- Mahanubhava
-
Mahanubhav- Hindu sects in maharashtra mainly in amaravati district started by Chakradhar Swami in 1267. Chakradhar Swami propagated a religious movement as well as social movement, in which all were accepted irrespective of their castes and the traditional ritualistic religion was rejected.
Avataras
Shri Chakradhar Swami told his disciples that the lord takes Avatars in all four yugas. (Same was said by lord Shri Krishna in Bhagavad Gita - dharma sansthaapnaarthay sambhavaami yuge yuge). There isn't a time in this world when an avatar's absent. But he told of only five of the innumerable avatars namely Shri Krishna, Shri Dattatreya, Shri Chakrapani, Shri Govindaprabhu, and Shri Chakrdhar Swami (himself). Even knowing of one Avatar, and walking on the path lightened by him can lead to the ultimate bliss(moksha). There were only five, because these avataras fell in the guru parampara. Lord Shri Govindaprabhu was the guru of Lord Shri Chakradhar Swami. Lord Shri Chakrapani was the guru of Lord Shri Govindaprabhu. Lord Shri Dattatreya Prabhu was the guru of Lord Shri Chakrapani. Lord Shri Dattatreya Prabhu and Lord Shri Krishna are not said to have another avatar as guru.
His biography Leela charitra, written by his disciples (Mahimbhatta) is one of the first known books or documents in Marathi. A detailed study was done by vice chancellor of Nagpur University on it. This scripture is said to contain all the secrets of the universe. 'Mahdaaisa, one of the sect's initial women disciples, is believed to be the first Marathi poetess. Incidentally, the Marathi word "maan_bhaavi" derived from "mahanubhavi" is one of the cultural residues that record the existence of the sect.
After giving His precious teachings, Shri Chakradhar Swami went in the North direction in search of adhikaari purush, the men who deserved to be with the lord then.
Shri Chakradhar Swami accepted Maharashtra as His karmabhoomi as this place had adhikaari purush that time. Hence Maharashtra has many teertha sthaan (holy places) of Mahanubhav Pantha. Though Mahanubhav sect believers should not believe in caste most of these people still maintain their caste identity and follow endogamy. They greet one another by saying Dandawat". Lord Shri Chakradhara was parmeshwar avtaar himself. This is quite evidential if one read Leelacharitra. Mahanubhav believes that Lord Shri Chakradhar still exists as Vaysthambhini vidya was accepted by him from udhalinath. Udhalnath received vaysthambini vidya from lord Shri Chakrapani. In this way this vidya completed its circle. Lord Shri Chakradhar Swami had accepted both Para an Apara shakti thus he is ubhaydrushyawtar.
Shri Chakradhar swami considered Maharashtra for his work because of Adhikari Jivas mainly Shri Nagdev Acharya, Mhaibhatta, Baisa, Mahadaisa. This Pantha is a pantha of Parameshwara who incarnated in every Yugas . There are four Yugas 1>Kruta yuga: Hans Avatar (incarnation) 2>Treta Yuga : Shri Dattatreya Prabhu (incarnation) 3>Dwapar Yuga: { Bhagavan Shri Krishna } 4>Kali yuga: { Three Avataars Namely Shri Chakrapani Maharaj, Shri Govinda Prabhu Maharaj, Sarvadnya Shri Chakradhar Swami} Out of all five Avatar two Avatar are still present on earth namely Shri Dattatreya Prabhu and Shri Chakradhar Swami. The jiv-udharana (Moksha) is still given by this two avataar's. The dnyan or knowledge of the god is called as Bramhavidya. Which is given by hans avataar in Kruta yuga in treta by Shri Dattatreya prabhu . In Dwapar Yuga by Shri krishna and in kaliyuga Shri Chakradhara Swami.
