Introduction

It is a matter of supreme gratification to me that the service, I was inspired to render at the feet of Shri Jnaneshwar Maharaj-the very God of knowledge,—in the form of an attempt at rendering into English his unique and invaluable composition, the Bhavartha-Dipika (the lamp, illuminating the import of the Gita Teachings), has, by his own grace, reached the stage of completion. All homage to (the sacred memory of) that Great Preceptor-the greatest of the Great. Some of my friends, who knew of my attempt and had seen some of my notes, suggested to me that it would only be in the fitness of things, were I to place on record, how I got the inspiration to undertake this work. I, therefore, simply carry out that suggestion in the following lines, since I see nothing unreasonable in it.

My first acquaintance with the A. B. Cs. of Jnaneshwari

The first time I heard of Jnaneshwari was about the year 1895 a. d., when I was a student attending a Secondary School. I had taken Marathi as my second language and in connection with that subject, we were coached up in our School in some selections from Jnaneshwari (Chapter XII, verses 144 onwards, commencing with “One who never bears any hatred for any living being etc.”), contained in ‘Na-vanit’ (i.e., butter in the form of selections from Marathi poets.) About ten years later, I happened to be working in a touring District Office, where I had, as my brother employee, a venerable looking old gentleman, a great admirer of Jnaneshwari (later on known in Maharashtra as ‘Govind-suta’). He used to read regularly every evening, before retiring to rest, some portion of Jnaneshwari. I sometimes used to be his hearer at such readings. This is how I first became acquainted with Jnaneshwari and how I began to feel a regard for it. In future years of my service-life I could hardly get any leisure to attend to such things: yet, off and on, I used to read some literature on religious matters.

How I conceived the idea of rendering Jnaneshwari into English

Messrs. G.A.Natesan & Co., of Madras published a series of the life-sketches of Indian Saints and other great souls. While going over the pages of the life-sketch of Shri Jnaneshwar of this series, I found a reference made in it to Jnaneshwari, with a footnote as under by the author:

“Jnaneshwari is not, though it deserves to be translated into English, so translated, etc. etc.”

This note caught my imagination and I wondered as to why I should not try at it, if and when I found leisure. I could not, however, seriously think about it while in active service. When I was about to retire, the question arose before me as to how I should utilize my leisure after retirement, and then I was put in mind of my former idea of attempting a translation into English of Jnaneshwari, and I began seriously to think about it when I actually retired.

How I started the work

When I actually collected the material and was about to start with the work, I began to feel how far I was qualified to undertake it, quite a layman as I was. Frankly speaking, I was not quite a religiously-inclined person, nor do I belong to any particular school of religious thought. Besides, I have had not the benefit of any higher collegiate education, nor had I secured any literary attainments through any other means. I thus began to feel quite diffident in regard to my capacity to undertake a work, which involved this background as also such literary abilities. But there arose in me an inner urge and I thought that there was positively nothing wrong in making an attempt in that direction. At the most, I might have to abandon the attempt, should 1, in course of time, find myself quite unequal to it.

Even Shri Jnaneshwar Maharaj—the very God incarnate of knowledge—expressed a sort of diffidence while starting the work of composing Jnaneshwan, as will be seen from the following verses:

“... I have committed one more fault and it is of venturing to make clear the meaning of Gita... I have, of my own accord, made myself overbold, without weighing in my mind how difficult it is to carry this work to its successful completion. Could there stand any comparison between the brilliance of the Sun and that ' of the glow-worm! or that I, an ignorant person should embark upon the doing of such a thing is like a lapwing attempting to empty the ocean with its beak.... How could such an insignificant, a diminutive, and a very dull being as myself, compare before such a vast and limitless task, wherein even the Vedas, lost themselves completely, etc. etc.” (Jnaneshwari, Chapter I, Verses 65-78).

I repeated the same thing to myself in regard to the work, I was venturing to undertake, the only difference being that Shn Jnaneshwar Maharaj said as above out of sheer modesty, while, in the case of an insignificant person like myself, it painted me as I was. However I entered upon the venture and made an actual start in April 1943.

