Eknath

But the primary intention is communicating your emotion.

Now, most of the songs, the Abhangs or the Sant Sahitya, it has been written by saints, divine souls, be it Jnaneshwar Maharaj, Tukaram Maharaj, Namdev Maharaj, Eknath Maharaj.

There are so many of them.

So, they are not mere words.

On rare occasions they did indeed break these rules of caste, which again and again they have emphasized in their writings.

To cite an example, Ekanath, 1528-1599, on one occasion took his meals in the house of a mahar, but any reader who will care to read a hundred lines from his works will find that he is deadly against all breaking of caste discipline.

Tukaram, himself a Shudra, has never for once even reviled the Brahmin because he is a Brahmin, and even he is in favor of all those caste distinctions which, owing to the blast of Western civilization, are rapidly disappearing in the clouds.

We might break caste or maintain it, just as we pleased, but it is really unjust to drag the names of these saints in controversies, the issues of which can be decided on independent lines of thought and argument.

Mm.

Even focus can be irrational, right? You are focusing in the other story that always Swami tells is of that of Eknath.

Mm.

Right? The story goes that, I don't know if Swami narrated it in one of the discourses in this series also, where, uh, Swami says that he wanted to do a particular pilgrimage where he was getting water from the Ganges and to offer it at Rameshwaram, do the abhishekham for the lingam at Rameshwaram.

And on the way, the disciples and, uh, Sant Eknath find that a donkey is about to die.

It's so thirsty, and it has fallen on the wayside, and he takes the Ganga water and quenches the thirst of the donkey.

And all his disciples are shocked because they know the amount of trouble it is, you know, they've gone through to, to get that water.

And he says, "What have you done? And I mean, we have to go to Rameshwaram and do this." And Eknath says, "My Lord is dying here in the form of a donkey.

On rare occasions they did indeed break these rules of caste, which again and again they have emphasized in their writings.

To cite an example, Ekanath, 1528-1599, on one occasion took his meals in the house of a mahar, but any reader who will care to read a hundred lines from his works will find that he is deadly against all breaking of caste discipline.

Tukaram, himself a Shudra, has never for once even reviled the Brahmin because he is a Brahmin, and even he is in favor of all those caste distinctions which, owing to the blast of Western civilization, are rapidly disappearing in the clouds.

We might break caste or maintain it, just as we pleased, but it is really unjust to drag the names of these saints in controversies, the issues of which can be decided on independent lines of thought and argument.