Jnaneshvar painting by Balgajbar, Gurudev Siddha Peeth, Ganeshpuri]

 

Jnaneshvar was a great Siddha, mystic and poetic genius of Maharashtra, India who died at the age of 21 in ecstasy. His spiritual roots were in both the Nath and Bhakti traditions and listed his lineage as Shiva, Shakti, Matsyendra, Gorakhnath, Gahini and Nivritti (his elder brother). At the age of fifteen (1290) he is said to have delivered ex tempore the nine-thousand verses of his poetic commentary on the Bhagavad Gita; Jnaneshvari (Jnaneshwari) or “Goddess of Wisdom” [ also called Bhava-Artha-Dipika (“Light on the meaning of Being”)]. Jnaneshvar’s teaching was non-dualist, saying that the mainifest world is a “sport” (vilasa) of the Absolute; the Love of the singular Reality, and regarded bhakti (devotion), the means to liberation