Santh Jnaneshwar: At Kashi

Om Jai Sai Ram! Lord Krishna has said that the saint is one with him and not different from him. Santha (Saint) and Anantha (Lord) are one and the same. The mission of the Lord is to uphold good and to punish the wicked and for this purpose he takes avatars. The mission of saints are quite different. They are his karuna avatars (Avatars of mercy or compassion). To them there is no good or evil person. They take the evil ones and make them good and make them traverse on the path of goodness. They can be compared to trees, which even when pelted with stones, give us fruits. Blessed is he who hears the stories of the saints. By merely listening to their sweet leelas, all his calamities will be destroyed and his desires will be fulfilled. Then being desire less and bestowed with the power of discrimination (Viveka) of real and unreal and dispassion (Vairagya), by the aid of which one can achieve the ultimate goal of life, which is union with Brahman. Such a saint was our Sadguru Sainath. His sweet leelas are like nectar. One who hears them once, is attracted to them again and again like bee to honey. I am a mere dullard and it is extremely difficult for me to understand the sweet life of a saint or to sing the glory of a saint. However remembering that Sadguru alone is the doer, and I a mere instrument at his lotus feet, I beseech him to help me sing his glory. I clasp the lotus feet of the Sadguru and beg him to help me sing the glory of Santha Jnaneshwara who was a veritable Panduranga (Lord vitthala). See now what he did in Kashi (Varanasi).

The galaxy of Saints, Nivritthinath, Jnaneshwar, Sopan, Muktha Bai, Visoba and Namadeva to name a few came to the holy city of Kashi. This was the seat of one of the 12 Jyotirlingas (Linga of light) of Lord Shiva, Lord Vishwanatha (The lord of the universe). It was also a great center for learning. One day it was decided that the most scholarly and knowledgeable person in Kashi be honored by the elite scholars of the city. But they were at a loss to decide who was that one person who deserved this honor. One of them suggested "Let Lord Vishwanatha himself decide who deserves to be honored. Let us send the temple elephant with a garland and let him roam the city streets. Whoever the elephant garlands, will be honored by us, as the chosen person by Lord Shiva". Everyone agreed to this.

The elephant roamed the city streets of Kashi. Many a scholars stood eagerly, thinking that the elephant should garland them. The elephant walked towards the entrance of the village. As the elephant was doing so, from the other side, the galaxy of saints were approaching the village of Kashi. As soon as the elephant saw the resplendent form of Lord Jnaneshwara it immediately went towards him and garlanded him. Most of the scholars took this to be the decision of Lord Shiva. Some jealous ones who did not know about the greatness of Jnanadeva, protested. They said "How can we honor a boy, when there are so many scholars here? The elephant could have made a mistake! Honoring a mere boy would mean insulting all the erudite scholars of Kashi!"

Then Santha Namadeva intervened. He asked them "I humbly bow before all you scholars. Verily by Pandurangas grace have we had this opportunity of meeting you. Pray tell me, how are we to decide then, if Jnanadeva, who is no doubt an incarnation of the Lord needs to be honored or not? What will convince you?"

The scholars discussed amongst themselves and one of them proposed "Let this boy, whom you call an incarnation, offer food to Lord Vishweshwara (Lord of the universe, Lord Shiva). If he accepts, then we will take it that it is his will that this boy is to be honored. Else, we will think of some other means of finding the right person who deserves this highest honor."

Namadeva agreed. Lord Jnanadeva took the food, and offered it to the Jyotirlinga of Lord Vishwanatha. The Jyotirlinga became bright as soon as Lord Jnanadeva entered the temple. Lord Jnanadeva placed the food before Lord Shiva, and with folded hands prostrated and said "Oh Lord! Please accept this humble offering of mine! I have come here to seek your refuge. Please do not turn me away". No sooner had Lord Jnanadeva said this, the food on the plate disappeared and there was not a grain left in the plate.

The scholars were all dumb struck. They immediately forgot all about their ambitions and their learning, and realized that Lord Jnanadeva was indeed divine. They humbly fell at the feet of Jnanadeva. He was honored by the erudite scholars of Kashi, and he was even made to travel on the temple elephant and roam the streets of Kashi like a king. The people of Kashi hearing of this great leela (divine play) of Lord Jnanadeva come to the streets and prostrated before Lord Jnanadeva and the galaxy of saints. Fortunate were they to witness this. Blessed were the people to have seen this and blessed are those who hear of this. Panduranga will remove all their calamities.

Jai Jai Ram Krishna Hari!

Shree Satchcitananda Sadguru Sainath Maharaj Ki Jai!

Bow to Shree Sai! Peace be to all!