I was born on 29th May 1944. According to the Hindu calendar, it was ‘Jyeshgth Shuddha 7’, year 1866. As per the ‘Burma time’ or Wartime’ prevalent in those days it was 1.30, but as per Indian time it was 12.30 p.m. My father was a magistrate (Mamlatdar) at Gughagar during those days. We lived in a house owned by the Bhave family located in the upper ward of the village. Every member that joined in the celebration of my birth was presented with an unpeeled coconut along with some unhusked whole grain as recommended by the owner of house Mrs. Bhave. My mother often remembered and narrated this event to us.
The conditions for celebrating my birth were not completely favorable due to my health. I was suffering with Jaundice by birth and the doctors did not hope for my survival beyond 24 hours. But due to the blessings of his Sadguru (Good preceptor) bestowed on my father, his religious merits and pro-active care for my health , all resulted in the improvement of my health, even though slowly.
In the meantime, Nana (my father) was transferred from Guhagar to Khed. In Khed, the doctor thought I will not be able to digest mother’s milk and asked Nana to start me with cow’s milk instead. There was no guarantee of good milk if bought from a daily supplier and therefore, Nana just purchased a cow and brought it home. Milk from this domestic cow was diluted with three proportions of water and boiled by adding ’Vavding’ (a disinfectant herb); this liquid was then filtered through a piece of cloth before feeding me by spoon. In those days, there was no proper treatment available for treating jaundice as today. The remedial mode for jaundice was to cauterize or to burn with a hot iron, which was beyond tolerance even for adults. I was given this treatment too. My youngest paternal aunt ‘Mandodari’ who was lovingly called, as ‘Mandi-atya’ was present in our house at that time; she took me on her lap before the treatment and I was burnt on particular spots of the body with the help of a bamboo stick. They gave me 5 such spots. Later, as a medical relief, butter was applied to heal these wounds.
It was a common practice in ‘Konkan’ during those days to splash a handful of butter with force on the wall, which was normally made of red earth. The red earth would then absorb all the moisture from the butter and make it dry. On the next day this dried butter was used to heal the wounds.
Around the same time, my mother fell sick with Malaria and she suffered for an entire year. With two young daughters, weak son and malaria-affected wife in the house, Nana was totally confused. So he employed a Brahmin lady to get some domestic help. She was responsible for the cooking and other domestic chores. But instead of seeing any improvement in the health of my mother, my sisters or me, he observed that the Brahmin lady was improving in health. So finally, Nana removed that woman and took charge of all the domestic work. It was a test of capability and tolerance for Nana.
After waking up early in the morning, Nana first combed and braided my sisters’ hair. He then gave both, Suman and Meena, a bath. He called my eldest sister ‘Suman’ by a nickname ‘Sonya’ and the younger ‘Meena’ as ‘Popat (parrot)’. While giving them a bath, Nana loudly sang a self composed song – Sonya and Popat both brothers! They are being very mischievous!’ It was probably an effort that Nana took to ensure the children don’t miss their mother who was ill that year. Before going to work, he would cook the food, serve it to all children and only then leave for work. After coming back from work in the evening, he would again take the efforts to cook very good food. Nana was a good cook. He was even capable of making good hand-made flat breads. Occasionally he had to go for over-night tours for office work. But since he was strongly attached to home, he would take two peons along with him instead of one. Out of these two, one would remain with Nana during his tour and another one walked all the way to our house at Khed; confirmed about the health of the family members; and returned with the news to where Nana was located.
Back in those days, there was no telephone facility or public transport available like today. Hence the peon had to walk daily to Khed; enquire about my health as well as other family members; and walk back to report to Nana. Due to such uncertainty about my health, I was not even named as per traditions when an infant is born. Someone had recommended ‘Do not name this child. If you name him, he will surely pass away from this world’. I was simply called as ‘Bal’ or ‘Baloba’. After a long delay I was finally named as ‘Ashok’ by Mandi aatya – my paternal aunt. Later, my mother slowly gained good health and thus ended the difficult days for Nana. My younger sister, Sulabha was born at Khed (Ratnagiri). Nana was posted to Khed for a continuous period of about 4-5 years.
When in Khed, Nana had to face a difficult situation and test for his principles and courage. After the slaying of Mahatma Gandhi, there was unrest in the entire state of Maharashtra. The konkan region was comparatively peaceful. But a rowdy crowd had gathered in the mosque at Khed and a riot would have started any any moment. In such a difficult situation, Nana went towards the mob all-alone and restrained the crowd with his hands. My mother was really frightened out of fear and she tried to stop him from going towards the mosque. But Nana moved her aside and ran towards the mosque to restrain the rowdy crowd just due to the respect he had in society. Nana managed to get through this difficult situation due to his courage, firm-mindedness and spotless behavior.
When Nana was a Mamlatdar (Taluka Magistrate) of Khed Taluka (Sub-division of a District), his attention was drawn to an important subject. He observed that a large number of youth from several villages in Khed Taluka had joined the army. This was a tradition since First World War, the Second World War until today. The young widows of many of the army-men that laid their lives for the nation were not being treated fairly by their relatives. In particular, their rights on the family land were being taken away and seized by force. Whenever such a complaint was filed by any of these widows, Nana would immediately pay attention into the matter; utilize police help if required and make arrangements for the widows to get justice and rightful possession of their land. Nana would give them confidence by saying, ‘I am your brother. I will see to it that no one dares take your land from you.’ He had solved a number of such cases and got the solemn blessings of these helpless women. These blessings shielded him like Armour throughout his life. It is very rare to find such painstaking nature of Nana in the Government administration these days.
