Pandharichi Wari: Part 8

 

Devaachiye Dwaari Ubhaa Kshanabhari 

Tene mukti chaari saadhiyelyaa 🙏🏼🙏🏼

Saturday 

June 17th

I was woken up around 7:30 am by a call from Vinayak Karmarkar, fondly known at home as Vinu. He asked if he could come with tea. I asked for a bit of time and was ready within half hour or so. He brought over piping hot Pohe and tea. I then accompanied him to his house which was literally in the back side of the hotel I was staying in. 

At home was Siddhi his wife, Nirav his elder son and ShriKrishna, the younger one, who they fondly called Kanha. Nirav is in the ninth grade and wants to be a doctor. Kanha is in second grade and wants to be a police officer so he can lock up Nirav in jail . Kanha was born on Gokulashtami day. As you can guess his personality mirrors his namesake as a child. In fact when I asked him, who out of the two of you is more brilliant? He told me candidly that he himself was good at mischief( danga) . 

Siddhi was a petite lady, very sweet in nature and had this rather delightful local accent. Both Vinu and Siddhi insisted I don’t refer to them as Aho ( elders) because they were much younger to me but somehow I couldn’t right away bring myself to refer to them in singular pronouns. 

Nirav! This kid stole my heart from day one. He is so mature, sincere in everything he does, utmost caring , polite and respectful of everyone and very self disciplined. Even if rest of his family stayed up to chat or whatever he would take leave of everyone before 10 pm and was up before 5 am. Early morning he would leave for his tuitions and return by 10 am. His maternal grandfather had been ill and bedridden at home for months before passing away last September. Nirav would take care of him at home, change dressings on his bedsores and other bladder bowel needs. His maternal family is closely associated with the Vitthala Temple as priests for generations. Nirav too helps with the rituals at the temple from time to time. The staff at the temple all know him. 

When they were informed I am coming to Pandharpur Nirav took it upon himself to arrange for my visit to the temple. He made no promises but within himself he was determined to get me sparsh darshan which is the most intimate of darshans of Panduranga. 

That morning he was in touch with his mama ( maternal uncle) at the temple. While we waited to hear back his mother had summoned their family doctor for a home visit to attend to the wound on my foot. Dr Bhosekar, a simple man, probably around the same age as me, arrived with some basic supplies. He cleansed my foot with tincture of iodine. It burned like crazy. Then he applied a gauze dressing with antiseptic cream and wrapped it with a roll of gauze. He left promising to come again the next morning.

In the interim one of Siddhi’s brother, his wife and son who is a student at COEP ( Pune engineering college) stopped by to greet me. Their homes are on the same premises, in a new building at the far end of the central courtyard. Siddhi’s vahini is a very elegant lady who conducts tuitions and sanskar classes at home. She is also active member of RSS. She helped me find me tune my nauwari drape. We took some pictures together after that in the courtyard, next to the Tulsi vrindavan. 

When confirmation came from the temple around noon time we left home. Nirav, his dad and me. Vinu had earlier talked to the police seeking permission for a rickshaw to drop me near the temple entrance. The police were heavily monitoring the streets leading up to the temple. Private vehicles and rickshaws were prohibited from entering except under certain circumstances. I was limping on my foot as we walked out of the home. Vinu stopped a rickshaw but the police officer sitting on watch thought he saw me walking and abruptly stopped the rickshaw and told us to get down and walk. He was rather rude and spoke arrogantly. If you say so! I was prepared to walk. And started to do so. He realized I wasn’t faking the foot problem. He called out to the rickshaw and allowed only Nirav and me to ride. Vinu walked to the entrance.

To reach the Namdev Payari which is the East entrance of the temple we had to go past the back side of the temple which is the West Gate ( Paschim Dwar) and around one side of the temple complex. The rickshaw dropped us there. We kept our shoes at the racks outside the gate. 

Vinu showed me the Namdev Payari from the viewing area outside. This is the samadhi place of the great Saint Namdev. Along with him over a dozen other followers took samadhi at the same time. From there Vinu returned home. Nirav and me accompanied his mama inside the temple. 

