Somewhere in Nana’s heart dwelled the ethics of ‘King Janaka’ from Ramayana. Just like King Janaka, Nana remained detached from worldly matters, while promptly fulfilling the duties as a householder. This absence of worldly desires had penetrated and pervaded in his being and hence Nana was always hungry for the company of Virtuous personalities. He did not wait for retirement as a convenient role to study about spiritualism. Nana absorbed himself in the company of saints such as Swami Shivanand, Nana Maharaj Barve, Raool Maharaj, Swami Swarupanand, Sadguru Shree Digambardas Maharaj and experienced abundant spiritual pleasures.
Nana Maharaj Barve was commonly known as ‘Sahajanand Saraswati’ in the spiritual field. He belonged to the village of ‘Dabhole’ located near the town of ‘Devgad’ in Sindhudurg District, Maharashtra. He was actively involved in the freedom struggle during the year 1930. He was imprisoned in Jalgaon, Buldhana District along with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, Sane Guruji and Vinoba Bhave. He taught the great ‘Bhagwadgeeta’ to Vinoba Bhave in this same prison. He stated that his penance was completed at the age of sixteen and there was nothing pending for him to achieve. He stayed in our house for 12-13 years. He married only to respect the orders of his Guru(Preceptor). He had two sons and five daughters. Once Nana had a thought cross his mind “Nana Maharaj is always roaming around. How does his family survive?” As soon as he had this thought, Nana Maharaj Barve said, ‘Raosaheb, you need not worry about the survival of my family. The Almighty is there to take care of my family for me.’
Yet, Nana invited his family to stay with us every year for a few days. Nana ensured they received every respect as a guest and gifted them with sarees and dress material for the kids. He normally arranged to send them back to their house with a peon.
Nana Maharaj always asked me ‘Why are you studying for Engineering? It will be of no use to you. You have to be a trustee, stay in the temple and take care of it’ and so on. I told him that I wanted to be in Government service and become a Deputy Engineer. It was a position most wished for due to all the perks such as a Government Vehicle and residential quarters. I believed this was a position of high ranks back then since there was no one to give proper guidance about our career. Only after taking admission in Civil Engineering did I become aware of the various branches in Engineering such as Mechanical and Electrical. When I was in my Eleventh standard, I once asked my father for Rs. 40 to pay my fees (25/- for 5 months) and application fees (15/-). My father immediately asked, “Have you already started college? How did the fee amount turn out to be Rs.40/-?” This was the extent of how involved our father was into our education. I kept telling Nana Maharaj Barve, “I would only become an Engineer and never stay in any Temple.” Finally, Nana Maharaj said, “Lets deal with this later. Continue with whatever you were studying!”
In the year 1964, Nana Maharaj had predicted that I would be married to a girl from Dharwar in Karnataka State. In fact our family did not have any connections with Dharwar. But eventually, I did get married to a girl from Dharvar. And as predicted by Nana Maharaj, I led a very happy family life.
I would like to narrate an incident that took place in 1965-66. I came to Kankavli from Kolhapur and on the way I bought some fresh Brinjals (eggplant). I really liked the spicy Brinjal curry that my mother cooked. That day, my mother cooked the spiced Brinjals and our father was not at home. When Nana Maharaj and I sat for the meals, we realized that the curry was a bit extra salty. I ate 2-3 servings of this curry but kept saying that the curry was a bit salty. After finishing the meals, Nana Maharaj spoke to me, ” How many times should you refer to the salt in the curry? Your mother had prepared it with great love just for you, is it not? Did you feel that she prepared all this for herself? Then why should you be taunting her repeatedly for such a small mistake?” I listened to every word he said and from that day onwards I never pass remarks on any food served to me by anyone.
Once I asked Nana Maharaj, “What is God?” He said, “Bring a mirror and look into it. That is where you shall see God. God is not a third person but the ability to recognise one’s own self. There is a layer of many births on our self. One has to purify the self by devotional service only. We purify water by adding chlorine or alum (a white mineral salt). But does the water get purified immediately? No! One has to wait for that. Similarly, if someone purifies their self, they can see God in their own self eventually.”
