Newasa – Encountering an unique form of Vishnu, and Sant Jnaneshwar
The year
was 1290. A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars
marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14
years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began
speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without
any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits
knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit
which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in
the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this
composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and
this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika –
the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text,
was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood
easily by them, composed as it was, in their native language.
The young
boy was none other than Sant Jnaneshwar (or Dnyaneshwar), and the text, his
magnum opus, came to be known as the Jnaneshwari.
The sacred
site where this event occurred is the present day Newasa, on the banks of the
Pravara river, in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra.
I was fortunate
to visit this sacred site over the past weekend, on a trip to Shirdi. It all
began a couple of months back, when Shankar’s friends got an opportunity to
sing bhajans in Shirdi, in front of the Lord. They had sung bhajans at Shirdi
before, and Shankar had attended a couple of times, but I hadn’t been blessed
enough to join them. This year, despite a number of challenges, I booked the
tickets, and prayed that nothing would come in the way. We planned a relaxed
trip of three full days, not wanting to strain myself unduly. The first day was
for our darshan of the Lord, the second for the bhajan. What about the third day
then? The desire to go somewhere I hadn’t visited earlier, grew in my heart,
and I set to looking around Shirdi for interesting places I could visit. Newasa
propped up quite quickly, as an archaeological site, as well as the site of the
composition of the Jnaneshwari, and I was hooked. A little further search
revealed the presence of an ancient temple there, and that was it. We finalized
the plan, hunted out a phone number for the temple, made arrangements for a
puja at the temple, and waited for the date of our journey to arrive.
We travelled
to Shirdi by the Vande Bharat train, checked into our hotel, and proceeded to
set our travel plan into action. One darshan in the early evening, followed by
the Shej aarti at night, and then the Kakad aarti the next morning – we were in
bliss, especially since crowds weren’t as heavy as we had expected. We had the
entire Saturday afternoon to rest and catch up on our sleep, before heading back
to the temple for the bhajans. This was simply two hours in heaven, sunk as we
were in the name of the Lord. The experience of sitting in the enclosure right
opposite the Lord, listening to, and singing along with, the group, the
visiting devotees joining in, repeating and clapping in tune with the bhajans,
will remain one of my happiest memories forever. This is the same group that I travelled
with, to Pandharpur and Vaishnodevi, so I already knew they were great singers,
but they surpassed themselves this time. Bhajans were followed by darshan once
again, and the memorable day ended on a high note.
On Sunday morning,
we headed out to Newasa after breakfast. Our first halt was at the temple, which
is dedicated to a unique form of Lord Vishnu – Mohini. The Lord is said to have
taken the form of Mohini – the enchantress, at the time of the churning of the
ocean (Sagar Manthan), to ensure that the gods got their share of the nectar
(amrit) which came out of the ocean. The legend goes on to say that two demons,
Rahu and Ketu tried to get their hands on the nectar, and were killed by
Mohini. It is believed that this is the site where Mohini killed Rahu with the
Sudarshana Chakra, and hence the Lord is seen here in an enchanting feminine
form, with Rahu by his feet.
The Mohiniraj Temple, Newasa |
Lord Vishnu as Mohini (left) and Lakshmi (right) in the sanctum |
I was
intrigued by this, and very curious to see the idol, which, as I anticipated, was covered
by clothes and flowers, no detail visible. Hence, I had planned to attend the
temple at the time of the abhishek, which, I thought would be the perfect opportunity
to see the idol as it was, without the decorations. I had found a number online
and spoken to a priest, who had told me that the abhishek would start around 10
AM. Unfortunately, we got a bit delayed, and reached just after it began. I was
disappointed to see that there was no sign of abhishek to the main deity, and
instead people were gathered in the small area just outside the garbagruha (the
main shrine). Confused, I spoke to the priest whom I had communicated with
earlier, and he explained that the abhishek would be done, not to the main
deity, but only to a silver replica of the deity. This replica had been made a
few years back, exactly duplicating the idol, since the ancient idol was
getting eroded. Further, he said that this was just the first batch, and that
we could join the second batch of abhishek. However, only gents could do the
abhishek, so only Shankar could go in. Further, he had to take a bath, and wear
a dhoti and angavastra, both of which were provided by the temple.
Having done
the needful, we settled down to wait. The temple was way more crowded than I had
expected, probably because it was a Sunday. There was a constant stream of
visitors, from all across the state. We learnt that, for many, this was their
kula deivat, their family deity, and others were drawn here for getting some
respite from Rahu dosham. We also learnt that special prayers are offered for people
with the dosham, during the period of Rahu kalam every day (a certain period in
the day when Rahu is at his peak).
We stayed
at the temple for over two hours – one hour as the first round of abhishekam took
place, and then one hour of our round of abhishekam. All through this time, I watched
people come and go, and offer a variety of pujas and offerings. The temple staff
were curious about us, since we seemed the only obviously non-Maharashtrian
family in attendance. Further, we weren’t there for any respite from Rahu
dosham either. It was obvious that the temple has a steady stream of regular
visitors and not many explorers like us! It was quite amusing to see the temple
authorities try to wrap their head around the fact that a strange Tamil
speaking family would want to come and do an abhishek here for no reason!
Finally,
abhishek completed, we moved on to our next destination in the village – the site
where the Jnaneshwari was composed.
The site is
a little outside the village, in what seems to be quite a huge clearing. There is
a temple built around the pillar that Jnaneshwar leaned against as he composed
his magnum opus. A board at the site informed us that there was once an ancient
temple of Karaveereshwar at this site. From the name, it appears that it might
have been a temple of Shiva. At the time that Jnaneshwar came here, the temple
was already gone, only a few pillars remained, strewed around the site. Jnaneshwar,
his brothers and sister came here on their way back from Paithan to Alandi,
having convinced the priests of Paithan of their abilities. Their fame spread
as they travelled, and they decided to halt for some time at Newasa. While here,
Jnaneshwar performed a miracle, raising a man thought to be dead. While staying
here, he was inspired to compose the Bhavartha Deepika, his translation of the
Bhagavad Gita, at the tender age of 14 years, leaning against one of the pillars
of the ancient temple. It was the man he had raised from the dead, named
Sachidananda, who wrote down the composition as he recited it.
Today, the
temple stands in the middle of the huge clearing, part of which has been made
into a garden with a towering statue of Jnaneshwar composing the Jnaneshwari,
his disciple writing it down.
The temple
has the pillar in the central shrine, along with other shrines, to Jnaneshwar
as well as other deities.
Copies of
the Jnaneshwari in Marathi are available for sale here.
It is a peaceful
site, with few visitors. There is also a temple to Dattatreya, and also a small
pathashala, teaching the varkari system to children. As we walked out, seeing
the children run around and play during their lunch break was a happy sight. It
was reassuring to see that something that began over 700 years back, was still
kept alive in this tiny corner of Maharashtra.
We spent a
little time, just sitting here, before turning back for Shirdi and home. But I took
back with me, this vivid image in my mind, of the young boy leaning against an
ancient pillar and composing what would become one of the greatest literary works
in Marathi, one that endures more than seven centuries after him.