(By Shilpa R. Pawaskar) Every year at Gajanan Maharaj Prakat Din I take holiday at my office to do parayan of pothi and visit to Gajanan Maharaj temple for darshan at Kanor village which is a small village near Badlapur. But One year it happened that my boss refused to give me holiday on that day . I was nerves that I could not visit the temple , but suddenly my collegue working with me suggested to go to temple at Ram Maruti Road Thane which was near to my office after the office was closed at 6.00p.m. I thought it will be better to go to that temple and take darshan of baba . so I rush to temple after the office was closed but when I reached there I saw huge crowed and a long queue for darshan .once again I was very disturbe and nervous thinking how I will get darshan and will I reach home in time as I was staying at Badlapur which was very far from my office. I was standing there nervesouly thinking what to do ? suddenly one girl came near me and said not to worry go directly to the main enterence and take darshan of baba not a single volountre will oppose you for breaking a queue .As I was afraid to do so, I told her to come with me .She refused and told me go baba is with you. So I went towards main enterence and what a miracle I experience that all the volunteers who were managing the crowd ,bhakta gan who came for babas darshan gave me way to reach me at gaabhara .One of the voluntre came near me when I took the darshan gave me Prasad of bhakri and pithale along with babas photo and told to eat prasad and not to worry. My eyes were fully of tears that I got darshan and reached home in time while bhakat gans were still in queue waiting for darshan .It was baba only who come to me and spoke to me in the form of girl. (If you have strong will deep from your heart you will really experience baba is with you) Gan Gan Ganat Bote

[By Ram Paranadi (Swamy)] Salutations to Lord Sri Ganesh , Sri Dattatreya , Sri Sripada Sri Vallabha and Sri Gajanan Maharaj When I first came to know about the news of Sri Sri Krishna Joshi, my co- son in law, (my wife Vimal’s eldest sister’s Smt Ushaji’s husband , whom I treat more like my parents) getting the opportunity to make Padukas of Sri Rangavdhoot Maharaj, on 24.09.06 , immediately I also wished that my beloved Guru Sri Gajanan Maharaj must give me an opportunity to make Padukas of any one of the great sacred saints and I expressed this to my dear wife ( Vimal). She said that Ushaji and Krishna Rao Joshi have been great devotees of both Sri Ganeshji and Sri Gajanan Maharaj for the last 20 – 25 years and they got this opportunity just now and we are trying to become the devotees of Sri Gajanan Maharaj may be since last 4 / 5 years only. She meant that we need to wait little more to get the blessings. But I had a strong belief / desire that my guru Gajanan must give me an opportunity sooner than later. It so happened that one Sri Srikant Phadke (Gana Maharaj) was to do the Ganesha Avartana (Reciting of Atharvasirsha) from 10.10.06 to 13.10.06 at Sri Joshi’s house after the Padukas of Sri Rangavdhoot Maharaj are made. I was planning to go on 08.10.06 to Sri Gana Maharaj’s house to ask him about my turn of making the Padukas. And believe me The Great Gajanan Maharaj heard my prayer and prompted Sri Gana Maharaj to prepone his programme at Sri Joshi’s house to 07.10.06 to 10.10.06. so that I can meet Sri Gana Maharaj on 08.10.06 , which was a Sunday , at Sri Joshi’s house itself. I have gone to Sri Joshi’s place and the Ganesha avartan started at about 11 am and I silently prayed my guru Gajanan that Sri Gana Maharaj should tell me to make Padukas of any of the famous saints on that day before he goes home. After some time I went out to one of my friend’s house. Though I could not meet my friend I was fortunate enough to have the Darshan of Lord ‘Dattatreya’s Padukas’ and the Auspicious Tree ‘Audumbur’ at my friend’s house. I returned back to Sri Joshi’s house, sat behind Sri Gana Maharaj and was praying silently to my guru Gajanan to bless me for making Padukas. After the quota of Avartan for the day was over, Gana Maharaj asked for a glass of drinking water and Vimal gave him a glass of water. After drinking the water he said to her as ‘Kalyanamastu’ and asked her as what seva he can do for her. Then he searched for me and repeated the same question to me and I replied that we should get an opportunity to do seva of the Lord. He said that it would be difficult to do whatever seva He asks for. I requested him to say what ever He wished to say and I will definitely do it. And even Smt and Sri Joshi have expressed their confidence in me to Gana Maharj that the assignment given would be completed by me. Again he repeated that it would be difficult. I requested Him to order and He said to me to make the