"Tuka mhane taisa otalaase thhasa Anubhaw sarisa mukha ala"
I thought life as a work from home professional would give me lot of time and enable reading and writing on my favourite subjects, religion, history, heritage etc., So, with great enthusiasm in 2010 I thought I will attempt blogging live my experience reading Mahipati's 'Bhakta Vijaya'. Neither did I complete reading the book nor could continue blogging. Here is a compilation of the few days of jotting down on blog what I felt as I read through a few chapters. May be some day, I will complete reading as well writing on it. Till then ....
I remember reading Mahabhaktavijaya in Tamil published by Lifco with stories of Saint poets of India, especially the Maharashtrian Saints Jnaneshwar, Tukaram and Namdev when I was still in school. I gave the book to my maternal grandmother with whom I was spending my vacation at that time as she was interested in reading it and forgot all about it. At the time I had no clue about the greatness of the work and its author. For years, I had not heard or read anything about it. I have been living in and out of Bombay/Mumbai for the last twenty years. Have been following abhangs of the Saint poets with great interest and keep dreaming of the day I can visit Dehu, Alandi and Pandharpur and if possible walk with the Palki of Varkaris. It is by accident that I came across this book Stories of Indian Saints by Justin E.Abbott and N.R.Godbole at the Motilal Banarasidas shop near Mahalakshmi temple in Mumbai. I read the word Mahipati for the first time. The introduction to the book made me very sad. Why didn't my Maharastrian friends talk to me about one of their brilliant poets who sketched the biography of the Bhakti Poets. Why did I not know that the Maha Bhaktavijayam I read in Tamil was based on Mahipati's lyrical biographical collection Bhaktavijaya? I want to share my journey of this discovery of Mahipati's Bhaktavijaya and my planned visits to sacred pilgrimage sites in Maharashtra.
My online search for Mahipati yielded only a few and sketchy details. The introduction to Stories on Indian Saints says Mahipati's (1715-1790)was Taharabad in Ahmednagar district and he was learned and worked as a town-scribe under Muhammadan rule. It is said Tukaram himself was Mahipati's Guru as he initiated him in a dream and asked him to record the lives of Saints. Tukaram had attained Moksha in 1649 as per the same account.
This is what the Maharashtra gazette says:
"MAHIPATI OR MAHIPATI BHAVA.-A Deshast Brahman of the Rigved, and an inhabitant of Zaharabad, a village in the Ahmadnagar district, near to the river Godavari, not far from Paitan. He was born in Saka 1637 (A.D. 1715), and died in Saka 1712 (A.D. 1790)."
In his forward to the book J.F.Edwards wrote - "rare quality of Marathi literature he has given us". Mahipati's original Bhaktavijaya consisted of 10,000 verses of 4 lines each. The work starts with Jayadeva, covers north Indian saints Tulsidas, Kabir, Gujarati Narsi Mehta and Maharastrians saints from Jnaneshwar to Chokamela to Tukaram and Namdev.
The book also quotes ICS officer C.A.Kincaid who wrote the history of Marthas saying,"had Mahipati used a linguistic medium more widely known than Marathi he would have ranked high among the world's poets". I am sure the available English translation can only satisfy our curiosity about the book but cannot make us enjoy the beauty of Mahipati's poetry.
It is interesting that the gazette says Mahipati was very prolific but an intolerably verbose writer. It dates Bhaktavijaya as written in 1774 A.D. He also wrote Santa Lilamrita, Bhakta Lilamrita,Santa Vijaya; Krishna Lilamrita; Radha Saramrita; Pandurang Mahatma; Sant Mahatma; and Tukaram charitra.
How I wish the Shiv Sena, MNS do something concrete to propogate such works so that we who live here instinctively take to the language and learn to read and write in it instead of forcing it on migrant taxi drivers. Even a work as great as Dasabodha of Swami Ramdas is not available in any of the book shops and we have to buy it directly from the Samarth Ramdas trust.
This is what the Maharashtra gazette says:
"MAHIPATI OR MAHIPATI BHAVA.-A Deshast Brahman of the Rigved, and an inhabitant of Zaharabad, a village in the Ahmadnagar district, near to the river Godavari, not far from Paitan. He was born in Saka 1637 (A.D. 1715), and died in Saka 1712 (A.D. 1790)."
