← Mother KrishnabaiHer autobiography

5

Sri Chandekar Maharaj

WHILE I was passing the days as related above, one day you in the form of a great soul, Sri Chandekar Maharaj, paid a visit to Malsiras where I lived. The Maharaj was an inspiring exponent of the scripture, Jnaneshwari, and was granting great peace to his listeners. Dr. Rama Rao invited the saint to our house to discourse upon Jnaneshwari so that I might have peace of mind. Later, when we had shifted to Sirsi, to which place Dr. Rama Rao was transferred, he paid us a visit there also. He related to us about a rosary which was presented to him by his Guru. As we were keenly interested in listening to the details about the rosary, he told us how he got it. In this context he narrated in brief his life-story which runs as follows:

Sri Chandekar Maharaj in his earlier life was a merchant. He married the daughter of his maternal uncle who set him up in business in one of his shops. They engaged a paid servant to look after the shop, while they got immersed in worldly pleasures and enjoyed travelling life as they liked. Now the happy day arrived when God’s Grace descended on them. While they were lounging comfortably in their easy chairs in the front yard of their shop, a strange woman appeared on the scene. She showed them a packet of jaggery she had purchased from their shop and complained: “Since this jaggery is not of good quality and is costly I don’t want it.”

The servant, without saying a word, returned its price to her and, taking back the jaggery, put it in the storing tin, throwing away the paper in which it was packed in the front yard. Observing this the Maharaj thought: “It would have been well if the woman were given either jaggery of good quality or the inferior one at a lower price.”

At this psychological moment, as it were, a party of devotees passed in front of the shop on their way to Pandharpur, singing God’s Names. The devotees were so absorbed in their devotions that they were proceeding singing loudly and dancing, without caring about the mockery and criticism of the public. The Maharaj, who was then bereft of any faith in God, was thinking within himself, “Have these people gone crazy? What makes them shout and behave unseemly in the streets?”

Reflecting thus, he raised both his hands aloft and turned them behind touching the back of the chair. Now the piece of paper in which the jaggery was packed for the woman who bought it and which the shop assistant had flung away, had got stuck to the top of the easy chair on which the Maharaj sat. This piece of paper came into his hands. He opened the crumpled paper and found written on it a song composed by Saint Tukaram. The purport of the song was that if anyone repeated six crore times the divine Mantra, Ram Krishna Hari, the person would assuredly be blessed with the vision of God.

Instantly the Maharaj was fired with a keen desire to test and discover how far the promise held out by Saint Tukaram could be true. The result was that he went to his shop that night, spilt all the oil stored in tins on the articles kept for sale in the shop and, setting fire to them, returned home. When the news of the fire spread all over the place, the Maharaj, pretending not to know anything about it, came on the scene and expressed astonishment. That night itself, removing the gold bangles from his wife’s hands while she was asleep, and taking with him also the book, Jnaneshwari, the Maharaj left the house.

Travelling over many places he at last reached Rishikesh in the Himalayas. There he passed his days in reading the Jnaneshwari and doing the Japa of Ram Krishna Hari. Many Mahatmas lived in the Himalayas. Among them one Mahatma used to come to the Maharaj and discourse with him on spiritual matters. But the Maharaj evinced no interest in his talks. So, whenever the Mahatma started speaking, the Maharaj would close his ears with both hands and tell him, “I don’t need your teaching; I don’t believe in what you say. I believe only in what I have gained by experience.” Yet the Mahatma would visit him daily without fail. Thus one year passed.

The Maharaj now wished to go back to his native place. On the day prior to his departure from Rishikesh, the Mahatma who was coming to the Maharaj daily, forcibly put around the neck of the Maharaj the rosary which he was using and, embracing him tight, whispered into his ears a Mantra. As the Maharaj was struggling to free himself from the clutches of the Mahatma, he could not make out or remember the Mantra poured into his ears. So he did not do the Japa of the Mantra at all, whereas he took great care of the rosary given to him. In due course the Maharaj returned to his native town.

Here the Maharaj’s wife, owing to the pangs of separation from her husband, was bedridden with illness. On hearing of her husband’s arrival she instantly sent a letter to him in which she wrote that as she was soon to die, she looked forward very anxiously for his Darshan. In reply, the Maharaj informed her that he had vowed to finish a fixed number of Japa of Ram Krishna Hari, and if he met her before the completion of the Japa, he would have to start it all over again. He asked her what her answer to this was.

His wife, his true life-partner as she was, sent word to him: I have, however, to depart this life, so there is no need to break your vow for my sake.” Thus she did not go counter to her husband’s will and calmly passed away after the Maharaj regained the Himalayas.

By the time Sri Chandekar Maharaj returned to the Himalayas, the Mahatma who had initiated him with the Mantra had renounced his body. Consequently he now developed a greater reverence for the rosary presented to him by the Mahatma. Thenceforth the Maharaj considered him as his Guru and, placing the rosary given by the Mahatma in front of him, he would do the Japa with his own rosary.

In due course, the Maharaj paid a visit to Benares. There he went for the Darshan of Kashi Vishwanath and, placing the rosary given by his Guru on Shiva’s Murti, he performed his usual Japa. On finishing the Japa he left the place, forgetting to take the rosary with which he had adorned the Shiva Linga. Having reached his quarters he remembered the rosary and was greatly upset. He became all the more anxious when he thought that it would be difficult to recover it since the daily worshippers would have adorned the Shiva Linga with bilva leaves and flowers. The Maharaj therefore felt that he was like a beggar by losing such an invaluable jewel. Immediately he ran to the temple of Vishwanath and searched for the missing rosary but, not finding it anywhere in spite of a long search, he was stricken with despair. However, he discovered it at last at the side of Shiva’s Murti. His joy knew no bounds. Till then the Maharaj had been under the impression that he had no love for his Guru, but when he saw how deeply he was affected by the loss of the rosary given by him, it was proved that after all he had genuine love for his Guru.

O all-pervading Papa! On hearing the story of Sri Chandekar Maharaj’s life a desire sprang up in me to have that Japa mala. I made him aware of this through Anasuyakka, but at that time the rosary was not with him. He assured me that it would be given to me when I met him at Paithan where he would go for the Ekanath Shashti. I went to Paithan with Anasuyakka and thence we proceeded to a place called Nevas.

O gracious Papa! At Nevas there stands a granite pillar on which Saint Jnaneshwar wrote with charcoal his famous commentary on the Bhagavad Gita – the Jnaneshwari. His disciples who were with him would copy out the script from the pillar, chapter after chapter, as Jnaneshwar Maharaj went on writing. The last chapter the saint wrote on the pillar was carved on it and it is still there. When I went there with Anasuyakka we met the Maharaj who handed over to me the rosary which his Guru had given him.

O infinite Papa! Sri Chandekar Maharaj did not initiate anyone with a Mantra. Those who wished for initiation took the Mantra while he was singing it during his discourses on the Jnaneshwari. In this way I got the Mantra Ram Krishna Hari from him and, as willed by you, I began reading the Jnaneshwari and Ekanath Bhagavat. I performed the Japa of the Mantra with the rosary after a bath for the welfare of all the members of my family and for the preservation of my physical purity. At other times I would wear the rosary around my neck.

O kindness-incarnate Papa! Although I received Mantras severally from Sri Tammanna Sastri, Sri Siddharudha Swami and Sri Chandekar Maharaj, every time I was newly initiated you gave me the belief that all Gurus are one and the same. When I did not have this faith I prayed to the earlier Gurus to grant me this faith and attitude. In the end this conviction became firmly fixed. It was only then that I would ask for and receive the Mantra from other saints.