He was a devotee of the Hindu deity Vitthal and is a major figure of the Warkari movement.

Eknath is often viewed as a spiritual successor to the prominent Marathi saints Dnyaneshwar and Namdev.

He was born into a Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmin family of Vishwamitra gotra to Suryanarayan and Rukmini Bai at Paithan, present-day Maharashtra and was a follower of the Ashvalayana Sutra.

[5] Eknath was a creative person, who utilized his literary skills to compose religious work in vernacular Marathi language, promoting local devotional religious practice, and opposing the suppressive caste-system.

He also composed Rukmini Swayamwar Hastamalak, a literary piece consisting of 764 owee (poetic metre) and based on a Sanskrit hymn of the same name.