Salutations to Ganesh !
Victory be to the luminescent self!
Oh Govind, Oh Shrinivas,
Oh, Paresh, the essence of joy,
Protect me, oh you, the brother of the afflicted.
Oh, Keshava, the crusher of Keshi,
Oh, Madhava, Madhusudana,
Oh, the one who sucked away
The life from Putana.
Oh, Panduranga, the master of Rukmini,
Oh, Chakrapani, you know
What I desire.Oh Padmanabh
Why do you want me to be vocal?
It is laid down in the puranas
That whatever a devotee desires,
God fulfils,
Oh Pandharinath, be soft towards me.
Fulfil all my desires.
This humble Dasaganu
Is your slave.
A devotee by name Bayaja
Stayed in Mundagaon.
She belonged to the gardener caste.
She used to grow turmeric in her garden.
Her father’s name was Shivaram
And her mother was Bhulabai.
Bayaja was married while she was
Yet a child. When she came of age,
Her father reached her to her husband.
But it transpired
That the husband was impotent.
Bayaja’s mother wept bitterly.
She told her husband Shivaram
To dissolve the marriage
And seek another match for Bayaja’s.
Shivaram was, however,hopeful.
He thought that medicine
Would cure the husband
And that he would regain his virility.
So he asked Bayaja to stay on
With her in-laws.
Bayaja was young and beautiful.
Her brother-in-low coveted her.
He tried to persuade Bayaja
To yield to him.
Bayaja refused.
She prayed to God,
And tried to merge herself
In the holy worship.
One day the brother-in-law
Entered into Bayaja’s room
And express his evil motive.
Bayaja told him
That elder brother-in-law
Is almost in the position of a father.
When the brother-in-law
Was going to lay his hand
On Bayaja, his elder son
Fell from the first floor,
And got a sharp bleeding wound
On his head. There was a loud noise.
The brother-in-law left the place
In haste, and Bayaja was saved.
The brother-in-law repented.
later, Shivaram took away
Bayaja from her husband’s place.
Bhulabai persuaded Shivaram
To accompany her to Shegaon,
So that she would narrate her woes
To Maharaj and place her daughter
At his feet.
They came to Shegaon
And Bhulabai laid her daughter
On the feet of Maharaj
And prayed that Bayaja should have children.
Maharaj smiled and said,
"She is not destined to have children,
All men are her children.
Do not take troubles of
Remarrying her."
Shivaram was sorry to hear this
And so was Bhulabai.
But Bayaja was happy
And she became an ardent
Disciple of Maharaj since then.
She used to visit Shegaon
Accompanied by Pundalik from Mundgaon.
Her parents were happy.
They thought that Maharaj
Would make her husband potent.
But others in the village scandalized
Bayaja and Pundalik.
They all then came to Maharaj
And Maharaj told them
That Pundalik was Bayaja’s brother
In their last birth.
And that they were continue
To remain so through this life.
Parents were assured
About the purity and chastity
Of their daughter.
There was one medical officer
By name Bhau Rajaram Kavar.
He was stationed at Khamgaon.
Once he suffered from a boil.
Doctors and specialists were consulted.
Surgeons from Buldhana, Akola and Amravati
Were consulted.
Medicines, poultices were resorted to.
The boil was surgically opened
And yet the wound did not heal.
Bhau’s elder brother was worried.
He could not see the younger brother
Suffer so much pain.
Bhau at last surrendered completely
To Maharaj and supplicated to him.
The night advanced
And at about 1.00 a.m.
A well decorated bullock-cart
Led by a pair of Khillari bullocks
Came there with gingling bells.
Doctor was watching the canopied bullock-cart
From his sick bed.
A Brahmin got down from the cart
And knocked at the door.
Doctor’s brother opened the door
And enquired the Brahmin as to
From where he came.
The Brahmin said, "I am Gaja.
I have come from Shegaon
With the holy water and ashes.
Please apply these ashes
To the boil
And let the patient swallow the holy water."
He gave both the things to the brother of the doctor
And hastened back to the cart
And went away.
The brother applied the ashes to the boil
And made the doctor drink the tirtha.
The boil oozed profusely.
And after about a couple of hours
The doctor slept well.
The elder brother sent for the Brahmin.
But he could not be traced.
None had seen the canopied bullock-cart.
The doctor recovered from the illness
And then went to Shegaon
To see Maharaj.
To him Maharaj said,
"Oh, you did not even give
A bit of grass to my pair of bullocks,
The doctor understood
The significance of this remark,
And was overwhelmed with a feeling of gratitude.
It was verily Maharaj
Who had come there
To rescue his dear devotee
From the deadly disease.
Kavar, thereafter, distributed
Food to the poor to express joy of his recovery.
Once Maharaj thought of
Visiting Pandharpur to see Viththal.
Jagu Aba, Hari Patil and
Bapuna, all these left Shegaon
And came to Nagzari along with Maharaj.
At Nagzari, there is one tunnel
In the open land where
Gomaji Maharaj once lived.
He took samadhi over there.
