– – – -Publisher Shree Vijay Purushottam Joshi (22 August 2005)
Opportunity knocks only once! There are some of us though who expect to get that just one more chance, either to benefit again from it or make it better – this time around.
The ‘Joshi(Moghe) Family History’ was published on the auspicious day of ‘Dasehra’ in the year 2004 under the guidance of Shree Kaka Maharaj himself. When authoring a small note on the life of Shree Kaka for this book, I realized that an extensive life history would be required to properly describe his amazing personality and his contributions to the society including his own family history.
But when I showed the draft of the family history, Shree Kaka knowingly deleted the details about himself from the draft. He requested that his information be presented in mere 7-8 lines and not more. Therefore, unfortunately the family history of the Joshi family was published without any details on the life of Shree Kaka Maharaj. Many family and friends who were eagerly looking forward to get information about Shree Kaka from this book expressed disappointment. Personally, even I believe that a book on the family history is incomplete without any information on Shree Kaka.
Shree Kaka firmly believes that all activities and undertakings in Pune or Dervan are successfully carried out by ‘Sadguru Shree Digambardas Maharaj’ and ‘Sadguru Shree Baba Maharaj’ themselves, while he is just a means to get the job done. In other words, he believes that he personally doesn’t contribute to anything except for marching forward with the banner of their work. Hence, he is hesitant to accept any credit whatsoever, for any good work. Every custom followed in the temple has originated with a deep faith that the ‘Sadguru’ himself conducts these acts. For ex: Any mail addressed to the temple is first placed before Shree Maharaj in the temple shrine for his divine perusal and only then forwarded to Shree Kaka. This simple custom reflects the humble sentiments of Shree Kaka when he says, ‘I am not the owner or the doer’ or ‘this does not belong to me’.
He is always cautious that any form of appreciation or publicity does not deter him from his humble faith/service towards his ‘Sadguru’. The different plans of the Trust or temple do get extensive publicity in the newspaper but one has never seen the name of Shree Kaka publicized in any of these articles.
Many devotees are naturally desirous and eager to know how Shree Kaka became an eligible person to receive the complete ‘blessing’ of his Sadguru ‘Shree Digambardas Maharaj’. Besides, a large number of young devotees who work under the guidance of Shree Kaka already know some aspects of the life and achievements of Shree Maharaj from his life history ‘ Tunchi Baap dhani’. But the curiosity to know more still prevails amongst these young devotees and many like myself.
Shree Kaka came to the templeshrine in the year 1976. His ability, personality, background prior to 1976 and then onwards, the devotion he offered at the feet of Shree Maharaj, his spiritual progress and finally being endowed the complete responsibility of all Trust and temple activities are factors that make one curious and therefore, gave us more reasons to start gathering information for this book. It is important though, to realize and note the difficulty of identifying and writing the various aspects of a vast and strong personality like that of ‘Shree Maharaj’.
Shree Kaka was in close association of Shree Maharaj only because of his past virtues. Mere association is not enough to know the ‘true’ person within. But, when a Great and Virtuous Guru meets a capable Disciple, the history created is worth revealing.
It is therefore important to narrate the various incidents of the life of Shree Maharaj not published anywhere and let the virtuous ‘Sadguru’ be known to all. With this intention in mind, when all devotees pleaded Shree Kaka to narrate his experiences with Shree Maharaj, he agreed modestly.
Before he started narrating his experiences, Shree Kaka explicitly stated that he would only narrate incidents until Shree Digambardas Maharaj’s last conscious communion with God. This restriction endowed upon himself comes with the inner belief (confidence/conviction) that ‘I do not exist but for my Guru, who now pervades inside and outside of ME’.
It was our great fortune to hear these experiences and a different biography of Shree Digambardas Maharaj in the very own words of ‘Shree Kaka Maharaj’. All this information has been recorded with humbleness and due respect in this book called the ‘Sadguru Soyira’.