Upasini Maharaj Part-1

Upasini Maharaj Part-1 (Telugu Talk) click here

Sri Upasani  Maharaj’s real name is Kasinath Govinda Upasani Sastri . He has a distinctive place among Sai’s devotees.  Most of the details about his life were published in Sai leela magazine. Upasini Baba contributed to Sai’s legacy both directly and indirectly. At one point in his life, people had to stand in lines to have his darshan. People flocked to him in thousands where ever he went. In 1927, Mahatma Gandhi also visited him. He was a divine master and showed so many miracles to his devotees. He established Kanyasthan where he helped so many females in the spiritual path as they were ignored during those times. Sri Narasimha Swami visited Upasini Baba prior to his arrival to Shirdi. He wrote biography on Upasini baba with name “The sage of Sakori”. Upasini Baba was very popular from 1920 to 1934.

Birth, family, education and work details: 

 Kasinath was born on May 15^th, 1870. He was born of a very orthodox sect of Brahmins who were village priests, that is, priests in the village of Satana. His grandfather Sri Gopal Sastri had left the village to stay at Baroda as the Raja's Court adviser in religious as well as literary matters for a number of years. Gopal Sastri was also the adviser to many other Petty States on matters of religion and was the author of several books, none of which has probably been printed, Govinda Sastri, the father of Upasani, though a good scholar had

to earn bread for the family by being a copyist in Dhulia Civil Court. Upasani was one of the five sons of Govinda Sastri, and stayed with his grandfather Gopal Sastri at Satana. The family during the time that we are considerirg was really not very well off. The earnings of village priests being very small, they had just enough to eat and get along.

Kasinath’s early education was practically nil. He was sent to an elementary school and very early in that period, a merciless master named Gharpure birched him severely. The boy cried and roaring with pain went to the Village Munsif to lodge a complaint. There the matter ended and his education also ended. He could have picked up the rudiments of the Purohit's learning necessary for carrying on the work of the Village Purohit, but Kasinath did not care to do so. On the other hand, he had a strong dislike for any education, and so was treated as a very dull boy and an exception to the family traditions of love of learning. His elder brother, Balakrishna Sastri, was highly advanced in Sanskrit study and became a Professor of Sanskrit in the Fergusson College, Poona, and was an Examiner for Sanskrit in M.A. in the Bombay University.

But Kasinath was treated by everyone as good-for-nothing, and yet according to old customs, his parents insisted upon getting him married in spite of his protests, at the age of 14 (i.e. in 1883) to a girl of 8 (Durgabai), who died in 1885. He was again married in 1885 to another girl who also died a year later. The home was already bitter; this marriage obligation tied round his neck made it worse. So he did not like home that much and used to go to solitude at times.

Penance at Boorkhad Hill

In 1890, he leaves the house to pursue God. He goes to Boorkhad Hill. There he could see from a great distance that in the midst of a forest, the hill projected from the forest and disclosed a natural cave or cavern. There was luckily a tree near it. As he approached it, he discovered that he could climb up into the cave with the help of the tree growing adjoining it and sending one of its branches into the cave. He thought that this was excellent for his meditation. He sat up in the cave and tried to meditate. He spent days without food or drink, and finally before he became unconscious started chanting (namajapa) name of God, and his body was there in a fixed posture for an unknown period, and, due to lack of food, his muscles and skin were shrunk. 

He woke up to find that he was still alive, and there was the feeling of thirst. There was no water and he could not move. Luckily, the kind heavens poured down rain in a short time, and that rain, coming down the cavern, poured a mass of water into the cave that collected close to him. All his muscles were rigid except those of his right hand, and with this he could reach and pick up the collected water, and he drank up as much as he could. This restored some degree of vigour in him, and he massaged his rigid body.

He began again dreaming and he had a vision which was as follows; "A Hindu and a Muslim standing by his side pulled off his entire skin disclosing thereby his divinely bright body within him. 

Pointing to that body they said 'Why do you wish to die? We will not let you die! We are behind you¹ and they vanished." 

He then ventured to move like a lizard on to the branch of the tree which adjoined the cave. And from that branch, he dropped down. He was glad to see that he did not break his limbs by a fall of about 20 feet or so. He moved on slowly on his haunches to an adjoining village where the poor residents were living by collecting fuel from forests and selling it. He passed some time living upon the milk and wild grain supplied by these villagers, and then came back to his home. This stay in Boorkhad cave is still remembered by his devotees who have tried to erect some memorial there of his early yoga practice in the cave.

Upasini as a doctor:

He went to Poona City where his elder brother was leading a respectable life as Professor of a College. Sri Upasani would not go to his brother's house. He went out begging his food in some nooks and corners, very often being refused any food. This bitter portion of his life may be said to end with his grandfather Gopal Sastri's death in 1891. After that, Kasinath began to realize that he must do something to earn his bread, and so, he went to Sangli and got coached up in Ayurveda and Sanskrit Grammar under Sangli Venkataramanachar (1892-1895). 

