Gurudeo Ranade Jamkhandi

My association with Gurudeo Ranade was close and frequent after he came to stay at Nimbal in Bijapur District and the termination of tenure as the vice-chancellor of the Allahabad University. Gurudeo built an Ashram near Nimbal Railway Station. His followers began to flock into the Ashram where they took initiation either from Gurudeo himself or from his recognized disciple, Kaka Karkhanis of Bijapur.

When I was parliamentary Secretary and later Deputy Minister in Bombay I had occasion to visit Nimbal thrice or four times I found that Prof. Ranade had the innocence of a child, a quality that marked all his activities. He had an affectionate nature and his attitude towards those who came to see him was full of respect and consideration. Indeed it was like that of a mother towards children.

I have a vivid recollection of a few incidents concerning Gurudeo. I shall mention a few of them here.

I met Gurudeo once at a felicitation function at Jamkhandi. I was told that he planned to stay there for a week of so. Later he extended his stay for about a month. At that time he was staying at Ram Tirth Guest House of the Maharaja of Jamkhandi. During this period he expressed a desire to visit the Kannada Teachers' Training Centre which was functioning at Polo palace. When we went there all the students were in the playground playing games. The moment they saw me and Prof. Ranade a number of them came away from the playground to their rooms in the hostel. Prof. Ranade entered one of the rooms along with me, and all the students flocked there. Gurudeo asked me whether classes start after prayers. I said 'YES'. Then he asked me in how many languages they offer prayers. I said, "in three languages, Kannada, Sanskrit and Marathi." He asked the boys to sing, and the boys sang in the three languages mentioned. In this connection, I recall some instances of Gurudeo's extra ordinary prescience and intuitive sensing of the future. Humility forbids me narrating the incidents in detail. Suffice it to say that he had hinted more than once in the presence of friends that I would have opportunities of serving the nation in higher capacities. The predictions came true, as later events proved.

On another occasion when Prof. Ranade was in a particularly happy mood he narrated to me his belief in the presence of a spiritual current, which like rainwater is percolated in the soil. This current is found in different volumes and at different depths. Sometimes the spiritual current is near to the surface of the ground. In such a case, any person with high spiritual power walking over such ground will immediately feel that some force underground is exerting a pull on his feet. Such spots are said to be sacred spots and are selected by saints as places for erecting ashrams and temples. So long as the spiritual current in such spot flows strongly, crowds are attracted to visit these temples and ashrams. Sometimes the current will disappear and flow in another direction. Spots once sacred where the spiritual current is not flowing anymore are abandoned and become deserts. Gurudeo said that he had seen three such spots in his, life: Allahabad where he was working as vice-chancellor of the Allahabad University, Nimbal and Jamkhandi. He told me that the spiritual current at Jamkhandi was comparatively more powerful than at Allahabad and Nimbal.

Once when I had gone to Nimbal to have darshan of Gurudeo while I was Deputy Minister in Bombay, he was sitting in the hall with a number of people around him. After I went there he asked some of the villagers to sing a Bhajan. While the villagers were singing, Gurudeo went into a trance and the singing stopped. After a few minutes all of a sudden Gurudeo came back to the waking state and asked the gathering to resume the Bhajan from the point at which they had stopped singing. This gave me an impression that he was practicing 'Sahaja Yoga' which means that whenever he heard something sublime about the Divine in Bhajan or otherwise, he would enter into a trance without the slightest effort. (1st Oct. l976)