TRIP TO SHEGAON – SAMADHI OF SHRI GAJANAN MAHARAJ (22.2.13 to 24.2.13)

We had got a message on 2^nd February, 2013 to visit Shegaon to inquire about the administrative functioning of the Gajanan Maharaj Trust. Shri Ramnath Kamath said that he had received this message a few days earlier and during a meeting at Dadar he said that it was Pujya Swamiji’s wish that we should visit the Ashram at Shegaon. The next day (Sunday), while having lunch at home my wife’s maternal aunt mentioned that she was going to the Gajanan Maharaj math to pay the fare for the trip to Shegaon. My antenna shot up and I asked her when she was going. She said that the ‘math’ was organizing everything and a train compartment was being booked. I told her that there would be six of us and could we also join her. She said that she will check that very afternoon. In the evening from the ‘math’ she called and asked for the names of the persons intending to travel. I gave her our names (Ramnath Kamath, Anant Khamankar, Pawankumar Kankani & self) and age for the railway booking. Four days later our tickets were confirmed with a couple of minor hiccups. We really did not have to do anything apart from showing the intent to go – the Guru Energies did the rest!

Before travelling on the 22^nd of February, Ramnath and I decided to carry 35 Samarpan Meditation introduction booklets in Marathi to be distributed to our fellow travelers. We had also carried four Samarpan Meditation introduction kits to be handed out if required.

We all assembled at VT Station, collected our identity tags as it was a common ticket for the whole group. The train left at exactly 8.05pm. After everyone had settled down the organizers called us together to perform the ‘Arti’ of Shri Gajanan Maharaj, whose original photo was put up (first time I had seen the original photograph) in the train.

Yogiraj Shri Gajanan Maharaj

After the ‘arti’ we all paid obeisance at His altar and then we got ready for dinner. Dinner had been carried by the organizers and it was relayed from our end of the compartment to the other end by means of a chain gang (reminded me of Goa Guru Purnima where I had been fortunate enough to offer Gurukarya by being part of a chain gang putting rubble to fill up the monsoon puddles and level the ground). It had been raining heavily on the way and the climate was nice and cold. At 5.45am we reached Shegaon railway station.  From the station we were transported to the ashram by buses operated by the ashram Trust free of cost. We were told to assemble at building number 6 and collect our room keys from room number 9. We were given rooms 23 (Ramnath and Anant), 27(Pawan and self) and 34(Chiya and Usha tai) on the second floor. The moment we entered the rooms we were impressed by the cleanliness and simplicity of the rooms. The beds were made of good quality cast iron with a thick coat of blue paint and the mattresses were good quality Kurl-on mattresses. We had our bath and went for the Samadhi darshan at 7.30am. The sunrise was beautiful.

Sunrise on 23rd morning

Sunrise on 23rd morning

As we came down we were struck by the tremendous cleanliness (Cleanliness is next to Godliness – and this Ashram lived by that tenet), with sevaks all over the place sweeping, cleaning and using mechanical vacuum cleaners to keep the ground clean. The atmosphere was full of consciousness, with clean pure air and the cacophony of a variety of birds chirping throughout. The darshan took some time as there was a queue and we could not spend more than a minute at the Samadhi as the volunteers kept asking us to move on. At 8.30am we had breakfast at Jaydip Hall which had a tie-up with the organizers.

Cleanliness next to Godliness - sevaks keeping the premises spotlessly clean

At 9.30am we assembled to go for the ‘char dham’ tour – ‘Mote Shiv mandir’ followed by ‘prakat sthal’ (the place where Shri Gajanan Maharaj was first sighted - One day as Bankat Lal and Damodar, two gentlemen from Shegaon, were taking a stroll they noticed a young boy outside the monastery of a holy figure called Devidas paturkar. The young boy was eating leftover grains of rice from a plate of leaves that was thrown out as waste food. Then he drank unclean water that was meant for the cattle and he left the place fully satisfied. Observing these events, Bankatlal had a realization that this was not an ordinary boy and that there was something special about him); after that we walked down to ‘Bankatlal Sadan’, the house of the disciple (Shri Bankat Lal Agarwal) who first spotted and recognized the saintly qualities of Maharaj, Bankatlal Nivas - this hall had a plaque which said that Maharaj appeared in Shegaon on 23.2.1878 and that was his ‘prakatya din’ – it was divine grace that we were at the Samadhi on 23.2.2013 –exactly 135 years after the appearance of the great saint, Guru energies at work I must say! The hall had various paintings which described the various events in Maharaj’s life. We sat for meditation and a little later a couple of the tourists sang bhajans in Maharaj’s praise. After that Shri Patil – who has been offering seva for the last 40 years called on a 6 year old girl to pick chits with the names of sadhaks for giving them prasad in the form of souvenirs of Maharaj. After a couple of names were called out, my wife’s maternal aunts name was called out and she got a book narrating Maharaj’s tales in verse format. As the names were being called, my mind started taking my name and my soul was saying stop…..after a couple of other names were called, I was not too surprised to hear my name being called for a small image of the Maharaj which was given to me as ‘prasad’, later on Pawan too had his name called and got the book "Yanchi diary me lihli” by Vasant Gogte (star of tv serial on Gajanan Maharaj). This was total match fixing as we called it – as out of about a dozen ‘prasads’ distributed three came to our group. The last halt was at ‘Maruti mandir’ after which we returned for lunch to Jaydip Hall and then went back to our rooms to rest.

