SAINT EKNATH By Dr. S. D. Parchure M. A,, Ph. D.

[JR]

(Continued from September   1974)

Literature

It may be recalled here that Eknath's Guru Shri Janardan Swami, had already found out the potentialities of his student and had therefore directed him to write the commentary on the "Chatushloky Bhagwat" when they had gone on the pilgrimage and were staying at Nasik. From that time onwards Eknath went on writing commentaries in Marathi on different Sanskrit books. Along with this literary activity, Eknath also continued to preach about the devotion to God in his Keertans, which he was doing as often as possible.
In course of time Eknath started writing a Commentary on the Eleventh Canto of "Shrimat Bhagwat." when he completed three chapters of his book, the news was received with anger by one head of a Math at Kashi (Banaras). In those days Kashi was supposed to be the seat of Sanskrit learning and many brahmins from all over India used to come there for learning Sanskrit. When the head of the Math came to know about the Commentary on the Sanskrit book in Marathi, he was terribly enraged and he sent his students to Paithan to call Shri Eknath to Kashi for giving reply to the charge of writing a commentary in the common language of the people, thus dishonouring the Sanskrit Language, the language of the gods.
Shri Eknath was not a person to get ruffled by such storms. He was as calm as ocean. He received the students with a smile and welcomed them. On hearing the order of their guru, he showed his willingness to accompany them to Kashi. By this time he had completed five chapters of the book, so he went to Kashi along with the students and his work. After going to Kashi the head of the Math charged Eknath with dishonouring the Sanskrit language and he ordered his students to throw his work into the Ganges. When this was done, the river Ganges came up along with the book and handed it over back to the students. On seeing this miracle, the pride of the head of the Math was found to be completely removed and he begged pardon of Shri Eknath for having troubled him in that fashion. A portion of the book was then read out by Shri Eknath to the gathering and all of them expressed great satisfaction about the treatment of the subject given by Shri Eknath. The versatile expression, the simple way of treatment, the adornment of the language ail proved to be superb in all respects and this led the head to request Shri Eknath to complete his work there only. Shri Eknath accordingly completed his work and it was then taken over in the whole of Banaras in procession on the back of an elephant. This was a great feat in the life of Eknath and it brought him fame as well as recognition as a great literary figure of his time. This incident that took place at Kashi gave further encouragement to Shri Eknath and he thereafter wrote his book "Rukmini Swayamwar" at Kashi itself within a short time thereafter. Similar incident of the book thrown in the river not being destroyed is also described in the life of Saint Tukaram.

After thus satisfying the Sanskrit pundits at Kashi and after convincing them about the need of the Commentaries in Marathi, as he was writing, Eknath started on his journey back to south. On his way to Paithan he met Dasopant, another great sage of his time and had a talk with him on religious and philosophical matters Dasopaut also was a versatile writer and he also wrote a lot in his life time. After a few days, Eknath took Dasopant's leave and went to Paithan. Later on as per the invitation of Shri   Eknath,   Dasopant   also   paid   a return visit to Paithan and spent a few days in the Company of Eknath there.

The felicitation of Shri Eknath's work at Banaras (Kashi) was a very important step in the literary career of that saint. This incident prompted Eknath further to continue his literary pursuits. He therefore went on writing further books. His intellect, his power of expression was of such a high level that he used to write at the spur of the moment. His writing was quite spontaneous and effortless; because of this ease in his writing there are works comprising of over sixty thousand ovees, to the credit of Shri Eknath. In addition to the works referred to above, the following works may be cited as his other important works. Bhavarth Ramayan, Anandalahari, Geetasar, Hastamalak, Swatmasukh, Prahlad vijay etc.

Many of Eknath's works are commentaries on Sanskrit books. Eknath, it may be recalled, had studied Sanskrit in his young age and his study of the Sanskrit books continued in his later life also. It is quite clear from his works that he had closely studied Bharat, Ramayan, Bhagwat; Brahmottar Khand, Panchtantra, Hitopadesh and so many other Sanskrit books. In addition to the list of books written by him, given above he has written casual poems and articles, which are also available in good number, which go to indicate that like Sanskrit and Marathi, Eknath had sound knowledge of the Urdu and Hindi languages also.