Padukas of Sri Sripada Sri Vallabha The Supreme Saint of Kuravpur. On hearing this both I and Vimal expressed our silent gratitude to our beloved guru Gajanan Maharaj. Gana Maharaj was telling me to think over and then confirm about the same. OH! I have no words and spontaneously I confirmed that the Padukas of Lord Sri Sripada Sri Vallabha of Kuravpur will be made by me. I then told Gana Maharj about what was going on in my mind till then and he too was really surprised. He said that he has been requesting Lord Sri Sripada Srivallabha for so many years but He gave order only to me and that too only at that time. He said that Iam fortunate enough to get this opportunity and I am confident that my guru Gajanan will bless me throughout in this mission. Now, neither our family nor the gentleman through whom infact Sri Gajanan Maharaj had ordered me to make the Padukas, knew where this Kuravpur is and how to reach there. But I was confident that my guru Gajanan will guide me to the place and I will be able to make the Padukas without any problem and in time. Believe me, next day when I was surfing through internet, my guru Gajanan showed me a mail which was posted by a Swami bhakt Mr. Aditya Dhumal of Pune, who visited Kuravpur a few months before. From that I got all the details about where and how to reach Kuravpur. Immediately I spoke to Vimal who was equally enthused on hearing the news and asked for reservations from our travel agent for me and to Vimal’s sister’s son who stays in Bharuch. The train to go to Mumbai was at about 4 am from Baroda on 12.10.06, and I kept alarm in mobile at 02.30 am. I didn’t here the alarm but guru Gajanan woke me up by sending the security to bang at our main gate, and when I woke up with that sound it was 02.34 am. Again when we called the Auto rickshaw fellow he was annoyed and said that he will not come. I was ready to go by scooter to station and I took out the scooter and found that the same Auto Rickshaw was coming to our house. Gajanan Maharaj must have told him to go to us and drop us at station. At station after getting out from auto I was paying the auto fare and both Vimal and Raju got down and walked on to the platform and I also went up to the station platform but suddenly I realized that my bag was left in the rickshaw and luckily the rickshaw was still standing there. See the greatness off my guru Gajanan. To reach Kuravpur from Baroda in Gujarat, we need to reach Raichur in Karnataka via Mumbai. We reached Raichur at 4 am on 13.10.06 and then there is a bus from Raichur to Atkoor at 7.30 am which reaches Atkoor in about 1.15 hr, to the banks of the Sacred River Krishna. We crossed the river with the help of a round shaped boat made of bamboo in about 20 minutes and walked for about 2 Km to reach the Kuravpur Sri Sripada Sri Vallabha temple. Luckily we had the Mobile number of one of the Pujari’s of the temple Sri Manjunath and informed the purpose of our visit in advance so that he is not surprised and here also my guru Gajanan has arranged the pujari who can speak good telugu my mother tongue. The place is virtually an isolated place and ‘am sure 90% of population of Raichur may also not know about this place and its greatness. We had the darshan of Lord Sri Sripada Sri Vallabha’s tapasya sthan which was totally decorated with flowers, the pujari explained the avatar of Lord Sri Dattatreya and his further incarnations and I was surprised to here from him that the Lord Sripada Sri Vallabha first appeared at Pithapuram / Kukkuteswar – Dist East Godavari in Andhra Pradesh which is about 80 Km from my birth place of Narsapuram – West Godavari Dist of Andhra Pradesh.and I never knew this. And my guru Sri Gajanan has arranged to make Padukas of Lord from my Origin. Infact my guru Great Gajanan is also from Andhra only. And in the end the pujari said that no where the original Padukas of Sri Sripada Sri Vallabha are available. He had shown us a pair of Padukas which some time back a devotee had donated to the temple. Though a little disappointed we took the photos of the Padukas and the dimensions and though the pujari was offering us lunch we requested him that our return journey tickets are booked and we took Prasad and the Tea being offered by him and started back to the river bank to come back to Atkoor. Again when we were reaching the banks the same dingy in which we came was about to leave and we got in to it. When we reached the other side of the river the bus to Atkoor also had just come and we reached back to Atkoor by 13.00 hr. Then when we went to Raichur station Raju checked the status of tickets from Mumbai to Baroda and to his surprise, the tickets have been confirmed. THE JOURNEY THROUGHOUT HAS BEEN TROUBLE FREE DUE TO THE GRACE OF SRI GAJANAN MAHARAJ AND SRI SRIPADA SRIVALLABHA.