 After tea at 3pm we then assembled at 4pm at the entrance to gate number 6 where we were told that we should get into jeeps which were hired and we should return in the same jeeps so that there is no confusion of any person going missing. As everybody rushed to get into vehicles, we hung about and then went into a Force 12 seater jeep – as we 6 sat down, I told Anant that no one else will come and we will have the jeep to ourselves. After another wait for 5 minutes we had the jeep to ourselves with Pujya Swamiji’s Grace! We left then for Nagzari village (the village gets its name because of underground streams which flow in zig-zag formation like snakes) to Gomaji Maharaj’s samadhi. The great saint Shri Gomaji had attained communion (Samadhi) with God in that cave at Nagzari. On the way it rained again with bright sunshine and we were blessed with the vision of a beautiful and clear rainbow (photograph with Anant). There is a temple and a small pond – Gomukh kund, where it is said that Shri Gomaji Maharaj used to perform bhajans by seating himself in knee-deep water in the kund. The water flowing out of Gomukh kund meets the river Mohana which turning eastwards joins the river Bordi. There is a legend prevalent about the Gomukhkund. It says that formerly Shri Gomaji Maharaj used to go for bath to the river Purna but in his old age he was unable to do so. Even then with great physical forbearance he persisted in going to the Purna. The river Purna was pleased with the devotion of Shri Gomaji Maharaj and gave him a boon that she will appear in the Gomukhkund. The water continually flows from the Gomukh from which we drank some and sprinkled some over our heads. There are five temples of Lord Ishwar – Nageshwar, Someshwar, Tryambakeshwar, Visveshwar and Gupteshwar. The guide told us that four temples are visible and that of Gupteshwar is hidden and can only be spotted by those who are completely pure….none of us managed to spot Lord Gupteshwar!!

Yogiraj Shri Gajanan Maharaj at Anand Sagar

Mirabai - pure love energy

 

From there we left at around 5.30pm to Anand Sagar which is a spiritual site with beautiful landscaped gardens a train ride, and artificial lake with boat rides, etc . To completely enjoy Anand Sagar we will require a minimum of one full day! On entering Anand Sagar, we were told not to take our cameras and video camera as they could get confiscated. As this was the Samarpan practise we left our cameras in the car, but when we went inside we found that it was open season and visitors were taking photographs left, right and center! My wife’s aunt went and stood in line for the train ticket, we too followed. After a 15 minute wait we collectively said forget the train, let’s roam around! While randomly roaming we saw a signboard showing directions to ‘dhyan kendra’. We walked towards the Dhyan Kendra discussing our mission, cracking jokes, laughing like we had all lost it! We reached the dhyan kendra after a 20 minute walk and found that it was surrounded on 3 sides by water of the artificial lake. The atmosphere was very cool and full of energy and consciousness. We went into the dhyan kendra where instructions were given by sevaks by means of sign boards as talking was not permitted. Inside the Dhyan kendra I paid obeisance to the Gurus which had photos of Gajanan Maharaj, Shri Ramkrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekanand and Mata Nirmala Devi.

 

Swami Vivekananda being blessed by Ramakrishna Paramhansa

 

 

While meditating I got jasmine fragrance and a thought crossed my mind that one of our Ashrams should also have meditation center surrounded by water, as the ambience created by such a large collectivity of water was soothing, calming and created a great meditative atmosphere.  At around 6.15pm I got out of the hall and realized only Anant and I were left, as I went out I found Ramnath looking at the beautiful sunset – I joined him at the site and he wondered why Swamiji had sent us there.

 

Sunset view from the Dhyan Kendra overlooking the lake

 

But we prayed that whatever we were sent to receive, we should receive and as we started walking down the stairs there was a very strong fragrance of sandalwood and the same energy which I had felt outside Babadham while waiting for Naimishaji sometime in September last year. This was Swamiji’s subtle body and Swamiji’s fragrance for sure as all of us felt it – we walked for about five minutes and the fragrance and Swamiji’s cool energy accompanied us. The experience was so divine that it cannot be explained in words.  We all thanked Pujya Swamiji for his blessings and Grace. After that we walked back to the car, explored the dining system, had tea and sabudana khichdi; then returned to the car – from there we returned to Jaydip Hall for dinner.