In his forward to the book J.F.Edwards wrote - "rare quality of Marathi literature he has given us". Mahipati's original Bhaktavijaya consisted of 10,000 verses of 4 lines each. The work starts with Jayadeva, covers north Indian saints Tulsidas, Kabir, Gujarati Narsi Mehta and Maharastrians saints from Jnaneshwar to Chokamela to Tukaram and Namdev.
The book also quotes ICS officer C.A.Kincaid who wrote the history of Marthas saying,"had Mahipati used a linguistic medium more widely known than Marathi he would have ranked high among the world's poets". I am sure the available English translation can only satisfy our curiosity about the book but cannot make us enjoy the beauty of Mahipati's poetry.
It is interesting that the gazette says Mahipati was very prolific but an intolerably verbose writer. It dates Bhaktavijaya as written in 1774 A.D. He also wrote Santa Lilamrita, Bhakta Lilamrita,Santa Vijaya; Krishna Lilamrita; Radha Saramrita; Pandurang Mahatma; Sant Mahatma; and Tukaram charitra.
How I wish the Shiv Sena, MNS do something concrete to propogate such works so that we who live here instinctively take to the language and learn to read and write in it instead of forcing it on migrant taxi drivers. Even a work as great as Dasabodha of Swami Ramdas is not available in any of the book shops and we have to buy it directly from the Samarth Ramdas trust.
I would have skipped the introduction to 'Stories on Indian Saints' had I any knowledge of the author or the book. So to understand what the book is all about and the author I read through the introduction, foreword etc. It has been a dampener - it robbed the unalloyed joy I wanted to derive from reading Mahipati's account of the Bhakti poets or Saints.
Despite all the research and scholarship, the western Christian mind sometimes lacks understanding of the core of the Hindu religion. There is a great confusion in their mind in perceiving the concept of Brahman on the one hand and the multiple avatars and millions of Gods on the other hand. From whatever little my mind could understand there has been a mischievous element in trying to show Bhakti and Vedanta as two diverse and different streams that doesn't meet.
For instance, in his foreword J.F.Edwards from the United Theological College of Western India, Pune devotes a sub-head called "India's yearning for a personal God". Let me quote him:"But there is more than the democratising influence of bhakti to be learned from Mahipati's Bhaktavijaya stories. They show how wide and deep has been India's revolt against the deadening philosophy of the Hindu Vedanta...These stories in the Bhaktavijaya disclose how passionately India wants a personal God, that she will refuse to be satisfied until she finds such a God, or is found by Him, as the News Testament affirms; and that for a thousand years past India has been driven by the inner urge of the heart to a conception of a Personal Lord or Ishwar which the most strenuous efforts have not been able to reconcile with the older philosophy."
Then what was Narayana to Prahlada? Weren't the avatars themselves the personal Gods who were in existence and worshipped much before what came to be labelled the "Bhakti movement". Before the dawn of Kaliyuga didn't Lord Krishna himself beautifully outline what would be characteristics of the yuga and what kind of a marga human beings would need? A simple introduction in Srimad Bhagavata is an example as to how the Kaliyuga was envisaged and the prescription that Sri Krishna himself puts down as cure.
I quote here what Ugrashrava has to say about Kaliyuga as described in chapter 1 of Kamala Subramaniam's Srimad Bhagavatam. "Contemplating on the Absolute will not be possible for man today, ridden as he is by besetting sins. But even the worst sinner can be saved if he listens to the stories of the Lord, his many avataras. The Bhagavata is just that. The path to the Lord is devotion, the Bhakti marga. It is bhakti which we see as the golden thread running through all the avataras. The Bhagavata is a string of beads which, like a japamala, helps you to realise the Lord and reach Him. Vyasa composed this Puranas as his last contribution for the good of the world. I will tell you how it came about.'
