 Faith in his Master became so ingrained in him that he abandoned all the worship he had for Lord Krishna and only followed his Master’s teachings. In 1934, at the age of 24, Shri Sadguru Ranjit Maharaj and his co-disciple Shri Devidas Maharaj took initiation to monkhood. As per his Master’s words "Live with the conviction that the whole world is my family", Shri Sadguru Ranjit Maharaj and few other co disciples who had taken monk-hood had travelled to places like Patan, Viramgaum, Khandwa, Delhi and Haridwar. He had many experiences in his monk-hood and followed his Masters teachings to the core "Without devotion knowledge is lame; without knowledge mere dispassion is blind- therefore there should be oneness across devotion, knowledge and dispassion". Later Shri Sadguru Siddharameshwar Maharaj had told them to take dispassion over dispassion so to renounce dispassion also. Shri Sadguru Siddharameshwar Maharaj then made them renounce the clothes of dispassion (monk-hood) and asked them to live a normal life surrendering whatever one has or whatever is at the holy feet of Sadguru and be a trustee of whatever one has surrendered. While Shri Sadguru Ranjit Maharaj, after nirvana of his Guru, was actively participating in conducting Guru Pournima Saptah, Shri Sadguru Siddharameshwar Maharaj’s Punyatithisaptah at Bagewadi and Diwali Saptah in Mumbai, he had not taken the formal mantle of being a Guru though many were seeking his advice on philosophy and teachings. He never wanted to be a Guru as he did not want the bondage of having disciples .However true to his Masters wish, In 1983, Shri Sadguru Ranjit Maharaj at the age of 70, initiated his first disciple, Shri Sadguru Siddharameshwar Maharajs sons ( Shri YeshwantRao Maharaj) granddaughter in law, at Pathri. From there on, Shri Sadguru Ranjit Maharaj's disciples spread to Mumbai, Nasik, Sholapur, Sangli, Bagewadi and then abroad to France, USA, Germany, UK and many other countries. Shri Motiram Maharaj, son of Shri Sadguru Siddharameshwar Maharaj had built a Samadhi in his house at Pathri, which Shri Sadguru Ranjit Maharaj relocated and constructed it properly in 1983 followed by a beautiful temple called JnanaSagar Math in 1986. In 1991, Shri Sadguru Ranjit Maharaj installed a beautiful marble idol of Shri Sadguru Siddharameshwar Maharaj at his Samadhi in Bagewadi. On 11th Feb 1992, Shri Sadguru Ranjit Maharaj installed a kalash on theshikar of the temple at Pathri , this was truly a momentous day for Shri Sadguru Ranjit Maharaj. Shri Sadguru Ranjit Maharaj also released a book in English Amrutlaya , based on lectures given by Shri Sadguru Siddharameshwar Maharaj on script Dasbodh. A lot of his disciples started coming from foreign countries. His style of lectures was very simple, absolute, firm and enlightening. Shri Sadguru Ranjit Maharaj had good command over English which benefited a lot of disciples from the west and from other parts of India. Shri Sadguru Ranjit Maharaj's devotion to his Guru was profound and he always insisted on attending 4 saptahs - Guru Pournima and Shri Sadguru Siddharameshwar Maharaj's Punyatithi at Bagewadi, Rath Saptami saptah at Pathri and Diwali Saptah at Mumbai. Besides, every disciple was also expected to sing all 4 Bhajans every day as the bhajans contained all the teachings and helped one to constantly be aware of the teachings. He used to give lectures in Marathi every Sunday at Andheri on Dasbodh and Sadachar( a treatise of Shri Adi Sankaracharya on Advaita) and English lectures at his residence every day from 3.30 pm- 5 pm for his foreign disciples except Sat/Sundays. In 1996, Shri Sadguru Ranjit Maharaj was invited by his foreign disciples to visit Germany, France and USA. Since then, Maharaj continuously visited these countries and more (UK, Switzerland, Spain also) until year 2000 when he attained Mahasamadhi. Few of the Indian disciples used to accompany Maharaj and all the foreign disciples made it a point to be present and arrange Maharajs lectures for a wide audience- which made Maharaj very popular abroad. His simplistic teachings and command over philosophical language in English made many a seekers to understand Reality. Maharaj attained Mahasamadhi on 15th Nov 2000. He had a stroke in Oct and could not recover as Maharaj did not want to be operated and passed away peacefully at his residence. His Samadhi was immediately built in Banganga adjacent to Shri Sadguru Siddharameshwar Maharaj's Samadhi on 26th Jan 2001. How great is his devotion that he got a place next to his Guru. Thereafter, his Samadhi was built in Pathri temple, Nasik, Kandalgaon and also the foreign disciples got together and have built one in Brittany, France. His teachings remain forever, all his disciples though miss his physical presence but continue to follow his teachings and conduct all the programs with same enthusiasm and devotion. As Shri Sadguru Ranjit Maharaj had said, " Nothing dies , 5 elements go back to 5 elements and Power goes back to Power " |
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