Sant Ekanath (1533-1599) appeared almost 300 years after Sant Jnaneshvar and Sant Namdev. But he is regarded as their spiritual successor, a link-figure, who prepared the way for Sant Tukaram, the greatest Maharashtrian poet-saint in the 17th century.
Ekanath was a great scholar, philosopher, poet and social reformer. But, foremost, he was a great devotee of Lord Vitthala of Pandharpur whom he considered the single One Reality pervading every atom of the universe, the source of everything! His whole life was an expression of this deep experience of divinity.
He is known as the great ‘householder-saint’ who in an exemplary way reconciled worldly and spiritual life. He is also remembered for his great guru-bhakti, his humble and endearing nature, and his complete mastery over anger that won him the name Shantibrahma Ekanath, ‘the personification of peace and serenity’.
He had an all-encompassing vision to integrate Hinduism, Islam and other beliefs into a higher mystical truth of oneness (ekatva), and his actions epitomized social inclusiveness and the abandonment of caste hierarchy.
Early years
Sant Ekanath was born into an illustrious brahmin family in 1533 in the ancient, orthodox town of Pratishthan, which is nowadays known as Paithan near Aurangabad. Paithan used to be a famous place of brahminical learning, the ‘Kashi of the South’ situated on the bank of river Godavari. It was here that Sant Jnaneshvar and his siblings were sent for a ‘certificate of purification’, and it was also here that Jnaneshvar made the buffalo speak the Vedas! That was 300 years before Ekanath’s time.
Ekanath’s great-grandfather was the famous Sant Bhanudas who is fondly remembered for bringing back to Pandharpur the image of Vitthala from Hampi, the capital of Vijayanagara, where it was taken by King Krishnadevaraya.
Ekanath’s parents died in his infancy and he was raised by his grand-parents. Right from childhood he was of a very calm disposition and devoted to God, and had a keen intellect. Early in life he felt the irrepressible desire to meet a sadguru. So, at the tender age of 12, answering an inner call, he left home and fully surrendered at the feet of Janardan Swami.
Janardana Swami
Janardana Swami (1504 -1575), a brahmin scholar, was a great devotee of Lord Dattatreya. He often saw the manifestations of Guru Datta in various forms. At the same time, he was a family man, combining admirably his secular obligations with his spiritual life. Maharashtra at that time was under Mohammedan rule and Janardana Swami served as a military commander in the Muslim army of Daulatabad, previously known as Devagiri, an impressive hilltop-fortress within the Sultanate of Ahmednagar. Janardana Swami was highly respected by Hindus and Muslims alike. His samadhi can be seen even today in a cave atop this hill fortress.
Ekanath’s wonderful Gurubhakti
Ekanath stayed with Janardana Swami for 6 years and served him in the most exemplary way. He made himself available day and night, anticipated every possible wish and followed his guru’s will in all aspects. After a long practice of spiritual exercises at his guru’s feet combined with the study of holy texts, he attained the vision of God. Janardana Swami also facilitated a direct darshan and the mercy of his Ishta-devata Sri Dattatreya. However, he advised Ekanath to take the ‘easy road’ of Vitthala bhakti. They went on a long pilgrimage together, and finally, according to his guru’s wish, he got married, settled in Paithan and led the life of a house-holder; yet his mind was always fixed on God.
Sant Ekanath’s ‘Nityaniyama’
The rule of Ekanath’s life was the rule of moderation. Right from dawn he had a fixed daily spiritual discipline, every afternoon he held discourses on the Jnaneshvari or the Bhagavatam and every night he held a kirtan! This was the constant rule of his life! To be a householder was never a hurdle to his devotion and his noble wife Giribala supported him in every possible way. His life was an example of how one can realize God even while leading a family life! Ekanath belonged to an affluent family; his ancestors were landlords. As his fame spread, both local Hindu and Muslim rulers respected him. He was known to lavishly feed everyday a large number of people! In his house he worshipped a small Vitthala Murti, Vijay Panduranga, which is preserved even to this day. Hagiographic texts also describe his wonderful pilgrimage to Pandharpur and the festivals he celebrated.
Ekanath Maharaj had two daughters Godabai and Gangabai, and one son, Haripandit. His descendants up to the 14th generation still live in his house in Paithan.
