I still remember vividly, when Prime Minister “Jawāharlāl Nehru’ was visiting ‘Heerābaug’ he made me sit on his lap and played with me. I also had an opportunity to know important individuals because of Annā and spend some time with them; they were 'Yashwantrāo Chavān', 'Balāsāheb Desai', 'Rajārām Bapu Patil' and 'Shankarrāo Bhelke'. Annā was a well known builder by profession. He built Schools and hospitals at 'Dongargao', 'Mulshi Dam', 'Nasik Road', 'Chakan', 'Khed', 'Wada', 'Belha', 'Daund' and also the 'Varana dam' at 'Chandoli'. Some other builders and construction works like Military Barracks, parts of the 'Sasoon Hospital', airport at 'Lohegaon', 'Yerawada Hospital' were also done by him. While doing this he used to also repair and restore old Temples and simultaneously use to repair Schools too. In 1995 he repaired and restored ‘Jogeshwari Temple’. In 1980, Annā got a stone Lion made from his friend 'Dādā Kelkar' to place it before ‘Goddess Jogeshwari’ in the temple. At that time his friend 'Bhausāheb Bendre' requested Annā to make a mention of his contribution in the temple construction, but he was so unassuming and did not want his name to be mentioned anywhere and hence refused the request. Annā had also made a suggestion to the Municipality Corporation regarding repairing the "Nava-graha" temple and to broaden the road leading to this temple. Last 25 years in Annā’s life was dedicated to social, cultural and religious work. While building the school ‘Swaroopa Vardhini’ along with 'Shree Kushābhāu Patwardhan', dear Annā took major responsibility. He performed a lot of religious & philanthropic activities like "Hom" and "Havans"(Offering oblations to God by putting ghee into the consecrated fire, mainly done for well being of all "Loka Kshema" and for world peace ). Due to these functions for at least twice or thrice a year we used to have grand dinner parties. Annā use to spend a lot of time with ‘Shree Guru Krishna Mahāraj Sākhare’. He use to accompany his Guru on ‘Pandharpur’ Pilgrimage during ‘Adhikmas Saptah’ (Holy month for Hindus; lot of spiritual activities are conducted during this month) and also on new 'Palanquin Journey' which had just started from ‘Newāse’ to ‘Alandi’. On the Pandharpur pilgrimage he and ‘Sākhare Maharaj’ used to distribute free medicines to the needy. During this period my Guru Bandhu 'Shree Bhārat Gope' had an opportunity of spending a lot of quality time with Annā. My mother too was a very religious person and had performed "Sola Somwar Vrata" (A severe penance and fasting done for continuous sixteen Mondays to appease Lord Shiva) for nine times in her life. She did a lot of pooja’s and ritualistic penances during her life. |
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|| Shree Swami Samartha ||
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Author - Pratāp Anant Gogāwale Tel No. 26127263 / 26132238 Translation by - Mrs. Kunda Bharat Patkar E-Mail.Id. [email protected] Special Thanks - Mr. Sachin Chorge E-Mail.Id. [email protected] Publisher - Sameer Jaysing Walgude Cell No. +91-9892545797 E-Mail.Id. [email protected] Website by – Sameer Jaysing Walgude English Version: http://swamienglish.b3.nu/ Marathi Version: www.ShreeSwamiVibhutiSakshatkar.CJB.Net www.Swami.B3.Nu |