From Khed, Nana was transferred to Chiplun, Ratnagiri District around the year 1949-50. We rented an apartment located above a horse-stable in Chiplun. We owned half of the house and the owner occupied the rest of it. The owner made soft-toys made with cloth and filled with cornhusk for a living. The program of manufacturing these toys like elephants, horses etc was mostly carried on at night. My sisters and I would always go there to meddle with those toys. The toys would be made at night in the lantern light. There was a common porch in the central portion of the house between the owner’s area and ours. My sister Meena was bitten by a Scorpion in that porch one night. She was restless with severe pain throughout the night. She was perspiring very heavily; she was laid down on a bed and my mother was trying to absorb all the perspiration from her body by covering her with folds of old dhoti’s. They had to change the coverlet every five minutes. She was also treated with some homemade medicines.
I was five to six years old then and stayed awake throughout the night watching the hurried movements of the elders. Was there anything left in the hands of the elders except waiting nervously in anticipation for a positive result? Finally, by dusk, the intensity of the poison started diminishing and Meena could get some rest. Later in life, when I told about this incident to a known doctor he mentioned that a person bitten by a scorpion gets a sudden blow of heart pains. That means Meena may have suffered from sudden heart pains a number of times that night. She was saved only by the kind mercy of God. Today, even at the age of sixty-four she is in excellent health. The kind mercy of God cannot be explained by any other incident than the one above.
A personal friend of Dattudata (my uncle) lived in Chiplun. He was an officer in an insurance company. He held a very good position at work such that he could maintain a car in those days. But his way of speech was vulgar and bragging. Due to this Nana would always go and sit at the backdoor when this individual visited us. My mother would offer this person some tea and then get rid of him. Only after his departure would Nana enter the front room again. Nana was simple-natured and his mind was pure and clean; hence he always avoided such hypocrites. It was not in his nature to waste time chitchatting with anybody. Instead he would prefer to utilize that time reading books on various subjects.
In the meantime during the year 1951-52, Shree Digambardas Maharaj had initiated Nana in Nath sect. He had deeply studied the literature on saints as well as various spiritual subjects. He also had a taste for other subjects. He spend a lot of time reading. From Chiplun, Nana was transferred to Kudal and then immediately to Vengurla – both places in Sindhudurg District, Maharashtra. In Vengurla, I was admitted to the school in first standard. But because of my weak health I could not attend school regularly. A teacher named Bagaeetkar came home to teach me. He was six feet tall, intensely black, with clean glittering teeth, wore a double folded dhotee, shirt, black coat and black hat. He dressed with Konkani Chappals that made a creaking sound! My father had fixed the tuition fees as ten rupees. Those days, a teacher would normally make up to 4o Rupees. The selflessness of this teacher was very strange. The tuition had to be cancelled frequently due to my illness. But Bagayeetkar teacher would not take a pay for such cancelled days. But our Nana was no different! He would insist and try to give that money to the teacher. Nana would say, ‘even though you could not impart tuition, you had to make the trip and hence you have a right to get paid’. But the teacher would reply politely, ‘It is true that my visit was in vain. But instead, you fed me enough to have a full – belly and also served tea. Hence I would not accept money for the break in the tuition.’ It is really a good fortune to meet such pure minded and honest people in life!
Bagayeetkar teacher would come in the evening at 5.30pm. He would teach me for an hour. He started teaching me with the first lesson on ‘Shree Ganesha’. But I had firm ideas about alphabets and I told the teacher on the first day that his lessons were incorrect and that my ’Shree Ganesha’ was the right way; I further insisted to write only my way. But my teacher patiently explained, ‘Your ‘Shree’ is your personal alphabet. It is only for you. Others will not understand this writing. So for the knowledge of everybody, common alphabets must be used. Only then will you understand their thoughts and others can know your thoughts.’ This way the teacher spent fifteen days making me understand and only then I agreed to use the ‘Shree’ alphabet commonly used by everybody and gave up my personal alphabet. Even after such good teaching, I had not developed any specific liking towards education.
Whenever I got tired of studying, I would hide my books. The place chosen to hide was good too. There was a large portrait of Lord Vishnu, which depicted Lord Vishnu standing on a lotus in the deep blue sea, holding a conch, ‘Sudarshan chakra’ (a sharp circular weapon), a mace and a lotus in his hands. I used to hide my books behind this portrait. But my mother was persistent too. She would then send an office peon to buy new books from the bazaar for me. A grade 1 book would cost around one to two anaas (One rupee was equal to sixteen anaas) in those days.
For the second grade, I was enrolled in the number two school located near the Lord Vithoba temple in Ratnagiri since Nana was posted to Ratnagiri as the Secretary of the District Local Board during those days. During that timeframe, all the four brothers – Kaka (my eldest uncle), my father Nana, Vasantkaka (the uncle who worked in Customs) as well as Prabhakarkaka (youngest uncle who worked in Post Office), lived together in Ratnagiri. We resided in the house of Shree Krishna Joshi of Pomendi, which was located in the lower lane. It was a period of great fun for all of us. A group of 20-25 boys from the neighbourhood was formed including kids from our neighbour Narubhau Patwardhan’s house, as well as from the house located across from us. Sometimes, our group would visit the house of Shreekrishna Joshi in Pomendi on weekends or during holidays. The girls in the group would prepare the meals. We boys would play to our hearts content in the garden full of coconut and betalnut trees. Pomendi is a village bestowed with natural beauty and was liked by all of us.
Laxman, son of Shreekrishna Joshi was our leader! Under his leadership, we would visit the Bhagwati harbour and sometimes go to seashores like Mandvi Seashore to play in the sand. At times, we directly went to the fortress but rarely used the common path. Our leader Laxman would explore and locate different paths to the fortress. Once we all went to a circus in Ratnagiri and enjoyed every moment. This triggered our circus activities in the open shed erected in the courtyard of Joshi residence and we tried to imitate the acrobats we saw in the circus. We enjoyed swinging with the help of temporary rope bindings. We would fasten our legs to the roles and swing upside-down like the people in the circus. Laxman liked to do these acrobats and made us do them as well. He had even found a net from somewhere and we used to jump in that net. Later in future, this very Laxman Joshi retired as a principal of Patwardhan High School.
