Salutions to Ganesh !
Oh vasudev, son of Devaki,
The destroyer of the danavas,
Oh, Shrihari, bless me.
I know, I am incapable
Of winning you over
With devotion. Nor can I
Follow the path of Karma.
All the scriptures which eulogies you
Are in Sanskrit.
How can I, who does not know Sanskrit
And who is a dunce,
Know your true nature?
How would a toad
Suck honey from a lotus?
Nor can I gain your favour,
By giving food to the poor,
For rich I am not. But
It is your grace
That I am poor.
Nor can I gain merit
By visiting pilgrims places.
My limbs are not strong to travel
And my eyes are failing me.
But I know
Your grace is there
And I shall enjoy it day and night.
Does anyone pay the clouds
For watering the lands?
If the clouds shower.
Wells and tanks would overflow.
Water will gush through rocks.
Dasaganu is ever hankering
For your grace.
Won’t you bless him?
Dasaganu does not aspire for anything more.
A drop of nectar
Is enough to destroy deadly diseases.
So, as said earlier, there was rivalry
Between the Deshmukhs and the Patils.
Rivalry is a destroyer
Of happiness and harmony.
Rivalry is like a tubercular growth
And it will ruin a community.
One servant of Deshmukh,
Who was duty bound to carry
The village dak, refused to do so
Marya was his name,
And he insulted Khandu Patil.
Khandu Patil was all fire
He asked Marya to behave himself.
But Marya was arrogant.
Khandu Patil struck him with a stick.
Marya fell down
And broke his bone.
He was taken to the Deshmukh,
Who was happy over this event.
The Deshmukh went to town
And lodged a complaint.
The officer ordered arrest of Khandu Patil.
Khandu Patil felt humiliated.
His brothers went to Akola,
To seek the favour of officers.
But that night,
Khandu went to Maharaj,
And prayed to him for favour.
He narrated the incident
To Maharaj, and said,
"I prefer death to disgrace.
I would prefer to get killed
At your hands rather than get handcuffed by the police."
For a man of self respect,
The tarnishing of reputation is unbearable.
Maharaj was moved.
He embraced Khandu Patil
And assured his safety.
Maharaj said,
"One who works in this world,
Often faces such grave situations.
One should be firm
The enmity between the Patils and the Deshmukhs
Is no good. Remember that
The enmity between
The Kauravas and Pandavas
Caused the Mahabharata war.
But do not be afraid now.
You will be exonerated."
Thus will the grace of Maharaj
Khandu Patil was exonerated.
So all the brothers
Became still more ardent
Disciples of Maharaj.
They entreated Maharaj
To grace their home.
Maharaj agreed and
Went to live with the Patils.
One day some Brahmins
Well versed in the Vedas came.
But they were greedy and wanted money.
They recited the Vedas.
Maharaj was taking his nap.
The Brahmins recitation was faulty
Maharaj, at once got up
And rebuked the Brahmins,
For their faulty recitation.
"Do not defiles the Vedas
With such faulty pronunciation.
Be true to your reputation
And honour the shawls
Which you are wearing."
Said Maharaj,
Maharaj then recited the riks
And asked the Brahmins
To repeat after him.
Maharaj resembled the sage Vasistha.
All the Brahmins were wonderstruck,
And they hung their faces in shame,
How could they brandish their knowledge
In face of the Sun?
Maharaj was s super Brahmin.
Was he not a jeevanmukta
Or a Siddha,
Or a liberated soul abiding in a living body?
Maharaj was as learned as Vamadeva.
Maharaj caused Khandu Patil
To pay the Brahmins a rupee each.
All the Brahmins were pleased.
They left the place joyfully.
Maharaj was tired of living among men.
Hypocrites love to stay among men
And show their powers.
But a real sage
Always hankers for a quietude.
In the north of the village,
Krishnaji Patil had his orchard.
It was a quiet place
Under a deep shade
Of margosa trees,
There was a temple of Shiva.
Krishnaji was the youngest brother
Of Khanduji Patil
Maharaj came to the orchard,
And said to Krishnaji,
"I have come here to stay
For a few days,
In the company of Bhagavan Shiva,
Bhagavan Shiva, the consort of Gauri,
Is the lord of all gods.
