Jānanti Maharshi

Jānanti

Jānanti Maharshi is a maharshi who lived at Nara-Nārāyaṇāśrama. He is deeply learned in the moksha-śāstra (the teaching on liberation). In the Nārada Purāṇa, the brāhmaṇa Vedamāli met him there and received from him the teaching on jñāna (knowledge): the knowledge of the ātman (the self), the nature of the real and the unreal, and the path to moksha (liberation). The name is also written Jānantatī.

The meeting with Vedamāli

Vedamāli was a brāhmaṇa who had earned his living by adharmic means all his life. In his old age he gave dāna (gifts) on the bank of the Gaṅgā. Then he went on pilgrimage to Nara-Nārāyaṇāśrama, the holy āśrama of Nara and Nārāyaṇa. There he met Jānanti Maharshi, a ṛshi of deep spiritual knowledge.

Jānanti gave Vedamāli the jñāna-upadeśa (teaching of knowledge). It covered these points:

• the nature of the ātman, which is beyond the body that must perish
• the māyā (illusion) that binds the jīva (the living being)
• the importance of Vishṇu-bhakti (devotion to Bhagavān Vishṇu) and of satkarma (good action)
• the means by which even the pāpa (sin) gathered over a whole life of adharma can be overcome, by truly turning toward Bhagavān Vishṇu

Sources

• Nārada Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 35