Om Sai Ram - Great Devotees of Shirdi Sai - Dasganu

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Eminent Devotees of Shirdi baba - Dasganu Name : Dasganu Full Name : Ganpatrao Dattatreya Sahasrabuddhe Dasganu was a great soul, the living monument of Baba's might and kindness. Many thousands learnt of Baba from him and have subsequently visited Baba or Shirdi and made Baba their own life long passion. Baba used to call Ganpatrao Dattatreya Sahasrabuddhe viz. Dasganu as Ganu. Dasganu was one among the few who served Baba very intimately. He performed musical recitals (Bhajans and kirtan) at various places as his service to describe and sing Baba's glory to the people. Dasganu, by his splendid Kirtans, spread the fame of Baba in Maharashtra and Konkan (Bombay Presidency). Thousands used to attend his Kirtans when he performed.

It was always the practice of Dasganu to keep Baba's picture in front of the audience while singing the kirtan. The effect of hearing Dasganu's kirtan on the minds of audience was electric. Consequently Baba came to be known to many people as a God Incarnate. The audience, who come to hear the Kirtans have different tastes. Some like the erudition of the Haridas; some his gestures, some his singing, some his wit and humour, some his preliminary dissertation on Vedanta, and some others, his main stories and so on; but among them, there are very few, who by hearing the Kirtan get faith and devotion or love for God or Saints. Dasganu made a major contribution to spirituality in Maharashtra by his Kirtans. Some of the devotees who came to know about Baba by listening Dasganu's kirtan were 'Damodar Rasne, Lala Lakshmichand, Ratanji Shapurji Vadiya of Nanded, Cholkar, Santaram Balwant Nachne's

father, Sri Narayan Asram Sanyasi, Ramchandra Sitaram Dev alias Balabhau or Balabhat, Balwant Hari Karnik, Vinayak Appaji Vaidya'. The difficulty of getting a new Haridas every year for Sri Rama Navami celebrations at Shirdi was finally solved by Sri Saibaba, as He entrusted this function to Dasganu Maharaj permanently from 1914. Initially Dasganu was an atheist and he himself said that to regard Baba as a God is an exaggeration. He came to Baba just to gain favour with Nanasaheb Chandorkar who was a high Govt. Official. However his approach to Baba totally changed when (as witnessed and told by Dasganu) – Baba performed a miracle by making the streams of Ganges, and Yamuna appear from his toes. Dasganu in His Sthavanamanjari expressed 'Sai's avatar did not only do good but also tranformed the evil into good'. Dasganu did not accept Baba as his guru initially, as he had a brahmin guru

by the name of 'Vaman Shahi Islampurkar', who had initiated him. Initially, Dasganu was a devotee of Lord Shiva, he later felt attracted to Lord Vithal of Pandari Pur. Sri Dasganu continued his sadhana (spiritual practice) in the warkari tradition. Dasganu liked his 'Service' and playing in 'Tamasha'. But he ultimately gave them up on Baba's advice. Dasganu was in active police service as a Havildar. On Baba's advice he resigned his service in 1903. Even before 1903, his literary skill made him produce fine verses on Sivaji, the national hero, for use at the Ganapati utsava in Maharashtra. As verses on Sivaji rouse up patriotism and the National spirit, which the foreign rulers then in power dreaded, he was called on by his Inspector to explain how he, a Government servant, took this prominent part in helping a national movement. His answer was that he was an 'Asukavi, that verses in Lavani

metre flowed out of him at the barest request of anybody and that at the request of some one he sang impromptu the song or verses on Sivaji. As a proof he offered to compose ex tempore verses on the officer himself at once. The officer wished to test the truth of the statement and asked him to do so. Ganu's poetic genius was equal to the occasion. At once, he sang up the high qualities (real or fancied) of the officer, in lavani metre and in a few minutes there were numerous verses on the excellences of the officer who was greatly pleased and dropped the charge against Ganu. Dasganu was an eye witness for Baba's Wonderful wooden plank leela which happened about 1898. Regarding this Dasganu stated, 'I myself saw Baba sleeping on a plank suspended from the ceiling by a few slender shreds of torn cloth. The wonder was how He got up that plank suspended so high i.e. 7 or 8 feet above the floor and 1 or 11/2 cubits

below the roof. Four lamps were on it. People watched to see how He got up or climbed down but could never discover either that or how the plank supported him.' Regarding Dasganu's Kirtans in his words: I receive no money for my Kirtans. I never did. The hat was not and is not sent round either before or after my Kirtan for contributions. My bhaktas write and invite me to their abodes in various parts of the country. I go and stay with them and perform Kirtans and write books etc. I am a single individual without any family and my needs are few.

 

Om Sai Ram