ABHANG DNYANESHWARI
A PERFECT GUIDE TO
MAAULEE’s MAGNUM OPUS
DNYANESHWARI
BACKGROUND - Bhagavad Gita is one of the most revered of Indian scriptures. Though it is much later than the Vedas, and does not strictly constitute part of the revealed literature of the Hindus, it occupies a distinct and unrivaled place in Indian philosophical and religious literature. Having emanated from the mouth of Yogeshwar Krishna, the Poornavatar, it however enjoys the status of Upanishad, as evident from the narrative at the end of each chapter.
The State of Maharashtra has a strong religious heritage and is popularly known as land of saints. The masses have been
PRELUDE - With interest in Geeta from child hood and having been initiated in Nath-Sampraday, where Dnyaneshwari is traditionally venerated, Dnyanadev was a Role Model and Geeta based Dnyaneshwari the last word, for Swami Swaroopanand,
Sermon from Sadguru Ganesh Nath to listen to, contemplate and absorb Dnyaneshwari all the time, resulted in Swamijee becoming a living encyclopedia of MAAULEE’s MAGNUM OPUS = DNYANESHWARI
No wonder then, that, Almighty zeroed in on Swamijee as medium to convey MAAULEE’s DIVINE Prasthantrayee message to grass route level, anew in contemporary Marathi, after being born a new one in a second birth of the soul on the intervening night of 20/21 Jul 1934.
Swamijee happily yielded and promised to do so solemnly, through his opening Sakee of Amritdhara, repeating his vow in next six Sakees, till Mother Goddess blessed him that his poetry will be well received & appreciated world over.
In this regard, Swamijee’s all handwritten notes of his musings, and especially those from 22/10/34 to 30/10/34 are worth pondering over. Swamijee has written "आत्मकल्याण जगतकल्या
However, it was not before, the Supreme, put Swamijee through, acid test of imposed long silence first and then verifying Swamijee's ability to accomplish this onerous task of lifting LITERARY SHIVDHANUSHYA (Bow of Lord Shiva).
Swamijee acquitted himself admirably by Compilation of 109 Ovis randomly selected and rearranged in fresh sequence as “Dnyaneshwari Nityapath” displaying excellent command & comprehension over Dnyaneshwari. “Bhawarth Geeta” in Sakee metre, published in 1951 proved his poetic prowess and assimilation of philosophy of Geeta and he got green signal.
CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS- B.R. aka Babikaka Limaye, Swamijje’s follower from Ratnagiri came to Swamijee with a copy of Dnyaneshwari edited by Sonopant Dandekar, sometime in 1953 & requested to write words of blessings.
Four verses written in reverence of Dnyaneshwari by Swamijee are reproduced in Vol-1 of Abhang Dnyaneshwari, as “Apoorv Navalav Anubhavava”, besides his verses “Shri Dnyanadev Vandan” and “Shree Dnyaneshwari Gaurav”. These be recited before Parayan to invoke blessings.
While contemplating on the first Ovee of Dnyaneshwari, five Abhangs occurred to Swamijee intuitively. Swamiji accomplished this feat in nearly two and half years, contemplating on approx.10 Ovis in a da which were noted by Mr. Sheedhar Kokaje a local teacher religiously.
Swamijee used to get into the groove of the narrator, Maulee, during this period. His choice of words therefore, has the flavour of divine spontaneity and the same rhytm as that of the original. To appreciate this read “Dnyaneshwari” Ovis 2/301-302 and 2/352-353 as well as 3/145 & 18/218, and their parallel Abhangs from Abhang Dnyaneshwari, 2/493 to 496 and 2/600 to 604 as well as 3/241 and 18/397 from “Abhang Dnyaneshwari” ). In Dnyaneshwari, the verses mentioned above are similarly worded except for minor variation. Readers would be astonihed to find two identically worded Abhang Version in Abhang Dnyaneshwari. This computer like result would not have been possible without the perfect harmony Swamiji had with Saint Dnyaneshwar and divine blessins.
