The Essence of Dnyaneshwari

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The Dnyaneshwari is a 13th century CE exposition of the Bhagavad Gita by Sant Dnyaneshwar (1275-1296 CE) who called it the 'Bhaavartha Deepika' or Lamp of the Essential Meaning.

Sant Dnyaneshwar elucidated on the 700 shlokas of the Gita by dictating around 9000 Ovis in the language of the local audience which consisted of the common people unfamiliar with Sanskrit, in which the Gita was told.

In his brief lifespan of 21 years, before he entered an underground vault to enter a state of permanent meditation (Sanjeevan Samadhi) Sant Dnyaneshwar produced religious literature of great merit. But the Bhaavartha Deepika, created in 1290, when he was just 14 years old, is the work by which he is most widely known. That is why it is now known as "Dnyaneshwari".

This work seems to be a divine revelation through the medium of Sant Dnyaneshwar and many devotees believe that Lord Krishna has explained his Gita in the Marathi language of that time through the body (mouth) of this divine child.

The language of the Dnyaneshwari is no longer the language which people speak. Marathi has developed through seven centuries to an extent that it is almost impossible to comprehend the Ovis of the Dnyaneshwari without the assistance of simplified renderings. Such interpretations however manage to capture only a part of the whole beauty of Sant Dnyaneshwar's incomparable exposition of the Gita.

**Contents and Sample Pages**