A gentleman named Tukaram Rasal lived in Teli lane of Ratnagiri. He owned a tailoring shop besides the hotel, ‘Shrikrishna Bhavan’ owned by Narubhau Patwardhan. Tukaram Rasal always visited our house right from the days of my grandparents. He showed a lot of affection as if he were the eighth brother in the family of the seven Joshi brothers. He stitched blouses for the ladies in our family. That is, the ladies in the family would occasionally give him cloth to make their blouses, but I do not know if those blouses were being duly stitched.
Later, when we grew up and visited our uncle in Ratnagiri, Rasal tailor often came to see us. He would lovingly use a foul language to greet us and say, ‘You are now educated and grown up. So why should you pay any attention to poor people like us’ Due to this, as soon as we arrived in Ratnagiri, we would first visit uncle’s shop at Gokhale naka and from there we would visit the tailoring shop of Tukaram Rasal. Rasal would greet us friendly and treat us with tea, misal (a sprouted bean gravy), bhajiya (vegetable fritters) etc. Afterwards, he used to secretly give us cigarettes. Until our smoking was not over, he would stand at the entrance and return any familiar person that came to the shop. He was at least 40 years senior to me and even then, he treated us equally. This was entirely due to the good reputation and religious merits of our grandfather.
I had the first glimpse (‘Darshan’) of my Sadguru Shree Digambardas Maharaj during our stay in Ratnagiri. Shree Maharaj was staying in our house at that time. He normally returned home at night, by 8-8.30 PM. The kids would normally be fed and discharged into a room on the main floor by then. This precaution was being taken to avoid the kids causing any trouble to Shree Maharaj. Shree Maharaj, my eldest uncle (Dada), my father (Nana) and other elder members would hang around in the hall like room on the upper floor of the house.
One day, when Shree Maharaj came home I was still playing outside and he asked my father ‘Raghunath, who is this boy?’ My father told him that I was his son. Then Shree Maharaj asked my father to bring me upstairs. When my mother came to know this, she was very frightened thinking I might have upset Shree Maharaj due to some mischief and therefore, he was now punishing me. My mother felt that my welfare was now totally unpredictable. But what happened was totally different. Shree Maharaj called me towards him and made me sit on his lap. He then blessed me with the sacred hymn of worship. Nana’s happiness crossed all limits that moment. He said to me, ‘Oh! You are so fortunate! In this young age itself, you are blessed by Shree Maharaj with the sacred hymn of worship.’
When we lived in Chiplun, I had started suffering from a strange headache. While sleeping I would experience an explosion of intense and lustrous lights (minute particles) in my head and then wake up screaming. Due to my screaming in fact, my mother would also wake up. I suffered from this problem occasionally and even though I did not feel any trouble, my mother was very much overcome by extreme anxiety. I was very young then and therefore unable to explain exactly what was happening to me. Even today, I can clearly remember that experience – excessively minute but an intensely lustrous dot spread across in the visible hollowness of the dark space and with its intense luster penetrated and spread into the entire space. As it was becoming extremely difficult for me to endure, the hysterical frantic dance accompanying the deep thunder of clouds, I woke up screaming loudly. But I did not understand or explain this to my mother. My mother thought I have been possessed by an evil spirit and employed an enchanter to cure me. The enchanter started his remedial treatment by tying me up. I got tired of such a remedial treatment, which was worse than sickness and eventually, I stopped telling my mother about this problem.
But once Shree Maharaj blessed me with the sacred hymn of worship, this serious problem stopped altogether. I now realize that the experience was no trouble but a spiritual perception of the entire universe concentrated in that intensely lustrous single dot (minute particle). In addition, the state of mind had broken the focal point of this lustrous dot and gone beyond that point.
This incident took place in the year 1962 when we were in Ratnagiri. Nana had to stay in Chiplun for four months due to some official work. He stayed alone in Chiplun. During that period, Shree Maharaj visited Chiplun for some reason and therefore, he stayed with Nana for a month. Nana had made arrangements for meals from a Brahmin family. The Brahmin family prepared and sent the meals (lunch and dinner) to Nana’s residence. Nana left for work at 10.00 a.m. everyday. Shree Maharaj would spend his time resting in a chair. Could outsiders fathom what he was doing sitting idly on a chair for the whole day? When people started gossiping on this topic, Shree Maharaj became a little disturbed and told Nana, ‘Seems like people cannot tolerate my presence here. They are gossiping about my presence here.’ But Nana replied, ‘Why are people concerned with your presence here? Please don’t pay any attention. Stay here happily and only then shall I feel happy too.”
One evening, when the meals arrived from the Brahmin family, Nana served the plates as usual. But Shree Maharaj refused to eat and set the plate aside saying, ‘I do not want to eat this food as it is not pure.’ That night, both slept on an empty stomach. In the morning Shree Maharaj departed for Ratnagiri. Later, when Nana enquired with the person who had brought the food, he learned that the lady who prepared the food that day was going through her menstrual period. Thus Nana realized the intuition power of Shree Maharaj.
While having light conversations with Nana, Shree Maharaj would usually speak about the greatness of his Sadguru Shree Baba Maharaj and quote some anecdotes. Due to this, Nana developed a strong yearning to take Shree Babamaharaj’s ‘Darshan’. So he asked Shree maharaj whether he could go to take blessings from Shree Baba Maharaj. Shree Maharaj replied,’You don’t have to go at all. Just send a money order for one rupee, twenty five paise.’ Accordingly, Nana sent the money order. When the money order receipt signed by Shree Babamaharaj arrived, Shree Maharaj said, ‘Your work is done. Shree Babamaharaj never accepts money from anybody. He accepts only after confirming the purity of that money.’
Nana did not get bewildered even during the most difficult of situations in his life due to his steadfast devotion towards Sadguru Shree Maharaj. During his stay at Ratnagiri, Nana went through one such difficult situation. When Nana had gone to the washroom, he found a big snake sitting across from him with a raised hood. For about forty-five minutes, Nana sat motionless concentrating his sight on the snake. After some time, the snake turned back and went away. Since he had not returned from the washroom for a long time, mother got worried and sent Dada (my eldest uncle) to find out about Nana’s whereabouts. Shortly after, both returned and narrated the difficult situation Nana had faced. Later, Nana said, ‘Today I was nearly dead, but Sadguru Shree Vitthalrao saved my life.’