Mahipati knows this; he knows how all these great saints from the earlier yugas were ordained by the Lord to manifest themselves in the Kaliyuga. That is why he humbly starts with list of people who the God commands to take various avatars even as he himself takes the form of Buddha. Uddhava should become an avatara at Pandhari in Dindiravana. Akrura should go to Mathura and Vrindavan. He sends Vyasa to the east of Jagannath (Puri). Valmiki is sent to Hastinapur to rewrite Ramayana. An in a fitting manner Mahipati starts his work not with any of the Maharashtrian Saints but with Vyasa who was born in the East as Jeyadeva. The great rishi felt a void even after writing Mahabharata, compiling Vedas and was advised by Sage Narada to write about the avataras of the Supreme Lord in Srimad Bhagavatam. The same Vyasa takes the form of a simple Krishna Bhakta in the Kaliyuga to give us yet another immortal beauty, Gita Govinda. Like Vyasa recounted the Lord’s avataras for the benefit of men and women in Kaliyuga so does Mahipati in recording the lives of the Saints for those who are born later when the Kali’s works get deeper and pushes them into further ignorance.
Despite all the research and scholarship, the western Christian mind sometimes lacks understanding of the core of the Hindu religion. There is a great confusion in their mind in perceiving the concept of Brahman on the one hand and the multiple avatars and millions of Gods on the other hand. From whatever little my mind could understand there has been a mischievous element in trying to show Bhakti and Vedanta as two diverse and different streams that doesn't meet.
For instance, in his foreword J.F.Edwards from the United Theological College of Western India, Pune devotes a sub-head called "India's yearning for a personal God". Let me quote him:"But there is more than the democratising influence of bhakti to be learned from Mahipati's Bhaktavijaya stories. They show how wide and deep has been India's revolt against the deadening philosophy of the Hindu Vedanta...These stories in the Bhaktavijaya disclose how passionately India wants a personal God, that she will refuse to be satisfied until she finds such a God, or is found by Him, as the News Testament affirms; and that for a thousand years past India has been driven by the inner urge of the heart to a conception of a Personal Lord or Ishwar which the most strenuous efforts have not been able to reconcile with the older philosophy."
Then what was Narayana to Prahlada? Weren't the avatars themselves the personal Gods who were in existence and worshipped much before what came to be labelled the "Bhakti movement". Before the dawn of Kaliyuga didn't Lord Krishna himself beautifully outline what would be characteristics of the yuga and what kind of a marga human beings would need? A simple introduction in Srimad Bhagavata is an example as to how the Kaliyuga was envisaged and the prescription that Sri Krishna himself puts down as cure.
I quote here what Ugrashrava has to say about Kaliyuga as described in chapter 1 of Kamala Subramaniam's Srimad Bhagavatam. "Contemplating on the Absolute will not be possible for man today, ridden as he is by besetting sins. But even the worst sinner can be saved if he listens to the stories of the Lord, his many avataras. The Bhagavata is just that. The path to the Lord is devotion, the Bhakti marga. It is bhakti which we see as the golden thread running through all the avataras. The Bhagavata is a string of beads which, like a japamala, helps you to realise the Lord and reach Him. Vyasa composed this Puranas as his last contribution for the good of the world. I will tell you how it came about.'
Mahipati knows this; he knows how all these great saints from the earlier yugas were ordained by the Lord to manifest themselves in the Kaliyuga. That is why he humbly starts with list of people who the God commands to take various avatars even as he himself takes the form of Buddha. Uddhava should become an avatara at Pandhari in Dindiravana. Akrura should go to Mathura and Vrindavan. He sends Vyasa to the east of Jagannath (Puri). Valmiki is sent to Hastinapur to rewrite Ramayana. An in a fitting manner Mahipati starts his work not with any of the Maharashtrian Saints but with Vyasa who was born in the East as Jeyadeva. The great rishi felt a void even after writing Mahabharata, compiling Vedas and was advised by Sage Narada to write about the avataras of the Supreme Lord in Srimad Bhagavatam. The same Vyasa takes the form of a simple Krishna Bhakta in the Kaliyuga to give us yet another immortal beauty, Gita Govinda. Like Vyasa recounted the Lord’s avataras for the benefit of men and women in Kaliyuga so does Mahipati in recording the lives of the Saints for those who are born later when the Kali’s works get deeper and pushes them into further ignorance.
