Important Extracts from " Tuchi Baap Dhani "

I met Shree Maharaj around the year 1935-37. At that time, Shree Maharaj had not attained any publicity and he was in Ratnagiri. At that time, my brother Shri Dattopant Joshi was having a tailoring shop on Ratnagiri. He was a well known tailor and even a European collector used to come to his shop for stitching clothes. Shri Dattopant Joshi was virtuous and had a spiritual tending Shree Maharaj used to come to his shop. Soon after the birth of my father, my grand father expired and my grand mother had to come to Ratnagiri with the child for her maintenance.

The grand father of Shree Maharaj had told her " You stay in our house, look after your child and give him due education and do not worry for anything." But my grandmother was very firm and said " I will not stay here free of charge." The grand father of Shree Maharaj gave her one room in the house for her use and for her maintenance, he arranged four to five clients so that she can provide meals to these clients on monthly basis. My father completed his education under such extremely difficult circumstances and successfully became a Mamlatdar (Taluka Magistrate) in Revenue Department. He was having first class judiciary powers. My father and Shree Maharaj’s father used to meet atleast once in a day, as they were very close to each other. My father was in Ratnagiri for 12-13 years and 8-10 years in Rajapur. When he was in Ratnagiri, he used to go to the house of Shree Maharaj which was in Parya’s lane. He used to go directly to the kitchen and talk to the grandmother of Shree Maharaj and drink curry given by the grandma. This is what Shree Maharaj used to tell.

At that time, we were staying in the rental house owned by Shri Krishna Joshi in the lower lane. The built up house was having four rooms, in the ground floor and with a spacious hall in the upper floor. Whenever Shree Maharaj came to our house, he used to wash his hands as well as feet with warm water and go to the hall at the upper floor. Then next morning only he used to come down. He used to tell us about spiritualism. In the morning, after bath, he used to come at about 8.00 A.M. to the tailoring shop, which was in a corner and where he used to meet a number of respectable people including a European Officers from Collector’s Office.

Once when I was sitting with Shree Swami Swaroopanand after the meals, he told me "Take out the Abhangh (stanzes) by saying so, Shree Swami Swaroopanand went to the toilet. When he returned from toilet, I heard him repeating the same Abhangh (stanzas) which I had taken out ! It was a handwritten copy which I had taken out. After this incident, Shree Maharaj got that handwritten copy published as "Abhangh Jnaneshwari".

Few months after I receive the spiritual anugrah (initiation), I used to get enormous sound inside the inner portion of the ear. Hence I want not able to hear anybody speaking to me in the Collector’s Office. As a result of this, the Collector declared me deaf and transferred me to Dapoli. Hence I stopped the meditation for some period. Whenever I sit for meditation, I used to see saints and pious people. After few days, I was again transferred to another place known as Kudal, where I got a Government bungalow with seven to eight rooms, for my stay. Once it so happened that when I sat for meditation after taking bath, I felt some wet thing on my back I thought it to be my sacred thread (a cord with three strings worn over the left shoulder and under the right by Twice Born Hindu men) and did not pay much attention to it. But after one and half to two hours I started to realise the wetness more strongly. Then I tried to find out the cause of that wetness. Lo ! It was a poisonous snake. I suddenly removed the snake with my hand and threw it away. It was certainly a miraculous escape from death only because of the kind grace of Shree Maharaj.

I reached Pune with broken glass screen of the car. But Shree Maharaj did not utter a single word regarding the accident. The way in which he had made inquires on telephone clearly indicated that he had the premonition of it. At the time of difficulty he stood by me and took me out of it. This event proved his omniscience and omnipresence.