In my 3rd Grade we came back to Vengurla and I finally got accustomed to the school. My sister’s attended the girl’s school. My school was near the temple of Rameshwar (temple of Lord Shiva). I went along with my sister’s partway to school; however, when my sisters had to turn left at the Junction-square and proceed to their girl’s school, I generally refused to go to my school on my own and continue walking with them. My sisters felt ashamed and tried to provoke me by saying, ‘A boy amongst all the girls…’ One day a policeman came to our house and said loudly, ‘Why does your son go to the girl’s school? We have received a complaint against him. Bring him before me!’ I was afraid not only of his fierce external appearance but also his harsh voice and then I eagerly agreed to go to the boy’s school from the next day. My mother too mediated on my behalf with the policeman and I started going to the boy’s school from the next day. I gradually developed a liking towards school and started attending regularly. Years later, when I was in college and when this topic came up during discussions, Nana told me with a smile, ‘I had sent that policeman! Else, would a policeman dare to intimidate a Magistrate’s son?’
Prior to this, when we were staying in Kankavli, our neighbor was a teacher by profession; he was a good reader and enjoyed narrating stories. Even Nana was good at writing stories and narrating them. He had narrated a self-authored story in his school and earned himself recognition as a good storyteller. In kankavli, we would gather at our neighbor’s house (we called him Guruji meaning teacher) after supper around 7:00 to 7:30pm, especially to listen to the stories of Ramayana.
Guruji narrated the Ramayana with full vigor. But when it was time for Lord Rama to be exiled and spend his life in a forest, I would feel uneasy and plead Guruji not to send Lord Rama to the forest but instead have his coronation ceremony. Guruji would say, ‘I am narrating Ramayana as it had occurred. Your good wishes regarding Lord Rama is really noteworthy. But this is how Ramayana happened. How can I change it?’ I would get dejected and leave the story halfway. My sisters normally waited until the end of the story and returned home by 9:00 -9:30 PM. Even at that young age I did not mentally approve and could not tolerate the exile of Lord Rama.
I completed my fourth grade in the school at Kudal(Sindhudurg Dist.). A teacher named Bordwekar noticed my aptitude and asked me to appear for the scholarship examination. I was successful in the examination and received the scholarship of Rupees 144/- all at once, at the rate of rupees 4.00/month for three years. My mother proactively bought a gold chain of two ‘tolas’ i.e. 23 gms before the money was spend for a wrong purpose. This was my first earning in my life and I have preserved it until date.
While in Kudal, there was a close friend of Nana by the name of ‘Mayeenkar’ who claimed he was from a place called Terse Bamburde. The Thakur (village chief) of Pategaon was the son-in-law of this Mayeenkar and the Thakur family stayed in Kolhaphur near Varunteerth villagegate. Whenever Thakur came to Kudal, Nana specially invited him to stay at our house and extended good hospitability during his stay. Since Thakur persistently invited Nana to his house in Kolhapur Nana once decided to visit Kolhapur for four days. We rented a vehicle for four days. In those days, small Dodge or Chevrolet vehicles were available on rent and they were known as touring cars. So we all went to Kolhapur in a touring car. Thakur had made very good arrangements for our stay. He entertained us with all love and honour. He showed us a cinema (probably in Rajaram theatre) and after four days when we started for our return journey Thakur said to Nana, ‘Raosaheb, you are very fortunate! I observed that during the last four days, your children did not show any tantrums or stubbornness. They were always happy with whatever we gave them and they never insisted or asked for anything. You are really fortunate!’
Even though we had not shown any tantrums with the Thakur’s in Kolhapur, we did become obstinate at times. Somebody had gifted us a wooden doll made in Sawantwadi. We always quarreled amongst ourselves to play with it. Once I wanted to play with that doll but my elder sister Sumantai was not ready to share it with me. For this reason, my mother gave her a few spanks and took away that doll from her to give it to me. I was happy at that moment but later whenever I remembered this incident I felt it was not fair to Sumantai because my mother had beaten her up just out of love for me as a son. I even mentioned this to my mother in later years, but she did not take me seriously.
Around the year 1951-52 when I was 7-8 years old, I suffered from diarrhea and had to make many trips to the washroom. The washroom was located about three hundred feet away from the house and even the water-well was hundred – two hundred feet away. I was very hassled with these trips to the washroom. But since it took me long to get to the washroom, my clothes were spoiled more than twice. My mother washed them for me initially but then she asked me to wash my own soiled clothes after the second time. Since I was young, sick and yet washing my own clothes, my three sisters were watching me curiously from behind the trees.
In Kudal, we stayed in a Government bungalow, which was previously a rest house of the King of Sawantwadi (an old state). Hence that bungalow was extremely grand and dignified. The bungalow sat on 8-10 acres of land (one acre of land=4840 sq, yards) with very fine and large glass windows and 10 feet large grand doors. The ceiling of the bungalow was fourteen feet high. Whenever Nana went for an office tour my mother was afraid of staying in that bungalow alone with the three small children. So Nana arranged for a constable in the house for security purposes. In that large yard, I often saw the conjugal union of male and female serpents and also different types of reptiles from the windows. Once when Nana was absorbed in meditation, a venomous serpent crept up on his body. But since he was so absorbed in meditation, Nana only had a faint realization of that serpent. He thought his sacred thread might be wet due to sweat and it was rippling through his back. When he came out of his state of meditation, he realized the presence of a serpent on his body and immediately shook off that serpent and had his constable kill it.
