Devaachiye Dwaari Ubhaa Kshanbhari

 Devaachiye dwaari ubha kshanbhari

Written originally on December 11th, 2022

It had been a week of clouds and rain. This morning upon waking up I looked outside and the cloud cover was thick. Sunrise would not be visible. Plus it was wet outside from the overnight rain. I got busy with the chores at home. 

Then around 10 am suddenly looked up and it looked bright outside. Opened the front door and stepped out. A gardener in a neighbor’s yard three homes down was moving the lawn. Another neighbor couple was getting ready to set out for the morning walk, all covered up in hoodie and everything. There was a chill in the air and a bit of a wind caressing the skin. Yet the clouds had dispersed enough to give a glimpse of the deep blue sky and the sun. I decided to soak in that moment. It was like living in the presence of the divine in that whole sensory experience. Standing in the clean street under the blue sky, facing the direct rays of the morning sun, feeling the chilled atmosphere and the wind in the face. It had to be just felt. In silence. Any thought for that fraction of time was nuisance. 

As I walked into the home, as the aftermath of the experience, I remembered the song Devachiye dwari ubha kshanbhari. Wasn’t it not that what I had just experienced? God is not just in idols and temples after all. HE is in all his creation. It had been a while I had listened to this beautiful abhang by Sant Dnyaaneshwar. I pulled out the CD and played the beautiful rendition in the voice of Ajit Kadkade. These few moments ( the moment of stillness outdoors and the listening to the song) were by themselves enough to make my Sunday worthwhile. 

If it may interest anyone to learn about this abhang here it is. Dnyaaneshwar is credited with a genre of what are called HaripaaTH abhangas that have become the key themes of the waarkari culture. This is one of those abhangas that speaks about the power of bhakti or devotion. It takes into account the realities of shouldering day to day responsibilities in life and lays down easy means of taking time out for devotion despite the all consuming duties that are to be carried out. 

devaachiye dwaari ubhaa kshanbhari 

TeNe mukti chaari saadhiyelyaa 

Just stand still at the gate of God for a single moment. That is enough to achieve the four stages of salvation.

(Chaari mukti in this couplet refers to the four stages of salvation described in the scriptures namely swalokya, sameepya, swaroopya and  samyukta.)

The key word is still. You don’t need to take a long pilgrimage to Kashi or such shrines. You don’t even have to spend hours in meditation. Right where you are, take just one moment to face the Lord and keep just HIS( or HER) thought in your mind. At least for that one moment stay true and set aside your problems, worries, desires, attachments, hatred, misgivings, pride, everything and just be. 

It is a deceptively simple exercise. 

Not many of us can do it and those of us who occasionally manage to do it accidentally or otherwise, can’t do it consistently every day. But the waarkaris do it all the time. It comes naturally to them.

Hari mukhe mhaNaa, Hari mukhe mhaNaa

PuNyaachi gaNanaa koNa kari…

Keep the chant of the Holy Name on your tongue always. The merit ( PuNya) or blessings you will accrue by this habit will be infinite. Who can ever measure the merit or count the blessings of this practice?

The Divine is synonymous with purity and goodness. If you constantly talk about IT you will only talk about good things. If your tongue is trained to talk only about good things your mind will have no opportunity to think of anything but good things. If the mind is only thinking good , the actions will translate to only good deeds. And good deeds can only bring good results and accumulate merit to the doer. That’s the wisdom behind it. 

Asoni samsaari jivhe vegu kari 

Ved shaastra ubhaari baahyaa sadaa

You may be tied up with various worldly obligations in life yet you can make it a habit to chant the divine name and attain salvation. Take the reference of the ancient scriptures as your guide for they all ascertain this result as they glorify the name of God.

In whatever field we are trying to learn, we rely on some textbooks that for generations have been considered the last word on that subject. We are ready to accept the teachings because those textbooks have stood the test of time and proven to be scientific and the results consistently found to be reproducible. The same applies to spiritual growth. The vedas and other scriptures delineate the pathway to enlightenment so they are to be accepted as guiding principles. 

Faith is the start point here. If faith is invested in something that is universally accepted as beneficial and delivering results only then one can proceed with the practices that are prescribed. If there is doubt there will be no incentive to continue any practice. So Dnyaaneshwar implores to the waarkaris that don’t believe anything because I am saying so. I am only reaffirming what the ancient scriptures are saying. You put your trust in the truths contained in them and continue in the path of devotion that they prescribe.

