The Sant Parampara: People Who Instilled Unity Through Devotion!

In this blog we are particularly talking about the saint tradition. Though they were  humans, they didn't seem to be. It is also possible that though they were humans, their pure devotion to the supreme made them achieve godliness. Here we will discuss about saints in Maharashtra. The saints are called as sant in Marathi language. Since ages, various saints have taken birth in Maharashtra and so Maharashtra is rightly called "the land of saints" or  "santbhumi" as it is called in Marathi.

                                     

In Maharashtra before the birth of Sant Dnyaneshwar there were many saints like Sant Narhari Sonar.

But according to the "Varkari Sampraday"(Community that worships the supreme in the form of Lord Vitthala)  the first saint for them was Sant Dnyaneshwar and the last one was "Sant Tukaram". They say,

|| ज्ञानदेव रचिला पाया, तुका झालासे कळस ||

 - संत बहिणाबाई 

Sant Dnyaneshwar, Sant Nivruttinath, Sant Sopandev, Sant Muktabaai

All this four were siblings. They were the sons of a great holy man, Vitthalpant Kulkarni. All this siblings had to go through very harsh treatment from the society. Because Vitthalpant and his wife Rukmini had this sons only after Sanyaas. Then Vitthalpant and his family again started practicing Grihasta Ashram but the still they had to follow the rules of Sanyaas Ashram, whenever Vitthalpant or any of his family members went to take Bhiiksha from the locality they were always rejected and abused. Many days and nights Vitthalpant and his family had no food to eat. Despite suffering from all this issues this four siblings and their parents always remained devoted to Vitthal. The "Dharmapith" i.e., the Court of Dharma sentenced Vitthalpant and his wife Rukmini to death. Even then the four siblings remained devoted to Vitthal. The "Naths" had always graced upon Vitthalpant, his ancestors and also on his children. Once while travelling, Vitthalpant's family was chased by a tiger and Nivrutti, the eldest son of Vitthalpant was lost in the jungle. He hid in a cave and that's where he met his Guru Gahini Nath of the Nath philosophy. Nivrutti learnt many things from his Guru and at last became Nivruttinath. Then after this once when the four siblings with their maternal aunt and an elderly person were going to Paithan Dharmapith(The greatest dharmapith in India at that time) that's when on the way Nivruttinath gave anugraha to Dnyaneshwar as ordered by Paramguru Shri Matsyendranath.

Nivruttinath gave majority of his knowledge to Dnyaneshwar in a cave after taking an examination in which Dnyaneshwar passed. The anugraha went on like this

  || आदेश अलख निरंजन ||

                                                                  

 || अहम् ब्रह्मास्मि ||

 || तत् त्वम् असि  ||

 || प्रज्ञानम् ब्रह्म ||

  || अयम् आत्मा ब्रह्म ||

And thats when finally Gahini Nath gave Darshan to both Nivruttinath and Dnyaneshwar and told Sant Dnyaneshwar the purpose of his life. Dnyaneshwar was told to present the vedas, shastras, puranas and Bhagvad Gita in a simple manner to the common public so that everyone can understand the deep knowledge hidden in this sacred books. Apart from all this, all siblings had written various Abhangs in praise of Lord Vitthal. Sant Dnyaneshwar wrote the Bhavarath Dipika (Dnyaneshwari) at the tender age of 16 in 1290 A.D. it was a meaningful interpretation of the Shrimad Bhagvad Gita in the then dialect of Marathi language. All this siblings took sanjeevan samadhi except for Muktabai who was lost in a storm. Sant Dnyaneshwar asked for a "daan" to the supreme for all the living beings despite the sufferings he had to go through on this very planet. This daan is known as "Pasaaydaan" and is considered a milestone in Marathi literature.

Sant Naamdev, Sant Janaabaai

Sant Naamdev was a an adherent devotee of Lord Vitthal. At very tender age almost like when he was only about three years old he offered Naivadya(Food) to Lord Vitthal's idol, it's believed Lord Vitthal himself came their and had his food as the supreme was pleased by the innocence of Sant Naamdev. Their are various occasions where Sant Naamdev and Sant Dnyaneshwar met. When Sant Naamdev grew up he travelled all around the then "Bharatvarsh" spreading devotion and spirituality. Some of his Abhangas have been taken into the "Guru Granth Sahib" of the Sikhs. Sant Janaabaai considered herself to be thr daasi(servant) of Naamdev and used this name in Abhangas she wrote in order to praise the supreme.

