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Chapter - 4Shri Ganeshayanamah! O Almighty! All Powerful God, Nilkantha, Gangadhara, Mahakal Trimbakeshwara, Shri Omkara manifest Yourself to me. You and Vishnu are one and the same as water and aqua. People worship either of Your forms as per their liking. One who sincerely loves You gets Your affection as a child gets from his mother. I am Your innocent child craving for Your love, You are all powerful, a Kalpataru. Kindly fulfil all my desires. Swami Gajanan was staying at the house of Bankatlal when the following incident occurred. On the third of Vaisakh Shudha day, people offer an earthen pitcher full of water to their dead forefathers. In Vidarbha, this day namely Akshaya Tritiya is celebrated on a large scale. On this day, Shri Maharaj was sitting with some boys, probably to reveal some of His super natural power. He told the boys to fill up His pipe with tobacco and light it for smoking. Boys prepared the pipe and started searching for fire. They could not get it. So Bankatlal suggested them to go to Jankiram the Goldsmith to ask him to ignite the pipe for Maharaj, as all goldsmiths first ignite fire in the morning to start off with their business and then attend to other works. The children then went to Jankiram and asked him for an ignited piece of coal for the pipe of Shri Gajanan Maharaj. Jankiram got angry and refused to oblige the children saying that he did not like giving fire to any body on Akshaya Tritiya day. The boys told him not to be superstitious as the fire was required for the pipe of Shri Gajanan, the God of Gods. Jankiram turned down their request and said, "I don't accept Shri Gajanan as a saint. He has no caste, eats from anybody's hand, smokes tobacco and Ganja, remains naked, drinks sewage water and behaves like a mad man. Bankatlal is a fool to go after Him. I will not give fire for His pipe. If He is really a Saint, He should be able to create fire by His super natural powers as was done by Saint Jalander. So get out." The boys, disappointed went back to Bankatlal's house and narrated everything to Shri Maharaj. Shri Gajanan Maharaj smiled and took the pipe in His hand and asked Bankatlal to hold one matchstick, without igniting it, on the pipe. Bankatlal did it and was surprised to see the match stick igniting itself on the pipe. Such were the supernatural powers of Shri Gajanan Maharaj. Now listen to what happened to Jankiram by this incident. Neem leaves have a special significance on the New Year’s Day (Gudi Padwa), so has the tamarind curry on Akshaya Tritiya day. Shri Jankiram had invited many people for lunch on that day and the main dish was tamarind curry. When this curry was served to the people it was seen full of small dirty worms. It created nausea amongst the people gathered to eat and so the people left Jankiram's house without eating any food. The gold smith felt very sorry and it suddenly occurred to him that because of refusing to provide fire for the pipe of Shri Gajanan, all his food was wasted. He thought to himself, "Shri Gajanan is the pure water of Janhavi, the king of Kings and I treated Him like a beggar. He is the knower of the past, the present and the future and I thought Him to be a mad person. A Kalpavriksha was taken by me to be a thorny bush. He is a Chintamani and I thought Him to be splint. I could not understand His divine power. By my ill luck I lost an opportunity of getting the Blessings from a great Saint. I am a mere burden to the earth, an animal walking on two legs." Saying so, he condemned himself again and again. At last he decided to go and surrender at the feet of Shri Maharaj. He took some tamarind curry with him, went to Bankatlal's house and narrated his misfortune to Bankatlal. He said "Bankatlalji look to this curry full of worms. I am completely disgraced as all the invitees for lunch had to go without food. It is all due to my own fault. I refused this morning the fire for the pipe of Shri Maharaj and this is the result." Bankatlal said that the tamarind used by him might be worms infested. Jankiram said, "The tamarind was new and clear. Now all that I want is to prostrate before Shri Gajanan and beg His pardon for my blunder". Jankiram went and falling at the feet of Shri Gajanan said, "0 Maharaj I beg to be pardoned for all my mistakes. You are lord Shiva in Shegaon but I did not recognize You. Now I am free of all doubts, and whatever punishment is given to me today should be enough to improve me. You are the protector of orphans like me, so kindly pardon me." Shri Maharaj replied, "You are telling a lie. Your curry is fine and there are no worms in it". And really the curry was clean and fine. All the worms had disappeared in a moment. The people around, saw the miracle and bowed before Shri Maharaj. Now listen to the story of Chandu Mukin, a devotee of Shri Maharaj. In the month of Jeshta in summer all the devotees were sitting around Shri Maharaj. They were offering Him fruits, sugar balls, garlands, applying sandalwood paste to his body and some of them were cooling air by hand fans. At that time Shri Maharaj said that He did not want mangoes or fruits but two "Kanholes" kept in the earthen pitcher at Chandu’s House. Chandu, with folded hands said that there were no Kanholes at his house, but would get prepared fresh if necessary. Maharaj replied that