71 Facts About Upasani Maharaj

Upasani Maharaj, born Kashinath Govindrao Upasni, was an Indian spiritual teacher, considered by his disciples to be a satguru.

Upasani Maharaj lived in Sakori, British India, and is said to have received God-realization from Sai Baba of Shirdi.

Kashinath Govind Upasani Shastri, later known as Upasani Baba Maharaj, was born a Hindu into an orthodox Brahmin family in the village of Satana, India, in the Nasik district on 15 May 1870.

Upasani Maharaj was the second child of Govind Shastri and Rukmina.

Upasani Maharaj's father was a copyist attached to the legal profession at the civil court of Dhulia; he had moved from Satana, leaving his son under the care of his grandfather and uncle.

Upasani Maharaj was sent to a vernacular elementary school but did not excel in the non-traditional curriculum taught.

Upasani Maharaj left after three years, following being brutally caned by his teacher.

Upasani Maharaj's parents were critical of his extremism, and they nurtured the idea that he was a financial burden to them.

Upasani Maharaj daily requested his parents to give their permission for him to leave, but they were adamant that he should remain a householder, and arranged a second marriage for him.

Upasani Maharaj was sixteen and his bride nine years of age.

Upasani Maharaj began to spend increasing periods of time absent from his home.

Upasani Maharaj finally left his wife and relatives on the pretext of the need to earn a livelihood.

Upasani Maharaj went to Pune, but because of his lack of formal education could not find a job.

Upasani Maharaj's journey took him through a thick wood, in the midst of which was a large hill.

Upasani Maharaj secluded himself in the cave and, after two days of fasting, devoted his time to repeating the sacred syllables of mantras.

Upasani Maharaj felled fuel and sold it at Nasik with them, giving them all the proceeds.

Upasani Maharaj then resumed his journey to Satana and reached it on 22 July 1890.

Upasani Maharaj began to follow his usual routine, and resumed his study of Ayurveda, but now to assist his grandfather who was suffering from paralysis.

Upasani Maharaj's studies were completed after three years, and he started a dispensary at Amaravati near Nagpur where he practised.

Upasani Maharaj was able to advertise the patent medicines that he manufactured, and the business became successful.

Upasani Maharaj became a well-known physician in Ayurvedic circles, and settled both in his profession and marriage.

Upasani Maharaj moved to Gwalior where there arose an opportunity to acquire uncultivated land if one agreed to farm it.

Upasani Maharaj became an estate landlord, but afterwards found that he had made a costly mistake.

Upasani Maharaj desperately threw water into his face and he regained consciousness, but not normal breathing.

Upasani Maharaj's wife took him to Nagpur, where they sought professional treatment, but the prescribed medicine did not work, and no effective help was available.

Upasani Maharaj moved to Dhulia to stay with his brother, but the breathing problem became so painful and laborious that, in sheer desperation, he set out alone in search of a yogi who might cure him.

Kulkarni Upasani Maharaj attributed the ailment to intensive yogic practices and advised a visit to Sai Baba of Shirdi, whom he described by the Muslim term of aulia.

Upasani Maharaj had been tutored by his grandfather, a respected Brahmin pundit, had followed Hindu codes of asceticism, and had enjoyed professional and financial success as an Ayurvedic physician in a high caste society: the idea of visiting a Muslim saint for guidance was alien to his worldview.

Upasani Maharaj found it beneficial, and followed this practice for the rest of his life.

Upasani Maharaj never gave spiritual discourses, but told stories or parables on occasion.

Upasani Maharaj's language was metaphoric and paradoxical, as was his behaviour.

Upasani Maharaj talked to local Hindus who eulogized the saint, but Sai Baba's open use of Muslim teachings and rituals discouraged Upasani from following him.

Upasani Maharaj attended the daily Arti ceremonies and resumed his yogic routine.

Upasani Maharaj's meditation was not to be based on yoga, but on a rapport with the saint.

Upasani Maharaj took very little food or fluid and no outdoor exercise, except to attend arti.

