Bharud of Eknath Maharaj is a well-known devotional composition of saint-poet Sant Eknath Maharaj of Maharashtra. Bharud is lyrical and dramatic in structure. This type abounds in contemporary thoughts. It expresses, and sometimes symbolizes the deeper aspects of human and divine experiences. Sant Eknath used this novel form of poetry only to enlighten the people spirituality and awaken in them thoughts of devotion or bhakti.
Bharud is a word of controversial origin and meaning. Efforts
have been made to associate the word with Kannada and derive it differently but
without much success. In general, it is a type of folk-song. The bharuda of Eknath Maharaj,
indirectly or symbolically, deal with social evils, worldly life, various
games, birds and animals, the jogava (alms) of the Goddess, the johars
(salutations) of maharas (shudras) etc. They convey certain spiritual truths in
common language.
Worldly inflictions are conveyed symbolically through an
elaborate description of a married woman bitten by a serpent. Eknath’s Bharuda
reflect the saint’s true self, full of devotion to God and free from prejudices
of any kind. All men were equal in his eye. There are many episodes in his life
that illustrate his sense of equality. His whole life was a living example of
his intrinsic goodness. Sant Eknath live up to his own definition of a saint –
one who suffers the slanders of others without anger and never feels hurt,
because he has established his oneness with the universe.
The saint poets of Maharashtra inaugurated a new era of
bhakti yoga of the Bhagavata. Sant Eknath carried further the work of the great
saint Dnyaneshwar in the 16th century CE. He used many literary
devices to popularize bhakti yoga or the Bhagavata philosophy. All these
saint-poets used Marathi as an effective medium. Eknath went a step further and
adopted certain folk methods in his compositions, among which pada, gaulana and
bharud became famous.