Sri Bhakta Vijayam: Tanjore Paintings of Mahipati's Work

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In this book are the stories from Mahipati's Srī Bhaktavijayam, stories of men and women who transformed themselves through living a prayerful life, and by doing what was called for in situations they faced. Their lives were not easy, but yet, these bhaktas were able to grow and ultimately triumph.

In many of these stories nitya karma a daily, regular, act of prayer acts as an important method of intelligently dealing with emotional pain, for neutralizing the effects of past karmas. and of invoking the grace of the Lord. Ultimately, a life of prayer and of karma yoga, prepares and matures the human mind and makes it fit for self-knowledge.

A prayer is an act of will, centered on a self-conscious and self-judging person relating to Isvara. The fact that you can pray implies an acceptance on your part, not only of your limitations but of a power higher than you. This acceptance itself is a beautiful thing: it is the immediate result of prayer, drsța phalam. It may not be easy for one to sit and pray, but when one does, the results are apparent.

In addition, there is the unseen result of prayer, adrsța phalam. This is what we call grace, and it will manifest in time. The purpose of prayer is to tap the grace of the limitless that is the Lord, and to help neutralize the result of wrong actions that we may do, wittingly or not.

Whether an individual bhakta studies the sastras, the religious forms he or she adopts, such as pūja, mantra japa or kīrtan (singing in praise of the Lord) are based on wisdom born of inquiry into the source-books, sastra vicara. Sastra makes it clear that grace is the result of karma - such as prayer, or reaching out and helping other beings in the world - (a karma that acknowledges your self as accommodating more than the small unit called "me" or my family).

So grace is not something the Lord distributes to a chosen few, but it is earned. The Lord is very much present in it as the law of karma and as the giver of the result of action, karma-phala-dhata.

The lives of the bhaktas are informed by the Vedic vision that the world we confront is a manifestation of Isvara, and this includes your body-mind-sense complex. The world around us. our abilities, our resources; are all given. The more awareness one has of Isvara as the giver and the given, the more prayerful one is.

And prayer can help us deal with emotional pain. We all want to be acceptable. Sastra reveals Isvara to be all knowledge. sarvajnaḥ. This means that In Isvara's eyes, I am always validated: always acceptable. Because he is all-knowledge. I am not going to spring any surprise on him.

The bhaktas are keenly aware of this human need for validation, and they often explicitly surface this: "O Lord, I may have many omissions and commissions but please accept me".

Once they have begun to recognize and address the problem, and as they pray for antahkarana suddhi, clarity of mind, with the help of sastra, guru and satsanga with other saints, they begin to see something deeper. They discover that in Isvara's vision they are indeed totally acceptable. They can relax in this awareness; thus, their compassion for their fellow-beings grows even greater and they are available for self-knowledge.

Over the centuries, bhaktas have contributed immensely to Indian culture, which is a religious culture based on the Vedic vision. They express themselves in their beautiful poetry and moving songs, and have helped to strengthen the people's awareness of this vision.

I am very happy that Sruti Seva Trust and the Arsha Vidya Research and Publication trust have brought out this book of restored paintings and the stories of the bhaktas.

Mahipati (1715-1790), the author of the Marathi classic Śrī Bhaktavijayam, was born in Taharabad in Ahmednagar district. He was a poet, an artist and a scholar highly respected in his own time.

As a young man he was a scribe in the service of the local Jagirdar (Landowner), a Muslim, and would report for duty only after finishing his traditional nitya-pūja, daily worship. Once, he was summoned by the Jagirdar peremptorily, and was not allowed to complete his nitya-paja, the primary duty of a brahmaņa. This shook him to the depths, and coming home, he laid his pen before the deity, and resolved that henceforth the pen would be used only in the service of the Lord and His devotees.

Sometime later, Saint Tukaram appeared in his dream, conferred the gift of poesy on him and commanded him to write about the lives of saints.

Accepting this as guru-ajna, the command of the guru, he studied the Gujarati and Hindi works of Nabhaji Uddhava Chitghana, Daso Digamber, and others in Marathi; met the descendants of Namdev. Tukaram, and other Saints to gather family traditions and details, and composed his magnum opus "Śrī Bhaktavijayam" in Marathi. Comprising 9916 verses in 57 chapters, and narrates the stories of over 50 saints.

The saints celebrate their love of the Lord through their kirtans and abhangs (songs of glory. usually sung in congregation or chanted continuously). For most of them their devotion centers on the shrine of Vitthala or Panduranga (Visnu) at Pandharpur.

Mahipati's opus brings to mind the PeriaPuranam of Sekkizhar, in Tamil. The sants come from all backgrounds, jatis and vanņas, include rich and poor, men and women, and even several indigenous muslims like Kabir, who courageously step outside Islamic orthodoxy. And all of them, in various ways, validate and revive the people's connection to their ancient traditions of worship and the vedic vision of the Lord.