Sant Eknath Is Like A Bridge Between His Predecessors Dnyaneshwar And Namdev And Successors Tukaram And Ramdas
During the intervening period of about 250 years between Dnyaneshwar and Eknath, various invaders ravaged Maharashtra. Defeats after defeats had completely demoralized people. The great legacy of Dnaneshwar was nearly forgotten. Eknath devoted himself to change this situation. His first task was to locate the "samadhi" of Dnyaneshwar and trace the undistorted version of "Dnyaneshwari". In fact, without Eknath’s all-out efforts, the legacy of Dnyaneshwar could well have been lost to the succeeding generations.
According to scholars, in Maharashtra, Eknath's place as philosopher-writer-saint is second only to Jnanadeva's. His main achievement, outwardly, was to spread Sanatana Dharma (the Eternal Religion) and its philosophy down to the lowest stratum of society. As one of his biographers puts it,
"With Jnanadeva, philosophy reigned in the clouds; with Eknath, it came down to earth and dwelt among the people"
During the intervening period of about 250 years between Dnyaneshwar and Eknath, various invaders ravaged Maharashtra. Defeats after defeats had completely demoralized people. The great legacy of Dnaneshwar was nearly forgotten. Eknath devoted himself to change this situation. His first task was to locate the "samadhi" of Dnyaneshwar and trace the undistorted version of "Dnyaneshwari". In fact, without Eknath’s all-out efforts, the legacy of Dnyaneshwar could well have been lost to the succeeding generations.
According to scholars, in Maharashtra, Eknath's place as philosopher-writer-saint is second only to Jnanadeva's. His main achievement, outwardly, was to spread Sanatana Dharma (the Eternal Religion) and its philosophy down to the lowest stratum of society. As one of his biographers puts it,
"With Jnanadeva, philosophy reigned in the clouds; with Eknath, it came down to earth and dwelt among the people"
At last following the example of his idol, Dnyaneshwar, he left for his heavenly abode by embracing "jalsamadhi" in sacred Godavari on the Krishna Shasthi day of Phalguna in the year Shaka 1521 (1599AD).
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