(i) Jñānadeva

JNANADEVA

by

A. G. Javadekar
M.A., D.LITT.

Jñānadeva (1275 A.D. to 1296 A.D.) was one of the greatest geniuses of Mahārāṣṭra. In him we find a rare combination of first rate poetry, lofty philosophy, deep mystical experience and exalted saintlihood. All this appears to be almost a miracle when we take into consideration that he lived a short span of life of less than twenty two years. He ended his life with a sense of fulfilment of his mission by voluntarily entering into yogic samādhi in the presence of a multitude of relatives, friends, and followers.

Jñānadeva was a contemporary of the king Rāmadevarāya of Yādava dynasty. Devagiri — the present Daulatabad — was Rāmadevarāya’s capital, and he ruled from 1271 to 1309 A.D.

Jñānadeva’s ancestors were Kulkarṇīs of Apegaon (eight miles from Paiṭhan, a great centre of Sanskrit learning) whose duty was to look after the revenue. The king Rāmadevarāya as well as this family were worshippers of Śrī Viṭṭhal of Paṇḍarpur.

To understand the background of Jñānadeva’s birth under unusual social conditions, one must go back to the life of his father Viṭṭhalpant.

Viṭṭhal was a well-educated clever boy with ascetic tendencies. While alone on a pilgrimage, he happened to halt at Āḷandī, thirteen miles from Poona, on the bank of Indrāyaṇī. Sidhopant, the Kulkarṇī of the place, seeing this bright chap gave his daughter Rukmiṇī to him in marriage. As, the parents of Viṭṭhalpant did not live long, the young couple lived in Āḷandī. Viṭṭhalpant was more interested in the life of the spirit than of the household. One day be left the home without his wife’s permission, and took Sannyāsa initiated by Rāmāśrama, also known as Śrīpāda, of Benares. He was renamed as Chaitanyāśrama. While on pilgrimage to Rameśvara this Rāmāśrama visited Āḷandī. There he happened to see a pious woman circumambulating an Aśvattha tree. She saw this revered sannyāsīn and bowed down to him who, as is customary, blessed her that she would give birth to sons. On hearing this she burst into tears, as she was verily the wife of Viṭṭhalpant, pining for her husband. Rāmāśrama suspected from the enquiries made that the recently initiated sannyāsin was no other than this woman’s husband. Instead of proceeding further on his pilgrimage he went back to Benares and ordered Chaitanyāśrama to go back to his wife.

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Rukmiṇī got her husband back and was naturally overjoyed. But a sannyāsin reverting to household life was never known or heard of before. The couple was excommunicated and they had to live a very wretched life outside the town. They gave birth to three sons Nivṛtti, Jñānadeva, Sopāna, and daughter Muktābaī. They were indeed spiritual gems each excelling the other in a way, yet the whole family was subjected to great harassment and humiliation. Viṭṭhalpant sought from the Brahmins atonement for his transgressing the traditional stages of life. They advised him to give up life! In the hope of securing happiness for their innocent children, both Viṭṭhalpant and Rukmiṇī obeyed the Brahmins by deserting the children and throwing their own selves in the sacred Ganges.

The plight of the young children however, did not at all improve. They were asked to bring a certificate of purification from the Pandits at Paiṭhan. They undertook the journey only to find themselves ridiculed at their hands. It is said that Jñānadeva made a passing buffalo to recite Vedas, whereafter they were given the required certificate without the need of performing the thread ceremony.

While returning from Paiṭhan, the children halted at Nevase in the Ahamadnagar district. Jñāneśvarī, a unique Marāthi commentary on the Bhagavadgītā, was written here. Writing this at the age of fifteen is the greatest of Jñānadeva’s miracles.

Chāṅgadeva, a haṭhayogin came to see Jñānadeva at Āḷandī As the legend goes, while he came riding on a tiger with a serpent as a whip in his hand and uprooting trees on his way by the yogic powers, these children were enjoying early sunbath sitting on a small wall. In order to humble the pride of the yogin, Jñānadeva is credited with another miracle of making the wall walk. Some other miracles also have been attributed to him.

Jñānadeva met Nāmadeva, a tailor at Paṇḍarpur, a great devotee of God Viṭṭhal. With Nāmadeva these brethren had great intimacy and all of them travelled upto Benares and visited many holy places. Their other famous contemporary saints from different social positions were—Goroba the potter, Sāṃvatā the gardener, Chokhā Meḷā the untouchable, and Parisā Bhāgavata the Brahmin.

