Sri Jnanadeva’s Bhavartha Dipika: Known as Jnaneshwari

Sri Jnanadev or Jnaneshwar, Poet and Yogi, Jnani and Bhakta, was on this earth for about twenty years, nearly seven hundred years ago. His brief life was a divine event. The Bhagavad Gita embodies the essence of the Vedic Religion within a short compass and in the most popular form. That glorious dialogue between Nara and Narayana, Arjuna and Sri Krishna, is aptly described as Jnanamaya maya Pradipa-the Light of Knowledge. Jnaneshwar Maharaj had, at a very young age, a vision of that Light and he gave discourses on the Gita which came to be known as Bhavartha Dipika or Jnaneshwari, bringing to light the deeper meaning and hidden significance of the dialogue between the Blessed Lord and Arjuna. This very original Commentary, long confined to Marathi and a few other Indian languages in translation, was made available for the first time to the world at large by Sri Ramchandra Keshav Bhagwat in a complete English translation, published in two volumes in 1952 and 1954. Jnanadev departs from tradition and views the Gita as a book of two parts, PURVA KHANDA or the first part consisting of the first nine chapters and UTTARA KHANDA or the second part consisting of the last nine chapters. His commentary on VI. 12 and other verses reveals for the first time the process and reality of Yoga fully justifying the triple description of the Gita not only as UPANISHAD and BRAHMA VIDYA but also as YOGA SASTRA. The Gita may be said to begin, in a sense, with Arjuna’s aspiration and surrender to Sri Krishna in a state of perplexity. The Blessed Lord imparts to Arjuna the Great Word of the Supreme Secret UTTAMAM RAHASYAM. And the Gita concludes with Arjuna’s declaration in the greatest self-knowledge Karishye Vachanam Tava I shall fulfil your Word. May Jnaneshwari invoke the grace of the Divine and lead its readers to that Realization. Long out of print and very much in demand, this spiritual classic is now issued in a new revised edition incorporating the text of the Bhagavad Gita in Devanagari along with Prof. S. K. Belvalkar’s English translation.