Had it not been so, this unparalled masterpiece of Marathi literature which is timeless and immortal would have been lost even to many Marathi knowing intellects who shy away from this unique epic just because of the difficulty of olden day Marathi. “Abhang Dnyaneshwari” has filled this gap, with its publication on 18th March 1960.
Swami Sawroopanand Sewa Mandal (Pawas) a registered Public Trust was costituted, in 1967, with the consent and blessigs of Swamijee primarily to institutionalise printing of “Abhang Dnyaneshwari”, falling short of demand. To augment Sewa Mandals efforts and to provide copies at subsidised rates in view of rising costs a corpus was created with the initiative of R.V. aka Bhausaheb Deasi and and amount of Rs. Fifty Lacs, collected through donations is kept in FD. Considering the fact that more than 40 editions (165786 copies) of this book have already been sold/distributed it can be said that it is serving its purpose. The credit for this no doubt goes goes to Sewa Mandal, who have also brought out a book in Dec 2010 containing articles by scholarly eminent and erudite writers, about “ Abhang Dnyaneshwari” which will help readers to get to the essence. However, it must be recognised that, lions share goes to late Bhausaheb Desai and Sh Vasantrao Desai, the cureent President who has been carrying the responsibility of its printing from the beginning.
The influence of Saint Dnyaneshwar’s philosophy and literature on Swamiji was so much that he eventually transformed three of his major works , namely Dnyaneshwari, Amritanubhav and Changdevpasashti from ovi style of verses in olden day Marathi to Abhangas in present day Marathi. This has been Swamiji’s greatest service and contribution to Marathi literature. It was also the need of the hour.
In “Abhang Dnyaneshwari” Swamijee has amplified “Soham Sadhana”
,implicit in Dnyaneshwari, with special emphasis on “Soham Bhav”
(“सोऽहं-हंसोपनिषद “) supplemented through his other literature by him.
Readers should read this holy scripture with total receptivity and focus on the meaning the words convey to derive maximum benefit while reading, as succinctly expressed by Maulee & put by Swamijee as under-
“तैसी च ही अति। हळुवारपणें । कथा श्रोतृजनें । अनुभवावी ॥अ.ज्ञा.१/१०१॥
मूकपणें येथें । करावा संवाद ।घ्यावा रसास्वाद । अतींद्रिय(Transcendental)॥१०२॥
बोलाचिया आधीं । प्रमेयाची खूण । घ्यावी आकळून । यथार्थत्वें ॥ १/१०३ ॥
“शब्दाची वरील । काढोनियां साल । गाभा जो आंतील ।अर्थरुप ॥
त्या चि अर्थब्रह्मीं।होवोनि तद्रूप।सुखें सुखरूप।भोगावें हें ॥अ.ज्ञा.६/४८-४९॥
नाहीं तरी मुक्या-।बहिऱ्यांच्या गोष्टी।तैसें चि शेवटीं।होईल कीं॥६/५१॥”
It needs special mention, that Abhang Meter, is normally not chosen for an EPIC that being a tough ask, requiring basic rhythmic structure.
Most of the Abhangs in ”Abhang Dnyaneshwari” have three and half quarts ( चरण-the lines string together). First three quarts have six alphabets each, and the last have four making it a total of 6X3=18+4= 22 alphabets in every Abhang. The second and third quarts(चरण)are rhythmical units. In Chapter 2 & 11 few Abhangs have only two quarts each comprising 8 alphabets making a total of 16. Last word in each quart (चरण) make rhythmical unit.
It comes to Swamijee naturally. This is possible due to DIVINE GRACE. We therefore find most apt words used effortlessly achieving prosody which is the beauty of “Abhang Dnyaneshwari”, like Dnyaneshwari.
To conclude I would only say, that to appreciate “ Abhang Dnyaneshwari” one must READ it rather than reading about it.
Because the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
Because the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
Time for the prophetic words of Ma Jagadamba (Amritdhara-8) as blessings to Swamijjee are coming true with first ABHANG DNYANESHWARI recitation (Parayan) that has commenced at SVBF temple Stroudsburg PA USA on 5th Aug. 2018 as scheduled.
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