There was a security check for all visitors prior to this. No phones, cameras or other devices were permitted inside. Those with any of these had to go back outside and get back in line. The general line extended into the adjoining multistory building specially built for these waiting crowds. The special guests permits would be suspended from the following week until Ashadhi Ekadashi. The timing of my arrival in Pandharpur couldn’t have been better. 

Right after the security check was a booth for collection of donations. Vinu had instructed me to make any donations at the official booth and ask for a receipt so the temple retains records and prevents misappropriation of incoming funds by anyone. I had followed his instructions even though the receipt wasn’t important for me. I could understand the reasoning.

Within minutes of entering the gate we were in the central courtyard of the temple. I have been to this temple a couple of times before. I was young and naive at the time. Didn’t have much know how about the history of this place. But over the years reading saint literature, knowing the story of the great devotee Pundalik and the recorded history of meetings and discourse of the great saints at this temple had taken the understanding of the significance of this place to a different level altogether. The awareness that I was standing at a place where once upon a time such great saints like Dnyaaneshwar, Tukaram, Namdev, Nivrittinath, Sopandev, Muktabai, Chokhamela gathered made me lose my composure and break down into tears. I had barely gathered myself from that overwhelming feeling when we were ushered between the narrow side hallways directly into the presence of Vithoba! Here my words fail to describe the moment. It was a baring of the heart and soul. I was face to face with my mother, my Lord, my everything. I was permitted to touch the divine feet. My entire wari had reached fulfillment in that moment. 

The tears in my eyes were partly from joy of the darshan and partly gratitude towards Nirav. This little angel had made the moment possible. 

In my mind I conveyed the respects of every person who had told me to do so and prayed for the Lord to keep his blessings on them. He knows and I know that I am rather shameless to ask for the whole of Him to be with me always. I don’t ask for anything lesser. He goes wherever I go. There is no separation. I can’t live without Him. Only difference is that He is silent and unseen by the eyes at most times. And here HE was visible to the eyes in his pristine glory, standing for ages with the hands on his waist, just like Pundalik had asked him to do.

We moved on from the immediate darshan still grabbing whatever darshan we could from outside before proceeding to take darshan of Rukmini. She is the Lord’s Better Half. It was emotional seeking HER blessings too. The priest attending to Her shrine was known to Nirav. He offered me a gajra and a mango as prasad. That night we all shared the mango at home.

Nirav showed me around other deities within the temple complex. Lord Ganapati, Lord Hanuman, Lord Balaji, the Navgrahas. We took the blessings from each before exiting from the other side of the temple. Here Nirav borrowed the phone from the police officer monitoring the gate, called Vinu and within minutes we were headed for home. Since this gate was closer to home I chose not to take rickshaw.

Siddhi had kept lunch ready by the time we returned. After everyone was done I returned to my hotel room to rest. They too could relax. 

In the evening Nirav took me over to the home of the holy Madan Maharaj Haridas. He is the current head of a family that generations back was blessed by Panduranga Himself with His padukas. Each year on the day following Poornima in the month of Ashadh( few days after Ashadhi Ekadashi) there is celebration in Pandharpur of what is known as Maha Dwar Kaalaa. This Swamiji enters into a trance. Over 150-250 yards of fabric is tied around his head into a pagota ( turban) and the holy padukas are placed on top of it. The Maharaj is carried on the shoulders of several men in a procession. Not even a painful stimulus is able to bring forth a reaction from the Maharaj when he enters the trance. He comes out of it only after the conclusion of the procession. 

That evening I got darshan of Maharaj and the padukas in his ancestral home. It was a formidable wada with stone walls and interiors made out of strong teak wood. I couldn’t help but admire how strong and well kept the home was. Maharaj just smiled. I sensed a bit of wistfulness in that smile. Later from Vinu I learnt that this wada is likely to be demolished when the government plans for a modern corridor move forward. This wada is one of many old structures that will be sacrificed for the new development in the city. For good or worse, only time will tell. 

Another of Siddhi’s brothers( cousins) who they talked highly about, Narsu mama, stopped by after our dinner to meet me. I was told he is a good astrologer. A humble and intelligent man, he sat for a little while before taking leave.

I returned to my room soon thereafter.