The progress and completion of the work

As I started the work, someone remarked that mine would merely be a duplication of work, since Jnaneshwari was already rendered into English by Professor Manu Subedar, B. a., b. sc. (Lond.), Bar-at-law, the well-known Economist of Bombay. In order to make myself certain on this point, I secured a copy of “Gita explained by Jnaneshwar Maharaj”, edited by Prof. Subedar and went through it. I found it to be unquestionably a specimen of brilliant scholarship. It was not, however, a regular translation, stanza by stanza, of Jnanesh-wan, the thing chiefly aimed at by me, but appeared a condensation more or less of the Marathi version by Pandit Moghe of Sion, Bombay.

I did not thus think that mine would be a duplication of work and so I resumed my work. I started my work with the help of the versified Marathi version by the late Pandit Govind Ramchandra Moghe of Sion, Bombay. It took me over two years and a half to complete the translation work with the help of that version. About that time, however, I happened to see another Marathi version of Jnaneshwari by the late Shri. Balkrishna Anant Bhide; and when I began just to compare the translation I made with that version, I found great divergence between the two. Then I began to compare Shri. Moghe’s version, with that of Shri. Bhide, and found great divergence between these two. It seemed to me that Shri. Moghe’s version, which was in a versified form, was not strictly literal, but was, more or less, a free version, while that of Shri. Bhide was strictly literal, as far as this became possible to be done. At this I found myself in a fix. I had thus to entirely revise the work already done and to have altogether a fresh copy made of the revised version. Simultaneously with this revision work, I thought of having the revised portions typed in order to make available a couple of extra copies. Luckily, as I was on the look out for some one who could help me in this direction, I met a young graduate, who had some liking for the subject matter contained in the Jnaneshwari and he volunteered to do this typing work as a labour of love during his leisure hours. Thus the work of revision, as also of typing went on hand in hand and both these were completed in the month of December 1947. It thus took for me four years and eight months from the very start to complete the translation.

The Outcome:

I cannot say anything as regards the rendering itself. I am, however, painfully aware that it is by no means perfect and such as it should be. It is bound to contain many flaws and drawbacks. It is, in fact, simply an attempt at rendering and not a perfect rendering. It has neither any style nor rhythm nor grace in point of language, nor has it got much value from a literary point of view. It is after all some “crude material” that might be useful for any one, who might, later on, at some distant date, think of utilizing it for turning out an authenticated and an authoritative English version of Jnaneshwari. Personally, I have no desire to proceed further in this matter. But, in my opinion, some sort of crudeness is bound to be there in any rendering, if it is to claim as being faithful to the original and to bear identity with the order, arrangement, and set-up of the original composition. To take an example, the expression “in that way”, or “similarly” has occurred almost in every alternate verse in this rendering and that became inevitable to maintain integrity of the original in its rendering. No further apology, I believe, is needed. The present attempt at rendering, however, made it imperative on me to do critical reading of Jnaneshwari to be able to proceed with the work. I would not otherwise have taken the trouble of doing so, and in this, I feel I am amply rewarded for any labour that may have been involved in this work, since my role in this affair is that of “one eager to know )”, the third class of doers, as mentioned in stanza 16 of Chapter VII of Shri Bhagavad-gita.

Acknowledgements:

I cannot conclude this narration without giving expression to the sense of my deep gratitude towards Rao Bahadur G. M. Vaidya, M. b. E., retired Controller of Miitary [Mutary/Military?] Accounts. It was his good fortune to come in contact with the late Shri Keshavrao Maharaj Deshmukh, B. a., of established reputation as an authority on Jnaneshwari in Poona and through his good offices R. B. Vaidya has been handling Jnaneshwari for some time past. I got R. B. Vaidya’s most valuable guidance during the revision and typing of my rendering of the Jnaneshwari into English. I also owe a debt of gratitude to, my young friend Mr. S. R. Gurjar, b. a., who, out of great regard for Jnaneshwari, voluntarily and most cheerfully did the typing (work).

I have made free use of the following publications.

1. Marathi version of Jnaneshwari, by Pandit G. R. Moghe.
2. Similar version, by Shri. Balkrishna Anant Bhide, b. a.
3. English translation of Bhagavadgita by Dr. S. K. Belwalkar.

M. a., ph. D.

and I feel sincerely grateful for the valuable and great help I received from these and other Reference Books.

R. K. Bhagwat.

555/2, Shivaji Nagar, Poona 5.
31st December, 1947.