The Nectar of Self-Awareness: A Poet's Rendering of Jnaneshwar's Amritanubhav

The Nectar of Self-Awareness (Amritanubhav) is an original work describing, in part, the spiritual experiences and state of enlightenment of its author, Jnaneshwar, the great thirteenth-century Indian poet-saint. Written originally in Marathi, it has few English translations. This poetic rendering by the poet George Franklin captures its "gloriously, extravagantly figurative" language, as George describes it. George goes on to say, "It is preeminently a poem and manages to have all the attributes of a poem while expounding philosophical ideas with extraordinary subtlety. As such, it has a rich use of metaphors, similes, and analogies... At the same time, and equally, it is a cogent philosophical critique. The verses, though carefully reasoned and ordered, feel, as a result of their dazzling wit, almost casual, offhand. Yet there is something magisterial, even supremely, self-confidently aristocratic in their tone." This volume also contains an essay George wrote describing how he came to create the manuscript, which was initially lost and is now being published posthumously.