Once during his stay with us, Nana Maharaj became very sick. Some part of his large intestine got displaced and came out of the anus. Since there was no facility for medical treatment in Kankavli, my father took Nana Maharaj in a special vehicle to Pant Walawalkar in Kolhapur. Pant Walawalkar and his family had sincere feelings towards Nana Maharaj. The surgery was planned for the very next day and since the family of Pant Walawalkar was present, Nana returned to Kankavli. After Nana’s return, Nana Maharaj also returned to Kankavli the very next day in excellent health conditions. There was no necessity for any medical treatment at all. With the kind grace of his Sadguru, Nana Maharaj was cured without any surgery. The absolute faith of Nana Maharaj on the presence of the Omnipotent God for taking care of him and his family was very significant here.
After my marriage I was staying in Kolhapur when Nana Maharaj visited and stayed with us for a few days. In the meantime, since the Ganesh festival was near, I requested him to stay with us until the festival. The Ganesh Chaturthi festival is celebrated on the birth date of Ganapati, the son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. It occurs on the fourth day of the bright half of the Hindu month Bhadrapad and August/September month as per English calendar.
Nana Maharaj said ” No! No! There is a businessman named Pant Walawalkar here. I am going to his place”. My mother said, “There is a dhotee with us that belongs to you. Please take it with you when you leave.” He never carried anything except for two dhotees, one shirt and a short dhotee. Nana Maharaj said to my mother “Let the dhotee be here! After returning from Pant Walawalkar, I will be staying here permanently.” He never ever touched money in any form. My father said “If you have already decided that, stay there for two days and then come back here!” My father then accompanied Nana Maharaj to the house of Pant Walawalkar and returned after dropping him off. Only four hours later father received a telephone call stating that Nana Maharaj had taken Samadhi (The last conscious communion with God) in a fully accomplished sitting posture. At that time he was sixty years old. Pant Walawalkar got the permission from the D.S.P. and took the body in a private vehicle to Dabhole, located near Devgad of Sindhudurg District and performed the funeral rites of Nana Maharaj in his native place. The extensive procedures of the funeral rites were successfully completed as Nana Maharaj took his last breath in the house of Pant Walawalkar. If this incident had taken place in our house, we would not have been able to go through all these procedures! Hence we believe that Nana Maharaj left for the house of Pant Walawalkar in hurry because he was aware of our limitations. He had left his dhotee in our house and Nana sometimes used it as a blanket.
One saint named ‘Raool maharaj’ often came to our house. Bhagwan Sakharam Satelkar, a gentleman who had came from Karachi (now in Pakistan) owned a restaurant in Vengurla. Raool Maharaj always visited this restaurant. He wore a dhotee, a red-ochre shirt and a turban tied on his head. He played all sorts of mischief throughout the day in this restaurant. He splashed water anywhere, emptied the oil containers into the washroom and broke the China bowls that carried ‘Sheva-Bhaji’ (a deep-fried fritter prepared from gram flour). On top of this, if a beggar came around, he gave the beggar money from the cash-box in the restaurant. His mischievous behaviour continued wherever he went. But in our house, he always sat quietly in the living room.
We had a picture of Shree Digambardas Maharaj on a table in the Living room. Pointing his finger towards this picture, Raool Maharaj would say, “This respectful Brahmin is a great Divine Being! Being over-smart in front of him would never work.” Raool Maharaj had memorized the entire ‘gatha’ (verses) written by Saint Tukaram, right from the first verse to the last. He used my father’s harmonium to sing the Abhangas (Verses). When he got tired, he would ask me to play the harmonium but I had to remind him about my inability to play the instrument. He would then continue by adjusting to the right tune. Most of the time, we would be terribly sleepy by then but he woke us up with a mild tap on our backs. Sometimes, he woke up at 3:00am in the morning to take a bath and ask my father to join him by saying, “Oh Respectful Brahmin! Come I will give you a bath!” Nana’s health was so sensitive that he would get affected with the spice of cloves and caught cold with a cardamom. Therefore, Nana used to slip away from Raool Maharaj before they reached the water-well and Raool Maharaj would then return complaining “You Brahmin, You fooled me!”
When in Kanakavli, a gentleman named Baplya stayed next door. He courteously requested many saints to come to his house; the intention was more for gaining riches than spiritual knowledge. So, when he invited Nana Barve to his house, Nana Barve asked Bapalya who stayed in the neighbouring house. When he heard that R.K.Joshi (my father) stayed there, he came over to our house and stayed with us. He said, “There is no sense in staying with Baplya. He always demands for more money.”
