Short Biography of Shree Maharaj

Since the responsibility of Temple-Shrine of Shree Baba Maharaj was accepted willingly, Shree Maharaj tried his best till the last moment of his life for its development and expansion.

Shree Maharaj used to say "My independent existence as, Vithal Ganesh Joshi, had ended on 24^th July 1953. Now I am seen here purely by the kind grace of Shree Baba Maharaj. There is no existence of my own. Only Shree Baba Maharaj is the doer as well as the cause to be performed."

Further Shree Maharaj used to say " It is entirely due to the religious merit of my mother and father that I could ender service at the feet of Shree Baba Maharaj as an humble servant. I am only an attendant of this Temple-Shrine. My Sadguru (reverend preceptor) only brought me in this world for his work, and as such my existence will remain as long as my Sadguru desires. My supreme aim in my life is to render service to my Sadguru as well as complete all works assigned to me by my Sadguru. I treat it as my sacred duty to act as per the wish and obey commands of my Sadguru Shree Baba Maharaj . I shall live in this world only for Shree Baba Maharaj. I shall speak only that which Shree Baba Maharaj desired me to speak. I shall do only which Shree Baba Maharaj desired me to do. What Shree Baba Maharaj suggest only those shall be my good thoughts. Only Shree Baba Maharaj shall be the Supreme in my life. There shall be no other God than Shree Baba Maharaj in my life".

With this awakening thoughts, Shree Maharaj surrendered himself completely and became one with Shree Baba Maharaj. The one and only aim in the life of Shree Maharaj was to spread the glory, and greatness as well as to sky rocket the flag of the temple-shrine of Shree Baba Maharaj alongwith the augmentation of the size of the devotees of Shree Baba Maharaj. Shree Maharaj spoke " Shree Baba Maharaj is in fact, Shree Swami Samarth himself. That means, he is the incarnation of Lord Dattatreya. The existence of Shree Baba Maharaj would be for one thousand years in the temple-shrine of Pune and this will become an important holy place, attracting thousands of devotees. This temple shrine of Shree Baba Maharaj would be a second Gangapur". (Gangapur is a famous holy place of Lord Dattatreya. It is located in Karnataka State.)

After taking the plot, where the temple-shrine is located, on lease basis, Shree Maharaj started the repairing work of the plot including, the leveling after stuffing with rubbers, earth, and building a border wall etc. He also thought of building to be built in the temple-shrine plot for his stay as well as for housing the devotees who come from outside Pune. At that time, in the plot 937-D, there was a small temple-shrine of Shree Baba Maharaj and for the use of devotees, there was a small shed of the size 12 x 15 in the eastern corner of the plot. Because of this small shed, it was not possible to accommodate all the devotees who used to come to the temple shrine to attend the only festival of the death anniversary day (Punyatithi) of Shree Baba Maharaj from outside Pune and due to this shortage of space, the devotees from outside Pune had to make their own arrangements outside the temple-shrine in different locations for their stay.

To solve this accommodation problem, the devotees decided to collect donations and present the collected amount to Shree Maharaj who would take up the construction of a building as per his plan and wish.

As decided during November 1959, the devotees and followers of Shree Maharaj honored Shree Maharaj and presented him a cloth bag containing Rs.59,999/- In fact, the construction work of the building had already been started by Shree Maharaj during 1958 itself and the ground floor was completed by 1959. The donation collected was not enough to meet the budge for the construction of the building. And on 26^th June 1959 (6^th day of Jyestha month (third month) of the year 1881 as per Hindu Calendar) the Vastushanti (opening ceremony) was performed with religious rites as per the Hindu system. At that time, only the ground floor of the building was constructed.

On the night of the opening ceremony (Vastushanti) Shree Pandurangrao Marballi had a dream, and he saw the vision of Shree Baba Maharaj, who suggested to Shree Maharaj to construct one more floor with a terrace in the building. When Shree Maharaj came to know of this dream, he said "There is no problem. Since it was suggested by Shree Baba Maharaj, the work would be completed by the grace of Shree Baba Maharaj" and after this, the first floor of the building was also completed and the two floors were ready for accommodating the devotees. Then in the Shravan month (fifth month as per the Hindu Calendar / the death anniversary of Shree Baba Maharaj was due. On the day of festival after the night Arati (waving of a lamp, singing a devotional song in front of a deity) was over, Shree Maharaj announced "In future, we will celebrate the death anniversary on a small scale and celebrate the birth anniversary of Shree Baba Maharaj on a grand scale". This way, after 1959, onwards the birth anniversary of Shree Baba Maharaj was being celebrated on a grand scale.

