Dyaneshwar’s Gita Has Popular Appeal
Maharashtra
has a unique tradition of Bhakti. Great saints propagated the Bhaktimarg, a
path of complete devotion and surrender to God. Poetic compositions called
abhangas, shilokas and bhajans of saints like Sant Dnyaneshwar, Tukaram Ramdas
Namdev and other sare sung or recited in all traditional Maharastrian homes.
Dnyaneswari is a critical discourse on bhagavath Gita by Sant Dyaneshwar.
The
great Mahabharata war took place between the Pandavas and their cousins
Kauravas, some 5000 years ago at kurukshetra. Faced with might of the huge
Kaurava army, Arjuna lost his own kith and kin. At that moment ,Krishna who
was the charioteer of Arjuna ,exhorted him on the battlefield to perform his
duty as a Kshatriya and fight without worrying about the consequences.
Krishna’s advice in the Bhagavath Gita is a small chapter in the
Mahabharata, comprising 700 shilokas or verses in Sanskrit.
Sant Dyaneshwar realized that the Gitas teaching could
be read only by a small Sanskrit-knowing elite. Dyaneshwar, under the advise
of his Guru, Ninrathinath, rendered a Marathi version of the Gita known as
Dyaneshwari. It contains more than 9000 verses called ovies. So Sant
Dyaneshwar brought teaching of the Gita within reach of the common man.
Dyaneshwari was composed around the twelfth century, when Dyaneshwar was only
16years old. He took Samadhi at the age of 22 and left this mortal world.
The Bible was originally in the Latin Language and John
Wiklif rendered its English translation which is in use today. That was in the
year 1365, about 75 years after Dyaneshwari was composed. Dyaneshwari has
since been translated to several languages.
Dyaneshwar presented his work to his guru Nivruthinath
and sought his blessing. He did this through a poem of just nine vereses
called Pasaydan literally means a request, asking boons from god .In the
Pasayandan Dyaneshwar asked nothing for himself but he prayed for the well
being of entire mankind.
In the second verse Pasayandan Dyaneshwar requests the
lord to grant him a boon which will remove all evils from wicked persons
putting them on a righteous path. The evils in human beings are indulgence,
anger greed, ride; Kama, krodh, Lobh, Matsar & Ahankar. He prayed that
these evils be replaced by kindness, humility, tolerance, forgiveness and
devotion and surrender to God. Dyaneshwar says let the people of the world be
happy and let them do good deeds to make others happy. Dyaneshwar says that
while lowing steams provide water needed for life, the banyan tree provides
shade and shelter from the sun’s heat ,without any expectation. Being good
and doing good to others without evils thoughts or expectations of rewards ,is
the first step towards spiritual attainment.
Next Dyaneshwar requests God to remove ignorance from
our lives and replace it with enlightenment and divine light to achieve our
goal, to let everyone sticks to swadharma or his own scared duty towards
others .If everyone sticks to swadharma there will be no conflict and
happiness will prevail. Dyaneshwar requests God to fulfil the genuine desires
and aspirations of all. All pious persons who perform their duty without any
expectations or returns, will ultimately desire to became one with the
Supreme.
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