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Sant Dnyaneshwar
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Sant
Dnyaneshwar rendered the Dnyaneshwari, the original Marathi scripture, at Newase village
in Ahmednagar District. Dnyaneshwari is a critical discourse on the Bhagavad Gita by Sant
Dnyaneshwar. The great Mahabharata war took place between the Pandavas and their cousins, the Kauravas, some 5,000 years ago at Kurukshetra. Faced with the might of the huge Kaurava army, Arjuna lost his nerve to fight against his own kith and kin. At that moment, Krishna who was the charioteer of Arjuna, exhorted him on the battlefield to perform his duty as a Kshatriya and fight without worrying about the consequences. |
Krishna's advice in the Bhagavad
Gita is a small chapter in the Mahabharata, comprising 700 shlokas or verses in Sanskrit.
Sant Dnyaneshwar realised that the Gita's teachings could be read and understood only by a
small Sanskrit-knowing elite. Dnyaneshwar, under the advice of his guru, Nivrathinath,
rendered a Marathi version of the Gita known as Dnyaneshwari. It contains more than 9,000
verses called ovies. So Sant Dnyaneshwar brought the teachings of the Gita within reach of
the common man. Dnyaneshwari was composed around the twelfth century, when Dnyaneshwar was
only 16 years old. Teen-ager Dnyaneshwar lived and attained samadhi in Alandi at a
tender age of twenty-one. and left this mortal world. Dnyaneshwari has since been
translated into several Indian languages.
Dnyaneshwar presented his work to
his guru Nivrathinath and sought his blessings. He
did this through a poem of just nine verses called Pasayadan. Pasayadan literally means a
request, asking for boons from God. In the Pasayadan, Dnyaneshwar asked nothing for
himself but he prayed for the well- being of entire mankind.
In the second verse of Pasayadan Dnyaneshwar requests the Lord to grant him a boon which
will remove all evils from wicked persons, putting them on a righteous path. The evils in
human beings are indulgence, anger, greed, ride; Kama, Krodh
, Lobh , Matsar and Ahankar . He prayed that these evils be replaced by
kindness, humility, tolerance, forgiveness and devotion and surrender to God.
Dnyaneshwar says, let the people of the world be happy and let them do good deeds to make
others happy. Dnyaneshwar says that while flowing streams provide water needed for life,
the banyan tree provides shade and shelter from the sun's heat, without any expectations.
Being good and doing good to others without evil thoughts or expectations of rewards, is
the first step towards spiritual attainment.
Next, Dnyaneshwar requests God to remove ignorance from our lives and replace it with
enlightenment and divine light to achieve our goal, to let everyone adhere to his
swadharma or his own sacred duty towards others. If everyone sticks to swadharma there
will be no conflict and happiness will prevail. Dnyaneshwar requests God to fulfil the
genuine desires and aspirations of all. All pious persons who perform their duty without
any expectations or returns, will ultimately desire to become one with the Supreme.
AVATAR MEHER BABA
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Merwan Sheriar Irani was born February 25, 1894, in Poona, India, into a Zoroastrian family. His father, a genuine seeker for God, was informed by the Spiritual Hierarchy that God Realization would come to him through his son. He came out of his desert retreat, married and established a family. Merwan, his second son, was an exceptionally fair and loving boy in all respects, and everyone recognized his high destiny. He attended the Christian High School and Deccan College. Meher Baba, as he came to be called by his disciples, took up his avataric duties early in 1922 after seven years of intense work with the |
five Perfect Masters of the time.Hazrat Babajan, the aged woman master of Poona, initiated his spiritual awakening in January, 1914,by kissing him on the forehead.
Almost immediately he entered into a transcendental
state of mind out of touch with normal gross consciousness. He scarcely ate or slept for
nine months.
Dazed and apparently insane, he made his way during
the next year to Shirdi Sai Baba, the chief of the five Perfect Masters, who acknowledged
him publically as the Sustainer of the Universe, and sent him to Upasni Maharaj. As soon
as that master saw the young man approaching, he picked up a stone and threw it with great
force. It struck him on the forehead exactly where the old woman had kissed him. Thus
began a painful five-year process of regaining normal consciousness while retaining his
divine state.
During the 1920's he gathered and rigorously
trained his inner circles of disciples while founding an active spiritual community in
Ahmednagar, India, with schools, hospitals and other public service projects. In the
middle of the decade he became silent and never again uttered a word. For 44 years he
communicated by spelling words on an alphabet board and through hand gestures, including
two important books, God Speaks and Discourses.
In 1931 he came to the West for the first time,
traveling on the same ship that took Mahatma Gandhi to the Round Table Conference in
London. During that voyage, he became Gandhi's spiritual adviser. In England and America
he gathered a select group of western disciples, some of whom joined him in India later
on. He visited his disciples in the West a half dozen times before the Second World War.
During the 1940's he traveled all over India in his
work with the poor, with lepers, with the insane and with masts, a category of
mentally disturbed people seldom found in the West whose afflictions come from unwise use
of powerful spiritual practices, overwhelming and unbalanced love for God, or enthrallment
by a sudden vision of Divinity. He set up temporary mad and mast ashrams in every
part of the country where he contacted and served them in his own silent way.
He established two places of pilgrimage outside of
India during the 1950's, Meher Spiritual Center, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, U.S.A.,
and Avatar's Abode, near Brisbane, Australia. It was necessary to spill his blood in
America, he said, and while there to dedicate his center, major bones were broken and his
face severely smashed in an car accident. A few years later he suffered a similar fate in
India.
He became well known in the West during the 1960's
by opposing the use of LSD and other drugs in the quest for spiritual experiences. In the
last years he largely withdrew from public life and intensified his work in seclusion,
announcing in the fall of 1968 that his work was completed 100% to his satisfaction. On
January 31, 1969, one month before his 76th birthday, he left his body, which now lies in
the tomb near Ahmednagar, a place of pilgrimage for those who love him.
He said
that his tomb, called his samadhi, takes the place of his physical body. For a
period of 100 years, entering his samadhi is equal to coming into his physical presence.
Many pilgrims take advantage of this opportunity to keep his company. After 70 years, he
said, his samadhi will be the most frequented place of pilgrimage in the world
Shri Anand Rishiji Maharaj
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Land of Ahmednagar is made holy by many saints born on this land. One of them is jain saint Shri Anand Rishiji Maharaj. Postal department has issued a multi-coloured of Rs. 4/- stamp in honour of renowned Acharya Anand Rishiji Maharaj on 9th august 2002. Acharya Anand Rishiji Maharaj was one such soul, whose contributions in the social and educational spheres have been a prolific and significant as his spiritual guidance to his followers. He was born at Shiral Chichondi ,Tal. Pathardi,Ahmednagar (Maharashtra) in August 1900 and received initiation from Ratan Rishiji Maharaj at the age of 13, thereby formally committing himself to a life of spiritual pursuits and service to humanity. |
He Mastered the Jain Scriptures as well as ancient philosophical texts of Sanskrit language. His teachings were deep rooted in love, non-violence and tolerance. He was proficient in nine languages and wrote extensively in Marathi and Hindi. He had founded numerous educational and religious institutions and also rejuvenated many ailing institutions and founded magazines. He was bestowed with the title of "Acharya" in the year 1965 and left for his heavenly abode in the year 1992. News Courtesy: Mr. Sudhir Jain, The place Anand Dham is developed in his memory. Many social activities are arranged in his memory.