Shri Vasudevanand Saraswati Tembe Swami Maharaj

A compact Biography.

Renunciation : Wifedeath>Sanyas>Sceptre>Posse >Person>Schedule>

• Daily schedule
  Shri Swami Maharaj woke up early about three hours before sunrise and after the morning ablutions, used to take his morning bath. He used to bathe at least thrice a day. After his bath, he used to worship the sceptre and perform the Pranav (Om) incantation and then offer ritual bath to the Datta idol and apply ashes to Him by way of worship. Indian monks are not permitted to pluck flowers and leaves (Tulasi, Bel) etc. Hence the idol got these offerings only when someone brought them for Swami Maharaj. The mornings were mostly devoted to teaching the students. 
  Shri Swami Maharaj was a virtual living encyclopaedia of Vedic culture and used to teach seemingly unlimited range of subjects viz. Sanskrit grammar, Vedic texts, the technology of vedic rituals, the six systems of Indian philosophy (Yoga, Nyay {logic}, Sankhya, Mimamsa, Vedanta, Vaisheshik), Ayurveda (Indian Medicine) etc. His knowledge in these subjects was not merely theoretical but he was a Master who could guide a sincere student to the ultimate goal of all these Indian systems namely Self-realization. He was apparently well versed in several arts viz. music, poetry, spinning, weaving etc. He even advised right moves to chess players, sometimes without watching the game, though he never played himself. No sincere student was ever turned away by him. It was impossible to gauge the range and depth of his knowledge. Once at Narsobawadi, an old Brahmin, proud of his accomplishment in Samaved (the third of the Vedic quartet) came to Shri Maharaj and insisted on singing the Vedic Mantras, in spite of the latter’s suggestion to sing before the Padukas. Suddenly his memory failed and he could not recall even a single Mantra. Shri Maharaj then rendered a Mantra, convincing the Brahmin of Swamiji’s omniscience and deflating his pride.
  At noon he used to set out to solicit food (Bhiksha). A Sanyasi cannot cook his food and hence has been ordained to solicit cooked food (Madhukari). Swami Maharaj used to accept food only from three to five homes of Southern Brahmins following the scriptural injunctions. There were periods in his life when travelling through certain parts of India, he did not encounter Southern Brahmins and had to live on coconuts, groundnuts and other ‘dry’ food. This often worsened his dysentery and caused much physical suffering. However this did not affect his schedule, pace, activity or the continuous journey. If anybody saluted on his way to Bhiksha, he used to fast that day. Sometimes such a fast used to follow the mandatory fasts of the 11th day (Ekadashi). On the day of fast he used to take a glass of buttermilk or a fruit. This did not seem to affect him in any way at all! He then used to dip the sack of collected food in river water and hang it so the water dripped out and with it all the taste! A Sanyasi, as indeed any seeker of truth, should eat only to support life and should be totally indifferent to taste. Swami Maharaj provided a shining illustration of this rule. The food was then offered to Lord Dattatreya, and split into three equal portions. After giving one portion each to the River and Gomata (cow) he partook the remaining one portion. He thus literally observed the rule of Sanyasi eating only eight morsels of food, that too only once a day. 
  In the afternoon, he used to entertain people. Some of them were genuine seekers knowledge and truth while a vast majority sought his advice for their personal problems. He gave all a patient hearing and offered solutions that satisfied everyone. After evening bath it was time for discourses on Puranas or scriptures. He had an excellent style of discourse, explaining the subject clearly with illustrations and authenticating his statements with apt quotations. Though he referred to Vedic mantras, he considered it a sacrilege to pronounce a Vedic sentence in discourse. Not only did he follow this canon himself but also insisted on adherence to it by others. There were occasions when he walked out of a discourse when the speaker uttered a Vedic Mantra. 
  After the discourses, depending on the people around, there used to be Bhajans and Kirtans. After that, often there used to be some more individual interviews. It was well past midnight before Shri Swami Maharaj could lie down for a few hours of rest. How he managed with so little food or so little sleep is as beyond human comprehension.