Dnyaandev mhaNe Vyaasaachiye khuNe

Dwaarkeche raaNe PaaNDavaa ghari

Here Dnyaaneshwar pitches one more example to prove the power of devotion. The great sage Vyaas who is the author of the epic Mahabharata and a widely revered scholar, has pointed out that the King of Dwaarakaa, Shri Krishna, who is the incarnation of the Supreme Being, stayed in the home of the Paandavaas simply owing to their devotion to Him. Love pulls the Lord of the Universe to the humble home of a devotee. So realize the power of sincere devotion. 

The waarkaris in Maharashtra live by the teachings of the poet saints like Dnyaaneshwar and Tukaram. They are mostly not very literate nor rich. But since early age they accrue unparalleled wealth of spiritual wisdom simply by following the prescribed path of devotion to Vitthala. They have the riches of contentment, peace and love for the universal God that is rarely to be found amongst the educated and rich folks in the cities. It has been on my mind to accompany them on the annual waari( pilgrimage) from Alandi or Dehu to Pandharpur on foot some day. God willing I can do it soon. But if I don’t, the teachings of the saints are there always to bring back the mind in focus on what really matters. 

I realized one more thing as I listened to the abhang today. Just like a person who has followed cricket or football or soccer all lifelong enjoys the game , similarly only after years of pursuing the spiritual path does the mind taste the sweetness in the name of God. To an uninitiated mind it’s all dry and meaningless. There is a long way to go but at least today I could experience the sweetness of the essence of the abhanga as the words fell on my ears. To think of it, one moment of standing in the sun and experiencing the stillness brought forth all this today. 

My saree today is also worth some discussion. This one was one of my earliest acquisitions of Vidarbha karvati Kinar or karvati kathi as they are called. The vendor had some sarees costing more than others though they all looked equally beautiful on the website. So why spend on the expensive ones, right? I bought two of the lower priced ones. One had a striped body with vertically placed alternate bands in two shades of off white all across and red karvati borders in cotton. The other had a plain body that appeared natural tussar color on the screen and had Ganga Jamuna karvati borders, one black and other red. This second saree when it arrived looked anything but the natural tussar color. It was a dull gray that looked almost lifeless. The other saree too when seen in the real as opposed to virtual did not appeal to me at all. The bands seemed to take away the simple elegance of the saree. So I contacted the vendor. That was the beginning of my education about Vidarbha tussar. 

I learnt that pure Vidarbha tussar is of rich texture and has a beautiful sheen unmatched by tussar from anywhere really. But it is therefore also expensive. To add to it, the GI tag marked karvati Kinar sarees when woven on handlooms in pure tussar get to be in the price range of 8-9k. Not many women would want to spend that much on the saree that is elegant no doubt but not necessarily dressy enough to be worn at weddings etc. To cut down costs the weavers used spun tussar yarn for some sarees. Whatever is left after the pure tussar yarn is extracted those short fibers are made into spun yarn. This is also called Munga threads or Munga tussar. This term is easily and erroneously confused with the rich and rare silk of Assam, the Muga silk. I learnt that day that Munga is NOT Muga. Munga is a low quality leftover product from tussar material. It lacks the sheen of tussar. It is also a weak fiber. But it is soft and it is more economical. Munga tussar karvati Kinar sarees can save you 3-4k compared to its pure Tussar versions. 

Now I had learned what I owned but I couldn’t look at them the way they were, leave alone wear them. I had to do something. Just at the right time I was getting familiar with an age old traditional printing technique called Ajrakh from Kutch in Gujarat. I reached out to a resource and asked if someone would print Ajrakh design on my karvati sarees. You want to get creative, the universe aligns to make it happen. So I found someone who readily took upon himself to print both my sarees in two distinct designs. Both were transformed and unrecognizable from their original look. In addition the rigorous process of Ajrakh printing and dyeing had rendered both these sarees softer than ever before. They have become my most used most loved sarees both for work and travel. While the sarees are precious to me in their present form, the learning that came with the experience is even more valuable and the friendship with the artisan I made in the process is priceless. 

What I am wearing today is the gray Munga saree with the Ganga Jamuna borders. I have in the past 2-3 years posted a few times about the transformation of the other saree that had the vertical stripes on the body. That one was dyed red. 

You may also have noticed that after a long time I have a full picture in front of my house. I didn’t have to catch hold of a neighbor this time. One of my coveted photographers is back. Mom. After a long day’s ordeal of repeated flight delays from Dallas yesterday due to heavy rains she finally arrived here past midnight. She was put to task right away this morning . Had it not been for a photo I couldn’t have shared today’s thoughts with you.

In the comments sharing pictures of the saree in its original form and also during the printing process. I wore the same saree to the airport last night to pick mom. A selfie in the mirror shows the bundled look with a winter jacket and a Bhujodi stole to keep me from shivering at the curbside while I waited for her.