For all those who equate organised religion to dharma and who, due to their narrow mind set, are compelled to box pluralistic saints like Kabir and Shirdi Sai baba into Hindu/Muslim categories, for them, Sant Eknath is an enigma, an embarrassment. His Guru – Swami Janardan, is claimed, by some scholars, to be a Sufi Many of his bharuds (devotional songs) are in Hindustani and can often be mistaken to be written by a Sufi. He spoke of finding parallels in Hinduism and Islam, his followers belonged to different castes and creeds and according to one legend he even led Muslim armies on one occasion. Little wonder then that recent Marathi writers, have tried to recast him as a saviour of Hinduism from Islam although available literature proves something altogether different!!
The story of sant Eknath is a story of a scholarly Brahmin whose compassion and wisdom allowed him to rise above caste distinction and even engage Muslims in his spiritual dialogues.
Sant Eknath (1533-99 C.E.) was born to a Brahmin family in the holy city of Paithan, known as the Benaras of Maharashtra, which stood on the banks of Godavari. He was the grandson of Sant Bhanudas- a devout Warkari sant who is credited with returning the idol of Vithobha from Hampi to Pandharpur, its original home. It had been taken from Pandharpur by Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagar in 1951. Spiritually inclined from a very early age, Sant Eknath was allowed by his guru, Swami Janardhan to lead a life of a house holder. Sant Eknath carried forward the tradition of social reform of Sant Gyaneshwar and Sant Namdev by rejecting all distinctions of caste and creed and the relevance of ritual and rites. For this he won many opponents among the high caste Hindus.
He composed numerous religious songs in Marathi called abhangs, owees and bharuds. He wrote a commentary in Marathi on the Bhagvad Purana known as Eknath Bhagwat and also began writing Rukimini Swayamvara which, after his death, was later completed by one of his disciples. His works brought the highest of religious truths and moral guidance to the common people. He was a renowned kirtankaar giving birth to a unique style of Marathi kirtan singing called Eknath kirtan. He collected all the versions of Gyaneshwar’s Gyaneshwari and produced a critical edition of it.
Sant Eknath's abhang sung by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi:
However his
unusual contribution to Marathi Bhakti literature is his empathy with the
dalits. Out of the three hundred bharuds (drama poems) that he has
written, about fifty are from the perspective of a Dalit. In forty seven of
which the protagonist is a Mahar and in one a Mang is the central character.
Both these castes are considered among the ‘lowest’ in Maharshtra and elsewhere
in India. These characters in Eknath’s drama poems, preach morality, the
righteous path, the importance of a Guru and how the Bhakti marg liberates
us from the cycle of death and rebirth. He mocks at the so-called learned
Brahmins and fake gurus in the following Bharud:
“They say
‘we have become saints’
They put
on garlands and sandal paste.
Taking a
lamp in their hands
They cry udo,udo…..
!
They do
kirtan for the sake of their stomachs
They
teach the ‘meaning of all’ to the people.
They
cheat their ignorant devotees.
They do
not know the meaning of kirtan…….
Do the
one kind of Bhakti.
Don’t
wait for anything else.
Good and
bad come in their own way.
They are
the proof of past deeds…..”
Like his
predecessors of the Warkari Bhakti movement, Eknath, in his following Bharud
preaches that all humans can experience nearness to God irrespective of
caste and creed:
God baked
pots with Gora
drove
cattle with Chokha
cut grass
with Savata Mali
wove
garments with Kabir
dyed hide
with Ramdas
sold meat
with butcher Sajana
melted
gold with Narhari
carried
cow dung with Jana Bai
and even
became the Mahar messenger of Damaji
There are
numerous stories of Eknath being ostracised and punished by the Brahmins for
his proximity and social interactions with the so called ‘untouchables’.
Eknath is also
credited with contributing to the religio-cultural pluralism of the Deccan in
the sixteenth century. He lived during the rule of Ahmednagar Sultanate. Apart
from being an ancient capital, the sixteenth century Paithan was a major
trading centre and Eknath had the opportunity to interact with people of all
castes as well as Indian Muslims and Arabs.
His guru, Janardhan Swami, was a saint as well
as in charge of the Daulatabad fort. Janardahan Swami was the disciple of Chand
Bodale, also known as Chandrabhat, who was a Vaishnav and yet a follower of the
Kadri or Qadarriya Sufi path and dressed like a faqir. At one time, it is
believed, Eknath took his guru’s place to lead the Muslim army when the fort
was attacked, as his guru was in deep meditation at this time!! According to
Rigopoulos (p.160) Eknath disguised himself as his guru and in the process
acquired all his strength and defeated the attacking army. This phenomenon of
the disciple (murid) completely absorbing himself into the personality
of his master (shaykh) is known as fana-fi-sh’shaykh among Sufis.
The Sufi
influence on Eknath is further indicated by the number of Persian and Arabic
words found in his Bharuds. While recently many right wing ideologist
have tried to cast Sant Eknath as a saviour of Hinduism from the ‘hated’ Muslim
tide, numerous scholars, both Hindu and Muslim, concur that medieval India was
an era of tolerance, participation of Hindu subjects in the Islamic government
and cultural interaction and influence among the two communities. Eknath’s bharud
titled, Hindu-Turk Samvad sums up the situation aptly:
Eknath: The
goal is one, the ways of worship are different.
Listen
to the dialogue between these two!
The Turk
calls the Hindu ‘Kafir’!
The
Hindu answers: ‘I will be polluted, get away!’
A
quarrel broke out between the two,
A great
controversy began.
Muslim: O
Brahman! Listen to what I have to say:
Your
scripture is a mystery to everyone,
God has
hands and feet, you say.
This is
really impossible!
Hindu: Listen
you great fool of a Turk!
See God
in all living things.
You
haven’t grasped this point
And so
you have become a nihilist…….
At that
moment that saluted each other.
With
great respect, they embraced.
Both
became content, happy.
Quiet,
calm.
‘You and
I quarrelled to open up the knowledge of high truth,
In order
to enlighten the very ignorant.
In place
of karma-awakening!!’
(Note:
References for any information cited in the article may be obtained on request
from the writer.)