One day Baplya requested Raool Maharaj to his house. But after coming there, Raool Bua said, “I will not stay with you! I will only stay with Nana Bhat! Since then, he started to stay with us in our house. Once he said to Baplya, “You want the gold converted into double the quantity, am I right? Then go bring your box of gold!” Baplya immediately brought his wives jewellery box and handed it over to Raool Maharaj. Raool Maharaj gave this box to my mother and said, “Do not return this box to that greedy man! Let it be with you!” Bapalya became very nervous and thought he had lost whatever he had. So finally my mother went to the back door and told Baplya that she would certainly return the ornament box as soon as Raool Maharaj left our house. But Raool Maharaj sat at the entrance firmly with a stick in his hand and said, “Let that greedy come to ask for his ornaments! Just watch what I do to him then!” Saints often display such strange behaviour externally probably to keep people like Baplya at a distance.
On account of Nana, I was naturally blessed with the companionship of these virtuous personalities. Out of the many, two are worth noting since these relationships spanned across and flourished over three generations. One relation was with Krishnaji Sakharam Tembe alias Swami Shivanand. He was known by different names such as Bhau, Tembeswami or Swami Shivanand. He had settled in the village of Pangri near Rajapur in Ratnagiri District.
When my grandfather Keshavrao was a Magistrate in Rajapur, he had to often visit Pangri for Government inspection. There is a temple of HariHareshwar (Lord Shiva and Vishnu) in Pangri and a small stream flows besides this temple. This stream is full of water through the year. There were a few Tembe family houses on the upper side of the temple. When my grandfather visited Pangri, he preferred not to stay in anyone’s house but instead stayed in the HariHareshwar temple. He normally cooked his own meals too. At that time, Swami Shivanand purposely came down to meet my grandfather. He was the village Khot(a rent collector) and hence had some work on some Government topics related to the village land.
Most of the times, people with similar mindset or inclination get along really well and so did my grandfather and Swami Shivanand. They became good friends with each other. Both of them had a strong inclination towards spiritualism. But later, my grandfather was transferred to Panvel and there were probably not many mutual meetings between the two after that. Infact there was no contact even after 1930 after the death of my grandfather. But when Nana started his Governmental duties as a Magistrate in areas like Vengurla and Kanakavli, Swami Shivanand came to know that this Magistrate, Raghunath Joshi was the son of Keshav Mahadev Joshi. Swami Shivanand immediately called upon Nana to his place. Nana immediately went there and took the blessings of Swami Shivanand. In the year 1952-53, we all visited Pangari to take the blessings of Swami Shivanand. During that visit he gave my mother a five-rupee note to get a blouse stitched up for her. But my mother had treasured that Five-rupee note as ‘Prasad’ (blessings). Later, we made it a practice of visiting Swami Shivanand and take his blessings.
Swami Shivanand constantly occupied himself with farming and related activities. His cow pen was full of cattle. In the morning when the labourers arrived, he provided them with a special tea made with jaggery but without milk. In Rajapur area this type of tea is known as ‘Futee’. He also provided four betel leaves, a beetle nut, a little tobacco to each labourer that came to work. The men were paid Rs1.25/day and the women were paid 8-10 ‘anaas’ per day (Sixteen anaas equalled one rupee at that time). Sometimes the labourers were served afternoon meals and ‘Bhau’ himself prepared the meals. In those days, there was no system of serving food to labourers and servants; therefore, everything was served on the same plate. Once a woman had come to work from the neighbouring village ‘Angale’. Bhau served about 2 pounds of rice and loads of curry on her plate.
I was watching this from a nearby bench. I was not only surprised but also rather disgusted to see the quantity of food served on her plate. When I was still in that thought, Bhau sat on a recliner besides me and said, “She eats only once a day. There is no guarantee that there will be any food in her house and she will probably not get any food to eat at night. Now until tomorrow afternoon she would not get anything to eat at all. These are very poor and painstaking people. That is why I served her so much food on her plate.” I realized Bhau’s good heart and also understood how to be generous with others when it comes to food.
His diet was very limited – he only had tea in the morning, a meal at lunch and sometimes he opted for buttermilk in the evening. He had read the ‘Guru Charitra’ (Biography of spiritual teacher) innumerable times. He sat for meditation in a cave located on a hill near his home. He had a ‘Cobra’ that guarded him and was always around to take the blessings. Once when Nana and I were visiting, Bhau mentioned about this Cobra to us. Nana immediately requested him, “Until our stay here, it would be good if the Cobra does not come here. We will be afraid just by the sight of this animal”.