 The next day we sat for meditation at 6am and as we concluded the meditation at about 7am a stranger knocked on the door and asked for Crocin tablet, which we did not have. We went for breakfast, but as we were early, we ate kachoris (local favorite) had tea and went back to our room. The actual group breakfast was at 9am and we decided to skip that and complete the role allocation assignment which we had decided to do in collectivity. We completed the role allocation in collectivity, debating pros and cons of various options for Ashram, Niwas and Dham by lunch time. We then left for lunch at Jaydip Hall where again the lunch was simple, tasty and wholesome. After lunch we sat together again and completed the rest of the role mapping by 2.40pm. We slept till 4pm, went for our tea break at 4.15pm, and surrendered the rooms by 5pm as instructed. After that we saw a school of bevy of birds flying with loud chirping, assembling in a tree, chattering away and then flying off again. 

Birds in flight - looks like smoke from a chimney!

Birds in flight - cacophony of noise

  We were repeatedly told to go for darshan to the Samadhi by both the ladies (Chiya and Usha Tai- her friend) so we went. As we were walking to the temple, Pawan got a call from his wife to offer flowers - he said he had, so he bought flowers and we offered them at the samadhi. There was less of a crowd now and we got to spend slightly more time. After that we went for “Mukh Darshan” which is from a slight distance and from behind a full glass partition, from where no volunteer would ask you to leave. When we reached there was only a lady praying, who left as we started praying. I was praying for complete shunya and then from within a prayer for the success of the mission assigned to us by Pujya Swamiji, I also prayed to Maharaj for receiving the grace for which we had been sent. As I was praying there were tremendous vibrations which were emanating from the palms of my hand and a fragrance of sandalwood was engulfing my being. The silence was disturbed by a lady pushing me while passing by, which ended that blissful moment. As I left I saw that quite a crowd had gathered for mukha darshan! As I went down again I experienced sandalwood fragrance on the way. We saw the bhojnalaya which we were told could serve to 2 lakh people in one afternoon. Then we sat down again outside in the temple premises. We meditated for a while then I offered prayers again for mission to be successful and then Pawan said aloud the same prayer which we repeated as a group, albeit with slightly different wording, but the essence was the same. Again we experienced fragrance and cooling with energy flow. We left to intermittent fragrance on the way and felt totally blessed with divine grace and consciousness. As we neared the gate we got darshan of the temples elephant –which again reminded me of Shri Ramkrishna and Pujya Swamiji’s connection.

 

Gajaraj entering the temple to offerings

Salute by Gajaraj

Side profile of Gajaraj

 

We went back to residential square and while speaking to the organizers I asked for permission to distribute the introductory booklets in Marathi about Samarpan Meditation, which he readily agreed to. Then I offered an introductory kit on Samarpan Meditation to two of the senior organizers and explained the concept of Samarpan Meditation in brief.

 

We then went by auto to Shegaon station at 7pm. We kept the bags and went and got fresh kachoris to take home. The boy selling the kachoris was pro-active and told us for large orders, we should call in advance so that we did not have to wait, also that he delivered kachoris in the train in which we were travelling based on advance information, also he delivered to Mumbai if the order crossed 400 pieces! He gave us his visiting card too! We went back to the station and waited for the train. The train came 25 minutes late - at 9.15. Got all the bags into the compartment using chain relay tactics, the ladies got in from the other end of the compartment. After settling down we handed over the bags based on tags given to all sadhaks. Not a single bag was left behind in the rush – the planning, co-ordination and execution was superb with 70 bags and 70 passengers getting into the train in the given 3 odd minutes of the trains halt. After the bags had been restored to their rightful owners, arti was performed. After the arti, Pawan and I distributed the Marathi Samarpan introductory booklets, explaining the concept of Samarpan in brief. Two extra were given to a couple who came saying that they had not received from the kit – but these were in Hindi. Ramnath and Anant then explained in greater detail to a few people who showed keen interest. The books were well received, and the exact count was distributed! Everywhere we experienced Swamiji’s grace and the trip concluded like a dream. We had dinner and the food was distributed in the same manner by means of a relay, after which I prayed to Gurudev and thanked him for His Grace. We retired for the night after talking about Swamiji to the other ladies - one of them was from bank of Maharashtra and said that she knew a couple of our sadhaks who were Swamiji’s followers. At 5.00am or so Ramnath and Pawan got off at Kalyan, we reached Dadar at 6am. Anant took a cab to Chembur and as no cab would come the short distance from Dadar east to Matunga west, we bought train tickets and reached home by 6.25am.

The entire trip was magic, great organization, superb food, lovely people, tremendous energy and consciousness throughout….the connect was there. Thank you, Pujya Gurudev for your Grace and Kindness in sending us to Shegaon. I just pray that the Guru Energies help us in doing the karya as pure mediums of the Divine.

Jai Baba Swami