Gomaji, was the guru of Maharaj Patil.
It was he who first blessed
The line of Patils of Shegaon.
So it is customary to bow before
Gomaji and then proceed to
Any other place of Pilgrimage.
So, all of them boarded the train
After visiting Nagzari, and
Proceeded to Phandharpur.
Maharaj was with Hari Patil
And there were about fifty of them,
Headed by Bapuna Kale and others.
It was the ninth day
Of the bright fortnight of Ashadh.
The pilgrims were pouring into Pandharpur.
Showers used to drench the pilgrims.
It was as if the ocean of humanity
Surged in that holy land of Pandharpur.
The palanquins of the sages
Nivrittinath, Jnyaneshwar,
Sawata Mali and Gora Kumbhar,
Tukaram and Sopan, Mukta,
And Janardan Swami
All thronged on the streets of Pandharpur.
The air was rent fragrant
With bukka and flowers of tulsi,
Maharaj made himself comfortable
In a bungalow belonging to Kukaji Patil.
The temple was Viththal was overcrowded.
All the piligrims from Shegaon
Except Bapuna, went to the temple.
Bapuna had been to the river for a bath
And was left back.
When he learnt that everyone
Had gone to the temple,
He hurried there, but could not enter
The temple as there were large crowds
On the way.
Bapuna was feeling forlorn,
He prayed to Viththal,
"Oh Viththal, you had given darshan
To Sawata, by leaving your temple
And going to Aran which was eight kosa away,
I am so near your temple
And yet I cannot have your darshan."
In the evening Bapuna returned
Tired and disappointed.
The others who had returned
After darshan scoffed to him
And said that Bapuna was a fool,
That Bapuna lacked devotion.
They derided Bapuna,
Saying that he was a vedantin
And therefore, was seeing Lord
In everyone.
Bapuna was thus jeered at
By all his companions.
Maharaj was looking at Bapuna
With immense love.
He then said to Bapuna,
"Look, I shall show you Pandurang."
Maharaj stood up, fixed up his legs
In the equated posture.
Bapuna looked at Maharaj
And verily he saw Pandurang.
He fell prostrate before Maharaj
And the next moment when he looked up
Maharaj was his original self.
When others heard of this,
They insisted that Maharaj
Should give them darshan.
Maharaj said upto them,
"Be first pure and simple
Like Bapuna, then alone
You will see me in the
Form of Pandurang."
All the piligrims from Shegaon
Returned. Bapuna was after some time
Blessed with a child.
He named him after Namadeo
As he was born after Bapuna’s visit to Pandharpur.
One Pilgrim from Vidarbha
Hailing from Kavatha Bahadur
Lodged in the bungalow of Kukaju Patil.
They insisted that Maharaj
On the twelfth day of Ashadh
Cholera broke out in Pandharpur.
Police forcibly entered every house, drove the pilgrims
Beyond Chandrabhaga.
The pilgrim from Kavathe Bahadur
Had an attack of cholear.
He was week and his pulse was languid
And he had no strength to hold himself up.
Nobody cared for him,
And nobody informed the police
For fear of being driven away.
They started for Shegaon,
Leaving the pilgrim to his fate.
Maharaj looked at the pilgrim
And asked others to carry him with them.
They refused as he was suffering from cholera.
They told Maharaj, if their group
Would catch the infection, they would be no more.
Maharaj said, "it is not good
To leave our brother
In such a predicament."
So saying, Maharaj went near him
And lifted him up and asked
Him to return home.
The pilgrim said that his end was near
And that he would not now return home.
Maharaj gave him hope and placed his hand
On his head, and lo, the purging stopped,
Strength returned to his feet,
He stood up on his legs
And accompanied the party home.
How can the god of death
Prevail upon a person blessed by a saint?
All of them thus crossed Chandraghaga
And came to the railway station-Kurduwadi.
Once a Brahmin came to Shegaon,
Hearing about Maharaj
He was an observer of ritualistic purity
And he belonged to the sect of Madhvas.
He was surprised to see
That Maharaj and others near him
Did not observe ritualistic purity.
He was surprised to find a dead dog
On the doorsteps of the math.
The Brahmin thought to himself,
"How is it that these men are not
Removing the dead dog?
These are all ugly and dirty men,
In vain have I come here !
As he was musing thus
Maharaj came towards him
And told him not to bear any doubt
And that the dog was not dead.
The Brahmin said that he was not
As mad as the one with whom he was talking.
But Maharaj bade the Brahmin
To follow him so that a pitcher of water
Would be brought.
They returned to the dog
And Maharaj touched the dog
And sprinkled some water over it.
And lo ! the dog wagged its tail
And sat up !
The Brahmin’s surprise knew to bounds,
He now lay prostrate before Maharaj
And praised him for his purity
In thought and deed.
The Brahmin offered a puja
In the math and returned home
With the knowledge
That Maharaj was the messenger of God.
Let this Gajanan Vijay
Show the path of devotion
To the devotees !
END OF CHAPTER EIGHTEEN