And as requested, the cobra did not show up at all until our stay with Bhau. Once when Nana was visiting, he was sleeping near Bhau’s bed on the floor in front of the porch in the house. Early at dawn, he was awakened by some sound and when he opened his eyes to see he was fortunate to watch Goddess ‘Annapoorna’ talking with Bhau. Nana Quietly watched without disturbing the conversation as he rested on his bed. Usually Bhau never allowed anybody to sleep near his bed, but since Nana was a very virtuous man with abundant religious merits, he was blessed with this special ‘Darshan’ of ‘Annapoorna Mata’. It would rather be worth stating that Bhau actually got this accomplished for Nana by arranging for the blessings of ‘Annapoorna Mata’.
There were no washrooms in or near the houses in Pangri. Back in those days, there was a lack of washroom facilities in Konkan. Hence, Nana as usual went out for his daily chores while the night was still dark, to one of the neighbouring hills. A few moments later, he saw two eyes glittering behind the bushes. Nana used to carry a matchbox with him and so he lighted a matchstick to check. To his surprise, he saw a tiger standing not too far from him! The tiger did not move from his spot and so, Nana remained in his spot! After completing his chores Nana came down the hill and before he could narrate anything, Bhau spoke to him, “Raosaheb, the Supreme lord is our protector here. Nothing happened to you nor will anything happen!”
One of Bhau’s ancestors passed away with some unfulfilled desires and turned into an evil spirit. Bhau got the ancestor settled on a fig tree located near the kitchen of his house. The spirit kept minute attention on all of Bhau’s actions and his meditation. Whenever Bhau committed any mistakes, the spirit would shout and make suggestions. Finally, they say that Bhau prayed to this ancestor and got him shifted to some other place.
Once Bhau had a strange dream where a wild bull was marching towards him with pointed horns as if to kill; that very instance, TembeSwami appeared out of nowhere and caught the bull by its horns. This dream convinced Bhau that his Sadguru would always support him through his calamities.
Bhau was blessed with the vision of Lord Dattatreya (Three headed deity, son of the sage Atri and Anusuya) in the form of a wandering Yogi. The yogi presented himself dancing in the form of a bear, graced Bhau with three dried dates and blessed him saying “Be happy my son”. Once when Bhau was visiting Mumbai, he sat in a restaurant at Girgaon, Mumbai; Lord Dattatreya came there disguised as a Muslim recluse and gave Bhau some ‘Angara’ (sacred ashes of incense burnt before a deity). During those days, most restaurants served dry food on paper. Bhau packed the Angara in a paper that he had just used to eat some rice crispy snack and kept it in his pocket.
Bhau ordered for milk and offered it to Lord Dattatreya, who was disguised as a Muslim recluse. After drinking the milk, Lord Dattatreya asked Bhau to open the small packet of ‘Angara’ and check what was inside. When Bhau opened the packet he was amazed to see the silver Paduka (foot prints) of Lord Dattatreya. These Paduka were embedded with all the six signs -the Shankha (conch), Chakra (Sharp circular weapon), Gada, Padma, Kasturi Tilak and Vaijayanti Mala. Bhau preserved those small silver Paduka in his place of worship. I had seen those Paduka many times, which were as small as a quarter. But recently when I went to Pangri, I did not see those Paduka in the place of worship. The devotees present were totally unaware of their existence.
Bhau took care of farming and other activities very sportively. Every evening he paid the daily salaries due to the labourers. In Konkan, labourers were called ‘Gadi maansa’ where the ‘Maansa’ referred to woman labourers. Bhau kept money in his inner jacket and used it to pay the labourers. Keeping account of all these finances that were managed from Bhau’s ‘Inner pocket’ was beyond one’s imagination. Most of Bhau’s devotees were from the middle class like us. How much could the middle class offer to Bhau? Nana had once planted bitter gourds in Vengurla; he obtained about 50-60 gourds from this plant. He was then not sure what to do with so many bitter gourds and as a solution he loaded them on a State Transport Bus and carried them to Pangri. Bhau was extremely happy when he saw the bitter gourds. He said that they could easily use it in the curry during the festival of Kartiki Pournima celebrated in the month of Kartik (eighth Hindu month – October or November as per English calendar).
