Salutations to Ganesh !
Oh, the formless and the unchangeable,
The king of Phandhari the full of Brahman,
You are the resort
Of the virtuous.
Please do not push me away.
I know that I do not deserve mercy.
Yet, should you not accept me?
Does not holy river Godavari.
Accept any rivulet and make it holy?
In the same way,
Kindly accept me and burn
All the dross within me.
Once Maharaj went to Amaravati
And stayed with Atmaram Bhikaji
A government officer in the district.
He received Maharaj honourably,
Arranged for his ceremonious bath
And offered him the usual worship
He gave Maharaj a dhoti
With a broad red border,
To wear and applied sandal paste
Mixed with saffron
On his forehead.
Every one in Amravati
Wished that Maharaj should visit him.
But how could these wishes
Be fulfilled?
Those, who were virtuous and meritorious,
Alone could succeed in taking Maharaj
To their homes
Ganesh Shrikrishna Khaparde
A reputed lawyer and a close associate of Tilak
Invited Maharaj to his home.
Khaparde was a religious person.
He was fabulously rich also.
Khaparde honoured Maharaj
And worshipped him like a deity.
There was one Ganesh Appa,
a lingayat wani. His wife Chandrabai
Asked her husband
To persuade Maharaj
To visit them.
Ganesh Appa was not sure
That Maharaj would visit him
He thought that he was not
As rich as Khaparde,
And so Maharaj won’t
Visit him even if solicited.
Chandrabai, however, thought
That as they were honest and truthful,
Maharaj would perhaps condescend
To visit them.
She insisted that her Husband
Would request Maharaj
To come to their home.
Ganesh Appa could not muster courage.
At last, Maharaj of his own
Asked Ganesh Appa how far his home was.
Ganesh Appa was pleased.
He took Maharaj with him
At his residence,
and both, husband wife,
Worshipped Maharaj.
When Maharaj was worshipped
On all such occasions,
One person was ever present.
He was Balabhau,
The nephew of Atmaram Bhikaji.
He was working in the telegraph department.
He came to Amravati from Bombay
To see his maternal uncle.
Balabhau was overwhelmed
When he saw Maharaj.
He would not leave Maharaj now.
"Why should I get myself involved
In the wordly affairs?"
said he,
"Who would leave nectar
And drink poison?"
So Balabhau was present,
Whenever Maharaj was worshipped.
After a few days
Maharaj returned to Shegaon.
This time he did not go to the orchard,
But stayed in a place
East of the temple, built by Motey.
Krishna Patil heard this,
And came to Maharaj,
Bowed before him
And motioness, shedding tears.
Maharaj said to Patil,
"Why do you weep?"
Krishna Patil said,
"Why should you leave my orchard?
What wrong did I commit?
Am I not your child?
This new place is not good for you.
Come, I shall vacate my own home
For you to stay in.
If you do not want to stay in my orchard,
I do not regard anything
More precious than you."
While he was entreating Maharaj
Krishna’s brothers
And other relatives
Came over there and
Requested Maharaj to leave that place.
Maharaj said unto them,
"I have purposely come over here.
You will know about this in course of time.
Do not say anything now.
Very few think in this world
In a right way.
Call Bankatlal and ask him.
He was not annoyed when I left him!
Why should you take it ill?
My good wishes and blessings
Are always with you. Rest assured"
Bankatlal came.
He told Krishna Patil
Not to persuade Maharaj
To return to the orchard.
"What did I do
When he left my home?
We are all his children.
He loves us all.
Sakharam Asolkar,
The owner of this land,
Is a righteous man.
He will surely surrender this land
To build a hut for Maharaj
To make Maharaj comfortable there."
So the land was released,
And all the devotees
Built up a structure
A math for Maharaj
to stay independently.
Prasaram Saoji worked
Particularly hard to raise the math.
Bhaskar, Balabhau Pitambar,
And Ganesh Appa from Amravati,
These four stout devotees
Stayed with Maharaj constantly.
And Ramachandra Gurao
Also stayed.
Maharaj resembled Shrihari
Surrounded by the five Pandavas.
Balabhau was getting detached.
He did not care
For the government service.
Letters were received from his home,
Praying him to return.
But he had no mind
To return to his home and to his job.
Bhaskar said to Maharaj,
"Balabhau stays here
Only to eat sweetmeats.
That is why he does not
Think of leaving this place.
Unless you give him a good thrashing,
He won’t return home.
A monkey can be chastised with a stick,
And does not even a mountain
Fear Indra’s Vajra?"
They thus once drove away Balabhau.
But he returned
After tendering his resignation.
When Balabhau returned to Shegaon
Bhaskar was annoyed
And he spoke harsh words
To Balabhau
"A bull often returns to a green meadow
So you come here for sweets
Don’t you?
You are like a dog.
You will come back
Even when driven ten times.
Only those who are sincere
And have no attachment
For the world
Should come and stay here."
Maharaj knew
Bhaskar was puffed up with pride,
That is why he was rebuking Balabhau.
Maharaj seized an umbrella
from a person who was standing by
And began to thrash Balabhau.
Maharaj was striking so severely,
that the umbrella gave way.
Then Maharaj took a big stick
And began to beat Balabhau again.
Maharaj was striking so severely,
Persons who were there
Ran away for safety.
Balabhau did not budge.
He patiently received the beating.
He fell down.
That stick also gave way.
So Maharaj trampled on him
Even as a potter would knead the clay.
People around were afraid.
They thought that Balabhau would die.
Bhaskar stood aghast,
They ran to Bankatlal and Krishnaji.
Both came but did not dare
Stop Maharaj.