Upasani Maharaj's moods seemed erratic to those who observed him, and some who approached him were abused or even beaten.

Upasani Maharaj disliked the attention, but since it was Sai Baba's order, he deferred, and allowed devotees to approach him in this manner.

Upasani Maharaj gained many Brahmin devotees, but concentrated on assisting the Bhangi caste, sweepers who cleaned the streets and removed the refuse of the houses.

Upasani Maharaj chose to live among the colony of untouchables, in conditions of squalor.

Upasani Maharaj's rising fame reached Shirdi, and people came from there to Kharagpur to see him.

Upasani Maharaj's moods remained erratic in response to the attention he received; he continued to beat and abuse some of those who approached him, for what must have appeared to onlookers as inexplicable reasons.

Upasani Maharaj lay at rest by a dust bin; sometimes he bathed in gutter water, and drank it; he would bathe and wash the clothes of a leper, and drink the washings; he would put a piece of dung in his mouth in the same way as he would a morsel of rich food.

Upasani Maharaj was usually naked; occasionally he would wear a piece of gunny sack, for which he became noted.

Upasani Maharaj had become known as Sai Baba's spiritual heir or chief disciple, and his fame spread.

Upasani Maharaj was forced to leave Shirdi to undertake a second operation for haemorrhoids, and after recovering he chose not to return to Shirdi.

Upasani Maharaj travelled to several places in India where he gave discourses on spiritual subjects.

Upasani Maharaj did not wear the ochre robe of a sannyasin, but instead favoured common gunny cloth.

Upasani Maharaj was not a member of any religious sect, and remained independent.

Upasani Maharaj was unpredictable in his behaviour towards those who approached him, but consistent in his distinctive discourses, many of which were recorded in the 1920s.

In 1922 Upasani Maharaj erected a bamboo cage without any outlet, and confined himself in it.

Upasani Maharaj ate, urinated and defecated, and took baths all within the narrow confines of the cage.

Upasani Maharaj remained in the cage for over 14 months.

The reason Upasani Maharaj gave for his self-confinement was to teach his devotees service.

In 1923, Upasani Maharaj's lectures began to appear in a Marathi monthly called Sai Vak Sudha, and were later published in book form under the title Upasani Maharaj Vak Sudha.

Upasani Maharaj's influence continued to broaden; he had devotees throughout India and had a great effect on Hindu contemporary culture and the country's social and political leaders.

Upasani Maharaj was wearing his gunny cloth when Gandhi arrived, but he removed it and went stark naked.

Upasani Maharaj had a tendency to do this, particularly when annoyed by the demands of social etiquette imposed by caste Hinduism.

In later years Upasani Maharaj traveled extensively in India, meeting devotees and giving public spiritual discourses.

Upasani Maharaj was a traditionalist, yet in some respects his outlook was modern.

Upasani Maharaj worked to raise the status of women in society.

Upasani Maharaj believed that they should all be educated, though stressed religious rather than secular education.

The meaning that Upasani Maharaj himself gave to the phrase kanya kumari was that of a virgin or nun who destroys untruth and leads others to Brahman.

Articles appeared in magazines and newspapers, and various civil suits and a criminal cases against Upasani Maharaj arose, but in all these the court declared him innocent.

Upasani Maharaj was charged with an offence under the Devadasi Act and convicted in the first Court, but acquitted on appeal.

The principal teachings of Upasani Maharaj have often been reduced to three rules that, "if observed sincerely, lead to a life worth living":.

The character and teachings of Upasani Maharaj have been described as paradoxical.

Yet the 'language' of Upasni Upasani Maharaj required that the listener adapt to something other than words:.

Upasani Maharaj has been described as the living embodiment of the Ashtavakra Gita.

Upasani Maharaj was one of the principal teachers of Meher Baba.

Upasani Maharaj moved to Sakori in July 1917 and Meher Baba frequently stayed there.

Charles Purdom recounts that, at the end of December 1921, Upasani Maharaj made several comments relating to Meher Baba.