Somewhere around 1950, we visited my grandmother who lived in ‘Sayak’ village near Devrukh. My mother belonged to the house of ‘Purohit’ (family priest) in ‘Sayak’ village. My grandfather was known by the name ‘Mokashi Purohit’, probably because he may have received the authority of collecting revenue from Shree Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. He had a prosperous family and owned a big house. When we crossed the large courtyard of the house and climbed up the steps we faced a balcony approx. 60-7o feet long with a raised platform of adequate length and width. A spacious swing with a sitting capacity of 10 persons had been arranged in this balcony. The house was made up of a central portion, kitchen, a sacred room where deities or idols are worshipped and other rooms. There was another balcony at the backside of the house, which was normally used by the servants to live and move about.
There were wells in the front and back yard along with courtyards smoothly smeared with cow dung and there was a spacious open shed in the front. This open shed was thatched by strings made from betal nut trees, bamboo sticks, grass and twigs; the shed was used by the kids for playing daytime and by the adults all the time as well as for sleeping at night in the summer season. In those days there was a trend of erecting an open shed in the courtyard of every house. In Konkan area, there was no electricity available back then and hence the courtyard was used in summer to get some cool breeze in this open shed. The open shed was used to dry rinds of Kokam fruit (a sour fruit). Betal-nuts, pulp of jackfruit and mango well mashed, blended and rolled out etc. The business of farm labour did not exist anymore but casual labourers were easily available. Therefore, it was possible to erect such open sheds with the help of these labourers. Nowadays, such open sheds are very rare even in the small villages of Konkan.
One afternoon I was sitting alone on the swing and enjoying the rides when unexpectedly a very big serpent came hissing towards the swing. No one knew where it came from! It was a usual occurrence in Konkan area for these crawling reptiles to appear in the house either from the rural tiled thatched roofs or from the thick bamboos or otherwise from the wooden fragments of scraps stored on the raised platform. Seeing such a big serpent and its raised hood scared me and I started calling for my grandmother loudly. I folded both my legs on the swing and with a frightful face expression stared at the serpent. My grandfather came running to the balcony and when he saw the serpent he called for my maternal uncle to bring a blanket. Then my uncle killed the serpent. I was holding on to the swing and watched the scene with a frightened sight. Even after the serpent-head was bruised it was coiling itself, twisting, disentangling – entangling itself in a curved and crooked way. Since that incident, I have a permanent fear about these crawling creatures in my mind. Even now, I take enough precautions in Dervan and ensure proper lighting arrangements.
In Dervan, I generally sleep at 10 PM. One night we were awake talking about some matter. My driver Rane was standing behind me as always. When my attention was drawn to my backside casually, I saw a crawling creature. When I alerted driver Rane he instantly killed that creature and it turned out to be a venomous snake. Once in the kitchen there was a serpent. When our cook Padhye went in the kitchen to wash hands he found that serpent sitting in the sink with raised hood. The people present in the kitchen immediately killed it. In Konkan area, we even find scorpion-bitten cases.
During our stay in Kudal (Sindhudurg), my youngest sister Sulabha suffered from Typhoid (infectious fever). In those days, typhoid was a very serious illness. For nearly 20-25 days, we were all nervous, but finally her temperature went down and my sister soon became normal.
As my father was getting transferred frequently to places like Vengurla, Kudal and Sawantwadi (all in Sindhudurg), my education from fifth to seventh grade was also completed in these places. Most of the time I was ranked first in my class. I had developed a strong liking towards school by then and hence I never avoided school attendance. There was also a reason why I paid more attention when my teacher taught in class – I had no need to come home and study again. Since I finished all my studies at school, I was free for my other activities. I liked to read a lot when I had the time. It was not simply a liking for reading but there was a thirst and need for the same. I was very fond of History, so when I got all the schoolbooks in my hand, I would read the history book first. Hence I actually finished studying for the History subject before the beginning of the school year. Then at school, I would sit in the last row and read on some other subject. I used to read detective stories authored by Baburao Arnalkar by placing these books in between my schoolbooks and utilize that time for the right action. During those schooldays I read 400-500 detective stories of Baburao Arnalkar and Naik etc. My eyes were filled with tears after reading the book ‘Shyaamchi Aayee’. I was able to read a number of Marathi literature books in the classrooms of my 6th, 9th and 10th grade respectively.
When we were in Kanakavli (Sindhudurg), I read all the books available in the library and finally cancelled my membership since there were no books left for me to read. I had already read the books of authors like N.C.Phadke, V.S. Khandekar, H.N. Apte, N.H. Apte, Madkholkar, Nathmadhav etc. Like a greedy person, I read whatever available to such an extent that I would even seize waste newspapers from my mothers hand that were used for packing groceries and small items like coriander cumin-seed etc. Summer vacations and the holidays for Diwali festival were a supreme bliss for my reading. During ‘Diwali’ holidays I read many magazines like Awaaz, Loksatta and Diwali Lokmanya. In fact, this itself acted as Diwali refreshment and crackers for me.
But when I was young, I had fired a lot of crackers. A bag full of crackers costed only 5-7 rupees and Nana bought us enough of these crackers. On the first day of ‘Diwali’, I was always excited to wake up early in the morning at 3.30 AM and fire the first cracker before anybody else did. The memories of the first day of Diwali celebrated, as a young boy is still fresh in my mind. I still remember the refreshing cold morning, the little campfire created in the courtyard, the warm feeling besides the fire, watching the lanterns (‘Akashkandil’) and the lustrous flame of the little oil-lamps in the small decorative earthen saucers. I can still remember the crackers fired occasionally and the smell of burning gun-powder filling up the nostrils accompanied by the extremely hot water bath given by mother after massaging us with fragrant oil and herbs. This followed by the refreshment prepared out of milk, jaggery, flattened parched rice with ghee and the mustard-seasoned curd-mixed with flattened parched rice. After the first day, I would normally fire crackers for the next 15 days.