At last Bankatlal said,
"Maharaj, Balabhau is your devotee.
Have mercy on him and
Please stop trampling him."
Maharaj simply smiled,
And bade Balabhau
To show his back.
There was no sign
Of any beating.
Balabhau was in a blissful state.
Now Bhaskar knew
That Balabhau was no ordinary devotee.
Thereafter Bhaskar
Did not pass any remark
On Balabhau
And held Balabhau in high esteem.
Here was Balabhau, a piece of gold,
Tested on a touchstone.
There was one Suklal Agarwal
In Balapur.
He owned a cow.
It was very dangerous.
It used to injure
Men women and children
By dashing towards them
And by hurling them away
With its horns.
It used to break into the shops
And used to eat away grains and vegetables.
And used to spill
Ghee or oil from the tins in the shops.
Suklal could not tie it down
As it used to break away the rope and the chain.
It won’t bear
And would give no milk.
Men advised Suklal
To sell it away
Even to a butcher
Or to kill it with a rifle shot.
One Pathan once tried to shoot,
But the cow attacked him
And was mortally injured.
Suklal had taken it away
To a distant place
But it returned to Balapur
In no time.
People advised Suklal
To take the cow to Shegaon
Where Maharaj make it docile
As the horse of Govindbuwa
Was made earlier.
It was a problem
To hold the cow and lead it to Shegaon.
They allured it with cotton seeds
The palatable food.
The cow was trapped and chained
With big iron chains.
They put the cow on a cart
And took the cart to Shegaon.
As they neared Shegaon
The cow gradually became docile.
When they reached Maharaj
Tears were oozing from the cow’s eyes.
Maharaj rebuked the men
For torturing the cow.
Maharaj said that they had
Accorded the treatment due to a tiger
To the kindly cow.
A cow is verily the mother of the universe.
"What an injustice you have inflicted
In tying her with iron chains.
Release the cow at once.
It won’t hurt anyone,"
Maharaj said so
But none dared released the cow.
Maharaj himself came forward
And released the cow from the iron chains.
The cow stood on its fours.
And bending its fore limbs
Knelt before Maharaj.
It then rose and thrice did it go round Maharaj
And then began to lick his feet.
Everyone was wonderstruck.
Maharaj addressed the cow thus,
"Oh you fair lady, now do not trouble any one.
Do not leave this place."
Everyone shouted "Maharaj ki Jay"
People from Balapur returned,
leaving the cow in the math.
Since that day it was not tied or tethered with a rope.
It became the most domesticated animal
It bore calves thereafter,
and her progeny
Still thrives is Shegaon upto this day.
One Laxman Ghude from Karanja
Was a wealthy person.
He suffered from some indescribable disease.
Medicines were of no avail.
He had heard about Maharaj
And came, therefore, to Shegaon.
He was so much incapacitated with the deadly disease
That he had to be carried in a doli.
He had no strength left
Even for bowing down before Maharaj.
His wife said to Maharaj,
"I am your daughter,
Relieve my husband’s sufferings,
Restore him to health.
Why should he die,
When I have surrendered myself to you?"
Maharaj was eating a mango.
He threw that half-eaten mango
At that women and told her
To feed it to her dying husband.
"You are a worthy wife
And you deserve to be with your husband.
Go." So saying, Maharaj smoked the chilim.
Bhaskar told the women
To take away her husband home.
"He would be all right" said he, "if he
Would eat that half eaten mango."
The women returned to Karanja.
Her relatives asked her
What did Maharaj do?
She told the event
And then fed the mango to her dying husband.
The attending physician heard this,
He was upset.
He said that a ripe mango
Would worsen the disease,
This was stated so, in Sushrut,
This was stated in Madhavanidan,
This was stated in Nighantu and Sharangdhar,
The physician said
That the women should have
Eaten the mango, if it was a Prasad.
That would have helped the patient.
The relatives were all
Very angry with the wife.
The women felt embarrassed.
But now the mango worked,
The patient eased himself
And his bloated belly
Became soft and supple.
The patient’s disease left him
And strength returned to him.
The science of medicine
Helps to a certain extent.
But when it fails,
Only the favour of saint
Is of any help.
Laxman came to Shegaon
And prayed to Maharaj
To visit his home.
Maharaj condescended.
He came to Karanja.
Shankar Bhau Pitambar
Accompanied Maharaj.
Laxman said to Maharaj,
"All this is yours."
And yet he offered Maharaj
A few silver coins in a plate.
Maharaj rebuked Laxman.
Said Maharaj unto him,
"You say that all things belong to me.
Then why do you offer me a few coins?
Give up this hypocrisy.
You have give me your home.
Now throw away all locks and keys
Laxman sat silently.
Maharaj insisted that
Laxman would throw open the safe.
With great hesitation,
Laxman opened the safe,
But sat on the pedestal of the room.
Maharaj came to know
Of his hypocrisy.
He left his home.
Maharaj needed no wealth
He just tested how true
Laxman was.
Laxman was not true to his words.
So Maharaj left him.
Maharaj said to himself,
"I had come here to give him
Twice than what he had.
He did not deserve.
Let him reap
The fruits of petty-mindedness."
Maharaj’s words came true.
Within six months
All wealth left Laxman.
He became the poorest of the poor.
So listeners remember this
In lifer spiritual
Hypocrisy is no good.
One should be sincere.
Maharaj caused this incident
Only to show the significance
Of this virtue.
Gajanan Maharaj was a wish yielding gem.
Can a pebble enhance its beauty?
Does anyone use tin
To embellish gold ornaments.
Let this eulogy of Maharaj
Be listened to by devotees
For their own benefit
END OF CHAPTER TEN