श्री ब्रह्मचैतन्य महाराज गोंदवलेकरBrahmachaitanya Gondavalekar Maharaj

A short life of Brahmachaitanya Gondavalekar Maharaj, retold from the account published by Chaitanyopasana, Gondavale.

A boy named Ganapati

Gondavale Budruk is a small village in the Satara district of Maharashtra. There, on Wednesday the twelfth day of the bright half of Magha in the year 1766 of the Shaka era, which fell on 19 February 1845, a son was born at sunrise to Raoji and Gitabai. His grandfather Lingopant and grandmother Radhabai were overjoyed. The baby was named Ganapati, and was fair, plump and cheerful, and everyone loved him.

His family had gone on the pilgrimage to Pandharpur for seven generations. As the child grew, his gifts began to show. He loved the singing of God's praise. He could repeat a passage after hearing it once. He loved to give food, and he felt for the poor and the weak. His grandfather was deeply moved by it. After his thread ceremony, Ganapati learned all that the family's priest could teach him in a very short time. His hunger for the spiritual life only grew, and at nine he slipped away from home with two friends to find a guru. They were soon found and brought back.

At eleven he was married. Soon after, his grandparents died. The longing for a teacher did not go away. From early childhood he is said to have known, as Eknath and Samartha Ramdas had, what his life's work would be.

The search for a teacher

At twelve, after giving his mother only a hint, he left home one night in nothing but a loincloth and set out across India to look for a guru.

On the road he met most of the holy people of his time. Among them were Radhabai of Haripur near Sangli, Annabuva of Miraj, Dev Mamledar of Satana, the Swami of Akkalkot, Manik Prabhu of Humnabad, Tailanga Swami of Kashi and Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa of Dakshineswar. All of them received him with great affection, and each of them told him the same thing: you will not find your guru in me.

At last, on the banks of the Godavari, a saint of the Samartha tradition, whose name was Ramakrishna, met him and sent him on to Tukaramchaitanya at Yehalegaon. There he finally found peace. For nine months he served his teacher without rest. The teacher tested him severely until he was sure that Ganapati's identification with the body was gone. Then he gave him initiation and a new name, Brahmachaitanya.

Having found the guru he wanted and followed the path shown to him, Brahmachaitanya reached the perfected state at the age of fifteen. His teacher then told him to spend two years in Naimisharanya in contemplation, to visit the main places of pilgrimage, and only then to go home. He obeyed.

Return to Gondavale

Nine years after he left, he walked into Gondavale and appeared at his own house. Everyone was happy beyond words. His wife had been waiting for him in her parents' home for those nine years, and he brought her back. Later the two of them went to see his guru again, and stayed in Nashik for about six months, where he trained her in the repetition of the Name and in meditation. A year later she bore him a son, but the boy died soon after, and she herself followed him.

Some time later, at his mother's insistence, he married again. His new wife had been blind from birth. In time the devotees came to call her Aisaheb.

From then on he worked ever harder to spread the Name of Rama and to show a spiritual path that ordinary householders could follow. He urged good conduct, the repetition of the Name, worship of God with form, the giving of food, and love for everyone. From 1890 he lived chiefly at Gondavale, and the number of people who came to see him and stay with him grew large.

To give them a place for worship and service, he installed Rama, Sita, Lakshmana and Maruti in his own house. As the crowd grew, he built another Rama temple in the village, a Datta temple and a rest house, and later a Shani temple. He also encouraged his devotees to start Rama temples in many other villages, so that worship would spread.

In 1876 and again in 1896, terrible famines struck. On his own land he gave people token work and fed thousands of them, and so saved them from starvation.

In 1901 he set out for Kashi with his mother, Gitabai, and many devotees. Having visited Prayag, Kashi and Gaya, Gitabai died at Ayodhya.

The last day

He lived with nothing left of the sense of "I" or "mine". Nothing remained for him to do for himself, and so he took all kinds of people close, wishing only that they should taste the bliss he tasted. Because he worked among householders, he had to bear undeserved blame, insult, harassment and humiliation. Until his last breath he went on urging people to take up the Name of God.

On Monday, the tenth day of the dark half of Margashirsha in the year 1835 of the Shaka era, which fell on 22 December 1913, he left his body at 5:55 in the morning. His last words were that his life is wherever the Name is, and that this is the sign to remember. As the sun rose in the east, the sun of Gondavale set.