Salutations to Ganesh !
Oh, Shridhar, the bestower
Of boons on sages,
Oh, the ocean of mercy,
Oh, the dear one of gopas and gopis.
Oh, Hari, dark as a tamalpatra!
When Brahma wanted to test Your divinity
By carrying away cows and calves
On the banks of the Yamuna,
You revealed Yourself to Brahma
By becoming cows and calves.
You trampled upon Kaliya
And sent to him to Ramanika island
To make the gopas fearless.
In the same way,
You should now trample upon my misfortune
And make me fearless.
I am your ignorant devotee,
Though I do not deserve your favour,
You just do not forget me.
Cast your divine glance at me
And free me from all the worries.
Listen, Oh, you listeners
Bankat, Hari and Laxman,
Vithu and Jagdeo, all went from door to door
To collect funds.
Those who had faith in Maharaj
Promptly paid, but others
Derided them and said,
"Why should Maharaj need money?
Can he not creat it if he has
Supernatural powers? You say t
That Kubera is his cashier,
Why not them cash a bill on
Kubera’s treasury?
Why beg from door to door?"
Jagdeo, among the devotees, s
Simply smiled and replied
To such stingy fellows,
"We are begging for your benefits.
Swami Gajanan does not need a math,
All the three worlds are his abode,
All the forests are his gardens,
And the entire earth in his bedstead.
Ashta siddhis are at his beck and call,
Why should he care for your rupee?
Can any one think of showing a lamp to the Sun
He is effulgent,
He needs no light.
Every one desires prosperity,
A meritorious act ensures this prosperity.
Mind you, a medicine is needed
To cure a disease,
It has no power over life.
A disease may seize the body,
But life is eternal,
Life has no birth and no death.
So one must obtain merit
To maintain one’s prosperity,
So earn merit and drive away petty thoughts.
If you will sow good deeds,
They will return to you thousand-fold.
If you sow a seed on a rock,
it won’t germinate properly and sprout.
Bad deeds and bad thoughts
Are the rocks and seed thrown there
Rots and is eaten away by worms.
There is no good act
Equal to that of the service to a saint.
Gajanan Maharaj is the
Prince among saints.
Anything given in the service of a saint
Will grow infinitely.
If you will sow a grain,
It will be returned to you thousand-fold
The same thing holds good
In respect of good deeds."
With this reply,
The questioners were set at rest.
The men who collected funds
Were known for their integrity.
So on the land,
Given by the collector,
The work commenced.
Stones were carried.
And mortar was made.
Maharaj was in the old math
One day he thought
The work was going slowly.
Why not he stay on the site?
So he jumped into a cart
Carrying sand for the mortar.
The person who was driving the cart
Was a low cast mahar. He jumped
Below and told Maharaj that he won’t
Sit in the cart along with Maharaj
Said he, "it is true that Maruti
At last merged in Ram,
Yet he never sat near Ram,
Like a servant he stood before Ram
With folded hands all the time."
Maharaj could not persuade him to sit.
Maharaj asked the bullocks
To follow the man
And the bullocks did follow.
Maharaj got down from the cart
And sat in the center of the ground
where the work was going on.
The spot is in survey no. 700
And in sub divisions 43 and 45.
Although the collector
Had allotted only an acre,
They had to utilise mord land
To keep the place, where Maharaj sat,
In the center.
This meant an encroachment of
Eleven gunthas.
One evil person reported this
To the collector,
Who sent one Joshi
For investigation.
Hari Patil was embarrassed
He told so to Maharaj.
Maharaj smiled and asked him
Not to worry.
There would be no fine.
Shri Joshi did report
That the fine was not justified.
So the order of fine was withdrawn
And Hari Patil was overjoyed
To see that Maharaj’s words came true.
This was the second occasion
When Maharaj stood by Hari Patil.
There is one village by name Savadad
A gosai by name Ganga Bharati lived there.
He was a leper
And the disease had almost eaten him up.
