2
The Genius of Dnyaneshwar
own dialect5 so that she (the Geeta) could be understood by them. That narration in verse is popularly called ‘Dnyaneshwari’. The ‘Dnyaneshwari’ is in the ‘prakrit’ dialect, a predecessor of Marathi, a language of nearly seventy million people, mainly in western India. The Marathi people revere the Dnyaneshwari as much as they do the Geeta. Most editions of the Dnyaneshwari include a Marathi translation in prose, a few have Marathi adaptations in verse and there have been at least three full-fledged verbatim6 English translations of the Dnyaneshwari without a commentary. As we enter the 21st century, leave alone understanding the prakrit dialect, young Indians with Marathi as their mother tongue find it difficult to understand what Dnyaneshwar had to say in terms of philosophy and religion. With the advent of English, most nations whose populations do not have English as their mother tongue are now entering an unsettling period in which they are losing touch with their own language but are not yet adept7 or proficient8 in English. India is probably a classical example of this transition and because of her size, presents a huge problem. It was felt that a book of this nature was therefore needed not only for those who speak Marathi, but for Indians in general, as well as for the Indian diaspora all over the world, not to mention people from other cultures. The emergence of English as a universal language can now also be turned into an advantage. So much that lay hidden amongst various cultures can now be made available to large populations across the globe and the world’s cultural and literary riches can now be re-discovered. The current work has a modern idiom both in its verse as well as in the introductory prose at the beginning of each chapter. An attempt has been made to give it a rational scientific temper. Western philosophy and scientific achievements have been included when in context. Parts of this book might appear heretical9 but contrary to what is believed by the world, all three religions that India has given to the world have strong atheistic10 and/or agnostic11 tendencies. Approximately fifteen per cent of the original has not been translated for fear of repetition or because it contained some obscure mythology which would have needed long explanatory notes. This book has taken almost six years to write because it is not easy to translate from an old language. What is even more difficult is to effect a cultural makeover, because each culture and its language