Shri Vasudevanand Saraswati Tembe Swami Maharaj

A compact Biography.

•  Vaijnath
  Strange are the ways of saints. Having attained the highest Spiritual Goal, they adopt bizarre life styles to shield themselves from the crowd of people with worldly desires. They may display a childlike (Baal), a crazy (Unmatta) or a ghostly (Pishach), behaviour just to avoid crowds. One such saint was Vaijnath of Shri Narasobawadi. He was known to be a very straightforward person with a childlike simplicity. He never performed any religious service, spending the morning just carrying a lota (vessel) around. In the name of bathing, he used to brush himself with mud in the river for hours. He never went to the temple nor worshipped the Padukas. If anyone questioned him about this, he would claim to be possessed by ghost who did not let him perform any puja etc. When invited for meals, he never accepted more than two paise as Dakshina (monetary offering accompanying a ritual meal). He kept all his money with a trusted person and kept the accounts himself. He thus had a balance of all of eight rupees! Once when Shri Maharaj was camping in Wadi, Shri Ganda Maharaj, a major disciple accompanying Shri Maharaj, suggested to Vaijnath that he perform a Mahapuja with part of that money. Vaijnath gave his stock reply that he had saved the money for a visit to his brother and won’t hear of spending it! The people from Wadi told Shri Ganda Maharaj that this was just a ruse and in the several years that Vaijnath was in Wadi, he never once went to see his brother. Finally they escalated the matter to Shri Maharaj. Shri Maharaj told them that they did not understand Vaijnath correctly; by being possessed by the ghost, he meant Divine possession and by visit to his brother, he meant the dissolution of his body to be one with the Reality. His savings were thus set aside for his last rites. He is a Self-Realized soul whose language was mysterious to ordinary folk. Shri Maharaj then requested Vaijnath to spend seven rupees on Mahapuja and keep one for “the visit to your brother”. Vaijnath readily agreed but expressed his inability to perform the Puja, as “the ghost” won’t let him. Shri Maharaj further urged him to “tell the ghost to release you for a day”. This having agreed upon, Shri Maharaj proceeded to invite the entire town of Wadi to partake the prasad at the Mahapuja of Vaijnath. Many were worried how seven rupees would suffice to feed the entire town. However, inspired contributions of foodstuff by many citizens, saw thousands partake food to their heart’s content at that Mahapuja. Shri Maharaj went around feast in the company of Vaijnath supervising the arrangements.