Inspiration Bytes: Devotion of Ekanath

Devotion of Ekanath

Ekanath was a saint from Maharashtra, India. His Bhavartha Ramayana is very famous. Ekanath was writing the Ramayana, and when he came to the portion in which he was graphically describing that Hanuman jumped across the ocean to Lanka, he so identified himself with his hero Hanuman that unconsciously he leaped into the air and landed on the roof of his neighbour’s house. The neighbour had always had a poor opinion of Ekanath, taking him for a humbug and religious hypocrite. He heard a thud on his roof and coming out to see what it was, discovered Ekanath lying down on the roof with a manuscript leaf in one hand and his steel pen. The palm leaf had verses describing how Hanuman leapt across the sea. The incident proved to the neighbour what a genuine bhakti Ekanath was and he became his disciple.

Once God appeared in a dream to Ekanath and asked him to go and repair the tomb of Jnaneshwar, a famous saint of Maharashtra. When Ekanath went there accordingly, he found a contractor ready to do all the work and take payment at the end. The contractor opened a big account note book in which all expenses were entered, with the names of all the workmen and wages to be paid to them. Everything went on systematically and when, the work of repairs having been completed, the accounts had to be looked into and the contractor and his big account book t totally disappeared. Then anyone Ekanath came to know that God was his contractor and did the work.