My elder sister Suman tried to fire crackers by holding it in her hand. There is always a technique used in firing the crackers where the cracker is held separately in a pinch formed by the finger and thumb, compressed and let go after firing it at the right moment. I had picked up this technique properly but Sumantai did not know this technique and as a result she got her fingers burned. Hence after this incident, she never tried to fire crackers in her life. My younger sister Sulabha also stopped handling the large-sized crackers. So, Meena and myself were able to enjoy all the crackers.
During Diwali there was a tradition of making beautiful lanterns at home in every house. Nobody bought lanterns from the market. The creation of a rotating ‘payalee akashkandeel’ (rotating cylindrical portable lantern) was considered as a skilled art. If there were one such made, people from the neighborhood would visit without any restrictions. ‘Payalee Kandeel’ means a straight cylindrical circular lantern prepared from colored drawing paper inside another cylindrical lantern that would be inscribed with sketches of various animals. When you lit a small oil-lamp under the lantern, the circular cylinder would start rotating slowly due to the heat of the lamp; the sketches of the animals inscribed on the inner cylinder would start moving giving it a feeling of slowly marching animals. One of Nana’s office employees was skilled at making such a lantern. We had no such skill but just because of our young age we got the happiness of the creating these lamps by working under the supervision of this office employee.
We helped him with little things such as getting glue, holding the paper to one side, helping him hold the bamboo stick tightly and scraping and polishing it with a polish paper etc. Finally when the lantern was ready and the sketches of elephants and horses started moving in the right direction all our efforts used to be paid off. Our faces would brighten up with joy and one will never come across such pure happy moments anywhere else in their future life.
Once a clever office-employee saw the lantern made by the other person and suggested, ‘ There is no beauty with one picture? We should see double pictures! Hence I will light up a second lamp saucer and you boys just watch the fun!’ So he lighted a second lamp saucer inside the lantern and a few minutes later the lantern caught fire and started burning! We sprayed water on the lantern and extinguished the fire. Taking this as bad omen, my mother was troubled with the thoughts that this bad omen might bring misfortune for the family. But fortunately nothing of that sort happened.
Though I was so fond of reading, I did not take interest in any creative writing. When I was in the ninth grade, I wrote a short essay ‘Daava Haath’ (Left hand) for the annual publication of the school. The same year a well-known literate V.S. Khandekar attended the annual school function; he read my article and specially appreciated my writing. He also clearly stated that if the boy who wrote the article ‘Daava Haath’ takes the efforts to study and observe, he would surely become a good honorable author in the future. But I did not do any writing later in life.
Similar to the Diwali festival, the festival of Ganesh was celebrated with pompousness in Kudal where we lived in the year 1950. It was an extensively rejoicing festival like Diwali with loads of sweets, crackers, decorations, illumination etc. The earning members of the families came over for this festival from the cities. The festival was celebrated with ‘Aarti’ (waving of lamp along with religious songs) and Bhajans (hymns) in praise of Lord Ganesh. The Ganesh idol was installed in many houses for this celebration but we did not have any Ganesh installation in our house for that festival. The Ganesh idol for the family was installed in our native place at Khanu village and in our eldest uncle Dattudada’s house. I was very eager to bring a Ganesh idol to our home in Kudal and celebrate like everyone else. Hence that year in Kudal, when I saw that Nana had gone for an overnight trip for work, I convinced my mother and insisted on bringing home a Ganesh idol for us. In those days, the Ganesh idols were not available in the market like today. There were only one or two workshops that created these beautiful idols and everyone had to provide a wooden bench for the installation of their idols to the workshops at the beginning of monsoon. The Ganesh idol was created out of clay and installed on the wooden seat provided by the person who placed the order.
My mother finally realized that I would not give up until my demand was met. So she sent an office peon to the market to check the place for availability of the Ganesh idol and surprisingly there was an idol of Lord Ganesh available at the workshop. Someone had placed the order but due to a birth in his or her family they could not pickup their Ganesh idols. I decorated the house with banners and pompous display for the Ganesh installation. I worshiped Lord Ganesh with a lamp and sang songs in honour of Lord Ganesh. When Nana returned, he became a little angry by seeing my great efforts and said, ‘Why did you bring the idol of Lord Ganesh here? I have a transferable job! Do you think we will be able to render proper devotional service to Lord Ganesh?’
But this anger of Nana was just superficial, because when my mother mediated and said ‘Let it be now. He did have a great desire to worship Lord Ganesh, is it not? ‘, Nana calmed down and joined us for the waving of lamp ceremony! We continued with this practice of bringing the Ganesh idol for worship every year until today. But we only perform simple worship of Lord Ganesh and do not follow the religious practice of instilling the idol of Lord Ganesh through a Brahmin. From the year 1974-75 onwards we only bring and worship this festival for five days. We made this decision because ever since I live in Pune, it is not possible for me to attend the Ganesh festival in my home in Mumbai for 10 days at a row. I made arrangements to get this festival celebrated through my family members.
From Kudal, Nana was transferred to Vengurla (probably in the year 1951-52). The atmosphere in Vengurla was to some extent like Goa and we frequently saw women smoking cigarettes. Men smoke cigarattes but how can women? Do they smoke too? This was a rather strange sight for us kids. Most of these women were christian and came there to sell mangoes in open baskets. We used to have enough mangoes in our house because many mango growers would send us boxes of mangoes due to their respect for my father. My father never accepted anything from anybody. He had a good moral character. Hence the people wanted to do something good in return for my father and send us mangoes. My mother gave away eight to ten Alphanso mangoes to any guest or even to beggars. Even if we all enjoyed eating mangoes at home, it was impossible for us to finish off all the mangoes. We therefore send mangoes to Mumbai and other relatives at the same time we invited our cousins to come and enjoy the fruit.