What an unbelievably and seemingly simple role the God had given Vyasa in being reborn as Jeyadeva. For Gita Govinda doesn’t have the countless complicated characters of Mahabharata, no complex theories to write like the Brahma Sutras.
He was given the sheer joy of experiencing and expressing the beautiful rasanubhava of Radha and Madhava. Oh, the God even spares Jeyadeva of the trouble over the climax of Gita Govinda, where the poet struggles to pen the idea of Krishna bowing down to Radha. “Dehi Padapallavam-udaram”...the God fills in for Jeyadeva when he goes out for a bath.
Mahipati doesn’t mention this particularly famous story from Jeyadeva’s life. But he gives us all the details of his birth, his marriage to Padmavati, his karunya in saving even those who cut off his hands and legs in bargaining for their Moksha with the God.
Jeyadeva was born in a Brahman family, in a village named Tundubilva. Reference to Tundubilava or Kindubilava is found in Gita Govinda say scholars. He composes a great work that is accepted by all and in a contest with King Satvik who wants his work to be judged above the poet’s Lord Jagannath himself intervenes and chooses Gita Govinda.
Apart from this incident there is very little on Jeyadeva’s work in Bhaktavijaya. Swami Sivananda in his Lives of Saints says, the king himself studied Gita Govinda by heart and propagated through his land. His pleas to Jagannatha doesn’t go unheard and the legend is that and the God grants 24 of his songs be included in Gita Govinda.
Padmavati
See the greatness of Jeyadeva’s parents. Swami Sivananda narrates the events before his birth. His father Narayana Sastri has a vision one night when the Lord appears and tells him that his wife’s prayers for a son would be fulfilled. He feels so upset that his wife had such a prayer for he felt all their tapas becomes a waste due to a selfish prayer. “Foolish woman, you ought not to have prayed for a son. You ought to have prayed for the eternal bliss of Atma. You have ruined yourself and me also,” Sastri tells his wife.
Strange are the circumstances of his marriage. A Brahmin who had vowed to offer his daughter to the Lord has a vision to get his daughter married to Jeya Deva. So he takes Padmavati and gets her married to Padmavati. Jeya Deva had no desire to marry, but feels if that is the wish of the Lord he would accept her.
Later when Jeyadeva’s wife goes to live with him at the palace of King Kraunch, Padmavati gets tested by the King’s wife. Padmavati justifies a wife dying with the husband so that they are united for the next seven janmas. The queen plays a trick to prove Jeya Deva died during a trip with the King. Padmavati true to her belief gives up her life. When the King gets to know of the trouble, he decides to kill himself instead of breaking the news to Jeya Deva. But Jeya Deva has drishti of what had happened and saves the king and brings her back to life singing 24 Ashtapatis (Eight feet verses), Radhavilas. Mahipati says, think of this couple when you are in trouble, you would be saved. It is with a great purpose Mahipati records the lives of saints. Swami Sivananda says Lives of Saints should be one’s constant companion – to be carried in a pocket, kept under a pillow.
Jeyadeva and the thieves
Jeyadeva did not seek riches. But when a merchant so devoted to him sends a lot of gifts to Jeyadeva’s wife without his knowledge, it proves disastrous. Jeyadeva carries the wealth without being aware of it and also dispenses off a companion who was sent with him as a guard. Two thieves rob Jeyadeva on the way and in a generous mood spare him his life, but cut off his hands and legs. Jeyadeva lies in a pit, in that state till a King who passes by that way notices him and rescues him. See what the vedanti tells King Krauncha – “I was born this way without hands and feet. I am quite separate from all my bodily organs.”
The thieves do not go away. They come back in disguise to the king’s court only to leave with whatever they asked for from the king. Jeyadeva recognises them, but doesn’t expose them. Later when the thieves lie to the king’s soldiers and the earth opens up and gobbles them. Jeyadeva is saddened by the outcome and cries. “O Krishna, purifier of the sinner, dear to the bhaktas, husband of Rukmini, why have you taken my enemies to hell? Sishupal committed hundreds of faults, yet Thou wast favourable to him, but my enemies thou didst take to hell. Why was this, O Merciful One? Narayana relents and Mahipati says he appeared in the Saguna form before Jeyadeva and soon his hands and legs sprung up. And he commands a pushpaka vimana to take the thieves who lied. “Such is the power of a bhakta which even Brahmadev and other gods cannot understand,” says Mahipati.
