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Chapter - 7

Shri Ganeshayanamah! Jai to You, Rama, Meghashyama, Sitapati, Dasharathe, You are the refuge to the saints. It was by Your blessings that the monkeys gained strength and defeated Ravana in Lanka. Your blessings always bring victory and fulfilment of all desires. A favourite of the King, howsoever incapable he may be, becomes lovable to the ministers. Am I suitable for such a favour? With this question, O Panduranga, I realise that my condition is most pitiable as I lack real knowledge and devotion. My mind is always unsteady, suspicious and full of desires. With all this, how can I expect to get your favour? Logically it is all right, but O God, even Puranas say that you have got a genuine liking for the Sinners. It is no wonder if you liberate the pious ones. But real greatness lies in saving a sinner. Since there is nobody greater than you in this world, I invoke you to ignore my sins and bless me. O Narayana, accept this Dasganu who has surrendered at your feet and uphold your greatness. Under the leadership of Khanderao Path, all the villagers actively participated in the function at Hanuman temple. These Patil people have an ancient heritage of wealth and landed property. Devotion to saints and sages has been their family tradition and now with the authority as village head, this worshipping is done with greater enthusiasm. Mahadaji Patil had two sons, Kadtaji and Kukaji. Kukaji, the younger was a great devotee of Pandurang of Pandharpur. The family had the blessings of Shri Gomaji Maharaj of Nagzari. Kadtaji Patil had six sons and Kukaji none. After the death of Kadtaji Patil, Kukaji did the bringing up of these six children as his own, and also brought great prosperity to the family. After Kukaji, Khandu Patil became the head of the family. He was a terror to the village and used his authority fearlessly. He had five brothers, Ganpat, Narayan, Maruti, Hari and Krishnaji. In addition to the authority of Patil, wielded by him, he possessed a lot of wealth too. All the brothers were fond of regular exercise, playing swords & sticks. Hari Patil liked wrestling. For name's sake the celebrations were for Lord Hanuman, but in fact everybody was interested in pleasing the Patil. The attitude of the Patil was rude and unreasonable which frequently resulted in quarrels and disputes in Shegaon. He abused everybody and did not spare even the saints. Patil, with his brothers, went to the temple of Lord Hanuman and started jesting at Shri Gajanan Maharaj by making bad puns on his name. One of them even challenged Maharaj to come out for wrestling and prove the greatness bestowed upon Him by the people. The brothers asked Shri Maharaj to prove His greatness, failing to do which ,he should get ready to get beat up at their hands. Shri Maharaj just laughed away their remarks and never got angry. Looking at all this rude behaviour of Patil brothers, Shri Bhaskara said, "Maharaj, let us go to Akoli, away from these insolent boys, corrupted by their strength, money and power". Shri Maharaj replied, "Bhaskara, wait a bit. All these Patil brothers are my great devotees. They lack modesty but see them closely to know their affection for me. They are just like my sons and already have got blessings from the saints. Executive power generally is accompanied by rudeness. How can a tiger behave like a cow? Can fire ever be cold? Sword will be useless if it is soft. After some time this insolence will disappear as muddy water of rainy seasons becomes clear in winter." One day Hari Patil came to the temple and said to Shri Gajanan, "come on wrestle with me and I will defeat you, don't sit quietly chanting "Gan Gan Ganat Bote". All people praise you and I want to test that greatness of yours today. If you defeat me in wrestling, I will give you a prize." Maharaj accepted the challenge and sat down saying, "Come on, if you are really strong, come on pull me up." Hari Patil wrestled and applied all his strength but could not move Shri Maharaj even an inch. He used all his strength and the tricks of wrestling and all his body started perspiring, but could not move Shri Maharaj at all. He realized that though Maharaj appeared thin and frail, His strength was like an immovable mountain and that is why, like an elephant, he ignored all the teasing from others. Hari Patil felt himself like a jackal before an elephant or a barking dog before a tiger. Accepting the defeat he, who never bent before anybody, now decided to surrender and bow before Shri Gajanan Maharaj. Looking to his condition Shri Maharaj said, "Now, defeat me or give me the prize promised by you. Wrestling is the best of all manly sports. Shri Krishna and Balaram played wrestling in their childhood. Mushtik and Chanur, the great wrestlers and bodyguards of Kansa were killed by them. Good health is the best wealth, second is landed property and third is money. Shri Krishna, who was living on the banks of Yamuna, made all the boys of Gokul strong. I want you to do the same and make the boys of Shegaon strong. Shri Maharaj said that this was the only prize he wanted. Hari shrewdly replied that it was possible only with His blessings. Since then Hari started behaving well with Shri Maharaj. Looking at this, his other brothers started questioning such cowardly behaviour of Hari Patil. They said, "We being sons of Patil, the highest authority of the village, should not bow before such a naked man. This mad man is getting unnecessary popularity and we must take immediate steps to stop it in public interest, and if we neglect our duty, people will go astray. It is our duty to caution the people in time. Hypocrites put on the garb of a sage and innocent people are befooled. Gold has to stand acid test to prove genuineness. Incident of sugarcane showed saint Tukaram's control on mind and Dnyaneshwar was accepted as saint only when he made a buffalo speak. As we should not respect anybody without proper test, Shri Gajanan Maharaj too should be put to test." Saying so, they came to the temple with a bundle of sugarcanes. Hari was quiet, but other brothers said to Shri Maharaj, "You fool! If you want to eat these sugarcanes, fulfil our condition. We shall beat you with the sugarcanes and if this beating does not raise marks on your body then only we shall accept you as a yogi." Shri Maharaj smiled and ignored their talk as children's prattle. Maruti said, "He appears to be afraid of sugarcane beating." Ganapati said, "His silence implies acceptance to the beatings." Saying so all the brothers rushed and started beating Shri Maharaj with the sugarcanes. All people in the temple, except Bhaskar, started running away. Bhaskar appealed to them to stop beating Shri Maharaj. He said, "Please do not beat him. You are born in the Patil family and so should be kind to others. If you do not think him to be a great saint, treat him as an innocent man and ignore him. Brave hunters always attack the tigers and never shoot at insects. Hanuman attacked and burnt Ravana's Lanka and not hurt poor people." The boys replied, "People of this village treat him as a great saint, and therefore, we want to test his greatness so you keep away." So saying the boys started beating Shri Maharaj with the sugarcanes like a farmer beating grain bunches for taking out the grains. Shri Maharaj kept smiling and did not reply back. The beating did not raise a single mark on His body. Looking to this fact the boys got afraid and bowed before Shri Maharaj saying that He was a real yogi. Shri Maharaj said, "0 boys, your Hands must be aching by beating me, and so to refresh you I will give you sugarcane juice." Saying so he took sugarcanes one by one and by his hands squeezed the juice from the sugarcanes and gave it to them to drink. Thus Shri Maharaj squeezed juice out of sugarcanes without any machine. The boys were very happy. People said that this was possible due to the yogic strength in Shri Maharaj. By this miracle Shri Maharaj conveyed that if we want to make our nation strong, we must learn yoga. The boys prostrated before Shri Maharaj and went away. They told the whole story to Khandu Patil saying that Shri Gajanan is really a God in Shegaon. He was surprised and started going to Shri Maharaj, but his rough way of speaking with Shri Maharaj did not change. He used to call Shri Maharaj as Ganya or Gajya. This type of addressing a person in a singular fashion occurs in two cases. One when there is intimate love involved as is between a mother and child. Second is when a person speaks to his servants or poor people. Patil is accustomed to speak in a singular manner as all the people in the village are his subject and that was the reason that Khandu Patil called Shri Maharaj as Ganya or Gajya. But in his heart he had great respect and love for Shri Maharaj. It was just like a coconut that has a hard and rough surface externally but inside there is a sweet and tasty fennel. Once Kukaji called Khandu Patil and said, "You always say that Shri Gajanan is a great saint, then why are you dumb before him? You have no child and since I am getting old I very much like to see a grand child to me. You go and request him to bless you with a child; if he is a real saint he will fulfil our desire. Thereupon Khandu Patil went to Lord Maruti temple and said to Shri Maharaj, "O Ganya, my uncle has grown old and desires to see me getting a child. People call you a saint, able to fulfil the desires of his devotees and I wish you prove it by giving a child to me." Maharaj said, "It is good that you have begged for something from me. You have got power and money and you believe in your efforts. Then why are you asking me for this favour? You behave like power or money can give you anything, and then why not get a child by your own efforts? You have got a lot of land, money, mills and shops and nobody disobeys you, then why don't you order Brahma to give you a child? Khandu said, "This is something beyond human efforts. Crops need water for its growth, but bringing rains is not in the hands of human beings. That is why during famines lands lie dry. But once the rains come human efforts prove fruitful. Same is the case with me." At this, Swamiji smiled and said, "You have now begged for a child. Since it is a begging, I bless that you will get a son whom you should name Bhikya. It is not entirely in my hands to give you a child, but I will request the Almighty to fulfil your desire. You will get a son and in return I ask you to feed mango juice to Brahmins every year; as a token of your gratefulness. Khandu accepted it, went home and told this conversation to his uncle. Kukaji was very happy. After some days Swamiji's blessing proved true and Khandu Patil got a son. He was very happy and Kukaji’s happiness knew no bound. Khandu Patil distributed jaggery and wheat to the poor and sweets to the children of Shegaon. The child was rightly named Bhiku who like a moon, went on growing. Khandu Patil, as promised, fed Brahmins with Mango juice and this practice is still continued by his descendants. The child, by the grace of Shri Gajanan Maharaj started crawling in the house of Khandu Patil. Happiness of Patils made Deshmukh people unhappy as Shegaon was a divided village since long. There were two rival groups in Shegaon; one of the Patil's and the other of Deshmukhs. They were always at daggers searching for an opportunity to destroy each other. Two Pundits, two ministers, two fighters, two mechanics and two dogs when face-to-face, always fight. Same was the case with Patil and Deshmukh. After seeing the grand child, Kukaji died at Pandharpur on the bank of river Bhima, and Khandu Patil was sad to have lost his protector. Looking to Khandu Patil's state of mind, Deshmukh exploited the opportunity to put Patil into trouble, the details of which will be narrated in the next chapter. Please listen with an open mind, this Gajanan Vijay, composed by Dasganu. May you be blessed with auspicious things! "SUBHAM BHAVATU" Here ends of Chapter Seven

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