“Saktaha karmanyavidwanso yatha kurvanti Bharat

Kuryadvidvanstathasaktashchikirshurloksangraham”    Gita  3-25

Lord Krishna said,

“ Oh Arjun the elite person (who has realized “self” or God)

 willing to live in public life to impart knowledge of self-realization

to public and for that sake organizes people, should live in public

like an ordinary person ignorant of knowledge of realization,  and

should act, behave and perform  “karmas”  (duties) like others do”

Khapti Maharaj, called “Baba” hereafter, lived in villages and small towns in Vidarbha region (central India) with people of the ordinary walk of life and never told them about his real abilities. He was born in 1890  AD in Bagapur village in Chandur Railway Taluka of Amravati  district,  in a farmer family named Chaudhary.   His father Harba and mother Yashoda,   though  a family of Jamindar (owners of big land), faced an odd period of life when the fourth child Bhaurao was born to them.  Unable to bear the financial burden of bringing up the children, the parents preferred to keep Bhaurao at the house of his maternal uncle for primary education in childhood. Uncle loved him much but the aunt always wanted him to assist in their home and farm work instead of attending to school and the studies. Most of the time the duty of Bhaurao was to take the cows and other live  stock for grazing during day time and bring back in the evening.  This was not the kind of  work that could encourage Bhaurao to continue his academic career. The inherent divine qualities of  Bhaurao started surfacing  and were much evident to his colleagues, family members and residents of  the village.

Here is a story that Baba himself narrated.  One day, when he was about eight years of age, he  was beaten up by his aunt and uncle for not obeying the orders to carry out some farm work..  They  did not take him in the house at the night time. That night Bhaurao slept beside his house near a place where the people in the village used to deposit the house wastes. Next day morning he told his uncle and many other neighbors that there were few belongings of a Sanyasi ( a person who renounced worldly life) buried under public dust bin. The spot was dug by the enthusiastic people to verify what Bhaurao had said, and surprisingly they really found a few things generally   used by sanyasis  three feet below the surface. 

In fact, all during his life Baba used to tell his followers number of times about many things below the land surface like idols, hidden treasure, minerals, water sources etc. and the followers were always surprised by this divine kind of knowledge or sixth sense when they found Baba’s words absolutely true. The author himself is a witness to number of such  astonishing occasions.

The childhood of Baba was full of many such events. The people used to take aback looking at the extra ordinary sense of Baba and used to admire him.  In his teen age Bhurao found interest in visiting the ashrams (places of Guru) of many renowned saints, staying with them for days together and talking to them on spiritual subjects. The contemporary famous saints in that region were Maniram Baba, Khateshwar Maharaj, Gajanan Maharaj  etc.  Amravati district in Maharashtra state is called a  “birth place of saints, because many great saints are borne in that district. Bhaurao had already left his education and mostly he used to stay away from uncle’s home. He never thought of marriage and live like a layman.

Baba used very little to tell about himself, and avoided any question related to his personal life and about his Guru.  It  was very difficult therefore, to get the information on his early days. What is known from his stray speeches about himself is that one day he attended a function at Maniram Baba’s ashram, stayed there overnight and early morning he left for the deep forest to attain the knowledge of salvation. He was a teen aged that time. He stayed in dense forest for about 14 years.

Life after realization

He appeared for the first time in the small town called “Ner” or Ner Pinglai after his arrival from the stay in forest. He had no clothes on the body, the hairs and beard grown and was looking like a ghost or a savage.  Young boys playing on the ground saw him coming from the forest side and ran to their homes due to fear. He was uttering the senseless words.  Informed about him by the boys, some elderly people including  one farmer Bansi Patil who had sent his cows to forest for grazing, rushed to the place where  Baba was located.  Bansi Patil immediately understood that Baba was not a ghost, a thief or an ordinary man.  He knew about the saints who relinquish the worldly life and go to the forests for loneliness required for meditating God.  He bowed to Baba and earnestly requested him to come to the residence.  Baba agreed to it.  Many people looking at that dirty man who was speaking to himself, called him a mad man or “Khapti”.  Since then Bhaurao became Khapti Maharaj or Baba

How Baba used to live

Baba literally witnessed three centuries. He was borne in 1890 and thrown his worldly shield (Awaran) or his body as we call it in the year 2003  going back  into his original form the process called Samadhi. He lived for 113 years. He served the people as a Guru, Baba, Maharaj or a saint for almost 87 which may be a record period. 