He was given the sheer joy of experiencing and expressing the beautiful rasanubhava of Radha and Madhava. Oh, the God even spares Jeyadeva of the trouble over the climax of Gita Govinda, where the poet struggles to pen the idea of Krishna bowing down to Radha. “Dehi Padapallavam-udaram”...the God fills in for Jeyadeva when he goes out for a bath.
Kenduli in West Bengal, considered to be Jeyadeva's birthpalce according to the Bengal tradition
Mahipati doesn’t mention this particularly famous story from Jeyadeva’s life. But he gives us all the details of his birth, his marriage to Padmavati, his karunya in saving even those who cut off his hands and legs in bargaining for their Moksha with the God.
Jeyadeva was born in a Brahman family, in a village named Tundubilva. Reference to Tundubilava or Kindubilava is found in Gita Govinda say scholars. He composes a great work that is accepted by all and in a contest with King Satvik who wants his work to be judged above the poet’s Lord Jagannath himself intervenes and chooses Gita Govinda.
Apart from this incident there is very little on Jeyadeva’s work in Bhaktavijaya. Swami Sivananda in his Lives of Saints says, the king himself studied Gita Govinda by heart and propagated through his land. His pleas to Jagannatha doesn’t go unheard and the legend is that and the God grants 24 of his songs be included in Gita Govinda.
Padmavati
See the greatness of Jeyadeva’s parents. Swami Sivananda narrates the events before his birth. His father Narayana Sastri has a vision one night when the Lord appears and tells him that his wife’s prayers for a son would be fulfilled. He feels so upset that his wife had such a prayer for he felt all their tapas becomes a waste due to a selfish prayer. “Foolish woman, you ought not to have prayed for a son. You ought to have prayed for the eternal bliss of Atma. You have ruined yourself and me also,” Sastri tells his wife.
Strange are the circumstances of his marriage. A Brahmin who had vowed to offer his daughter to the Lord has a vision to get his daughter married to Jeya Deva. So he takes Padmavati and gets her married to Padmavati. Jeya Deva had no desire to marry, but feels if that is the wish of the Lord he would accept her.
Later when Jeyadeva’s wife goes to live with him at the palace of King Kraunch, Padmavati gets tested by the King’s wife. Padmavati justifies a wife dying with the husband so that they are united for the next seven janmas. The queen plays a trick to prove Jeya Deva died during a trip with the King. Padmavati true to her belief gives up her life. When the King gets to know of the trouble, he decides to kill himself instead of breaking the news to Jeya Deva. But Jeya Deva has drishti of what had happened and saves the king and brings her back to life singing 24 Ashtapatis (Eight feet verses), Radhavilas. Mahipati says, think of this couple when you are in trouble, you would be saved. It is with a great purpose Mahipati records the lives of saints. Swami Sivananda says Lives of Saints should be one’s constant companion – to be carried in a pocket, kept under a pillow.
Jeyadeva and the thieves
Jeyadeva did not seek riches. But when a merchant so devoted to him sends a lot of gifts to Jeyadeva’s wife without his knowledge, it proves disastrous. Jeyadeva carries the wealth without being aware of it and also dispenses off a companion who was sent with him as a guard. Two thieves rob Jeyadeva on the way and in a generous mood spare him his life, but cut off his hands and legs. Jeyadeva lies in a pit, in that state till a King who passes by that way notices him and rescues him. See what the vedanti tells King Krauncha – “I was born this way without hands and feet. I am quite separate from all my bodily organs.”