Sant Ekanath’s state of God-realization
More than all the other saints, Ekanath assimilated different religious influences. Through his family ties he was exposed to the highly orthodox brahminical world, through the Ahmednagar Sultanate he was influenced by Islam, through his guru he entered into the worship of Dattatreya and then Vitthala, and he was also familiar with the Sufi tradition near Daulatabad. Through his deep experience of ‘one Chaitanya’ or ‘One Divinity’ permeating the whole universe, it was impossible for Sant Ekanath to differentiate between castes, faiths, kingdoms, and even animals; to him everything was divine, in everyone and everything he saw his guru Janardana Swami!
Describing his state of God-realization, Ekanath says: ‘If God reveals Himself in the heart, the devotee cannot help but experience everywhere the all-pervading Atman assuming various forms, and see God in Janivani, in all living beings (jani) and also in nature (vani) – in plants, in stones, in every particle! Then all doubts, desires and duties simply drop off! All fear, birth and death disappear! A stage is reached where the world is not, but God alone is!’
In one of his very popular abhangs he sings: avagheci trailokya anandace ata… ‘All the three worlds are steeped in bliss now, I’m holding the feet of the Lord of the universe in my heart! He is the sole ordainer of everything! My mother, my father! He is the Lord of the lordless; I have nobody in the world other than Him! He is Janardana! Ekanath says, only One remains! Vitthala alone stands there and the radiance of this One Immortal Consciousness (Chaitanya), the essence of all beings, gives colour and beauty to everything!’
The truest worship of God is realizing divine presence everywhere; thus one can prostrate in front of everyone and everything!
Legends
There are many well-known stories and legends woven around Sant Ekanath’s life. His character is unanimously described as bhutadaya—one who is compassionate towards all living beings, as samadarshi—seeing everyone as equal, and being respectful and courteous towards both high and low born people, and people of other faiths and religions, as shantibrahma – the embodiment of peace.
But, because of Sant Ekanath’s perception of God-presence in all beings, including outcastes, Muslim faqirs and animals, he transgressed constantly and naturally the boundaries of caste and ritual purity. Many stories describe his recurrent conflict with the other brahmins of Paithan. Ekanath always kept his calm, apologized, sought forgiveness; invariably by his meekness and Vitthala’s intervention there was always a happy outcome. Several times the infuriated brahmins punished him by making him undergo ritual purification; yet on the very next occasion he again wholeheartedly mixed with people considered low caste. Seeing the eagerness and bhakti of the lowborn, he many times accepted their lunch invitations. He once carried back on his shoulders a lost outcaste boy to his mother, and he fed a dying donkey the Ganga water meant for puja. Another famous story is the annual Shraddha-ceremony, the puja for his ancestors, where he fed the feast arranged for brahmins, to a group of hungry chandalas or untouchables. He was happily feeding Janardana present in all beings. But when the enraged brahmins boycotted the ritual and left, Ekanath’s ancestors appeared in person and partook of the offerings, thus vindicating his outlook.
By far the most wonderful story is the one of Vitthala disguised as the Brahmin servant Srikhandya serving Ekanath Maharaj incognito for 12 years just for the pleasure of being with his loving bhakta. An abhang by Sant Niloba says, dwarakeci murti Ekanatha ghari, ‘The Murti of Dwarka is in Ekanath’s house carrying up water from the Godavari, Srikhandya washes the clothes, prepares the sandal paste, is always at hand for Ekanath’s puja….’
Sant Ekanath and Sant Jnaneshvar
Ekanath had studied the Jnaneshvari along with his guru, and had taken full refuge in Sant Jnaneshvar. Answering an inner calling he went to Alandi and rediscovered the exact location of Jnaneshvar’s sanjivan samadhi. It is thus solely because of Ekanath Maharaj that Jnaneshvar’s samadhi sohala or festival of samadhi is now celebrated every year. Sant Jnaneshvar also appeared to him in a dream and requested him to reedit the Jnaneshvari which had changed because of wrong readings. Without altering the original he judiciously made the necessary corrections, and this is the edition used today. Ekanath Maharaj composed many soulful abhangs in praise of the Jnaneshvari and Sant Jnaneshvar.