S A M A D H I

In Course of time Eknath grew old and he knew that his end was drawing near. He therefore went to Kashi (Banaras) and brought his son Hari Pandit from that place. Hari Pandit was staying at Kashi to learn Sanskrit and the Vedas. After coming to Paithan, Eknath initiated his son and instructed him about all the routine rituals that were to be carried out daily   at the house.

One old lady took a vow to have 'Sahasra bhojan' i. e. feeding one thousand brahmins; but due to poverty she could not fulfil it for many days. In course of time somebody told her that she should feed only one Brahmin like Eknath and that her vow will be fulfilled. She accordingly requested Eknath to come to her. house for lunch. According to her invitation Shri Eknath went to the house of the old lady along with his son Hari Pandit After the lunch was over, Shri Eknath requested Hari Pandit to help the old lady in picking up the leaves on which they took the lunch. When Hari Pandit picked up the leaf on which Shri Eknath took his lunch, he found that there was another leaf below it. He thought that through oversight two leaves might have been placed there. So he lifted that also and lo! there was a third one below it. He then understood that this must have been a miracle performed by his saintly father in order to help the old lady to fulfil her vow. He therefore went on picking up the leaves one after the other and to the surprise of everybody the leaves went on. coming upto the time they mounted to complete one thousand in number. When the old lady saw this she was overwhelmed with joy and she heaved a sigh of relief and had the satisfaction of having fulfilled her vow, which she would not have normally been able to do,
Saint Eknath was a very cool headed person and his motto was to have compassion for all beings irrespective of caste and creed. As pointed out before, he did not also observe the so called untouchability. Once when he had gone to the river Godavari, he observed that one small child of the Harijan Community was plodding in the sandy bank of the river in the blazing Sun. Due to the hot Sun the sand had become so hot that the tender feet of the child were being scorched. Eknath did not wait for a moment He immediately picked up the child and carried him to his house.

When Eknath's son, Hari Pandit came from Kashi, he had brought with him holy water from the river Ganges. The custom and belief of the pilgrims is that the water from the river Ganges is to be brought when you go for the pilgrimage of Banaras and you have to bathe "Rameshwar" at Kanya Kumari with that holy water. While returning you have to carry the 'Setu' and offer it to Kashi Vishweshwar at Banaras and then only you acquire full merit of the pilgrimage. According to this traditional belief Hari Pandit was to carry this water to Rameshwar; but when Eknath found that one ass was restless in the sandy bank of the Godawari river, being oppressed by the scorching Sun, he poured that water on that animal and relieved that ass from the heat of the Sun. Hari Pandit naturally was upset at this behaviour of his father and wanted to scold him; but on the same night God Rameshwar himself appeared in his dream and told him that he will get the full merit of the water of the Ganges brought by him for the purpose of the pilgrimage. After seeing the dream, Hari Pandit realized the real value of his father and his mind calmed down.

In his mature old age Shri Eknath started writing the book "Bhavarth Ramayan''. He was going at a brisk speed and he completed fortyfour chapters of the "Yuddha Kanda". After this it was time for Eknath to take Samadhi so he told the people that one Shri Gavba, who was staying with him for many years, will be completing the book. When people heard about this, they could not believe in it, because Gavba was an uneducated person. He was moreover a very poor person. He resorted to Eknath's house with the idea of getting good and wholesome food to eat. He was attending to some of Eknath's domestic duties and was making merry for all the other time; but before his death, Shri Eknath called him near his bed. He blessed him giving him his own pen and told him to complete his aforesaid book. Eknath's blessings completely changed Gavba and he very soon started writing the later part of the book and it is really a wonder how he could write as good as Shri Eknath did; but as the tradition goes the credit of completing Bhavarth Ramayan is given to Gavba. The miracles that the saints perform are really beyond all reasoning !
It may be recalled that the Guru of Shri Eknath, Shri Janardan Swami took his samadhi on Falgun Vadya sixth and that day was being observed scrupulously at Eknath's house. Once while speaking about this day, Eknath had said that this day is at pre¬sent famous for the following four occurrings:-