I used to visit Pangri during my summer vacation and stay there for 15 days or so. Summertime is mostly mango and jackfruit season in Pangri. I would love savouring mangoes from breakfast and onwards. During the day, I loved diving into the deep part of the stream flowing from the side. During the hot summer days, I would not be satisfied even if I plunged in water throughout the day. Bhau had a cook for preparing meals during those summer days. The canal water flowed all 24 hours. I felt as though I was visiting my grandparents. It was during that period that Bhau had completed the renovations in the HariHareshwar Temple of Pangri. Once while talking on this subject, Bhau unexpectedly told me, “This time I carried out the renovations but next time it will be you who would carry out the same.”
I laughed humbly when he said that. I knew my capacity and the truth was where would I ever bring the two-four lakh rupees from? I am a person who follows the righteous path. Managing a business is beyond my capacity and how much would I get by employment anyways. How could I manage the cost of renovations from my salary? But later in future, during the year 1994-95 when we were in Dervan, a few of us visited Pangri by jeep. We met Mr.Kajle who often visited the temple of Shree Babamaharaj Sahasrabuddhe in Shivajinagar, Pune. We went to the Harihareshwar temple with Kajle. The temple was in a very pitiable state and unclean all around. There was a thick layer of dust accumulated everywhere around the temple. The wooden beams holding the ceiling and tiles around were in a state of mercy. They appeared as if they would fall off anytime. Kajle brought up the topic of renovating the temple and said that they were planning to start the renovations the very next year. I asked him to make an application to our Trust regarding the renovation work and the Trust gave a grant of Rs.1 lakh rupees to the temple. When the renovation was completed Bhau’s forecast about me renovating the temple came to be true. I had not agreed with that statement as it failed to convince me at the time. But as they say in regards to Saints, “the truth always follows their speech”. I still clearly remember one more occasion convincing the significance of this proverb. My father retired from service on 30th November 1964.
My elder sister Meena was still not married and my father had yet to pay for the education of two kids (my younger sister Sulabha and myself). My father Nana had accepted the responsibility of a large family for a long time and also looked after the welfare of all the relatives. Therefore, he did not have sufficient balance in his account when he retired. This created some anxiety in him and in this state of mind went to meet Bhau in Pangri. While talking, Nana naturally expressed his anxious thoughts to Bhau. Upon hearing his anxiety, Bhau said, “What is this Raosaheb? You still have three years of service in balance”. Nana said, “Bhau, as per rules I have retired at the age of 55. Now my service years are over” But Bhau was firm and said, “Just watch! You will be able to continue your service until the age of 58”. In the meanwhile, a Government circular was issued positively extending the retirement age up to 58 years. When the collector came to Kankavli, Nana submitted a request to grant him to extend the service years and let him take benefit from that. The collector immediately approved the applications and Nana joined back the very next day as the ‘Mamlatdar’ in Kankavli.
When the devotees celebrated Bhau’s 75th birthday, Nana told them to make Dattudada the lead for the rituals since he believed there was no one else worthy of this task. Accordingly Dattudada completed all the rites during the ceremony. In the year 1971, Bhau left for his final journey and departed from this world. Nana received this information in Kolhapur and immediately hired a taxi to go to Pangri. Bhau had already told in advance that he would like his last rites to be performed in the prayer area, but later he changed his mind since he thought that people might be afraid to move around in that place. Therefore, as per wishes, the final rites were performed in the courtyard of his house. Nana initiated the process by offering a fistful of earth on the body and then the last rites were performed. After the last rites were performed as prescribed by the scriptures, a Trust was established to manage the activities of that place. Nana was also one of the trustees. But later, he did not take much interest in the working of this Trust and in fact, he did not go to Pangri very often after that. But in the year 1971, Bhau visited in my dream and said, “You should go to Pangri and stay there to carry forward my work”. I had to decline his offer and told him that I will not be able to follow his instructions without the orders of my Sadguru. Bhau did not appear in my dreams after that day.
The life of a person can be really blessed and prosperous with the company of saints and virtuous people. My life was blessed with such people only due to my very own virtuous father.