During summer vacations, we had 30-40 relatives and guests visiting us to enjoy tasting the mangoes, morning, afternoon as well as evening! In addition to the Alphanso mangoes, ‘Payari’ mangoes were also available here. My father ordered Manakur mangoes especially from Goa. Even when we had sufficient mangoes available at home, if those chrisitian ladies ever came to sell their mangoes when Nana was not at home, we would compel our mother to purchase mangoes from those ladies. When we called a christian lady selling mangoes, she would say, ‘Please lend me a helping hand’. After giving her a helping hand, she would put her basket down on the floor and sit comfortably. Then she would slowly take out her cigarette packet and ask for a matchbox. She would then smoke comfortably. My sisters and I would sit around watching the way she smoked until the cigarette was over! We would wink at each other without the knowledge of that lady. My sisters would laugh merrily and as soon as the cigarette was over, we would run away from there.
But now that the mango basket had already been set down, my mother had to buy about thirty mangoes out of helplessness by paying one rupee or so. Our mother would then grumble at us, ‘You naughty kids! You just wasted my one rupee and a matchstick just to watch that lady smoke!’ Even then, we would repeat such incidents at least five to six times. There was no other way of watching this entertainment.
In Vengurla, which was in the Sindhudurg District of Maharashtra, we lived in a house named ‘Krishna Kunj’. Since there was a ‘Power House’ in Vengurla, we had electricity in the house. This ‘Krishna Kunj’ house was located on the banks of a small river in the area known as ‘Mumbai Bazaar’ of Vengurla. The house was quite large, independent and very spacious. The owner of that house had no children and therefore, he often got upset with us kids when we played or made a noise. Everything else was fine with this exception. It was in this house that Nana got an electric shock one day. He was trying to replace an electric bulb and by mistake his finger must have touched the electric current and just like a stick falling to the ground, Nana fell down. My mother and I were standing nearby and because of this unexpected happening, my mother started to cry. But within the next two minutes Nana got up and spoke to my mother ‘I am alright now. Nothing has happened, so why do you cry?’ But those two minutes had really increased our heartbeats and caused anxiety.
In Vengurla, the house where we stayed was quite spacious with 15-16 rooms and owned by Shri Shirgaonkar. Once the lights were on unnecessarily in the 4-5 rooms of the house; Nana came and switched off the lights. I asked who switched off the lights and switched them on again. Nana put off the lights again and said to me, ‘I did not switch off the lights because that will increase the electricity bills from Rs.2/- to Rs.2.25. But what’s the use of turning on the lights in rooms not being occupied? In our country, there is already a shortage in electric power. Instead of fruitlessly wasting the available electric power, if the same is economically used, the industries can benefit with the additional power supply. Whenever you are working, feel free to keep the lights on, but it is a waste of electric power to utilize the same in rooms not occupied by anybody. That is rather a treachery to our own country.’ I diligently observe this lesson I learnt from Nana even today with all devotedness!
Nana was very fond of music. He had good knowledge of classical Indian music. He specially watched dramas of the famous actor Balgandharva. He could play on the harmonium and had purchased an excellent harmonium with German keynote. Whenever he had some free time, he would play the harmonium. His hands were delicate on the instrument and the entire house would be filled with the sweet notes whenever he played the harmonium. There was a music teacher named Ambardekar in Vengurla, besides the Rameshwar temple. Nana had arranged for my sister’s music lessons with Ambardekar. In the evening, after coming back from school, they both went to Ambardekar to get singing lessons. The singing lessons went on for a few months, but one evening while returning home from the music class they both got frightened near the stream. In those days, nobody stayed awake until 11 or 11:30pm like today. Once people had their evening meals around 7:30pm, everything would become quiet. Hence my sisters may have been afraid of the darkness or heard something on the way when returning from the class. But my mother strongly felt that this fearful sound may be some ghosts and evil spirits and she stopped their music lessons from then on.
Ambardekar, the music teacher owned an attractive picture of Shree Akkalkot Swami Samarth standing with one hand on his waist. Nana liked this photo very much, but he was hesitant to ask and therefore, dismissed any thoughts about that idea. But Ambardekar teacher had a visionary insight from Shree Akkalkot Swami Samarth and he personally came and handed over the picture to Nana. That picture is still worshipped in our house.
One day, at 2:00am in the morning when we stayed in Vengurla Nana had a severe stomach-pain. The pain did not reduce with homemade remedies. So the peon and my mother took him to the Candy Municipal hospital. There was no transportation facility like a cab or rickshaw back then. So they walked Nana to the hospital. The doctor examined him and advised them to take him to the Mission Hospital. But it was not possible for Nana to walk again all the way to the Mission Hospital. Hence the peon went out looking for a vehicle. There were hardly any vehicles in town those days. But since Nana was a Magistrate, someone immediately arranged for a vehicle and he was taken and admitted into the Mission Hospital. Because of my young age and uncontrollable sleep, I did not understand the seriousness of the circumstances. My mother kept waking me up but I kept falling asleep.
Early in the morning the peon took me to the hospital on his bicycle. Two American missionary doctors Dr. Sarvlid and Dr.Siton were present and after thorough checking they said that Nana had an ‘Appendicitis’ attack (an illness in which there was inflammation of appendix). There was no other option but to operate him. After the operation, they showed me the cut out portion of the appendix, but I was too young to understand anything about that. Its only now that I realize it was Nana’s appendix that they showed me after the operation. After the operation, everything was all right for 7-8 days, but after that Nana had a sudden fever. The Doctor said, ‘This is not a good sign! The wound is infected. You can call your relatives now.’ Hearing this, my mother was really scared and she immediately prayed to a few Deities and offered to render devotional service of donating fruits, rice etc and fasting for the good health of my father. After two months, Nana became perfectly alright and returned home.
My thread ceremony was performed in Vengurla. I was studying in the seventh grade. The sacred thread ceremony was performed in a pompous way and all the relatives were invited for the ceremony. Karambelkar Guruji, the religious instructor performed the thread ceremony. A new set of Shirt and pant was purchased for me. The Bhikshaval (begging of alms by a Brahimn boy during the ceremony of his investiture with the sacred thread) was held in the Rameshwar Temple; I had to hold a branch of the Palas tree (Butea Frondosa) etc in my hand! My thread ceremony was performed a little late than normal. After the thread ceremony, a religious instructor was appointed to teach me all religious rites including the performance of rituals in the morning, noon and evening. But after 2-3 months the instructor told my parents that it was not possible for me to learn Sandhya prayers etc and further advised my parents to only teach me what I was able to learn by which, their money and his time would not be wasted either.
