Eknāth's Water

The Journey of the Ganges Water

In the town of Paithan in Maharashtra, on the Godāvarī's bank, there lived in the sixteenth century a saint named Eknāth. He was the grandson of the saint Bhānudās, and his whole life was an answer to one question: is Vitthal — Kṛṣṇa — only in the temple image, or in every living thing? Eknāth's answer was in what he did, and what he did was strange.

Once he went to Kāśī and came back carrying Ganges water — to pour over the Śiva liṅgam at Rāmeśvaram, in the old vow by which the Gaṅgā's water is carried on foot to the southern jyotirliṅga. Some fellow pilgrims walked with him. The journey was long, and the sun was hard.

The Water for the Donkey

On the road, outside a village, a donkey lay dying — lips dry with thirst. Eknāth stopped. He opened his water-pot — the very pot holding the Ganges water meant for Rāmeśvaram — and poured the stream into the animal's mouth.

His companions cried out to stop him: this is holy water! It is for the Śiva liṅgam! You are giving it to a donkey? Eknāth's answer has been repeated for five hundred years: if the Lord for whom this water is meant is also in this donkey, then the water has reached him. The one visible in the temple image and the one hidden in the donkey's thirst — both are the same Vitthal. The water went down the throat it was carried for.

The Feast the Caste Refused

The second famous test of Eknāth's life was a feast. The story says he once ate at the home of an untouchable family — seeing the people of that house in the very image of Vitthal. Some Brahmins demanded penance. Eknāth said: the house where I ate is Vitthal's too; this house is Vitthal's too; both meals are the same Lord's plates. And he ate the same meal at the Brahmins' home as well, with no distinction.

This is the same Eknāth who carried the Bhāgavata out of Sanskrit and into the Marāṭhī of the ovīs and bhārūds — the folk song-forms. The Eknāthī Bhāgavata is still read and sung in Maharashtrian homes; he gave the holy book the language of the kitchen, so that no thirst would be shut out of it.

The story's gift is kept in that water-pot: wherever there is thirst, there the Lord is asking for water. The temple image and the donkey's tongue — both belong to the same stream.