                                                                          || Sant Naamdev ||

Sant Chokhamelaa, Sant Soyarabai

Sant Chokhamela was a devotee of Lord Vitthal and his wife Soyrabai too was an adherent devotee of Lord Vitthal. They belonged to a lower caste and hence were rejected entry to Vitthal's temple. As soon as he and his wife was rejected entry to the temple it is believed tears started rolling out from Lord Vitthal's idol's eyes. Seeing this, the people of the higher caste went running to Chokhamela and requested him and his consort to enter the temple. But, by now Chokhamela had distanced from Lord Vitthal, this wreaked havoc on Earth as it is believed that the Amrit (Nectar of Immortal Ness) was rotten since two sincere devotees of the Supreme got separated from him. It was only when one of the priests of a temple was directed by Vitthal indirectly to take help from Chokhamelaa indirectly as his mere touch to the Amrit in the pot could relieve Earth from the famine it had been going through and this did happen! Both of them wrote various Abhangas, one of the most popular Abhangas of Sant Chokhamelaa is "Abir Gulaal Rang".

Sant Gora Kumbhar

Kumbhaar means a potter in Marathi. Sant Goroba as he was fondly called, by profession, was a potter. He used to chant God's name while making pots every single moment, this took him quite close to the Supreme. He used to chant the great mantra "Ramkrishna Hari". As per records he did meet Sant Dnyaneshwar and was helped by Dnyaneshwar various times. He too wrote many Abhangas in praise of Lord Vitthal.

Sant Eknath

He was born in 1599. A prominent figure for the Varkari Sampradaay. He was a great devotee of the Supreme. He wrote "Bhavarth Ramayan" in Marathi. In which he has beautifully presented the Ramayan in a poetic manner such that the common people can understand it too.

Sant Tukaram

Born either in 1598 or 1608 Sant Tukaram is considered to be one of the greatest saints of the Varkari Sampraday. He was a son of a moneylender, but the idea of lending, borrowing, all this materialistic things got over for him when he saw a devastating famine in his lifetime, in which he lost some of his family members. After this famine, after his personal loss he went to a mountain and meditated for a while. He wrote Abhangas in the praise of Lord Vitthal and its important to note that, though the people of the Varkari community consider Vitthal as the Supreme, they don't consider other gods to be inferior to Vitthal, rather they treat all other Gods with same respect and have the same devotion for all of them. This can be said because Sant Tukaram also wrote a famous Abhang on Lord Ganesha, "Omkaar Pradhaan, Roop Ganeshaache". Throughout his lifetime, Sant Tukaram gave Kirtans regarding the path to achieve the Supreme. He stated that, mainly there are two paths to achieve the Supreme, one is easy and other is difficult. The first method being keep doing your work and keep chanting the Lord's name doing Poojas and other rituals. This one is the easy method. The another method is to achieve the Supreme via Yog Saadhna, that is via intense meditation and asanaas. Its an individual's choice, which path to choose! It is believed that after Sant Tukaram finished his Earthly lifespan he left for his abode in the Vaikuntha(The abode of Lord Vishnu). He was taken to Vaikunth, Sahadeha(That is, with his body) on a Garud that had come all the way to take him to Vaikuntha.

Unity!?

Oh yes! I did mention in the title that this saints must be credited with instilling unity in people through devotion. They didn't just instil unity in people but they instilled unity of the souls with the supreme souls. Their down to Earth behaviour and humbleness, till date, keeps attracting millions of devotees.

Are these the Only Saints!?

The answer to this question is "NO". Their have been various Saints before Sant Dnyaneshwar and after Sant Tukaram. Some of them who are famous are Swami Samarth of Akkalkot (Believed to be reincarnation of Lord Dattatreya himself), Shirdi Sai Baba ( An ansh of Swami Samarth or a yogi of the Nath Parampara hence referred to as Sainath sometimes), Gajanan Maharaj of Shegaav (An ansh of Shri Swami Samarth), Bramhachaitanya Gondavalekar Maharaj, Samrth Ramdas Swami and many more. Acharya Vinoba Bhave, a social reformer, in one of his books has stated that his mother, who was a highly spiritual person used to say that "real Saints still prevail, only the thing is, we don't know where they are!"  So keeping this in mind let us bow down to all the real saints and keep doing our work with utmost devotion. 

P.S. : Sant means Saint in Marathi.

Thank You!

बोला पुंडलिक वर्दे हरि विठ्ठल, श्री ज्ञानदेव तुकाराम, बोला पंढरीनाथ महाराज की जय !

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