We rarely used onion, garlic and hot spices in the preparation of our daily food. Hence these rarely used items were very precious to us. In the Rameshwar Temple at Vengurla, an idol procession was held in the month of Ashadh (Fourth month of the Hindu year). We all (my class friends and playmates) were regular pilgrims to that procession! The main attraction after the completion of the procession was the ‘Usal ‘(a tasty curry made from boiled black peas and hot spices)! On the way to the procession, from the stationary shop of Padwal, a good tar road was available. One of us, Chandrakant Samant had a very beautiful handwriting. He used to write in clear very big words, ‘Procession Means ‘Usal’’ Once we expressed clearly and undoubtedly the main purpose of our visit, we went to the procession and returned only after enjoying the ‘Usal’! Whenever there was a procession programmed at some place, we would enquire if there were ‘Usal’ available at the procession. Any one of our friends who learned about a procession or programme with the ‘Usal’ would come and announce, ‘Friends, let us all join the procession immediately! There we can enjoy the ‘Usal’! We would all join in immediately without any hesitation.
Once I was caught in a dilemma because of this fascination for the black peas Usal. A friend of mine said to me one day, ‘ hey! We can buy a fine ‘Usal’ along with ‘Puri’ (the small round puffed tortilla) for just two anaas!’ But where can I get two anaas? My friend had four anaas and he insisted that I join him in the hotel to enjoy the ‘Usal’ alongwith ‘Puri’. When we reached the hotel, he gave the order for the items, but since it was my first occasion to visit a hotel, I was dazed with the decorations around in the restaurant. We sat in a table located partly in darkness. I admired the Glass cupboard, Laddus (sweet balls), sweet meats arranged in a pile, the rate list painted on a wooden board etc. The waiter brought us glasses of water and banged them on the table. I took one gulp even though I was not thirsty. By that time the waiter had served the ‘Usal’ and ‘Puri’ on our table. I was about to take my first bit of that ‘Puri’ and dip it in the ‘Usal’ when I saw our Bagaitkar teacher enter the restaurant. I literally ran away from there and came home. Even though I had a narrow escape I had a painful regret that my well-being was at stake. I even thought that Bagaitkar teacher would come home in the evening and tell this to my parents who would surely take me to task! I had totally lost my peace of mind until evening. But in the evening when Bagaitkar teacher came home to teach me, he said nothing about this incident. But the next day in school he asked me unexpectedly, “Hey Ashok! Why did you give up that ‘Usal’ and ran away from there yesterday?” I never thought that my teacher would take this so easily especially because kids from a good family would never go out and eat in restaurants. It was due to this guilty consciousness only that I had run away from that hotel. After this frightful situation I never went to a restaurant again until after joining the Engineering College.
As a child, I always went to different fairs. But Nana never came with us. I usually went with the office peon holding his hands. In the crowded fair lighted with petromax lanterns, one could see the eating outlets, toys, and balloons, along with a wild confusion. On a little sideway, a crowd would be gambling. In between someone would start yelling, ‘Loot! Loot!’ and suddenly there would be commotion everywhere. It was a trick in these gambling businesses where they could easily lay their hands on the money just by creating a fake fear with a loud cry ‘Police, Police’. This gave them an opportunity to snatch and run away with all the money including the one’s that belonged to the gamblers. Whenever I asked the office peon about all that commotion, he narrated the details on that trick. But there was one thing he never really explained to me ‘ a person carrying a kettle and a broken cup moved about in the crowd quietly murmuring, ‘Cold medicine! Cold medicine!’ in a low depressed voice. When I asked Mhapankar, the office peon what type of medicine was available for just four anaas, he said ‘Its not really medicine! But its beyond you’re understanding!’ and he took me away from that crowd.
Though Nana did not accompany us to the fairs, he specially took us to ‘Vetoba’s’ fair in Aravali (Sindhudurg District). There were fireworks early morning at 3:00am and it was worth seeing. At the beginning, there was a performance on the ‘Ten Incarnations of Lord Vishnu’. We would normally watch until the demon Shankhasur(Sankasur) came up to perform for about half hour to an hour, but then we (kids) would go to sleep. Nana would wake us up once the fireworks started. Nana was the magistrate of that town and therefore, we were able to watch the fireworks from a central place. After watching it for about one hour, we would go back to sleep. Nana took these strenuous efforts to ensure his children enjoyed every little thing in a tasteful manner and cherished these moments.
In Kankavli, the weekly market was held every Tuesday and therefore, the schools were only open for the mornings. Hence on Tuesday when I returned home from school and took my lunch, I spent time reading all afternoon. Sometimes, my friend named Subhash Kakade took me on his bicycle to his shop and we would manage the cash box in his shop. The details of this Kakade family and their affairs is worth narrating sometime.
Sant Eknath says:
“Nijashishyachi Maranchinta l
Swaye Niwari Jo Vastuta ll
Tochi Sadguru Tatwata l
Yer Te Guruta Mantra tantropadeshe ll
Tari Sadguruchi Laxane l
Na Varnavati Agadhapane l
Ved Vedavale Mukepane l
Tethe Maazhe Bolane Sare Kevee ll”
Means: A real Sadguru (good Preceptor) is the one who wards off the fear of death from his disciple. The greatness of most Gurus (Preceptors) is limited to the repetition of sacred hymns, advising practical wisdom and offering right advice to the disciples.
But, in spite of the high praiseworthy descriptions, the definition of a real Sadguru cannot be expressed in words. The truth is that even the Vedas (the sacred writings of the Hindus, revealed by Lord Brahma and further presented by the great sage Vyasa Maharshi) were mute about the true definition of a real Sadguru; my words will obviously fall short for the same.
—— “Sant Eknath”