I had to often visit the Municipal office of Alandi for official work when I was in Pune. When I told my Sadguru (worthy preceptor, Shree Digambardas Maharaj that I had been to Alandi(Pune District), he enquired about other places I visited. When I told him that I had been to the Samadhi (tomb) of Saint Dnyaneshwar in Alandi, he told me to visit the monastery of Shree Nrusimhasaraswati Swami Maharaj without fail from next time. Shree Godbole Maharaj, the disciple of Shree Annasaheb Patwardhan, a great disciple of Shree Nrusimhasaraswati stayed in this monastery. Shree Digambardas Maharaj had asked me to take the blessings of Shree Godbole Maharaj without fail on every trip to Alandi.
Accordingly, I started visiting the monastery to take the blessings of Shree Godbole Maharaj every time I went to Alandi. Godbole Maharaj was about 85-86 years old. During my very first visit he sincerely inquired about me; I told him that I had come as per instructions from my Sadguru Shree Digambardas Maharaj and our acquaintance matured from thereon. Every time I visited, he gave me some nuts or ‘Laddoo’ (sweet balls made form lentil flour) as ‘Prasad’ along with some tea. I still remember the two helpers named Nimkar and Baloo Gokhale that worked for Shree Godbole Maharaj.
Once I asked Godbole Maharaj whether he had composed any religious or devotional poems/songs; he smiled in response and said, ” Up to date, how many have read the tremendous literature written by Saint Dnyaneshwar and Tukoba Maharaj? And even after reading, how many have really understood them or how many have actually followed them? If this is the condition of literature written by these great saints, who would pay attention to a small time person like me?”
After leaving the Government service, I made very few visits to Alandi, but whenever I did, I never missed any opportunity of visiting Godbole Maharaj. I continued this until he left for his final journey.
Another fact I have noticed is that I have been blessed with the company of many saints, their guidance, limitless affection and each one of them granted me prosperity without any restrains; but none of them, even Bhau, ever try to suggest or initiate me into their sect. The reason behind this could very well be that my Sadguru had already initiated me when I was a child!
Even in the educational field, I had the benefit of a few extremely respectable personalities. The first one was my teacher Bagaeetkar who persuaded me to learn the alphabets recognized by all with patience continuously for 15 days. He gave me the first lesson of writing ‘Shree’ without any perplexity. Later in my fourth grade, I had the benefit of learning from honoured teacher Bordwekar; he recognized my ability and encouraged me to appear for the scholarship examinations. In addition to this, there were other ideal teachers like Tari, Gawaskar, Shirodkar and Puranik.
A teacher named Sathe in Patkar High School triggered my interest and passion in Marathi literature. He dressed well in a shirt, pant and coat, but never combed his hair and always came to class with an unshaven beard. The interesting thing was that he never taught in class holding the prescribed textbook. We had a chapter in our class from the book ‘Rutuchakra’ written by the author Durgabai. Sathe Sir told me to read the complete book ‘Rutuchakra’ to understand the concept. He also specifically asked me to read a number of other good books.
R.P. Joshi, who was once my Sanskrit teacher, is still in touch with me. He is now 80 years old and very recently he had come to Dervan. Professor Marathe and principal G.P. Nagarkar were two other highly dignified personalities I met during my university days. Professor Marathe, who retired from the Army, was ‘Head of the Civil Engineering Department’. He led four ‘Drawing’ classes per week for us; but he focused on teaching us ‘English’ in at least one of these classes.
Principal Nagarkar was also a very intelligent person. He taught us the concept of the ‘Strength of material’ by merely drawing a line across on the board. He came to the hostel early morning at 5:00 am to wake us up. He dressed in a very simple collared-shirt, pant, chappals and always held an umbrella under his arm-pit for all the twelve months of the year. During his time, we did not get any break in classes at all. He would sometimes unexpectedly come and sit on the last bench in the classroom for a surprise and check whether the lecturers were teaching properly or not. All these were ideal personalities of our times, as they loved to teach; and in case a student failed to understand a particular subject, these professors would feel it’s a deficiency in their teaching.
