Salutations to Ganesh!
Glory be to Ganesh,
Who grabs himself in ways infinite,
Who is indestructible,
Who is the lord of the departed
And the lord supreme of the entire universe.
Oh lord, be Ye true to your title
The sancitifier of all sinners.
Oh lord, you love all,
More so, the sinners.
Where will they go
To wash their sins?
The mother earth has given them
The asylum. Is that ther reason
Why you are neglecting them?
You sanctify a sinner
And also a meritorious one.
But you are a free, either from sin or virtue.
Does the sun exert
To destroy darkness?
As the darkness confronts the sun,
It ceases to be darkness.
It is you, oh Narayan,
Who creates desires among men,
Both for good things and for bad things.
Now I pray to relieve me,
This humble Dasaganu from all
The worries of the world.
Oh Pandurang, I know none else
Who will recommend me to vaikuntha?
Oh you listeners,
Be ye all ears now.
This is the last chapter
Which will shine like a
Golden cap on the dome of a temple.
Those who have an implicit faith
At the feet of Gajanan,
Can always surmount
Any difficulty or danger.
Now listen, while the construction of the temple
Was going on
There was a labourer
Who, perching on a high scaffolding
Was handing over a
Huge dressed stone to the mason.
In this act, the labourer
Fell from the height of 30 feet
On the pile of big stone below.
When they saw him fall,
They were sure that he would die instantly.
But the man came down
And bounced like a ball
And he was all unhurt.
When they came near him
And asked him how it happened,
He said, "While I came down,
Someone caught me
And set me on the ground.
I looked for him but could see none.
The men congratulated the man
And said, "Blessed are you
Who has been held in the air and
Saved by Maharaj!"
Once a Rajput woman,
Possessed by a ghost
Came all the way from Jaipur.
While at Jaipur, Dattatreya
Had been in her dream,
And had advised her
To visit Shegaon in order,
To get rid of the ghost.
The woman came accompanied
By her two sons.
There were large crowds
On the Ram Navami day.
The temple was under construction.
There were large stone pillars.
Five feet in height and one and a half in width.
These were placed here and there, but not fixed.
Forced by the crowd,
The woman took shelter
At one of the pillars.
But it toppled down
And the women got under it.
People rushed there
And removed the pillar,
And hurried her to
A lady doctor,Lobo.
The doctor was a devout Christian.
She was a good surgeon also.
She examined the woman
And declared that not a bone of the woman
Was fractured. All were surprised.
But the surprise subsided
When they came to a conclusion
That the fall of the pillar
Was caused by Maharaj just to exorcise the ghost.
The woman then went back to Jaipur
Completely recovered.
On another occasion
One Naiknavare was saved,
Inspite of the fall of a beam
On his head.
One day a gosai called at the doors
Of Ramachandra, the son of Krishnaji Patil.
"I am hungry. Won’t anyone feed me?" said he.
Ramachandra was a God-fearing person.
He came to the door.
As he scanned the gosai
He noticed a sort of resemblance
Of the gosai with Maharaj.
He led the gosai into the house,
Offered him a wooden seat
And worshipped him.
Gosai said to Patil,
"I have specially come today
To tell you something.
Do not worry about the debt.
You will soon clear it off.
Have not you seen that
Even the Godavari goes dry at times
In hot summer?
If the Almighty God
Showers His grace,
You will be soon an affluent person.
Wherever will fall
The crumbs of my bread,
The place will be holy and will
Prosper hereafter.
So go and bring me a plate
Of food, fresh and rich,
And throw a mantle
On my worm up body.
Whatever you give to the poor and the needy
Reaches Narayan."
Ramachandra served the gosai a hot dinner.
And when the gosai had his meal
Patil offered him five rupees.
The gosai refused to take the money
And said, "I do not want this as daxina.
I want to give me something else.
I want your service as the manager of the math.
That will be my daxina and I shall be pleased.
I do not know if anyone else
Will do this job better.
You give me this daxina.
And see that your wife
Will regain her health.
Come, call your son,
I have brought a talisman
For him. You are a Patil.
And hard is your job.
There are many who would be your enemies
But do not swerve from the right path,
And do not harbour hatred.
Discriminate between a sadhu
And a hypocrite and never follow the latter.
If you abide by these instructions,
The Lord Shrinivas will be pleased.
Keep your expenses within your means
And do not show off.
Never shut the door for a sadhu.
If a real saint is dishonored,
Gods gets annoyed with you.
Therefore, love the saints and the virtuous.
Never insult saints
As God is displeased thereby.
Keep good relations
With your relatives.