The thieves do not go away. They come back in disguise to the king’s court only to leave with whatever they asked for from the king. Jeyadeva recognises them, but doesn’t expose them. Later when the thieves lie to the king’s soldiers and the earth opens up and gobbles them. Jeyadeva is saddened by the outcome and cries. “O Krishna, purifier of the sinner, dear to the bhaktas, husband of Rukmini, why have you taken my enemies to hell? Sishupal committed hundreds of faults, yet Thou wast favourable to him, but my enemies thou didst take to hell. Why was this, O Merciful One? Narayana relents and Mahipati says he appeared in the Saguna form before Jeyadeva and soon his hands and legs sprung up. And he commands a pushpaka vimana to take the thieves who lied. “Such is the power of a bhakta which even Brahmadev and other gods cannot understand,” says Mahipati.
This is a small digression from Mahipati’s book, yet related to the overall subject of Saints. I chanced up on this website dedicated to Tukaram.
www.tukaram.com
In the Tamil section I was reading the meaning of one of the abhangs of Tukaram.
துகாராம் மஹாராஜ் சொல்லுகிறார், "ஸத்குருராயன் எனக்கு கிருபை செய்தார். ஆனால், நான் அவருக்கு எந்த ஸேவையும் செய்யவில்லை. (ஸ்வப்பனத்தில்) கங்கா ஸ்நானத்திற்குப் போகும்போது வழியில் அவரைக் கண்டேன். கையை என் சிரஸில் வைத்தார். போஜனத்திற்காக கால் சேர் (சுமார் ௧00 கிராம்) நெய் கேட்டார். அது ஸ்வப்பனத்தில் மறந்துவிட்டது. இடையில் என்ன தடை, அவசரம் ஏற்பட்டது என்பது எதுவும் தெரியவில்லை. ராகவ சைதன்யர், கேசவ சைதன்யர் என்று குரு பரம்பரையின் ரஹஸ்யத்தை எனக்குச் சொன்னார். தன்னுடைய பெயர் பாபாஜி என்றும் கூறினார். "ராம்க்ருஷ்ணஹரி" என்ற மந்திரத்தை உபதேசித்தார். எனக்கு குருவின் அங்கீகாரம் கிடைத்த தினம் மாசி மாஸம், சுக்ல பக்ஷ, தசமி கூடிய, வியாழக் கிழமையாகும்". (உபதேசம் கிடைத்த இடம் ஓதூர் என்ற கிராமம். வருஷம் - ௧௬௩௨).
http://www.tukaram.com/tamil/santvani/abhang003.htm
I can’t believe this coincidence. I am reading this on Sukla Paksha, Dasami in the month of Masi – the same month, same paksha and thithi Tukaram said he received the Guru upadesa.
www.tukaram.com
In the Tamil section I was reading the meaning of one of the abhangs of Tukaram.
துகாராம் மஹாராஜ் சொல்லுகிறார், "ஸத்குருராயன் எனக்கு கிருபை செய்தார். ஆனால், நான் அவருக்கு எந்த ஸேவையும் செய்யவில்லை. (ஸ்வப்பனத்தில்) கங்கா ஸ்நானத்திற்குப் போகும்போது வழியில் அவரைக் கண்டேன். கையை என் சிரஸில் வைத்தார். போஜனத்திற்காக கால் சேர் (சுமார் ௧00 கிராம்) நெய் கேட்டார். அது ஸ்வப்பனத்தில் மறந்துவிட்டது. இடையில் என்ன தடை, அவசரம் ஏற்பட்டது என்பது எதுவும் தெரியவில்லை. ராகவ சைதன்யர், கேசவ சைதன்யர் என்று குரு பரம்பரையின் ரஹஸ்யத்தை எனக்குச் சொன்னார். தன்னுடைய பெயர் பாபாஜி என்றும் கூறினார். "ராம்க்ருஷ்ணஹரி" என்ற மந்திரத்தை உபதேசித்தார். எனக்கு குருவின் அங்கீகாரம் கிடைத்த தினம் மாசி மாஸம், சுக்ல பக்ஷ, தசமி கூடிய, வியாழக் கிழமையாகும்". (உபதேசம் கிடைத்த இடம் ஓதூர் என்ற கிராமம். வருஷம் - ௧௬௩௨).
http://www.tukaram.com/tamil/santvani/abhang003.htm
I can’t believe this coincidence. I am reading this on Sukla Paksha, Dasami in the month of Masi – the same month, same paksha and thithi Tukaram said he received the Guru upadesa.
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