He taken resort
In your orchard.
So I wish to stay here
In the divine company."
So Krishnaji erected a shed of galvanized iron sheets
For Maharaj to stay.
Eventually the place was sanctified
When a king continues to stay in any town,
It becomes the capital of the state.
Maharaj stayed in the wayside orchard.
Bhaskar Patil and Tukaram Kokate
Used to attend on Maharaj.
Krishnaji made arrangements for daily meals
And used to partake of the prasad.
Once, twenty traveling mendicants
Came there and halted in the orchard.
The mendicants had heard about Maharaj,
But had no respect for him.
They went to Krishnaji and said,
"We are the travelers and have
Been visiting Gangotri, Jamnotri, Kedar,
Hinglaj, Girnar and Dakor.
We are taking Gangotri waters
To Rameshwaram. Our great leader
Swami Brahmagiri is with us.
He is a great devotee.
So, oh Krishna Patil, serve us well,
We would like to have puri and halwa
And ganja enough for three days."
Krishna Patil told them
To accept bhakaris that day
And promised to feed them
With halwa and puri next day. He further
Said that they would get,
All the ganja in the orchard,
As Shankar Bhagwan stayed there
In a human form.
So at midday, the sadhus
Took bhakaris and came to the orchard
And had their meals sitting near the well.
Barhmagiri ¾ their guru
Began reciting the Geeta.
Some men from the village
Also came and listened
The divine song.
Barhmagiri was a hypocrite.
He elucidated the shloka ¾
"Nainam chhindanti shashtrani"
The villagers did not think
The narration convincing.
They said so among themselves.
They say the sadhu is wordy.
There is no ring of truth in his explanation.
After a while the villagers
Came and sat before Maharaj,
In the shed.
The listeners said, we heard the narration,
But here is a living person
Who will exemplify Geeta.
The sadhus were offended.
They smoked and ganja and
Bhaskar gave the chilim to Maharaj
Maharaj was sitting on a wooden bedstead
A live charcoal fell on the bedstead
Nobody noticed it.
But after a while the bedstead
Caught fire.
Bhaskar asked Maharaj,
To step down from the bedstead.
Maharaj did not heed.
Bhaskar wanted to throw water
On the bedstead. Maharaj forbade him.
Maharaj then asked
Brahmagiri to come and sit there with him.
Had not Brahmagiri spoke, for an hour
On "Nainam chhindanti shashtrani"
Why was he afraid now of sitting
On the hot and burning bed?
Maharaj asked Bhaskar to bring
Brahmagiri and make him sit on the bed.
Bhaskar was a strong and stout man.
He ran towards Brahmagiri and caught him
By his strong arms.
Maharaj was least perturbed
He was sitting comfortably
On the teak wood bed now in flames.
In the days gone by,
Prahlad was thrown into flames.
Gajanan Maharaj re-enacted the event.
But fire did not burn him.
Brahmagiri was wonderstruck.
He begged Bhaskar
Not to put him forcibly on the bed.
He admitted that he was a fake sadhu.
He only relished puri and halwa.
He repented for having treated Maharaj
With contempt.
He fell prostrate before Maharaj.
Men were, by now, panicky.
They prayed Maharaj to step down and the burning bedstead collapsed.
Brahmagiri fell at the feet of Maharaj.
All his pride was washed away.
How would a thing remain unclean
When washed by gangajal?
Then during the course of night,
Maharaj propounded the rules of sanyas
Maharaj said, "Those who would
Besmear themselves with ashes
should stay unattached.
They should not give a discourse
Without experiencing the truth.
There are pundits
Who are well at the words.
But they know not the truth.
Think of the glorious heritage
Of Machchindra, Jalandhar,
Of Gorakh, Gahini and Jnyaneshwar.
They experienced the truth.
And then expounded the same.
The most revered Shankaracharya,
Was verily the embodiment of the truth.
Eknath led the life of a householder,
But he experienced the truth.
Samartha Ramdas led the life of a celibate
He also experienced Brahman.
Remember them. Do not travel
From place to place in search
Of halwa and puri."
Early in the morning,
Brahmagiri left the place all alone.
Let this proved helpful
For all the devotees.
END OF CHAPTER EIGHT