His feet had many sores
And all his limbs were rotten.
Ganga Bharati was desperate,
But he heard about Maharaj
And came to him for a cure.
Men did not allow gosai
Near Maharaj. They advised
Him to get a glimpse of Maharaj
From a distance.
One day Ganga Bharati
Made himself bold
And approached Maharaj surreptitiously.
He placed his forehead
on Maharaj’s feet.
Maharaj struck him on his forehead,
He at once stood up,
And Maharaj struck hard
On both his cheeks,
Maharaj then kicked him
And spat phlegm on him.
The leper took the phlegm
As Prasad and besmeared it
On his whole body
Like a soothing ointment.
A person who was standing there
Had no faith in Maharaj.
Said he to the Gosai,
"Your body is already rotting
And this fellow has spat phlegm
On it. Now, go and wash it clean.
With soap and water.
It is really strange
That people regard such fools
As great saints. Such persons
Are the real cause of the downfall
Of our society.
Why should you come to this
Mad man, instead of going to a physician?"
Gosai, smiled and said,
"Maharaj is a saint and
How will a piece of musk
Smell foul? Impurity can’t touch
A saintly man. Even his phlegm
Smells like musk. Come on
Just smell this wonderful fragrance
You do not know his greatness,
That is why you say so.
If you want to verify what I say,
Follow me. Let us go and smell
The wet clay where Maharaj takes his bath."
Both went where Maharaj used to bathe.
The gosai took the clay
In his hand and it smelt like a flower,
The other person took it
And it smelt foul.
The disbeliever was converted,
He came and fell prostrate before Maharaj.
The gosai used to sit away
From the public at the time of holy singing.
He had a deep resonant voice
And he knew a bit of classical music
He sang devotional songs
Before Maharaj for fifteen days.
A change came over his withered body,
The ugly redness disappeared,
The cracked feet were cured.
The body ceased to smell foul,
He was completely cured.
Ganga Bharati had a wife and a son.
They heard that he was cured.
They came to Shegaon.
The wife requested the husband
To return home,
The son also said the same.
They said that Maharaj was verily,
Shankar, the moon crested God.
He would surely allow him
To return home.
Ganga Bharati said,
"Maharaj is my mother,
He slapped me and I knew
He was right. I had donned
Gerua clothes and had applied
Ashes all over my body
But I still craved for a life
Of a householder.
Maharaj beat me and I
Came to my senses,
My eyes opened.
Oh my boy, Santoshkumar,
Take your mother home
And serve her well.
Those who please their parents
Are dearer to God.
Remember Pundalika
Who served his parents
And threw a brick at Vithoba to sit upon.
If I return home,
My disease will seize me again,
So please do not compel
Me to return. I belonged to you
So far, now I belong to God,
Let me live here with Maharaj.
With his grace,
I may be free from the cycle
Of births and deaths.
Do not tempt me now
And spoil my eternal gain."
Ganga Bharati asked his wife and son
To return to Savadad,
And he stayed with Maharaj
Every day in the evening
He used to take ektara
And sing the devotional songs
Near Maharaj in his sweet deep voice.
After a few days, at the behest
Of the Master, he left Shegaon
And stayed in Malakapur.
Once in the month of Pausha
Zyamsing came to Shegaon
And requested Maharaj to come to his home.
Long ago he had been to Shegaon
To take Maharaj to his newphew’s place at Adgaon.
Maharaj did not go then,
But agreed to go later.
He, therefore, recalled that incident
And entreated Maharaj to come now
To Mundgaon, where he was staying.
Maharaj therefore, accompanied him
To Mundagaon and a number of people
Assembled there to have darshan of Maharaj.
Zyamsing had thrown a big feast,
Bhandara as it is called.
Mundgaon resembled Paithan
On the banks of the Godavari.
Eknath was the saint at Paithan,
Maharaj was a saint here in Mundgaon.
