By: Rajeshwari Somasekhar
In Sai Satcharitra, we see several references that Sai Maharaj is no different from Lord Pandharinath. We also come across a Varkari named Gauli Buva visiting Shirdi once every year. Lord Sainath asked Dada Saheb Khaparde to record The Varkari Yatra for posterity.
Ashadhi Ekadashi marks the culmination of the ‘pilgrims’ progress’ that carries the palkis of Sant Dnyaneshwar and Sant Tukaram, from Alandi and Dehu, respectively, to the temple town of Pandharpur in Solapur district, Maharashtra. This ocean of devotees, one of the largest gatherings of pilgrims in the world, gloats in ecstasy on reaching Pandharpur and meeting their beloved Lord Vithoba. After Baba’s Maha Samadhi in 1918, devotees carry an exclusive ‘palki’ for Sai Maharaj and devotees pay their obeisance to Sai Maharaj at Shirdi both ways.
The Varkaris, as these pilgrims are called, hail from all walks of life to participate in this annual walk of over 250 km, spread over 21 days. The atmosphere is charged with bhakti and devotees are oblivious to physical discomfort or exertion. They address one another as Mauli, mother, a nickname for Sant Dnyaneshwar. This nickname stems from a matriarchal bond the Varkaris share with Dnyaneshwar, a bond that is an alchemy of faith, love, trust, respect, devotion, 
adulation, and abject surrender. Sai devotees address Baba as ‘Mother Sai’
Dnyaneshwar was truly a saint ahead of his time. He compiled three spiritual texts in his brief earthly sojourn: the Gnaneshwari, Anubhavamrut, and Changdev Pasashti. Changdev Pasashti is a discourse of 65 verses addressed to a yogi named Changdev. These verses attempt to elucidate the ultimate truth of the very nature of existence. He explains that the tattva, essence, emerges as a ‘Will’ by manifesting as an intensification of consciousness – the Self, Drishta, seer, and rarefaction that becomes Drishya, seen, the material world, which is connected by the process of darshan. This trinity emerges simultaneously. After the ‘Will’ is fulfilled, this trinity merges as a wave of knowledge in the very essence from which it emerged. He says that consciousness, to remain conscious, must constantly go on becoming self-conscious.
In one of the verses, Sant Dnyaneshwar says: “The being of consciousness to becoming of consciousness is a holomovement that is in a perpetual continuum.” This observer-centric approach is what contemporary Quantum Physics now confirms.
Dasganu Maharaj in later years settled down in Pandharpur and propagated the tenets of the
saint Dnyaneshwar in his ‘Pravachans’. He dwelt on ‘from being to becoming’.
The search for answers in the tangible domain leads only to the intangible conclusions of saint Dnyaneshwar. Dasganu Maharaj refers to this as Swasamvedya. Dnyaneshwar very unambiguously elucidates the ultimate truth. The entire universe is a cosmic dance of differential frequencies. We need to realize this truth to foster harmony and ensure our salvation.
The Varkari Yatra, the march of pilgrims is a reminder for us to embark on a journey of consciousness from becoming to being to the lotus feet of Lord Sainath.
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