Swamimhane

Swami Swaroopanand an apostle of Sant Dnyaneshwar

Early Life : Swami Swaroopanand was born at Pawas, a remote village in Western Maharashtra, on 15 Dec 1903. It is in the vicinity of district headquarters of alphanso-famous Ratnagiri. Located on the banks of river Gautami, it is adorned with panoramic beauty.
Swamijee was born in an ascetic and pious Godbole family. He was named Ramachandra by father Vishnupant and mother Rakhmabai. He was popularly known by his family name Appa for a long time.

He completed his primary education at Ratnagiri and secondary education at Aryan Education Society high school at Mumbai. The atmosphere in the high school being conducive to his interests in Hindu scriptures, he spent lot of time in studying these.
He was greatly influenced by Lokmanya Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi and their Nationalist views and movements. At a very young age, he renounced sugar and tea. Thinking that, this was not enough, he gave up his own education and started a school at Pawas in June 1922 while still in his teens.

Initiation In Nathsampradaya : At twenty years of age he was initiated in Nath Sampraday (Sect) by Baba Maharaj Vaidya alias Ganeshnath of Pune. This proved a catalyst to his pursuit besides channelising his spiritual quest. He combined extra-curricular activities of ‘Swawalambanashram’, his school, with local social gatherings to get villagers rid of evil traditions and infuse sprit of patriotism in them. However, due to depleting students strength, Appa had to put full stop to his noble cause, the school, in 1927.

He then moved to Pune, with remaining three students of his school, to help them continue their education. This also gave him an opportunity to pursue his degree, ‘Wangmayvisharad’, from Tilak College, Pune and to be in the company of his Sadguru more often. Pained at seeing his Guru read a soiled copy of handwritten Dnyaneshwari, Swamijee took pains to copy this magnum opus of Sant Dnyneshwar in his own handwriting and offer it to his Guru. Photo print of this relic, now titled as “Swaroop Dnyaneshwari”, is available at a nominal cost. I feel, that, this event was a precursor of what was to follow, with regard to his work in the field of poetic literature in Marathi, by saints.

His joining civil disobedience movement and the jail term that followed disrupted his education once again. However, he took the sentence at Yerawada jail as a blessing in disguise and utilized most of his free time for meditation. In the jail he used to be popularly called “Swami” or “Muni”, by other freedom fighters like S. M. Joshi, Shankar Rao Deo, Raosaheb Patwardhan etc. due to his unrulffled nature and frequent meditation. He got rich mystic experiences while in jail. Poetic version of these in nine stanzas as ‘Navaratnahar’ (a garland of nine gems) made his spiritual teacher extremely happy.

Discerning Appa’s potential, Baba Maharaj named him ‘Swaroopanand’ and ordained him to be the apostle of Nath School, and thus was born the twentieth century benefactor of Natha Sect.
Self Realisation and Contribution to Saint Literature :The night of 21 July 1934 proved to be the dark night of the soul, (before dawn) for Appa. He shed shackles of the mortal form with the manifestation of his potential divinity. Ample evidence of this metamorphosis is found in his first book of lyrical composition written in 1935. (Amritdhara- 27,28,29)
‘Amritdhara’ contains 162 verses in ‘Saki’ version. It is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings of a sage. It is kind of a poetic soliloquy; a first hand account of his evolution to Sainthood. It unfolds the chronology of his transcendence from physical plane to divinity. Although small in size, it is very rich in its contents and poetic value.

Prior to this, to ensure detachment from mundane ties, he bid farewell to the family and family-house and moved to “Anant Niwas”, an abode of Desai family in the same village. He did so at the behest of Annasaheb Desai, whose eldest son Baba Desai was his erstwhile student and by then had become a Doctor and was more of a friend. Swamijee stayed at “ Anant Niwas” from Feb. 1935 till his NIRVANA on15th Aug 1974. For first almost twelve years he used to spend long hours in deep meditation. One day, while contemplating on the state of equanimity, (“Geeta”-2/56), poetic version of this stanza in Marathi, occurred to his mind intuitively. This was the genesis of “Bhawartha Geeta”; Dnyaneshwari based translation of Geeta in ‘Saki’ Formby Swmijee. It is kind of a two-in-onetrnslation; that is, a reader of this book, will find it easy to comprehend Geeta as well as Dnyaneshwari.

