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.