Jñānadeva expressed his wish to enter voluntarily into Samādhi, having felt that his mission of life was over. A great festival was arranged at Āḷandī. Jñānadeva sat on the Āsana prepared and cleaned by the sons of Nāmadeva. Jñāneśvarī placed in front, he closed his eyes, bowed down thrice and was engrossed fully in the Divine love. Nivṛttinātha put the slab on the entrance to the place of Samādhi.

Besides Jñāneśvarī, also known as Bhāvārtha-dīpikā (a title given by Janābāi, a maidservant of Nāmadeva), Jñānadeva also wrote Amṛtānubhava, Chāṅgadeva-Pāṣaṣṭhī, Haripāṭha, Namana and other miscellaneous Abhaṅgas. There are other works regarding which Jñānadeva’s authorship is doubtful.

Jñāneśvarī was delivered extempore and taken down by Sachchidānanda Bābā. It contains about nine thousand Ovis. This is the first great work in Marathi as yet unexcelled in its felicity of expression, beauty of poetic imagination, grandeur of philosophic thought and extremely enchanting in style. Many languages have their own great works, for reading which, one must learn but those languages. Similarly if it is only to read Jñāneśvarī one should learn Marathi. The object of Jñāneśvarī is to spread divine joy, to annihilate the dearth of discriminative intelligence and to enable the sp i ritual aspirant to have a glimpse of the Highest Reality.

Jñānadeva divides the Gītā in the following way. The first three chapters deal with the path of action. From fourth to eleventh describe devotion through action. Twelfth to fifteenth are devoted to the path of knowledge. The Gītā proper, according to him, ends here. The 16th Chapter classifies the qualities which help or hinder knowledge. The last two chapters deal with some incidental questions. Of these the eighteenth is regarded as Kalaśādhyāya which sums up the whole Gītā.

Though Jñānadeva extols each of the paths of Karma, Bhakti, Jñāna and Pātañjala yoga as if it were the path, he is truly himself when he describes Devotion in rapturous terms. Jñāneśvarī and Gāthā (Abhaṅgas or devotional lyrics) of Tukkārāma are the two gospels of lakhs of Wārkarīs who regularly visit Paṇḍarpur.

Unlike Jñāneśvarī , which is bound by the teaching of Gītā, Jñānadeva’s Amṛtānubhava forms his independent work written at the initiation of Nivṛttinātha, who was his elder brother as well as Guru in the lineage of the Nātha Sampradāya. It originates with Śiva and passes through Śakti, Matsyendranātha, Gorakhanātha, and Gahinīnātha by whom Nivṛttinātha was initiated at Tryaṃbakeśvara in the mountain of Brahmgiri. Through Nivṛttinātha the influence of Nātha-saṃpradāya came down to Jñānadeva.

Amṛtānubhava contains over eight hundred Ovis. Its original name is Anubhavāmṛta. It is an exposition of the Immortal Nectar of Divine experience. It describes the spiritual experience of the realized soul from the Absolutistic standpoint. Jñānadeva advocates a theory of Sphūrtivāda and refutes all Dualism, subjective Idealism, the Buddhistic Nihilism and the Vedāntic Nescience. As a matter of fact, more than one third of the work deals with the refutation of Ignorance. The work concludes with the delineation of the secret of Akṛtrima bhakti or natural or spontaneous devotion.

The work is of such a great philosophical significance that about a dozen commentaries (mostly in Marathi) have been written on it. No other work in Marāthi has received such a privilege. The earliest commentary was written by Ekanātha (1533—1599 A.D.) but is not available though some quotations from it are found in Kibe’s commentary Jyotsnā.

Śivakalyāṇa’s commentary (1635 A.D.) is known as Nityānandaikya-Dīpikā . According to him Amṛtānubhava goes beyond the viewpoints of Pariṇāmavāda and Vivartavāda. It could be understood by those who have attained perfect vision. Śivakalyāṇa in interpreting Amṛtānubhava takes the standpoint of the great Advaita work —Saṃkṣepaśārīraka of Sarvajñātman.

Pralhādbuvā Badve (died 1718 A.D.) has written Sanskrit verses on Amṛtānubhava, the gist of which is the self-illumination of the Reality which is self-proved and is beyond any Pramāṇas as well as transcending the dualism implicit in knowledge and ignorance.

