Chapter One

Shri Ganeshay Namah

I worship OUM,
The Self, Who is the beginning,
The subject of Veda’s teachings,
Understood by Self,
That is Universal spirit eternal,
Hail! I salute thee. 1

{ Dnyaneshwar is saluting OUM considering it Supreme God.}

O God! Thou are Ganesh,
The light of everyone’s intelligence.
Thus says, servant of Nivruttinath,
Please listen, each and everyone. 2


This total world of words (Vedas),
That forms His body,
Decorated beautifully,
Shining with bright colors. 3


Now see His form,
Smritis (commentaries on Vedas) are body parts,
There resides the treasure of beauty,
The wealth of meaning. 4



Eighteen Puranas are ornaments
Studded with gems.
Doctrines therein are gems,
Metered words sockets. 5

{In these opening stanzas Dnyaneshwar offers his prayers to Supreme Godhead in the form of Onkar –Oum, which is the origin of everything, whole cosmos. He is Ganesh, God of knowledge and as all knowledge is represented in Vedas, Vedas is the decorated idol of Ganesh. Its different parts and ornaments are represented by Smritis(treatises on Vedas) and Puranas(old mythical literature in India). He continues further}


The best construction of words makes
the colored apparel
And allegories it’s thin texture. 6

Considered with admiration,
Poetry and drama are
Bells in his anklets jingling
meaningful sounds. 7

Different theories stated
And subtlety therein
0n close scrutiny will disclose
A few gems as well. 8


Teachings of Vyaas and others
Shine as girdle ornaments
glittering with clear chains (links). 9

See, so called six sciences
Are his six hands
Holding weapons
Of differing opinions. 10

Axe of reasoning in one hand,
Spear of moral doubts in the other, and
Vedant, the greatest core of knowledge,
Is seen as a sweet dish(Modak) in the third (hand). 11

One hand holds tooth, naturally broken,
Representing opinions of
Buddha proponents. 12



Then follows the philosophy of
Sankhyas, which is His
Grace bestowing hand establishing religion,
and assuring safety. 13

See, pure discriminator,
Straight snout capable of Selection,
Home of supreme bliss and great happiness. 14

The dialogues are teeth,
Neutrality therein is it’s white color.
The Knowledge is small eyes
Such is the God guarding us from all evils. 15

I think pre and post analysis
Are like his two ears,
Their perception, intoxicating
Nectar, drunk by sages like a black bee. 16

God Ganesh symbolizes knowledge. He is God of knowledge. The spiritual knowledge of Supreme God head and ways to unify with him is the core knowledge. But knowledge comprises all other branches and sciences apart from spiritual knowledge. It embraces modern and ancient knowledge, Mathematics, astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, Life Sciences, liberal arts, Poetry, Playwriting, Acting, drawing, Music and so on. Whole body form of Ganesh represents all these branches of Sciences. His snout in particular extends to the distance collecting and transmitting environmental data to the brain, something akin to modern information technology. Dnyaneshwar describes this in very clear words.

Powerful philosophies are
Corals on his body. Unity and Duality
Are two temples of His forehead
Balancing each other. 17

Ten Upanishads, generous in
Distributing honey of knowledge,
Are proper fits in his crown. 18
His two feet in the form of “a”.
“U” forms the tummy, then
Big dot symbolizing “M” forms shape of his face. 19


Where these three unite,
They embrace universe of words(four Vedas). I worship
This first seed (“AUM” shaped Ganesh)
By grace of GURU (mentor). 20

And now, I pray "Saraswati",
The Godess who endows wits, intelligence and art,
Flirts with language in novel ways
And thus charms universe. 21


The great mentor is in my heart,
Who kept me afloat in flood of worldly life,
So I specially respect discretion. 22



When eyes get magic unguentum
Vision penetrates,
Trail comes up and treasure disclosed. 23

Or when the wish stone is found,
Always desires are victorious, like that,
"I am satisfied and through” says Dnyandeo. 24

So well informed should worship
Guru(mentor), then get fulfilled
like watered roots delight leaves and branches . 25

Whatever holy places exist in three worlds,
A bath in ocean endows benefits of all, or
Or by tasting nectar one gets tastes of all juices. 26