During that period, he also wrote many ‘Abhangs’ (Ballads without same refrain line) covering various religious topics. Compilation of 261 of these is published as ‘Sanjeewani Gatha’. Language of these verses, is lucid and composition lyrical. It is a classic example of how philosophical doctrines of recondite nature can be made palatable by using simple language and analogical illustrations (35, 42, 67, 110, 185, 256 etc.) The book also contains Swamijee’s prayers for the audience of the four armed Lord as seen by ‘Dhruva’ in ‘Madhuban’. These are so intense in there expression and he became so restless, (SG 92, 93, 94), that, the supreme being appeared in that form to meet his ardent devotee. The description of witnessing the formless in the form as desired is so graphic (S. G. 95) that, the reader is simply fascinated and floats rapturously on the crest of this extra sensory perception. It also reminds readers of what Sant Dnyandeo has said in his epic (Dnyaneshwari 6-36, 12/223, 224, 225).

Swamijee not merely belonged to the age old Nath Sect, pioneered by Adinath (Lord Shiva), but followed the footsteps of Sant Dnyaneshwar, his ancestor in the sampradaya (school). In that, he made literary hat trick, by rewriting three of Saint Dnyaneshwar’s works considered as ‘Prasthan-trayee’ (foundation) of poetic literature in Marathi by saints. This was certainly the need of the time as well, because seven hundred year old form of Marathi expression of Sant Dnyaneshwar is hardly intelligible even to a large section of Marathi knowing population. ‘Abhang Dnyaneshwari’, ‘Abhang Amritanubhav’ and ‘Abhang Changdev-Pasashtee’ written by Swamijee in present day Marathi in a very simple day to day Marathi language has bridged the time gap. Swamijee’s aim in bringing out these was to resurrect the treasure of this born giant of a philosopher and spread it to the masses. ‘Dnyaneshwari’ in particular, is unparalleled piece of work in Marathi literature and for that matter, may be even in any other language, so far as treatise on “Geeta” is concerned, except may be ‘Shankarbhashya’. The fact, that, over twenty five editions of ‘Abhang Dnyaneshwari’ containing nearly 16,000 stanzas in two volumes have been published/sold is a testimony to the fulfillment of swamijee’s dream.

Sainthood and Divine Grace : To the best of my knowledge no one single saint/writer has done this feat of translating all the three books in the past. Such a work acquires special significance, as each of these books has a distinct philosophical approach, standpoint, proposition and each one is unique in its own way, requiring perfect harmony and identical perception with the author.
Publication of these brought publicity averse Swamijee into limelight and people thronged to Pawas. To name a few, these included dignitaries like Ex CMs of Goa, Bhausaheb Bandodkar, Smt. Shashikala Bandodkar, earstwhile VC of Pune University MM. D. V. Potdar, Ex. Rss Chief Golwalkar Gurujee, Saints like Shreedhar Swami, Bhalchandra Maharaj famous writers like Dr. S. D. Pendse, S. V. Dandekar etc.

He initiated innumerable people into the fold of Nath school and put them on the path of self realization.

A compilation of sixty five letters written by Swamijee and published as ‘Swaroop Patra Manjusha’ is a good guide to followers on pathway to God.
Dr. B. N. Turambekar got his doctorate by writing a thesis on Swamijee’s literature, which is a tangible evidence of scholarship, depth and magnitude of Swamijee’s Literature. His thesis is now published in book form as ‘Arupache Swaroop’.

Swamijee was a living encyclopedia of Sant Dnyaneshwar’s literature. In Dnyaneshwari two verses are very similar except for first two words (3/145 and 18/218). Readers would be astonished to find two identically worded stanzas as their parallel in Swamijee’s Abhang Dnyaneshwari. Swamijee selected 109 stanzas from Dnyaneshwari and arranged these in a fresh sequence which gives gist of the original epic and make a comprehensive reading. This compiliation titled “Dnyaneshwari Nityapath” has become household name amongst many families in Maharashtra.

Such computer like precision, and focused colossal literary efforts to resurrect and spread Sant Dnyaneshwar’s spiritual knowledge which is crux of Upanishads would not have been possible by a frail person like Swamijee without divine grace.

Like many of his devotees, I too, therefore, strongly feel, that Swami Swaroopanandjee of Pawas was an apostle of Sant Dnyaneshwar.


Madhav Ranade
“Swaroop Saulee”
Plot No. 259, Sector No. 28,
Pradhikaran, Nigdi, Pune-411044.
Ph. No. (020) 27656958
Mob : 9823356958

Note :
1) One of my relations suggested that, I should write at least one article outlining brief biography of Swamijee in English so that a larger section of the internet surfers come to know about Swamijee’s rich literary contribution.
2) Swamijee’s literature and cassettes of his Abhangs are available at
a) Swami Swaroopnand Sewa Mandal, Pawas, Dist : Ratnagiri, Pin-415 616.
b) Desai Bandhu Ambewale, 1483, Shukrawar Peth, Near Shanipar, Pune-411002.