The Founder of Mahanubhav Sect: Sarvadnya Shri Chakradhar Swami
Shri Chakradhar Swami was born at Bharavas (Bhadoch) as the son of a minister named Vishaldeva & Malani devi and his ancestral name was Haripaldeva. There goes a legend that Haripaldeva suddenly died at the age of twenty but his holiness Lord Shri Chakrapani Prabhu from Phalatan accepted his body then. The revived Haripaldeva greatly changed. Feeling disgusted after conflict with wife, he left home by telling that he was going for Ram yatra . Then he came to place Ridhapur where Shri Govind Prabhu regarded as incarnation. After having wandered alone for time, he appeared among the people. He then went to Paithan and offered his grace to an old women Nagambika alias Nagaisa. A year after this he preached to Nagdev & made him his disciple. Seven & half years of his lonely wanderings, he visited a number of villages in Marathwada, Varadh, Khandesh & many different parts of Maharashtra preaching his philosophy to common man in Marathi with the help of illustration & imagery. During this period of propagation of his philosophy about five hundred followers from learned Brahmin & Non Brahmin castes joined him. On the basis of some lila (deeds) mention in the life of Shri Chakradhar Swami, it is opined that he was beheaded by the Yadava rulers. There may be some truth in this because in those days, the religion of Vedas propounding Varna differences & worship of multiple deities was so rampant that the learned authority of the religion must have opposed the propagator of a new sect. Actually many distinguished people from the court of Yadavas like Bhandari Gadonayak and Gopal Pandit who were senior administrators;Kamaisa of Ramdevaraya and Demati of Hemadpandit who were wives of courtly people;Ganpati Apayo,Pimple Vaman Bhatt and Gunakardeva Prajnasagar who were Vedic scholar become follower of Shri Chakradhar Swami.
The Mahanubhav Philosophy
During the period when Shri Chakradhar Swami preached his philosophy, there were number of religious & philosophical currents like Kevaladwait of Shankaracharya, Vishishtadwait of Ramanuja, Hathyoga of Nath Sect and to some extent Bhakti tradition of Vitthal from Pandharpur.As Shri Chakradhar Swami attempted and develop and propagate his own philosophy. The philosophy of Shri Chakradhar Swami is based on Dualism (Dwait) and it regards the soul,deity,the world of appearance and God as four distinct constants. Also the world of appearance is regarded as materialistic, God as eternally free, deity as ever bound and soul as ethereal. The dualism between soul and god is clearly understood as a constant in this philosophy. It is believed that the original purity of soul is revealed when the slough of ignorance over it is removed.This normally doesnot happened because of the obstruction of materialistic life. In order to free from this imbroglio, there is no other way to submit to Almighty god. The almighty is all-pervasive, without beginning,eternal,permeated with joy. The ever bound deities cannot proffer the experience of eternally ethereal almighty god. Salvation(Moksha) is possible only by removing the slough of ignorance. Salvation is attainable in two ways, one through knowledge and one through Bhakti or devotion to God. God who is without bodily attributes or any forms assumes incarnation in order to grant salivation of his devotee.He grant his association which is liberating. The Mahanubhav philosophy accepts the concept of incarnation. According to it,there are five incarnation of God :
- Shri Krishana Chakravarti (of Dwaraka)
- Shri Dattatreya Prabhu
- Shri Changdeva Raul (Shri Chakrapani Prabhu)
- Shri Gundam Raul (Shri Govindaprabhu)
- Shri Chakradhar Swami.
These five incarnations are known as “ Panchakrishna” or Five Krishnas and they are to be meditated upon for ever.
The Mahanubhav Code of Conduct
Shri Chakradhar Swami propounded his philosophy like Shri Krishna from among the “ Five Krishnas”. Although he was a Gujarati by birth,he had excellent command of the Marathi language. He moved among the all sections of society. He discoursed his philosophy extremely effectively among the people in their own language. He used formulaic language full of meaning in a compact style.
One of the most important aspects of the philosophy propounded by him is asceticism.
His fourfold teachings are : Non-violence,Celibacy,asceticism and bhakti.
And the different aspects of Gods incarnations to be worshipped are : name, form, activity, deeds, place, vachans (shruti), memories (Smriti) and the blessing of god incarnate.
One can practice bhakti by memorising deeds of Al-mighty. The aspirant for salvation must sacrifice his country, village and his relations and offer his life to God. Shri Chakradhara Swami also taught the disciple of the sect when, where, how, how much alms they should be beg for. The central theme of his teaching was “ Feel the soul and not the body”. Living the life of mendicant and practicing asceticism severely, the devotee should live according to principle '“ God is mine and I am God’s”'. The core of his code of behaviour is summed up in the following line for the benefit of his followers : “ Even if the head is cut off,the body should worship God”.
Mahanubhav Literature
The philosophy of Shri Chakradhar Swami advocated the bhakti mode as well as an austere code of conduct. This influence the literature of Mahanubhavas. A work like Lilacharitra was composed by Mahimbhatta, a disciple of Shri Chakradhar Swami. He met a large number of people who had been in contact with Shri Chakradhar Swami, collected the reliable information about his deeds & verified it with Nagadevacharya and finally put it into a massive prose biographical text.
