Short Biography of Shree Maharaj

After coming to Ratnagiri, Shree Maharaj used to stay in Krishnashram Lodging and Boarding owned by Shri Haribhau Kulkarni. During this time, he had no source of income. Even then, due to the kindness of Sadguru, he used to lead a good life without any encumbrance. He used to pay the boarding charges regularly.

During his stay in Ratnagiri, Shree Maharaj was always found sitting silently on a tiger skin, as per the statement of Shri Sharad Kokaje who was usually serving food to Shree Maharaj. Though externally he was seen sitting silently, in fact he used to do meditation during that period. Due to the continuous mediation and God worship, lot of heat used to be developed in his body. With the increase in heat, there used to be burning sensation in the body. When this burning sensation becomes unbearable, Shree Maharaj used to take cold water bath to cool his body. Once the body gets cooled Shree Maharaj used to start Meditation again. Daily, like this, he used to take bath 17-18 times and continue meditation. During this time, he had cut down travelling and slowly he started remaining aloof from the external world.

Even during this condition of Shree Maharaj, his friend used to request him to solve their difficult problems. Any request to get rid of somebodys worries, used to anger Shree Maharaj. And after that there used to be angry demonstrations like stamping and dashing with abuses to such an extent, that the needy person who comes to request him for help gets totally frightened out of ones own wits. To evade the troubles from public only, Shree Maharaj used to display such terrible anger externally. But the people who used to come daily were able to understand the real meaning of this external anger of Shree Maharaj. The very fact that Shree Maharaj got angry means that the work of the needy man was being attended. Hence the people present there, used to, later on encourage the needy person, since the same was not possible in the presence of Shree Maharaj.

Since the compassion was abundantly overflowing from his heart, Shree Maharaj used to show false external anger. In fact, he used to have a strong desire to get rid of the evils or sins and the ill fate of the persons who come to see him for help. For the needy persons, he used to give angara (sacred ashes of incense burst before a deity and prasad (food offered to a deity) and used to say "Please go away. Dont show your face again."

The temple established by Shree Maharaj at that time is still existing in the house of Shri Nana Dixit at Tilak Lane in Ratnagiri. The dress of Shree Maharaj at that time used to be a short dhotee, white shirt, black coat, black cap, chappals and an umbrella with a bamboo stick.

At that time, in Ratnagiri at Gokhale corner, there was a tailoring shop belonging to Shri Vinayak alias Keshav alias Dattopant Joshi. Shree Maharaj used to always visit this shop. There he used to speak about Divine Truth as well as Metaphysics, to Shri Dattopant Joshi (Tailor), Shri Raghunath Keshav (alias) Raosaheb Joshi and Shri Bapusaheb Khandekar. He always used to stare in the shop and used to smoke sometimes bidi and sometimes cigarette. Some times he used to ask for tea from the nearby hotel. This was the daily programme of Shree Maharaj.

In that tailoring shop, a number of respectable citizens as well as Government officers of Ratnagiri used to come. Shree Maharaj used to discuss with them the subject about Divine Truth and Metaphysics. Alongwith Shri Dattopant Joshi, Shri Raghunath Keshav and Shri Bapusaheb Khandekar, Shree Maharaj used to go to Khanu Village near Pali which was the native place of Shri Joshi brothers. In the Khanu Village, in an ancient temple "Gangeshwar" of Lord Shiva, Shree Maharaj used to sit at midnight for meditation, alongwith these three companions. On one of these days, during his stay at Pali, Shree Maharaj blessed Shri Mukundrao Sawant in the Divine form of Shree Sai Baba.

Now, people used to recognize Shree Maharaj as "Vithalrao Joshi". By knowing the spiritual authority of Shree Maharaj, people used to wait eagerly for his blessings. A lot of people used to put forth their private as well as family problems of day to day business, before him. Shree Maharaj used to give right advice to these people and stand behind them with full support. A number of people used to come with domestic problems, such as some with sickness, some heavily indebted and some losing court cases. Shree Maharaj used to solve their problems. Slowly, the fame of Shree Maharaj spread to a number of villages in Ratnagiri. The crowd of people started growing daily.

His companions of that time speak out from their recollections "It was a heavenly experience for us, for lodging and boarding alongwith Shree Maharaj. He used to mentally read our thoughts. If any wrong thought comes in the mind of anyone of us, immediately Shree Maharaj used to say "What is going on in your mind? " Sometimes, he used to wake up the companions at night and say "Today so and so has left his mortal body."

At that time in Ratnagiri, there was one saint by name Morebaba. Shree Maharaj used to render service to him. On one of these nights, Shree Maharaj suddenly expressed to his companions "today, Shree Morebaba has left his mortal body".

Shree Maharajs sleep was very limited. He used to discuss about spiritualism, divine truth and metaphysics with his companions for a longtime during the night. Hence, his companions were not able to sleep properly. Even then, because of the divine association with Shree Maharaj, no companion felt the troubles due to the shortage of sleep at any time.