. The sweetness, softness and music of the words and rhythms of his poetry captivate one’s mind. Its emotional content enriches and heightens one’s awareness. One joins wholeheartedly in the joyous celebration of a great spiritual experience. One is deeply moved by the ostracism and suffering to which he was subjected and one wonders how these have not even touched his poetry and love for humanity. The boldness with which he challenges tradition in so many areas of life fills one with awe and admiration. The contribution he has made to our lives fills our hearts with gratefulness, and the abrupt end he put to his life stuns and saddens our hearts.

It is a privilege to remember him on the 700th anniversary of his great work.

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