Vīreśvara Vallabha wrote in 1795 A.D., following Śaṅkara in his interpretation of the Amṛtānubhava. Viśvanātha Kibe writing his commentary Jyotsnā in 1882 has shown how Jñānadeva differs from Śaṅkara and Vidyāraṇya in not accepting illusion as the cause of the universe.

Harihara’s commentary called Rāṣṭrabhāṣya (date not known) partly in Sanskrit and partly in Marāthi is written from the standpoint of Brahmavilāsa,

Nirañjana (1782—1855 A.D.) in his introduction to his commentary says that Amṛtānubhava is written for a Jīvan-mukta. By this perhaps he means that the work is written from the standpoint of a Jīvan-mukta for whom no upādhis exist.

Jīvanmukta—yati writing a Sanskrit commentary in 1919 AD. says that Jñānadeva’s aim in refuting Māyāvada is to establish Ajātivāda.

There are other more recent works by

• Jog,
• Sakhare,
• Kene Rajaramabuva Brahmachari,
• Dasganu,
• Khasnis,
• Garde,
• Panduranga Sharma,
• Dr Londhe,
• Pangarkar,
• R. D. Ranade,
• S. V. Dandekar,
• Dr. Pendse,
• V. M. Potdar,
• N. R. Phatak,
• Chapkhande,
• Gulabrao Maharaj

and others.

A recently published work Divyāmṛtadhārā by Moreshvar or Babamaharaj Joshi is worth mentioning. That is an excellent commentarv on the first nineteen Ovis of the twelfth chapter of the Jñāneśvarī.

Of these Pāṇḍuranga Sharma thinks that Jñānadeva's philosophy is more in the line of Rāmānuja. According to Ranade Sphūrtivāda is Jñānadeva’s original contribution to philosophic thought. Londhe labels Jñānadeva’s philosophy as ‘dual monism’ and Dandekar as perfect monism, being more thorough-going than Śaṅkara’s. Dr. Pendse opines that Jñānadeva exposes only Śaṅkara’s philosophy in a poetic way. Similar is Pangarkar’s view. Potdar shows the similarity of Jñānadeva’s philosophy with that of Yogavāsiṣṭha.

Though from the above brief sketch some idea of Jñānadeva’s philosophy can be formed, a summary statement is essential.

Jñānadeva rejects all pramāṇas including the śabda which for all the Vedāntins is the only efficacious one for the revelation of Reality. He relies on his own exalted experience. The so-called valid sources of knowledge derive their illumination from Reality, and not vice versa. Sun enlightens everything and so does the self-luminous Reality. The Absolute does not prove itself by any means of proof, nor allows itself to be disproved. It is self-evident, beyond proof or disproof. It is therefore groundless to believe that the word can gain greatness by enabling the Ātman to experience itself. (Amṛtānubhava VI, 93-95).

If it be said that word is necessary to remove Nescience which covers Reality, Jñānadeva says that as the very name avidyā declares, it is not vidyamāna, i.e. existent. Therefore to destroy a thing which does not exist is like breaking the hare’s horn or plucking the sky-flowers. The word is futile both ways. It can destroy neither the non-existent nescience nor can reveal the self-luminous Reality. It is comparable to a lamp lit up at daytime.

The designation of the Ultimate Reality as Sat, Chit and Ānanda, though true so far as it goes, cannot be regarded as metaphysically adequate. These are human modes of apprehension, not the thing-in-itself. The three terms stand for the same reality, but they indicate more what Reality is not than what it is. The dualism of Sat and Asat , Chit and Achit, Ānanda and Duhkha are alike transcended in the Absolute. This Absolute is not, therefore, to be regarded as a void as the Mādhyamika holds. Criticising Śūnyavāda, Jñānadeva says: if the extinguisher of the lamp is extinguished along with the lamp, who will understand that the lamp is extinguished? A man sound asleep in a lonely forest is neither perceived by others nor by himself, but he still exists. Absolute is the foundational pure self-consciousness beyond the relative dualism of knowledge and ignorance, subject and object, being and nothing.

