Muktabai, whose name means ‘liberated, was the younger sister of Sant Jnaneshvar, that ‘Ocean of Knowledge’ who is credited with laying the foundation of this Vitthala Bhakti Marga, the Varkari Sampradaya. Altogether they were four siblings – Nivrittinath, Jnaneshvar, Sopan and Mukta – each two years apart in age from the other. Their father, a devout Brahmin had left his wife to become a sannyasi in Kashi and was later ordered by his guru to return to the householder’s life and fulfil his duties. The brahmins however did not accept this and ostracized the whole family. They had to suffer many torments and injustices. The parents eventually drowned themselves as the advised means of expiation (prayaschitta) and the four children were orphaned at a very young age.
Mukta must have been just a tiny girl of three! The children continued to be outcastes until they proved their intellectual and spiritual brilliance in a debate with the brahmins of Paithan, where the young Jnaneshvar made a buffalo recite the Vedas to prove that God is not different from his creation. From then on people respected the children as divine and blessed.
Mukta’s life was entirely bound up with that of her brothers; wherever they went, they stayed together like a small family, all of them unmarried. The eldest Nivrittinath, was their guru and he initiated them into the Nath Sampraday, an esoteric Shaiva tradition, and later, when they came to Pandharpur, they became the strongest proponents of Vitthala bhakti; thus they amalgamated two traditions. Mukta even witnessed and experienced Sant Jnaneshvar’s samadhi sohala or celebration in Alandi – a sublime 5-day event of bliss and grief, witnessed by thousands, where her brother Jnaneshvar, endearingly called Maoli (mother) took sajivan samadhi. Having fulfilled his life’s purpose and with a great longing to unite forever with the Supreme he had himself entombed in an underground chamber beneath the Siddheshvar Shiva temple in Alandi at the tender age of 22!
Muktabai is depicted as a beautiful and brilliant young girl, spiritually very advanced and learned. The fact that she didn’t get married puts her above the norm. Unlike many other women bhaktas, she never emphasizes her womanhood. She dwells entirely in the spirit and is very confident. The great yogi Changadev who had acquired many supernatural powers through years of tapasya and who had many followers, was humbled by Jnaneshvar and he eventually became a disciple of the very young Mukta – a woman – a yogini!!
Muktabai composed about 50 abhangs. Her main theme is taking God’s name in order to acquire the divine qualities, experience God’s omnipresence and become liberated. In her abhangs she signs off simply as ‘Muktai’. Popular among her abhangs are her eleven ‘Songs of the Door’ (tatiche abhang). As they were treated as outcastes, Jnaneshvar, fed up with the derogatory and vile comments of the people, locked himself in his hut. With these songs Mukta cajoled him to open the door. She sang Santa teci jana jagi,daya kshama jyace angi “People can recognize a sant by his forbearance and compassion, one whose mind has no greed and conceit, one who has attained bliss here on earth, one who bestows pure knowledge! Put aside false doubts, open the door Jnaneshvar!” As can be noted she does not adopt the servile tone of a younger sister pleading with an older brother; it is one self-realized soul addressing another.
All the four siblings were divine incarnations who came to spiritually uplift mankind. Their mission completed, they followed their brother Jnaneshvar and within six months all of them took sajivan samadhi in various places. Of Muktabai it is said that she disappeared in a flash of lightning. Her age must have been at that time just 18!
Muktabai is greatly revered and admired and people believe she is an incarnation of the Adi Shakti, but she is not the typical example of a bhavik Varkari sant. As a person she almost seems intangible; her life is miraculous, full of wisdom and mysticism.