As a record of the life & work of Shri Chakradhar Swami, Lilacharitra is a remarkable text from several points of view. It is the first prose text available in Marathi language and also the first biographical work. As the authentic biography of founder of a religious sect, it has a great historical & sectarian value. It become significant reference work in socio-cultural studies of society in the period of 13th century.
Lilacharitra is not divided into chapters. It achieves structural unity through a chronologically arranged narration of events. These events are narrated each in a space ranging from eight or ten lines or more than two pages whenever necessary. The narration includes conversations amongst persons. The biography comprises more than 950 such events. The book fall into three parts, corresponding to the three major phases of Shri Chakradhar Swami life. The first part “Ekank”, is related to events dealing with the lonely wandering of Swami. The second part is “Purvardha”, begins when Swami comes out of loneliness, goes to Paithan, choose Baisa as disciple and start propagating the principle of new sect through various lila(deeds) at various location of Maharashtra. The third part covers the period from his meeting with Nagdevacharya to going to North side. Lilacharitra constitutes a Magnus opus in the tradition of biographical writing in Marathi. Parts of his work, containing Swamin pronouncements, his teachings and illustrations, the code of conduct of he advocates, have been separately complied under different titles.
Inspired by religious fervor, Mahimbhat second important literacy creation was Shrigovindaprabhucharitra or Rudhipurcharitra which is actually the biography in the form of deeds of Swami’s Guru Shri Gundam raul (Shri Govind Prabhu). It comprise 325 deeds. The writing work must take place in 1288, six months after Shri Govind Prabhu death in 1287. Apart from Lilacharitra, Keshobas alias Keshavrajsuri has collected the Swami aphoristic vachans or actually spoken words, known as Sutrapath which is always on the lips of the follower of mahanubhav. Keshavrajsuri translated the some of “deeds” from Lilacharitra into Sanskrit in his work called “ Ratnamala”. Similarly he has written in Sanskrit Dristantstotarm based on Dristantpath. The first Acharya of Mahanubhava Sect is Nagdevachrya or Bhatobas. His Biography was written by Narendra and Baidevbas in about 1308. We come to know the history of the sect from this work.
Generally speaking, Mahanubhav literature is found in works describing the incarnations of Gods, work narrating the history of sect, commentaries on Bhagavatgita from point of view of sect, poetical works narrating the stories of life of Lord Krishna and grammatical and etymological works useful to explain the philosophy of sect.
In this manner seven works which have been written are known as satigranth & they are accepted by the follower of the sect. These works & their writers are :
- Narendra : Rukaminiswayamvara (1292)
- Bhaskarbhat Borikar : Shishupalvadha (1312)
- Bhaskarbhat Borikar : Uddhavgita (1313)
- Damodar Pandit : Vachhaharana (1316)
- Ravalobas : Sahayadrivaranana (1353)
- Narayanbas Bahahaliye : Riddhipurvarnana (1418)
- Vishvanath Balapurkar : Janaprabodh (1418).
Salient Features of Mahanubhav Literature
The first & the most important aspects of writers and poets of the Mahanubhav sect is that they all wrote in Marathi. These writers are extremely proud of Marathi Language. Shri Chakradhar Swami regarded Marathi as the language of Religion in order to propagate the philosophy of his sect. Wherever Mahanubhav sect spread in the distant Punjab and Kabul we found that Marathi being accepted by follower of sect. That is why he dissuaded Keshavraja Pandit from writing in Sanskrit. He rigidly said that his people would be deprived of religious thought by use of Sanskrit. The Mahanubhava sect made use of Marathi so that women and the shudras and the common man in general could understand the religion. Gnyaneshwar & Varakri saints made use of Marathi for the benefit of people.
One may conclude that Marathi language was in no way inferior to Sanskrit when it came to deal with scholarship and philosophical discourse.
References
- Medieval Indian Literature Volume 2: By Ayyappappanikkar, Sahitya Academy Year 1997 ISBN 8126003650
- Sarvdnya: By B.B.Gaikwad, Shrikrushna Prakashan Year 2004
- a History of Indian Literature,500-1399:From Courtly to Popular : By Sisir kumar Das, Sahitya Academy Year 2005 ISBN 81-260-2171-3
External links
Categories:- Religion in Maharashtra
- Vaishnavism
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