Sant Ekanath’s literary works
Sant Ekanath started to write on the behest of his guru Janardana Swami. Following the saints before him, he too wrote his compositions only in his mother tongue Marathi, for the spiritual upliftment of the masses. In the Vitthalabhakti Sampraday, he and Jnaneshvar Maharaj stand out as the only erudite Brahmins; all the other saints came from other sections of the society.
Sant Ekanath was a most prolific writer, and yet with great humbleness he states again and again that he is nothing but the mouthpiece of his Guru! Apart from 4000 abhangs in praise of Vitthala, his main two monumental works are the Ekanathi Bhagavata, a Marathi commentary of the 11th chapter of the Srimad Bhagavatam, and the Bhavartha Ramayan, the Valmiki Ramayan in Marathi. The latter was completed by his dull-witted and mute disciple Gavaji, to whom Ekanath passed on his poetic inspiration before leaving his body.
With his Ekanathi Bhagavata, which heavily leans on the style of the Jnaneshvari, he first ran into trouble. The Pandits of Varanasi summoned him from Paithan, offended that the holy teachings of Vyasadev were being ‘polluted in the vernacular spoken by shudras.’ However, on meeting Ekanath Maharaj, they were fully won over by his humble, courteous nature, and they not only got convinced about the correctness of his interpretation, but after completion of the book, the Ekanathi Bhagavata was paraded on top of a caparisoned elephant in a grand procession all through Varanasi!
Abhangas
Each saint has his specific signature or mudra in the last line of his abhangs. But Sant Ekanath is the only one who through his mudra immortalized his guru by combining his guru’s name with his own as Eka-Janardani, the Eka(nath) of Janardana Swami! He felt eternally indebted to his guru who showed him the light within himself, the God in his own heart! Most well-known among his abhangs are those on his guru, his Gaulans which are songs of the Vrindavan gopis, his Khel which are abhangs on the games played with Krishna, and his Bharuds or shepherd songs.
Gaulans
In these songs, Ekanath Maharaj becomes a gopi (gaulani), experiencing Krishna’s pranks in Vrindavan and the effect of his mesmerizing flute. Bhulavile venunade… ‘Bewitched by the sound of Govinda’s flute, the water of the Yamuna stands still, the birds are motionless, cattle and deer completely entranced, their tails frozen! The sound transcends the three worlds, Ekajanardani has lost himself!’
Khel
When the saints saw Vitthala in the form of Gopala Krishna, they themselves took the role of cowherds in his retinue and participated in Krishna’s childhood plays in Vrindavan. Ekanath Maharaj composed abhangs on many different games like hututu—a form of Kabadi, hamama, tipari, and phugadi—where two people hold each other with crossed hands and twirl around in a circle symbolically becoming one. The Varkaris thus spiritualize traditional games. Pandharpur bhajans is a harmony of games, and dance!
In one Khel abhang Ekanath Maharaj tells Kanhoba, i.e., Krishna: ‘Kanhoba! Let’s play hamama! I got you! Now it’s your turn! You are the Ramavatar now! Let’s play next in Nanda’s house and meet the gopis! Let’s play in Pandharpur during Ashadi and Kartiki (the 2 biggest yatras to Pandhari), the sants are roaring out your name! Gopal is dancing! Ekajanardani says, I play with him in various ways!’ (alluding to the concept that everything is God’s lila!)
Again in another abhang he calls out: ‘Krishna, enough of games now! I’m not going to play any of them with you anymore! Stop deceiving! Cut the knot of duality!’
In his songs of Bhovara, the ‘spinning top’, he sings, ‘Krishna ‘garrgarr’ rotates his top, and the three worlds get sucked into the wheel of birth and death – unless one remembers Hari!’
Bharuds
These are drama-poems meant to be enacted by way of songs, conversations, improvised costumes etc. They are interactive and members of the audience are often asked to join spontaneously! The lyrics have a double meaning. The topics at first appear to be very mundane, jocular, and entertaining; but they have a spiritual content at a deeper level! Ekanath Maharaj devised them to attract and uplift mundane people with engrossing folk-dramas. In the Bharuds, he takes on the role of various characters – animals, outcastes, Muslims, beggars, etc. Many Bharuds make use of untouchables and socially marginal characters to give voice to his spiritual message; in some Bharuds even outcastes are depicted as teaching lessons to brahmins! In his famous Hindu Turk Samvad Bharud for example, he shows a Hindu and a Muslim arguing over various points of their respective religion, ending in an amicable embrace, having understood the oneness of all religions! Bharud is an art form which is still very popular in the villages.
