Life of Sant Gyaneshwar !! Part IV !!

Jai Sriman Narayana !!


Jaya Jaya Sankara Hara Hara Sankara !!

Gyandev  got up from sleep abruptly with strange and painful feeling.  He called out for his mother, searched for his parents in the whole house.  Slowly other children also started to twirl from their bed and followed Gyandev in his search.  The four children flabbergasted to see the disappearance of their parents at the mid of the night.  They spent the remaining hours in tears, they holded each others and stayed calm.  In the morning, the four children were started their search for their parents in the streets.  The villagers did not co-operate with them, obviously children were tired of hunger and sorrow.  They returned home mourning for their parents.  Gyandev met childhood friend and neighbor ‘Radha’ in front of their hut and she enquired the reason for their misery.  Gyandev informed her about the missing of their parents.  Gyandev got to know from Radha about what had happened to his father after meeting with the Vedic scholars and heart breaking verdict of Vedic scholars. 

Nivriti Dev, Gyaneshwar, Sopan Dev and Mukthabai had a tough life without parents.  They had to face severe critiscism and insults from the villagers; they refused to provide any assistance to the small kids.  The four kids had gone through many hardships, they starved for many days.  They start their day with singing through the street ‘Hari Hari Bol Bai, Ram Ram Bol, and Hare Krishna Bol Bai Hare Krishna Bol’ requesting people for alms.  Villagers made cheap comments on them, some of them offered a handful of sand instead of alms, some where simply laughed out at them, and some people shut their doors at the children’s face.  These entire unpleasant acts were made no difference to the children.  They continued to follow the true dharma of a Sadhu, chanting the holy names of Lord. They wandered through the village singing melodiously.  Unfortunately no one was ready to offer anything for the children.  Radha rushed to them affectionately with a bowl of wheatflour and stacked in the dirty cloth of Gyandev which he was used for receiving alms.   Soon her father appeared from nowhere; he angrily shoved the bundle on the floor and stamped on it.    They returned home desperately with tears streamed on their eyes.  Sopan Dev collapsed with severe thirst and hunger, it made Gyandev rush to fetch water for him from the village pond.  There he found the Brahmin priests gathered screamed at Gyandev for impuring the water by touching it.  Gyanadev begged and described the plight of the situation, they were making mockery of the situation and broken the earthen pot carried by Gyandev.  Gyandev fell on the muddy water and got hurt.  With a heavy heart he returned home.  Found Sopandev fighting for his life, struggling to have a drop of water.  Gyandev sequeezed his drenched cloth on his mouth, thus Sopandev was saved from the mouth of death.   He was in wretched state of hunger and cried for food.  Muktha Bai with utmost patience filtered remainings of wheat flour from the dirty cloth of Gyaneshwar and made small dough out of it.  She looked around painfully for the oven to cook it.  Gyaneshwar with so much of distress instructed Muktha Bai to place the flattened dough on his upper back use as a substitute for oven.  He gone down on his knees and Muktha Bai cooked the flattened roti on his upper back.  At last, children had a piece of roti to eradicate their hunger for the moment.

Once, Radha was playing with her puppies, the head priest arrived on the spot seeing her affection towards the animal he praised Radha.  He also joined with Radha in nurturing the puppies.  Instantly, Radha shot a question at him ‘ Kaka (Uncle), you have enlighten us with the knowledge of presence of Paramathma in each and every soul including Birds and Animals…’ she continued in a childish way ‘Why don’t you treat the children of Vittal Pant with the same devotion ?’.  Radha’s childish remarks made the head priest to realize his mistake and called out for the children of Vittal Panth.  He wrote a letter to the Vedic scholars – Maha Sastris available in the city of Paithan (Pratishthana – a city in Aurangabad District - Maharashtra) requesting them to explain whether the children are eligible for the sacred thread ceremony or not and handed the message in  written  to Gyandev.  Gyandev with his sibilings decided to leave the village at the earliest and move to Paithan to meet the Maha Sastris - Senior Vedic Scholar. 

Jaya Jaya Sankara Hara Hara Sankara !!

Jai Sriman Narayana !!