Shree Maharaj could get the residential building with the ground floor as well as the first floor including the terrace, constructed by taking loan on a personal responsibility. Since the donation collected by devotees was very little compared to the total budget required, promissory notes were issued in the names of the devotees Shri Ramesh Balsekar, Shri Mugwe and Shri Wani. The repayment of this loan was arranged by Shree Maharaj.

Further the compound wall for the plot no 937-D also got constructed by Shree Maharaj from the owner, Smt. Nirmalatai (daughter of Shree Baba Maharaj ) and two Name Boards giving these details were installed, one on the main gate and the other in the temple-shrine. These two name boards are in existence since 1959, one showing, Smt. Nirmalatai Neelkanth Khare as the owner of the plot and the other showing Shree Maharaj, as lease holder only.

During that period, the devotees of Shree Maharaj included, Shri Bhat, Shri Tatya Joshi, Shri Kale, Shri Kulkarni, Mamo Parodkar, Shri Amondikar, Shri Kulkarni, Dr.Bhagwat, Shri Panwalkar, Dr. Kalyanpurkar, Shri Dalvi, Shri Jeevanrao Kshirsagar, Shri Shivaji Maharaj, Ved Murth (learned Priest) Shri Sapre, (who the opening ceremony – Vastu Shanti of the new residential building). The fellow disciples of Shree Maharaj included Shri N.R. Phadke, Shri Shripad Gokhale, Shri Joglekar, and Shri Ambekar. Further, the devotees from Mumbai included Shri Vishwanath Prabhudesai, Shri Waru, Shri Mugwe, Shri Ramesh Balsekar, Shri Maraballi, Shri Nagarkatti, Shri Mulri Balse, Shri Dinanath Banavali, Shri Dhondopanth Spare, and Shri T.S.Tendolkar. After the year 1958 onwards, devotees like Shri Kamalakar Walawalkar, Shri Vasantrao Pandit, Shri Rambahu Athalyse, Shri Ramakant Kulkarni, Police Inspector Shri Barve and also a large number of devotees even from Konkan Area started coming to the temple shrine. Shree Maharaj started raising the temple-shrine. But there would be always an impediment in the way of doing good deeds. By making Shree Maharaj as first respondent and Smt. Nirmalatai Khare, as second respondent, one of the devotees only of Shree Baba Maharaj Shri S.R. Ambekar, made an application to the Deputy Charity Commissioner of Pune, stating that the income from the plot no.937-D should be declared as public property. Nearly for three to three and half years the hearing of the application continued. Ultimately the Deputy Charity Commissioner passed the judgement stating that plot no.937-D alongwith the temple shrine of Shree Baba Maharaj as well as the residential building is entirely private property. Smt. Neelkanth Khare, the daughter of Shree Baba Maharaj, being the only heir, becomes the single owner for the entire income from the plot no.937-D and Shree Maharaj become the lease holder of the property.

In the year 1958, Shree Maharaj purchased the plot no. 312-C which was adjacent to plot no.937-D, from Shri K.R.Wagh and out of this plot, he gave a piece of land measuring (30 x 91) as a gift, on a registered paper, to Smt. Nirmalatai Khare, for raising the temple-shrine of Shree Baba Maharaj. Again in the year 1959 Shree Maharaj purchased a piece of land measuring (130x15) located near the eastern side of the temple shrine, from Fergusson College, D.E. Society and gifted the same, on registered paper, to Smt. Nirmalatai Khare, for the purpose of the temple-shrine. Further, in the year 1958 itself, Shri K.R. Wagh, had made an oral agreement for the sale of plot no.312-B to Shree Maharaj at a price of Rs.11,000/-and a wire compound was erected round this plot no.312-B. This plot was purchased by Shree Maharaj in the year 1978 and allotted the same to Shri Vithalrao Joshi Charities Trust.