He did not want fresh Kanholes, but only those stale ones lying in the earthen pitcher at his house. Chandu went home and told his wife what Shri Maharaj had said. His wife said that the "Kanholes" were prepared a month back on Akshaya Tritiya day and all were consumed the same day, and if at all some were left, they must be stale and hard by this time. She however, showed her readiness to prepare fresh "Kanholes" for Shri Maharaj. But Chandu replied that Maharaj wanted only the stale ones and not fresh. He asked her to remember where she kept them since Swamiji couldn’t possibly utter a lie. She paused and tried to remember and in a flash said that what Swamiji had said was correct. She remembered that two Kanholes were really kept by her in the earthen pitcher. She took out the Kanholes and gave them to Chandu, and the wonder was that they had not hardened or dried at all. Looking to it they both were happy. Chandu went back and offered the "Kanholes" to Shri Maharaj. All were surprised at the divine knowledge of Shri Maharaj. Shri Gajanan happily ate the "Kanholes" as fruits offered by Shabari were devoured happily by Shri Ram. At Chincholi, a town near Shegaon, there was a Brahmin by the name of Madhao. He was over sixty years old and was physically very weak. He passed away his youth years in attaining material pleasure only. It is not possible to change one’s fate. Madhao lost all his children and wife and was left alone in this world at an old age. He lost all interest in his life, sold out all his possessions and regretted that while in material pursuits he never remembered Almighty God. Again and again he begged pardon from God and prayed for helping him out of the tragedy of his life. Full of repentance he came to Shri Gajanan and squatted at His doors fasting and chanting the name of God. After one full day of his fasting Shri Gajanan said, "What you are doing is not proper. Why did you not remember God like this before? It is just like calling a doctor after the death of patient or like marrying in an old age after spending one’s youth being a bachelor. Everything should be done in its proper time. Otherwise the action bears no fruits. It is no use digging a well when the house is on fire. The family for whom you toiled in your good days has left you alone. You wasted all your time attaining things that were transient and forgot the One truth which is eternal. As a consequence you have now to bear the results of your actions from which there is no escape. So do not be obstinate. Be reasonable." Other people also tried to persuade him but he ignored all and kept up his fast and the chanting of “Narayan, Narayan”. At mid night when it was pitch dark, and nobody was near about, Shri Gajanan played a trick with Madhao. He changed His human form into a fearful form of Yama, the God of death, and with a big open jaw rushed to Madhao, as if to eat him. Madhao was dumb founded his heart throbbing, he started to run away. Looking at his condition, Shri Maharaj regained His normal self and loudly said, "Is this the boldness that you have got? Remember that you are the food of death, and it will swallow you like this only. What I have shown is an indication of future happening of Yamalok wherefrom you will not be able to run away. Madhao said, "Kindly save me from Yamalok. I do not want this life also. My last request to You is to send me to Vaikunth. You have already shown me the Yamaloka once, so do not send me there again. I am fully aware of my sins and if you wish, it is not difficult for You to free me from them. I am fortunate enough to be at your feet, probably because of some good deeds from the past to my credit. The one who meets a saint during his lifetime cannot go to Yamalok". Shri Maharaj said, “Keep on chanting the name of Narayan, as your death is quite near now. If you still want to live, tell me and I will extend your life span." Madhao said, “I do not want to live any more. This world is all unreal and so kindly don’t let me get involved in its attractions any more.” Upon which, Shri Maharaj said, "TATHASTU - I give you what you want. You will not be reborn on this earth.” Such was the secret conversation between them, for which my words fall short to describe. Madhao lost all the worldly responses and looking at his behaviour, people thought it to be the effect of his fasting. Madhao died at the feet of Shri Gajanan Maharaj and finally escaped the cycle of birth and death. Once Shri Maharaj wished to listen to the Vedic recitation and so asked the devotees to get some learned Brahmins for reciting of Vedas. Devotees said that learned Brahmins able to recite Vedas, were not available there days. Swamiji however, asked them to go ahead with making the necessary preparations saying that the Brahmins would come the next day. The devotees were happy; they started the preparations and collected a sum of a hundred rupees for the purpose. Next day, at noontime, a team of learned Brahmins arrived at Shegaon and they recited the Vedas before Shri Gajanan Maharaj. All of them were given "Dakshina". Then they went away. This shows that Almighty God fulfils all the desires of the saints. Bankatlal, and now his descendants continued this recitation of Vedas on that particular day every year. "SHUBHAM BHA VA TU" Here ends of Chapter Four

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