1)   Birthday of Shri Janardanswami.
2)   The day on which Shri Eknath got the darshan of Lord Datta.
3)   The day on which Shri Eknath met his Guru Janardan Swami for the first time.
4)   The day on which Janardan swami took his Samadhi. and added that it would be famous for a fifth occurring in course of time. This occurring to which he referred was his own samadhi day. Shri Eknath also took samadhi on the same day, which was the Birthday and the day of the death anniversary of his Guru.

After assigning the responsibility of completing Bhavarth Ramayana to Gavba Shri Eknath felt that it was time for him to leave this world and hence his soul at once left his body. This news immediately spread over Paithan like a whirlwind and people started coming to Eknath's house for his last darshan. Among the people that came, there were some mischievous people who when they saw Eknath said, "He also died like other ordinary people. Many people used to say that he was a saint. A person very dear to Gods, What is special about him? ". No sooner those people uttered these words than Shri Eknath at once got up and told Uddhav to arrange for the "Dindi" and arrange to inform all his friends about his journey to the other world.

Eknath thereafter started making his preparations. He first of all had a bath with the water of the Ganges. He then took the "Veena" and started Keertan. He also requested the people to repeat the God's name. The whole procession then started through the streets of the city and Shri Eknath was walking with them singing the God's name all along. On the way the people worshipped him with great affection. Some offered him garland of flowers while others offered him garlands of Tulsi. Bukka was all along being showered like rain. Most of the people were watching Eknath very closely with the idea that this saint will not be seen any more. Some people were oppressed with sorrow so much that they were all along shedding tears but Eknath was quite composed and unruffled as usual. When they reached near the Laxmi Tirth on the bank of Godawari, Eknath requested all to sit down. He then did the Keertan in his usual way. As those were the last words from the month of the great sage, all the people were attentive and they were spell bound with his advice. He thereafter took leave of all and walked slowly towards the stream. He waded in the water slowly and when he was in waste deep water he cast away his human body peacefully and went to heaven!

On seeing that Eknath has left them, the whole assembly was completely submerged in grief; but a few of them rushed into the stream and recovered the body of Eknath Maharaj from the waters of the Godavari and brought it on the bank. The body was then cremated according to all funeral rites laid down in the shastras. A "Vrindawan" was later on constructed at the place where Shri Eknath's body was cremated and it is since known as his Samadhi. The day on which Eknath went to heaven was Sunday Falgun Vadya sixth Shaka 1521 (1599 A. D.). This death anniversary of Eknath is observed every year on this day and is known as Nath Shashthi in commemoration of the passing away of that great saint on that day.

GREATNESS

As pointed out in the beginning, the real greatness of Eknath lies in reestablishing the Hindu religion and putting it on a sound footing. In his time he also created confidence hi the minds of Hindus in their religion and religious practices From the point of view of the literary activities, we may say that the books of Shri Eknath are more popular and are better read than his other contemporaries. It is no doubt because of the inherent qualities in the books themselves; but in addition to that the credit goes to the character and personality of Eknath for this popularity. Eknath was a very calm and quiet person. He never offended anyone. On the other hand he always held everybody in esteem and res¬pect. This also added to his popularity.

In the Warkari sect, the literature of Eknath Maharaj is honoured next to that of Dnyaneshwar and his book Eknathi Bhagwat is always named in that sect next to Dnyaneshwari. He always advised the people not to leave the idol worship as that was always within their reach. He had sound intellect, deep study and knowledge, high reverance for his guru, compassion for all beings and a perfectly calm and sound mind In his books and religious preaching he found a golden mean by unifying the way of Bhakti and Dnyana and that impression about his personality is still maintained on the mind of every Maharashtrian who is conversant with his life and literature.