Many bhajan parties came to Mundgaon,
Singing all the way,
Cooks commenced cooking.
When the cooking was half over,
Maharaj said to Zyamsing,
"Today is the 14th lunar day,
Let them fast today and
Have a feast on the full moon day."
Zyamsing said, "The cooking is half over.
Every one is eager to have your Prasad."
Maharaj said, "What you say
Is right from a worldly view,
But god wills otherwise.
You men of the world
Always insit on your own say.
But mind you, this won’t do."
When all men sat to dine,
Clouds gathered in the sky
And it thundered and
A strong gale began to blow.
It began to rain cats and dogs
And there was water everywhere,
All the cooked food was spoiled in the rains.
Then Zyamsing came to Maharaj
And prayed to him, lest there should be
Rain and storm the next day.
He solicited Maharaj to ward off
The rains next day as the rains
would have spoiled the standing crops.
People would say that Zyamsing
Got the merit for giving bhandara,
But we are lost, our crops are destroyed,
With the untimely heavy rains.
Maharaj heard his prayers
And said , "There were will be no rain tommrrow."
So saying, he looked
At the sky and the clouds
Began to disperse and the
Sky was clear and
The Sun shone brightly on the land below.
The next day was the full moon day,
And everyone had mahaprasad.
The practice of bhandara continues to this day.
Zyamsing then donated all his property
To Maharaj. A number of men
Became devotees in Mundgaon.
There was one young boy
By name Pundalik Bhokre.
He was the son of one Ukrida.
Ukirda means a dung-hill.
It is a practice in Vidarbha
That, if children of a couple
Die, even while they are infants,
They offer a child to God,
And give it an obnoxious name.
In Telanghana they name a child
Pentayya. In Maharashtra
They name one as Kerpunja.
In Vidarbha they name one ha Ukirda.
Pundalik used to visit Shegaon
To see Maharaj every year.
Even as other warkaris
Visit Dehu and Alandi on the bank of Indrayani
There was an outbreak of Plague.
The disease spread here in India,
Wiped out larged populous towns,
When this disease attacks one,
One feels feverish and the fever
Rises sharply, and one gets
A swelling on the joints, Particularly
In the arm pit.
During this epidemic
People leave their houses
And go to live in huts in the open fields
Outside the town or village.
So Mundgaon was in the grip of this epidemic,
Pundalik was feeling feverish,
But he had to go to Shegaon for the annual visit.
So, he sat on with Parents for the journey,
They were about ten miles from their home,
When Pundalik’s fever became severe.
The swollen boil in the arm pit
Gave him unbearable pain
Pundalik told his father
That the boil in arm pit was very painful,
That he was feeling very weak,
And he was unable to walk further.
Father asked Pundalik
Whether he should hire a pony
Or a cart to carry him.
But pundalik refused to sit
On a pony or in a cart,
"The pilgrim must march on foot,"
Said he, "If I die on the way,
Carry my body to Shegaon
And then cremate."
So with great difficulty,
Both father and son
Walked the remaining distance
And reached Shegaon
And stood in the presence of Maharaj.
Both, father and son, fell prostrate.
Maharaj lifted up Pundalik with love
And putting his thumb on the swelling
In his arm pit, pressed it hard.
The swelling subsided
And the fever disappeared,
But the weakness persisted
And his body trembled.
Pundalik’s Mother offered food to Maharaj,
Maharaj ate a morsel or two
And Pundalik ceased to tremble.
In a day or two Pundalik was
As healthy as before.
Guru is really a wish-yielding cow,
Faith in guru always helps one
in overcoming obstacles and difficulties
Howsoever big they may be.
This is not a concocted story.
Here are the experiences of humble souls
Faithfully recounted by Dasaganu.
One who will read this book
Will surmount all difficulties
Coming in one’s way in this life.
Here ends the 13th chapter of Gajanan Vijay,
May the reading benefit the devotees."
END OF CHAPTER THIRTEEN