The self-luminous Reality and its self-awareness form as it were a twin designated by Jñānadeva as God (Śiva) and Goddess (Śakti) who give birth to the whole universe, without undergoing limitation (Nirupādhika). As the ocean assuming the form of garlands of waves, enjoys itself, so Reality naturally manifests itself in the two forms and enjoys itself. Knowing oneself or enjoying oneself requires only an epistemological dualism which does not violate the ontological unity of consciousness or Reality. The reference to God and Goddess which are two names for the same Reality are not to be identified with the Sāṅkhya Puruṣa and Prakṛti nor the Vedāntic Brahman and Māyā.

The lover himself has become the Beloved. Though they appear as two, there is only one Divinity, just as the word is one though the lips are two, or the fragrance is one though the flowers may be two, or sound is one though the sticks are two, or the sight is the same though the eyes are two. Śiva is eternally accompanied by Śakti because they are not two but one.

The one Reality manifests itself in the triad of the knower, the known and the knowledge. That is the origin of the universe. While for Śaṅkara this differentiation is due to Nescience and is illusory, for Jñānadeva that is the natural expression of Reality.

Refutation of Ignorance is almost of central importance in his philosophy. Śaṅkara’s doctrines of Māyā and Adhyāsa and Vivarta which reduce God, man and the world to phenomenal status have raised severe reactions among the Vedāntic schools.

Jñānadeva has taken great pains to criticise Ajñāna. For him knowledge and ignorance are relative terms and hence there cannot be a prior ignorance to be later on destroyed by knowledge. The very description of ignorance depends upon knowledge. The existence of ignorance is illusory like the light of a glow-worm. It is incapable of enlightening either in light or in darkness. Knowledge which is said to be destroying ignorance is but a reappearance of ignorance in another form. Both are fictions of the mind.

The further points in the refutation of Ajñāna are as follows: Ignorance has no foundation, is unknowable and ineffective. It can neither co-exist with knowledge nor can be independent. It cannot be proved by any pramāṇa. It cannot dwell in pure Ātman. It cannot be inferred from the experience of the objective world. If ignorance has power of presentation, it is futile to call it ignorance. The word Ajñāna is constituted by prefixing ‘A’ to Jñāna. Thus to understand Ajñāna in terms of Jñāna or vice versa is malapropism. Ignorance cannot be born out of knowledge, but if it did it will be a still birth. Śruti declares that the world is illuminated by His light (tasya bhāsā sarvamidaṃ vibhāti), Ātman cannot meet ignorance even as Sun cannot meet darkness.

Jñānadeva maintains that the world is the sport of Ātman (chidvilāsa). He expands himself and shines forth as the world. The observer, in the guise of the objects comes to visit Himself. The universe including the individual selves is not an enchanting deception, of Avidyā, but the expression of the Divine Love and Joy. World is not a diminution but a unique expression of the fulfilment of perfection. Jñānadeva says that the diversity found in the world results in the deepening of the unity. The enrichment of gold is through the golden ornaments.

The finiteness of the individual implies that the Reality determines itself in order to realize itself in various forms. So the aim of the individual life is to realize this status of dignity and act up to its real worth. Advocating ‘natural devotion’ Jñānadeva says that it consists in realizing how God manifests Himself through one’s being. It is a culmination of Yoga and Jñāna and transcends them.

Bhakti has an intrinsic or absolute value. What is termed svasaṃvitti by philosophers, and Śakti by the Śaivas is better termed Bhakti for Jñānadeva. Bhakti or love is the very nature of God. The present writer is of the opinion that Jñānadeva’s philosophy is a development mainly from the combination of Śaṅkarāchārya’s Advaitism and Gorakhanātha’s Siddha-siddhānta-paddhati, though anti-illusionist thinking of others might also have influenced him. Refutation of ajñāna is not the same as the refutation of Māyā-vāda. Standing on the Absolutistic plane even Śaṅkarāchārya would not accept ajñāna. But a philosopher’s task is to explain also the every day experience of the common man. It is a difficult task to show logically the consistency between Brahman on the one hand and the world on the other. To the extent that it is an emanation from Brahman it could be regarded as Chidvilāsa. But no thinking person will give the world-experience the same value as Brahman. To explain this deficiency in value one intelligent method is that of postulation of a mysterious māyā. What is chidvilāsa to the transcendentalist is māyā to the phenomenalism They can appreciate each other’s truth only by exchange of their standpoints and thus there is no antagonism between the two positions. As a matter of fact these are the two view-points within one Absolutistic system.