If one must get angry
The anger Should not be deep-rooted.
One should always be loving
One should be like a jack-fruit,
Which has spikes without
But sweetness within."
The gosai tied the talisman
And left the place,
And vanished in the wilderness outside.
Ramachandra Patil was not sure
As to who the gosai was.
A dream that night
Cleared his doubt.
Gajanan Maharaj
Is all the love to his devotees.
The samadhi was constructed
Out of the funds subscribed
By all the devotees.
Rooms for the pilgrims were also constructed.
The main contributors were,
Hari Patil,son of Kukaji,
Banaji of Sangvi,
Ganaji of Umari,
Mesaji of Batwadi,
Gangaram of Ladegaon
Bhagu, Nandu and Gujabai,
Banabai of Akola mother of Sukhdeo Patil.
All these gave thousands of rupees
In donation for the construction work.
Ramachandra Krishnaji Patil,
Dattu Bhikaji,
Sukhdeoji of Palaskhed
Martand Ganpati of Shegaon,
Ratanlal Walchand,
Dattulal of Panchgavan,
Bisanlal from the same place,
Ambarsing of Takli,
Kisan of Belmandal,
Vithoba Patil of Chawra,
Gangaram of Hansapur,
All these men were donors
Who donated large sums of money
For the samadhi and other
Constructions in the premises.
Farmers voluntarily offered
A devotees’s tax of one anna
Per rupee of land revenue.
Similarly, half an anna
Used to be contributed by farmers
Whenever they brought
Cart-loads of grain or cotton
In the market.
Once Kisanlal performed
A shatachandi anushtan.
At the closing day of the anusthan
Bankatlal father of Kisanlal
Was seriously ill.
Kisanlal and others
Were afraid, but Bakatlal was not.
He assured his son
That nothing untoward would happen
Until the last oblations
Were given to the fire-god.
Shortly, afterwords Bankatlal was hale and hearty.
Banaji Tidke of Sangavi
And Gujabai of Kasura,
Waman, son of Shamrao of Chapadgaon,
All these persons
Peformed sacrifices before the samadhi.
As long as people of this land
Had a faith in Maharaj,
There was prosperity everywhere.
Therefore, have faith in Maharaj
And live by him.
Whatever good you will sow
You will reap thousandfold.
You cannot sow seeds on rocks.
The faith in religion and ethics
Is verily a tigress dwelling in the mind.
If the tigress vacates the den,
It will be occupied by
Wolves of bad desires.
One should visit the samadhi
At least once in a year.
One should read the Gajanan Vijay.
At least once in a while.
These twenty one chapters
Are like modaks for Gajanan
Or, they are like durvas
So much loved by Gajanan.
This is not a fantasy,
It is truly the life story of Gajanan.
The verses of Dasaganu
Are verily the ripples
On the wide bosom of the Ganga.
Or this life of Swami Gajanan
Is verily the wish fulfilling tree
And the 21chapters are its branches
And the verses are the foliage.
Swami Gajanan will always
Save one, who has a deep faith
In this book of his life.
Laxmi will stay on
Where this book will be read.
One who would be read this book
During the auspicious hours
When Guru and Pushya unite
Will get all his desires thoroughly fulfilled.
Whatever this book will be placed,
The place will be holy
And ghosts and sprits
Will not frequent it.
The wicked won’t realize this
For the Manas Lake is
For the Himalayan swans
And not for dirty ducklings.
Jnyaneshwar, Mira, Mehta,
Kabir, Nama and Swata,
Chokha, Gora, Bodhala
And Damaji
Ainath is Umbarkhed
And Sakharam in Amalner,
Deo, the tahasildar
And Manik Prabhu of Humnabad.
These were the saints in the past
So, Gajanan was a great Saint of Vidarbha.
So I beseech you all
To fasten your devotion
At the feet of Gajanan Maharaj.
Oh, Lord,
Have mercy on Dasaganu!
May his heart
Become pure and let him
Love the saints at all times.
Let this humble Dasaganu
Visit the sacred places
And let him constantly reside
On the banks of the Goda
Dasaganu has written
This Gajanan Vijay
With the help of papers
Made available to him
By Ratansa.
If he as omitted anything,
Let Gajanan forgive him.
Dasaganu, with the grace of Swami Gajanan
Completed this work
At shegaon, on the first day
Of the bright fortnight of Chaitra
Of Saka 1861the name of the
Year was Pramathi.
Let this book be a boat
For all the devotees
And let them all reach
At the other end of
This ocean of sansar !
Let there be everything beautiful
And auspicious –
I dedicate this to Hari and Hara.
OM TAT SAT
END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE