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Chapter - 8

Shri Ganeshayanamah! O! Son of Vasudeo & Devaki, O! Beloved one of Gopa & Gopis, O Killer of demons, Bless me Shri Hari. Devotion and penance is required to get your favour, but I am not able to attain any of these. I do in ancient language not know all your gospels; I am also dull and so cannot study that language. Tell me how can a frog get honey of lotus? If I try to get your favour by feeding people, that too is not possible due to the poverty bestowed upon me by you. Getting your blessings by visiting holy shrines and places is also not possible due to poor health & fading eyesight. Thus I am helpless all-round. It is seen that hopes of poor are never fulfilled. Apparently it is true but, if you wish, your blessings can enable me to attain all the bliss. Specialty of your blessings is that it does not require money to obtain. When clouds pour water, all the rivers and lakes get filled with it. I am hungry of such blessings from you. Please give me at least a morsel of it and make me happy. A drop of nectar can remove all the diseases. Let it be as it is. In the previous chapter we have seen that Patil and Deshmukh were divided. Whenever there is such division, it destroys all happiness. Tuberculosis to the body and division in the society entail death and all attempts prove futile. On the bank of the lake one Mahar was arguing with Khandu Patil regarding some work given to him by Patil who is the highest authority in the village. That Marya Mahar had the support of the Deshmukh’s clan. Patil told him to do some work but he refused to do it expressing himself in a very rough language. Patil asked him to behave himself reminding him that he was addressing the head of the village and admonished Marya thereby. Marya did not obey the Patil and instead ridiculed the Patil. The cause of the argument was the fact that Patil wanted to send some important dak to Akola Police Station and asked Marya to carry it, while Marya blatantly refused to go saying that he was subordinate to Deshmukh only. He made some nasty gesticulations at Patil, which infuriated him. In the fury, Patil gave a forceful blow of a stick on Marya's hand, which resulted in a fracture to Marya's hand, making him unconscious. Patil sent the dak with some other man. Relatives of Marya took him to Deshmukh, who grabbed this opportunity to corner and trouble Khandu Patil. Deshmukh took Marya to the police station and reported the matter to the officer. Whenever there is conflicting groups in the society, even the small things are magnified by the individual groups to denounce each other. The Officer registered the complaint and issued orders to arrest Khandu Patil. The news spread like wildfire in Shegaon and Patil naturally got frightened and worried over the impending danger. He prayed Almighty God to save him from the humiliation of an arrest. For a man of dignity, insult is worse than death. All his brothers were worried as well and felt helpless. Then it suddenly occurred to Khandu Patil that he better surrender himself to Shri Gajanan Maharaj and seeks his help as none else could be able to save him from this calamity. His brothers went to Akola for legal and personal efforts. Khandu Patil went straight to Shri Maharaj at night. He prostrated before Shri Maharaj and narrated the whole episode. He said, "I gave a beating to one Mahar as he refused to do a Government work and that matter is being used by Deshmukh people to put me in trouble. They are arranging to get me arrested and there is nobody to save me except you. Tomorrow policemen will come to arrest me. Please kill me before that. I am a man of dignity and soul and insult of arrest is as good as death to me. I do accept my mistake, but that is being exaggerated out of proportion. Please save me from this contempt. Arjuna was prepared to burn himself to save his dignity in the episode of Jaydratha. God saved him and protected his honour. God also saved the honour and respect of Draupadi by covering her by Saris one after another. Similarly my self respect, like Draupadi's is being stripped off by these Deshmukh Kaurawas." Saying so Patil wept bitterly. All his brothers were very much worried over the impending humiliation to the family. Shri Maharaj took Khandu Patil in his embrace to pacify him and said -"A man with responsibilities has got to face such situation frequently, and so should not mind it. Such things are the outcome of selfishness, and a total lack of pious thinking. Both of you, Patil and Deshmukh belong to the same caste, but due to selfishness, are trying to destroy each other. In the past the enmity between Kaurawas and Pandawas was also the result of selfishness only. But as Pandawas were legally right, they received God’s blessings for the upkeep of truth. Consequently the Kaurawas were killed. So don't be afraid. All of Deshmukh’s efforts to arrest you will fail." This prediction made by Shree Gajanan Maharaj came true. Patil was declared innocent by the court of law. The words uttered by true saints can never be futile. After this incident, the Patil brothers became more devoted to Shri Maharaj. Who will not like to drink nectar? After some days, Khandu Patil requested and affectionately took Maharaj to stay at his house. While Maharaj lived at the house of Khandu Patil, there came some Telangi Brahmins. These Telangi Brahmins are known to be quite orthodox, learned and in charge of the authority of Vedic knowledge, but their biggest drawback is that they are somewhat greedy for money. They came to Shri Maharaj with the hope of getting some money from Him. When they came, Shri Maharaj was sleeping. The Brahmins started reciting Vedic hymns loudly to awaken Shri Maharaj. There was some mistake in their recitation, but they did not correct it, so Shri Maharaj got up and said to them, "Why have you become Vedic? You are lowering the greatness of Vedas unnecessarily. This knowledge is not for the purpose of running a business but for the salvation 0f human beings. At least show some respect to the saffron head-dress, which indicates that you are a Vedic. I will now recite the hymns and you repeat the same as I pronounce. Do not misguide innocent poor believers." Saying so Shri Maharaj recited the same chapter of Vedas, this was being recited by these Brahmins incorrectly. His pronunciation was clear, loud and there was not a single mistake in His recitation. It appeared as if Vashistha himself was reciting the holy Vedas. The Brahmins were astonished and felt embarrassed to even lift their faces. The analogy can be compared to a lit candle fantasizing that it has better capacity to spread light around itself than the sun itself. The Brahmins first thought that Shri Maharaj was a mad person, but now found Him to be a learned saint. They were convinced that all the four Vedas were on the tip of His tongue. They took Shri Maharaja to be a God incarnate and a Brahmin by caste - a yogi free of any bondage or attachment, and because of their good deeds of previous life, they believed they were fortunate enough to get the "Darshan" of such a Godly saint. Shri Maharaja asked Khandu Patil to give them a rupee each as "Dakshina". The Brahmins accepted this dakshina and happily went away. Shri Maharaj, like a true saint disliked the attachment of Shegaon’s locals. In the northern region of Shegaon there was a garden where vegetables were grown in abundance. Under the cool dark shade of a neem tree, there was a temple of Lord Shiva in the Garden. Krishnaji Patil owned the temple. Shri Maharaj went there and sat on a platform under a tree near the Shiva temple and said to Krishnaji, "I have come to your garden to stay here for a few days near Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva is the God of all Gods and since He liked to stay in your garden, I too wish to be near Him. So erect a small shade for me here." Krishnaji thereupon erected a tin shade on the platform. The Garden became a holy place due to the presence of Shri Maharaj there. This is so because a place of the king's stay becomes the capital of the Kingdom. Bhasker & Tukaram Kokatya - stayed with Shri Maharaj to render Him necessary service. Krishnaji used to attend personally to His food and personally ate only after Shri Maharaj had taken His meals. While Maharaj lived thus in Krishnaji’s garden, some 15 to 20 ascetics who had already heard about Shri Gajanan Maharaj arrived there. They told Krishnaji Patil that they were on a pilgrimage and were on their way to Rameshwar, carried the holy water of Ganga with them. They also said that they were the disciples of Shri Brahmagiri Maharaj, who was also with them, and with him they had visited on foot the holy places like Gangotri, Jamnotri, Hingla and Girnar and Dakur. They further said, "Our Brahmagiri, who enslaved God Himself, has come to you probably due to the good deeds of your past life. So feed us "Shira Puri" and also give us some Ganja to smoke. We shall stay here for three days and leave on the fourth day. Do not hesitate to take this opportunity to serve us, which is a way better thing to do than serving the mad man whom you are feeding here. It is analogous to kicking a cow and feeding a donkey. We are ascetics who have renounced everything and also know all the Vedas. If you would like, do come and listen to our discourses." Krishnaji said, "I will entertain you with Shira Puri tomorrow, however for today please take these breads and besan. You will get a lot of Ganja to smoke as Shri Shiva Himself is sitting there in the form of Shri Gajanan Maharaj." It was noon time when the ascetics took the meals of bread and besan near the well. In the evening they sat under the shade before Shri Gajanan Maharaj and their Maharaj, Shri Brahmagiri, started reading the Bhagwad Geeta. The ascetics and some people from the town were listening to the discourse of Brahmagiri, who started to preach on the first stanza of Nainam Chindanti. The Bramhachari was a pure hypocrite with no personal spiritual attainment. The people therefore, were naturally not impressed by his talk and said that he was only playing with the words. When his discourse was over, all the people went to Shri Gajanan Maharaj for His Darshan. They said, "We heard philosophy over there, but see here in Shri Maharaj the reality itself. There we heard the history and here is the Man himself." The ascetics who were smoking Ganja were irritated by these remarks. Shri Maharaja Himself was sitting on a cot and Bhaskar was giving him Ganja pipe to smoke. A spark from the pipe fell on the cot and slowly smoke started coming out of it and in a little while the entire cot was in flames. Looking at the sight, Bhaskar requested Shri Maharaj to leave the cot and come down, saying that the cot was of teak wood and won't extinguish without water. Thereupon Shri Maharaj said, "Don't bring water to extinguish the fire O! Brahmachari Maharaj come and sit with me on this cot. You know the entire Geeta with its meaning and now the time has come to put your knowledge of Geeta to test. Prove the fact mentioned in the Geeta that the element of fire does not burn a true Brahman. You have just imparted a discourse on "Nainam Chindanti" for an hour, so you should not be afraid of sitting with me on this burning cot. Bhaskar, go and bring him with due respect to sit with me here.” Bhaskar being a well-built strong man at the orders of Shri Maharaj caught hold of Brahmagiri's hand and brought him to Shri Maharaj. The entire cot was on fire and the flames were leaping up from all around the cot; however, Shri Maharaj did not move a bit and was sitting firm on it. Shri Vyas wrote in Bhagwat that Shri Pralhad, son of Kayadhu, was made to stand in fire and in a way the same scene was relived by Shri Gajanan Maharaj in the garden of Krishnaji Patil. When Bhaskar caught hold of Brahmagiri to take him to Maharaj as per Maharaj’s order, Brahmagiri prayed to Bhaskar to let him go by saying, "Please do not take me to the burning cot. I accept that I failed to appreciate the authority and greatness of Shri Gajanan Maharaj." But Bhaskar not paying any heed to it dragged and brought him before Shri Gajanan Maharaj. Shri Maharaj said "Now prove that 'Nainam Dahti Pawak" At this Brahmagiri got frightened and said, "To tell the truth, I became ascetic to enjoy good food only, so excuse me I fruitlessly tried to learn Geeta and called you mad, but I now regret all this and surrender before you. Please forgive me." People of Shegaon begged of Shri Maharaj to leave the burning cot for their sake, as they were afraid of seeing Him engulfed in flames. Brahmagiri hung his head in shame and said nothing. Shri Gajanan Maharaj got down from the cot to respect the public sentiments and immediately thereafter the burning cot collapsed. Practically all the cot was burnt, but people poured water and extinguished it, thereby salvaging a portion of it as an evidence to demonstrate Maharaj’s greatness to other people. After this incidence occurred, Brahmagiri shed away his entire ego and prostrated before Shri Maharaj. The objects that Ganga water touches cannot remain impure. Then at midnight Shri Maharaj advised Brahmagiri. "Leave all the hypocrisy as an ascetic has to denounce all worldly attachments. Without self-realization one should not preach anything to others. Learning of words without understanding or practicing the spirit behind is useless. To save our culture from destruction it is necessary to understand the spirit behind the things we learn. Saints like Macchindra, Jalander, Gorakh Gahaninath and Dnyaneshwar were of great authority. Shri Shankaracharya was a saint who attained self-realization, and Eknatha, though a man of family attained Brahmapada. Swami Samarth Brahmachari too had attained self-realization. You should remember all these great sages and stop wandering for Shira Pun, as it will be a useless and fruitless wandering. Brahmagiri calmly listened to all this advice and felt real detachment for the material things. Early next morning he left the place along with his disciples without meeting anybody else. Next day when people heard of the happening in the garden they came to see the burnt cot. Dasganu desires this "Gajanan Vijay Granth" to liberate all from the material attachments. I pay my Obeisance to Hara and Hari. Let Purity come to all. "SHUBHAM BHA VA TU" Here end of Chapter Eight

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