Indian Saints · 1275–1296
Jnaneshwar
The bhakti movement · the Nath tradition · Jnaneshwari · commentary on the Gita
A boy-saint who at sixteen wrote an immortal commentary on the Gita in the people's own tongue.
The essence of the teaching: The highest reality is beyond existence and non-existence, beyond knowledge and ignorance. It is recognized not by learning but by self-awareness. Knowledge is a bridge to it, yet at the end the bridge itself must be let go.
Transmission
Jnaneshwar lived only twenty-one years, but in that time he carried the secret teaching from the hands of the few and gave it to ordinary people – speaking of God in Marathi, the language of the villages, not in the Sanskrit of the priests. He taught that the mind forever darts between knowledge and ignorance, but the truth lies beyond both: it is not reached by arguing with thoughts, you know it when attention turns back upon itself. Knowledge is needed to reach the threshold, he said, but at the threshold it too must be released, as a boat is released once you step onto the shore. Having reached the end, at twenty-one he entered voluntary samadhi, sitting down in meditation forever.
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