Baba rarely changed his clothes and taken bath, but anybody close to him always experienced and smelt a fragrance. His dress was simple; a dhoti (white thin cloth around waist) and kurta  (shirt). He always use to keep a bamboo stick with him. Many a times he changed the clothes after a period of 3 months. His body was given a bath after his samadhi  in November 2003 according to Hindu rituals; before that he had taken bath while living probably in the year 2000. He still looked fresh always and kept his disciples fresh by his benedictory speech, many a times full or humor. Baba was Brahmachari  (never aspired for sensual pleasure and married). He rarely stayed in his Ashram at Bagapur. He used to stay at the residence of his disciples, for 10 minutes, 2 hours or for a couple of days or for moths together. It was difficult to say for how many days he will stay at one place.  Till last couple of days of his life, he had never taken rest. He traveled constantly.  He will make local visits or tour the different towns and villages every day. He used to tell the followers, “sanyasi, sada udasi, jeevn pravasi”.  It means a Sanyasi has to be always uninterested in worldly things and pleasures, and has to travel always.

His food was green leaves and vegetables till 1955 when he met the famous saint of India, Gadge Baba who visited Bagapur Ashram  (Khapti Baba’s place) on the eve of Mahashivaratri day.  (Hindu festival day and annual pilgrim and function day at the Ashram).  Gadge Baba insisted upon him to take the diet of bread and rice, and Khapti Maharaj agreed to the request of Gadge Baba. This story is written in the biography of Gadge Baba written by Shri Sonopant Dandekar of Pune.  It  means that he did not have regular Indian meals for first 65 years of his age. 

After attaining the age of 100, he started asking his disciples to publish his photographs and written material. He seldom allowed any publicity before that.  Many a times he was annoyed with the disciples who tried to write about him or publish his photographs.  He kept himself away from publicity for incredibly long period of 100 years.

It was very difficult for a stranger to meet him.  Baba would either ask him angrily to get out, or beat himself on forehead by a stick or anything if that stranger does not disappear from in front of him immediately. But sometimes in good mood he would entertain any stranger and would solve his problems and live him spiritual guidelines All his followers and visitors use to keep away from Baba knowing his unpredictable nature, and use to enter closer to him once they ensure about his fine mood.   Baba generally disallowed women to sit before him, however, sometimes he used to talk to them and advise on health or family matters if his mood was pleasant. Mostly, everybody was scared of him.

His love for birds and animals was profound.  Especially, cows and dogs were very much liked by him.  He used to spend hours together staring at them.  Cat, hare, deer, peacock, duck, camel and many other different kind of birds and animals always found place in the Baba’s ashram.

He brought up with him four poor and orphan children from villages who after becoming young were named after Baba and were known as Baba’s sons.  These children have become old men now and their family grown.  They take care of Baba’s Ashram.

Baba never worshipped any God nor he went to any temple or prayer house. Many times he used to cut comments on the worship of God (Puja), He used to call the Bhajan and Kirtans  (songs of God) to be entertainment program and hardly allowed anybody to perform  any music or vocal program before him. He had written a Aarti  (a song to be sung during puja)  addressed to all the saints and all those in the service of God in the world, and would allow his followers to sing that Aarti whenever they used to lpropitiate him with flowers, garlands, sweets, perfumes etc. In Marathi language the Aarti  read like,  “Aarati sant mahantachi, pahati jyot anantachi”. The meaning is that, “we adore all the saints, who have seen the eternal light.”