Faqir
Ekanath Maharaj even penned several abhangs titled Faqir! In one such abhang he says: ‘Hajarata maula, the Master who protects the whole world! Ekajanardani calls him Allah; he is the same who stands there on the brick in Pandharpur!’ His aim was to show the underlying oneness of all people and religions. He considered conversions as unnecessary and a sign of ignorance.
Upadesh
Though Ekanath Maharaj was well-versed in all the shastras, rituals and meditations, he followed the advice of his guru to take the easy road of Vitthala bhakti. He says that love of God is entirely self-sufficient and that intellectual knowledge is not necessary. ‘Of all the evanescent things in this world, God’s name alone is imperishable! It puts an end to the disease of worldly life, the bhavarog, we are all suffering from!’ He advises us to just cling to the name and to Vitthala’s feet! He sees any other sadhana like an detour on the way! He says Sadhana te sara pandharici vari…, ‘The essence of all sadhana is the pilgrimage to Pandhari! Don’t attempt more! Studying the Vedas you fall trap to pride! Discussing all the shastras is such an effort! With the stories in the Puranas you’ll get confused! Your lifespan is too short to study all the big books! Don’t waste your time! Ekanath says: the essence of all are the three syllables of Vitthala’s name! Vi-ttha-la.’
Just like Sant Namadev, Ekanath pleads Bhaktiprema vina jnana nako deva…, ‘Deva, please no jnana for me without love! Give me the bliss of love! Without love there is no fulfillment!’ Ekanath Maharaj’s stress lies on bhava, the loving feeling. Bhava toci deva… ‘God is bhava, don’t ever have a single doubt about it!’
He also emphasizes the indispensable need of a guru: ‘God reveals himself in the form of a Guru!’ and the need to associate with those loving saints who have made Vitthala their very life! They are one with Vitthala!
Ekanath’s Samadhi and Ekanath Shashthi
The ‘Phalgun Shashthi’, the sixth of the Phalgun or March, had always been a very special date for Ekanath Maharaj. This day was the birthday as well as the Samadhi day of his guru Sri Janardana Swami; it was also the day when Sri Janardana, and later Ekanath had their first darshan of Lord Dattatreya.
To commemorate all these wonderful events, Sant Ekanath held a festival every year in Paithan in honour of his guru. Ekanath Maharaj predicted his mortal end and it is not surprising that it happened on the sixth of Phalgun.
He took the vina on his shoulder and while praising loudly Vitthala and Janardana, he walked down to the banks of the Godavari where a huge crowd had gathered–all repeating the name of God! He commenced his last kirtan and asked for everybody’s blessing. Then he waded navel deep into the river and left his body. He was then aged 66!
The quiet, ancient town of Paithan comes alive two times every year. One is the festival of Prasthan, when the Varkaris attached to Sant Ekanath leave Paithan with the Palkhi, palanquin, containing the padukas of Sant Ekanath and walk for around 20 days on their way to Pandharpur for the great Ashad – Ekadashi in June/July. The second is the Samadhi-festival of Sant Ekanath, which instead of Phalgun Shashthi is known as Ekanath Shashthi. Hundreds of thousands of Varkaris occupy for three days every nook and corner of Paithan. There is continuous bhajan and the shouts of Bhanudasa –Ekanath are heard everywhere!
The Real Pandharpur
Pandharpur is one of the very few tirtha-kshetras where each and every pilgrim is allowed to touch the Lord’s feet. But Ekanath Maharaj reminds us that we have to transcend the physical form ‘Kaya hi Pandhari Atma Vitthala…’ The body is Pandhari, the Atma is Vitthala! The Chandrabhaga has to flow from within one’s heart as bhava and bhakti – then only Panduranga looks beautiful! The river-sand the valuvant is considered as holy and all the Vaishnavas gather there, but the real holy sand must be a heart of compassion, forgiveness and peace! I have seen Pandhari in body, people, forest; Ekajanardani is on his Vari, his pilgrimage to Pandhari!’