Mysticism in Maharashtra: Indian Mysticism

Mysticism is an attitude of mind which involves a direct, immediate apprehension of God. The mystics of all ages and countries form an eternal Divine Society and there are no racial, no communal, no national prejudices among them. There may be physical, mental and temperamental differences but there is no difference in the quality of their mystical or intuitive realization of God.

The book defines, analyses and evaluates the mystical trends observable in the writings of mystics in Medieval India with particular emphasis on the mystics of Maharashtra. We get a fair idea of the spiritual leaven introduced into Indian thought by the writers such as Ramananda, Kabir, Gauranga, Jnanesvara, Namadeva, Ekanatha, Tukarama, Ramadasa and others. The list exhausts all types of mysticism that are known to exist. The book is rather a study of comparative mysticism and it draws striking parallelism between the mystics of Maharashtra and the Western mystics like Plotinus, Eckhart, Dante and others.

The book is divided into 5 parts bound in one volume. Part I deals with the intellectual mysticism of Jnanesvara, Nivrttinath, Sopana, Muktabai and Changadeva. Part II discusses the devotional mysticism of Namadeva and his contemporaries. Part III contains the synthetic mysticism of Ekanatha, Janardana Swami and others and shows how they brought about a reconciliation of worldly and spiritual life. Part IV treats of the personalistic mysticism of Tukarama and describes in detail how a devotee passes through the states of doubts, disbeliefs, weaknesses, sufferings, anxieties and uncertainties before he can come into the light of spirit. Part V deals with the activist mysticism of Ramadasa which calls for the man's mind to the performance of duty with the heart set on God.

The book is suffixed by (1) Index of Sources, (2) Index of names and subjects, (3) a Bibliographical note on comparative mysticism which compares the mysticism of Maharashtra with the mystical literature of Christianity and Islam. It contains an Introduction which deals with the development of Indian mysticism from the earliest times to the age of Jnanesvara.