I developed a hobby for reading only due to Nana. He purchased many books on the spiritual topics and had great love for books. On a frank note, the only true collection Nana had was his books and he only showed any possessiveness towards nothing else but his books. He never shared his books with anyone. If there were ever a demand for a book from anybody, he would request the person to sit there and read the book. It was probably because in reality, he had great love for his books. It was his key accumulated wealth. He handled this wealth very carefully. He never liked folding the corners of a page in a book, as a bookmark. He used some old invitations as his bookmarks. His books normally appeared to be very new and to such an extent that one could easily question whether a book was ever read or not. We could never find stains of any sort on these books. Only on the first page he would write his name R.K. Joshi and put his signature underneath. During a protest in the year 1952-53, Vinoba Bhave was at Gopuri in Konkan for seven days. Nana had gone to visit him at that time. I had fortunately accompanied Nana on this trip. We purchased a number of books autographed by Vinoba Bhave himself such as the sermons on Bhagwadgeeta, as well as the Bhagwadgeeta itself in large fonts; these books are still preserved by us. This was the second very precious inheritance Nana had kept for my sake only.
Nana never gave his books to others since he had a few bad experiences. A lawyer had once taken a book on the biography of Gondavlekar Maharaj from Nana. When he returned it after two months, there were tea stains on the book. Nana immediately wrapped the book in paper and gave it to back to the lawyer saying, “Seems like you really enjoyed this book, so you can keep it for yourself.” And later, Nana bought himself a new copy of the same book from Kolhapur.
My likes and dislikes matured with my growing age. Accordingly, even though in school age I had read whatever was available like a crazy reader, I became picky about my readings in my university days. And due to my great fortune, I went to stay with my elder sister during those days.
My elder sister’s husband, Professor Bhadbhade was an overcritical and studious reader. He had his own large collection of English books, approximately 35-40 years old. These books were almost like discovering Alibaba’s treasure for me. From this rare collection, I read many books written by great authors like Somerset Moml; Ernest Hemmingway; Graham Green; G.M. Foster; Berkley; Kant and J.B. Holdan etc. I also read the famous books on psychology such as ‘Psychology of Sex’ ‘Psychology of Human Being’ and ‘Psychology of a Child’ written by Dr. Fried.
One cannot be convinced with all thoughts written by these authors, but every author has different angles of looking at the various aspects of life. It’s almost like a Kaleidoscope that could be used to observe the different forms of human tendencies. Today, while managing this institution, many officials who render services for this institution or the devotees of Maharaj come to meet me and ask for guidance on their daily life issues. In these situations, the knowledge I gained from the foreign and local books/literature I read back then, help me understand the complications between people. And on account of this, I always take a very generous role regarding others and also understand the firmness behind someone’s behaviour.
Just like my hobby of reading, I had a liking for Hindi movies. As a child I had seen a number of dramas with my mother. Most of the times, the Theatre owners used to come to my father since he was a Taluka Magistrate; they came to take official permission regarding dramas and cinemas and gave invitations to my father requesting him to attend the dramas and cinemas without fail. My father always declined saying that he had his own cultural programme at night (i.e. sleep) and hence he would not be able to attend the cinema. When they did not understand his joke, he would explain laughingly “programme at night – going to bed very quietly at nine o’clock.” The Theatre owners would then insist my father to send my mother, family members as well as kids to the cinema. That way sometimes we got to watch the movies or dramas with our mother.
I always enjoyed listening to the songs of the famous singer Mukesh. I also liked the Music direction of the well-known director, Shankar Jaykishan and the songs of singer Lata Mangeshkar prior to the year 1970. Nowadays, I don’t have any spare moment to sit quietly and listen to the songs. But during travel, I get the opportunity to listen to music to some extent. While managing the Temple Institution, sometimes I experience mental stress and anxiety. I feel, “Why are we doing all these things?” Listening to music for even just half hour helps relieve the stress and anxiety in these situations and that is the only relation I have with music today!
‘Mahatma Kabir Says’: The only one to be called a Sadguru (good preceptor) or a saint is the one who could show his disciple, The Supreme Being unobserved by the open eyes. The one who teaches the disciple, ‘Sahaj Samadhi’ (the deep meditation). In this deep meditation, there is no necessity for any action such as ‘Pranayam’ (regulated breathing). Once the disciple reaches ‘Sahaj Samadhi’ (the perfection stage of trance) and reaching the Supreme Being through the transcendental (supernatural) state of mind; there would not be any obstruction for him by any uninvited external sound. In the state of ‘Sahaj Samadhi’ (trance), the disciple gets the transcendental (Supernatural) sight (Darshan) of the Supreme Being wherever the mind travels. A disciple can attain such a ‘Sahaj Samadhi’ only by the kind grace of a Sadguru (good preceptor) and no one else.
[More chapters to be added shortly……..]