Saint Muktabai Temple

Muktabai or Muktai was a saint in the Varkari tradition. She was born in a Deshastha Brahmin family and was the younger sister of Dnyaneshwar, the first Varkari saint. Muktabai wrote forty-one Abhang throughout her life span. "Tati ughada dnaneshwara" is one her most insightful works, being a conversation with saint Dnyaneshwar. It is considered to be a milestone in Marathi literature. According to Mukatabai, the definition of saint is "Saint jene vahave; jag bolane sosave" or a saint is the one who can digest criticism of people.

Saint Muktabai temple is region's ancient temple with Goddess Muktabai being honoured at deity of region. There are two temples of this deity namely Mehun temple and new Muktabai Temple located in MuktaiNagar city.

Sant Muktabai Temple,Mehun

Dnyanadev and the flying wall

Changdev is most commonly known today due to his popular first encounter with Dnyaneshwar, also known as Dnyanadev. As the story goes, when the four siblings of Nivritti − Dnyanadev, Sopandev, and Muktai − achieved glory, Changdev Maharaj wanted to test them, and hence sent them a blank note. When the siblings received this note, they laughed at the gesture and, on Nivritti’s asking, Dnyaneshwar wrote 65 verses which were the quintessence of Vedanta on it. When the paper reached Changdev Maharaj, he had difficulty understanding what was written, and decided to meet the siblings to show them his yogic powers in person. For this visit he chose to ride on back of a tiger, wielding a poisonous cobra as a whip. When the siblings, then sitting on a masonry wall, saw the procession of Changdev Maharaj and thousands of his devotees walking toward their house, they decided to break his pride by humiliating him. They patted on the wall and it rose up to fly in the air. This use of an inanimate wall as a vehicle amazed everyone present. Changdev realized the greatness of these children. He became one of their disciples and overcame his pride and ego. These verses sent by Dnyaneshwar later became known as Changdev Pasashti (Pasast means 65 in Marathi) and are one of the holy scriptures amongst followers of Dnyaneshwar.

Muktai, the spiritual guide

Muktai, the sister of Dnyaneshwar, is believed to be the spiritual guide of Changdev Maharaj. As the legend goes, once Muktai and her brothers were sitting in the ashram when Changdev happened to pass by. Muktai was of course fully clad, but she appeared to Changdev as unclad and at once he turned away. Muktai then told him that he was not perfect as he still had a complex of sex and shame, and did not see God in every being. These words of Muktai had great effect on him and he eradicated this weakness through intense sadhana. Changdev wished to make Dnyanadev his guru, but Dnyanadev said that Muktai was the right spiritual guru instead of himself. From this point on, Changdev took Muktai as his spiritual guide, and many references to Muktai can be found in the Abhangs that he wrote.