Thus equipped, he went out to Amraoti, and there practised medicine (1896-1905). He was unlucky at the outset but soon began to prosper. Amongst those who accepted medicines fiom him was G. S. Khaparde, a leading lawyer and the right hand man of Lokamanya Bala Gangadhar Tilak. Sri Kasinath started and conducted for three years (1902-1905) a Medical Mahratti monthly (Beshaja Ratnamala) in which he advertised the patent medicines that he manufactured and with his practice and sale of medicines, he collected a small capital for which he wanted good investment. This was about the year 1907 when, in Gwalior, the State was disposing of Malguzari lease estates. One estate of 2,000 acres could be had by merely paying down Rs. 600 as advance money and agreeing to pay fixed rents which might be collected from the tenants or from the forest or other produce. 

So, the doctor invested his money in Malguzari, and went to live on his estate (1906-1908) but found that he had made a huge mistake. The estate had been thrown up by the previous holder because he could not pay the fixed rental instalments as the tenants would not pay, and the forest and other lands would not yield. Not knowing all that, he had taken up the estate, and found it difficult to pay up the dues to the State, whereupon warrants for seizure of his goods were executed by the village officers even at night when his wife was alone. And to harass him, there were plenty of enemies. The tenants defied him to collect the rent, and the village officers, whose co-operation was necessary to collect the rents, withheld their co-operation. So, after a year or two of struggle with adverse circumstances, Kasinath could not get anything there, but lost his health and all that he had and returned home a broken man with broken fortune and ruined health.

Upasini’s breathing problem:

Soon after, he bethought himself once again of holy pilgrimages, and started with his wife (the 3rd) in April 1910 to Omkareswar Lingam on an island in the middle of a river (Narmada and its Branch Cavery), and there tried to practise Pranayama himself, and his wife was seated at the foot of that huge lingam (called Somanath or Gouri Shankar) with a diameter of about 6 or 7 feet.  He fell down unconscious and his wife sprinkled river water, and that restored his consciousness. But his breathing was not restored, and remembering the usual practice of artificial respiration, he began to heave his whole body and uttered groans so as to move the respiratory muscles of his chest slowly and with considerable groaning and effort, he began to breathe. But he felt that his breathing might stop at any moment. He was afraid to strain at stools or to go to sleep, lest during these times the breathing should stop. He tried to get medicine. But the doctors stated that he had got trouble in the course of his yogic practice and they could not furnish him with a cure.

Baba coming as an old Muslim man:

Thinking that he should resort to yogis only for a cure, he went (April 1911) to Rahuri where there was a yogi Kulkarni by name. But that yogi, after listening to his account, stated that he was not having any disease at all, that his breathing was one of the accidents of yogic practice, that it would become normal again, in due course, that his yogic condition was far advanced and advised him to go to Sai Baba   Hearing the name  'Sai Baba' uttered by the Rahuri yogi, he said, 'Sai Baba must naturally be a Mohamadan, and I am a Sastri's son and grandson, and so bowing to a Muslim is out of the question'. Therefore, Kasinath declined to go. 

But while staying with that yogi, he was walking in the streets, and he met an old Mohamadan who questioned him about his trouble, and then gave him the advice: 'This trouble is vatha and will be cured by your avoiding cold drink, and drinking water as hot as your mouth can bear'. Dr. Kasinath had no respect for this advice and treated it as worthless, and went away to Jejuri on his way to meet a Hindu yogi Phatak by name at Moregaon. 

At Jejuri he again sat up for yoga practice under a thick prickly pear bush, and there, after some time, he felt the pangs of thirst. He went to a stream and was about to drink its cold water. Suddenly the old man that appeared at Rahuri, 156 miles away, was seen at this stream, and he said, "What! Are you trying to kill yourself? I told you to drink hot water and avoid cold water". So, he went into the village and was taking hot drink only. With that i.e. with what he first thought to be a worthless recipe, health was fairly restored, for he got good sleep which he never had before.

Then he went to Narayan Maharaj of Kedgaonbet, Bombay, a famous Datta Upasaka possessed of marvellous powers. When he represented to Narayan Maharaj that he wanted help for health, Narayan Maharaj made him chew betel and nut, and said that he was finely painted inside and outside, and asked him to go away. Kasinath could not make out what he meant. When he went again and asked him, Narayan Maharaj said that there was nothing more for him to do, and so he started back for Satana, and, on the way, called at the Rahuri Yogi's house, and on the insistence of that Rahuri Yogi, he decided to go to Shirdi.

OM SAI RAM!