Same way, going ahead, now,
I pray Shri Guru,
Who satisfies whatever I desire. 27

Now listen a story problematic,
Which is a source of everyone’s admiration,
Or is it a new garden of discretionary thoughts. 28


Or this is the beginning of all pleasures,
A great store of propositions,
Or an ocean of nectar filled with nine juices ( passions). (Navras or nine passions like hate, grief, love, fear, joy) (29)


Or this is heaven unveiled,
Origin of all sciences,
Still greatest among them. (30)

It is the home of all religions,
Or the soul of all saints,
Or the treasure of Goddess Saraswati’s beautiful gems. (31)

Or Goddess Saraswati
Had expressed herself in these three worlds,
In the form of this story inspired
by the superb intelligence of Vyas. (32)

So, this poetic treatise is
The king of all books,
Here on all feelings have received their passions.
(Literally, “juices have received their sweetness.”) (33)

Then listen something more,
From here on, words have become more selective (meaningful),
Making understanding of spiritual knowledge easy. (34)

Here, wit have become wittier,
Propositions easily understandable,
And happiness nourished itself. (35)

Sweetness received its sweetness,
Romance received its loveliness,
Maturity in propriety shined since then. (36)


Here, arts received their expressions,
Righteousness got a special flare,
That King Janamejay lost his blemishes by
hearing this (Story of Mahabharat). (37)

To think further,
Colors became more colorful,
Merits more virtuous and thus powerful . (38)

The world embraced by Vyas’s intelligence
shines like three worlds
Shine when illuminated by Sun. (39)

Or, seed spreads itself when sowed in a fertile land, similarly,
In this Mahabharat Four duties of
Man (Purusharth) have reached to perfection. (40)

Or, by living in a big city,
Man becomes more wise,
like that, everything gets enlightened
By brilliance(clarity) of Vyas’s remarks. (41)

Or, when a women first comes to an age,
Her body blooms with
Special newly acquired beauty. (42)


Or, when spring enters in a garden,
A mine of beauty is opened up,
Very different than existing early. (43)


Or, a brick of gold, as it is, looks unattractive,
But when turned into ornaments,
Shows extraordinary beauty. (44)


Like that, when decorated by Vyas’s language,
Anything gets glorified,
So history has taken asylum here (into Mahabharat). (45) 6/30/10

Biography of Saint Dnyaneshwar

Dnyaneshwar is a great philosopher poet from Maharashtra, India. He was borne in a small town called Alandi near Pune in 1271. He had two brothers, Nivruttinath and Sopandeo,and a sister named Mukta. These children were borne to a father who had earlier taken sanyas(renunciation of family and earthly life) and gone to Benaras or Kashi to study religion. He returned to family life at insistance of his Guru or mentor. These siblings borne to a sanayasi were subject to ridicule, and were outcasted. They had to live in isolation. From this isolation and philosophical studies during this period emerged a great poet and saint " Saint Dnaneshwar", who in a way has become an immortal man. Seven hundred years after he took Samadhi ( buried himself alive and thus became one with that eternal spirit) in 1296, he is still worshiped and studied fervently in Maharashtra by millions.



At age of 15 he wrote the treatise on Bhagwat Gita (immortal song) in Marathi for the first time. By doing this, he made knowledge available for a common man, which was so far only in Sanskrit and was only available to priviledged Brahmin caste. I plan to give translations of his poems (commonly reffered as owi) from his great book "Dnyaneshwari alias Bhawarthdeepika".



Bhagwat geeta is collection of poems in which Lord Krishna guides his disciple Arjuna on battlefield of Kurukshetra. Bhagwat Geeta is part of an epic "Mahabharat". It is the story of King Bharat and his descendents and oldtimes of India. India is also called Bharat. This name comes from King Bharat. He and his descendednts ruled in ancient India.





Arjun is faced with a battle in which he had to kill his relatives and elders of his family. This he is reluctant to do and so is in a dilema. Originaly this commentary was told by Dhyaneshwar to a gathering of saints, devotees and his elder brother Nivruttinath who is also his mentor or Guru. Dnyaneshwar is extremely humble throughout and gives credit of his writing to the grace of his Guru "Nivruttinath". Dhyaneshwar begins with praying Lord Ganesh in first stanza.