Sri Ranchhoddas ji Maharaj was a towering humanitarian saint whose name is largely restricted to the circle of his immediate disciples and other such persons who had the good fortune to come in touch with him. Tapasya and Seva were present in complete harmony in him. This exceedingly simple and all-loving saint, having a thin frame of body but boundless love and energy, did singular service for the poorest of poor of our countrymen for a very long time and endeavoured to bring succour to alleviate their suffering. His completely selfless and self-sacrificing ways of serving others inspired the formation of number of charitable institutions – Hospitals, Schools, Rural development work etc. in several parts of the country. These institutions are together serving hundreds of thousands of people from weak social economic strata and have set sterling benchmarks in their own fields like eye care, empowerment of marginal farmers, nursing and medical education, Sanskrit learning etc.
The noteworthy point is that all these institutions largely took shape and flourished after Sri Ranchhoddas ji Maharaj left the mortal world in 1970. The inspirational power he had imparted to those who had come in touch with him continues to yield results and supply the motive power to those engaged in acts of service even more than half a century after he has passed away.
Early Life
It is largely believed that Maharaj had a very long life though he hardly ever directly mentioned or attached any importance to it. Earliest records about him start from around 1900, by which time too, he had lived a considerable part of his life of rigorous Tapasya. The events before that time were sometimes recounted by him to his later disciples.
Sri Maharaj ji was born in a village named Byphal in the present-day district of Amravati in a Maharashtrian Brahmin family. Named Ramarao, right from his young days, he felt intense devotion to Sri Ramachandra and even at that age did Japam of Sri Rama’s name for long hours. His father worked in the local constabulary.
Ramarao’s intense yearning for God-Realisation made him leave home at the age of 10 to travel to Ayodhya – a place resounding with a long and sacred tradition of saints and devotees of Sri Rama. This little guileless boy was at first taken by some Naga Sadhus into their fold. These Sadhus had a markedly aggressive disposition and made the little boy do excessive work, caring little with regard to guiding him in spiritual life, the purpose for he had come so far away from his home. The boy, however, uncomplainingly did all the work thrust upon him, accepting it as a part of his self-disciplining process and thereby showed great forbearance that remained a hallmark for all his life.
Meeting his Guru
But Ramarao’s destiny lay somewhere else and he did not have to wait for that for long. Sometime soon, a great saint of the Ramanananda Order (Sampradaya) Sri Balakrishnadas ji, known as Payahari Baba (called so because he only took milk) came along and seeing the little boy among the Naga Sadhus, enjoined Ramarao to accompany him. Ramarao left with this saint, leaving behind the Naga Sadhus speechless and lost in wonder, seeing the great saint take the little boy out of their fold.
The Ramananda Sampradray had been started by Swami Ramananda around fourteenth century and its lineage had such great spiritual luminaries like Sri Kabirdas, Goswami Tulsidas, Sri Rabidas (also known as Raidas) and several other stellar figures. The Ramananda tradition has a large number of Sadhus in northern and central India and they regard Sri Ramachandra as their Ishta (Chosen Deity). They have Vishishta Advaita (the philosophical system first systematised by Sri Ramanujacharya) as the cornerstone of their path. They too are considered as a part of the larger ‘Sri Sampraday’ to which also belongs the lineage started by Sri Ramanuja. It is a Vaishnava Sampraday and the Ramanandi Sadhus are called Vairagis or Virakta Mahatmas after they undergo their final rites of renunciation known as the ‘Virakta-Diksha’ which in a way corresponds to the ritual of ‘Viraja Homa’, after which one is ordained to a life of Sanyasa in accordance with the Dashanami tradition established by Sri Sankaryacharya around the ninth century.
Sri Payahari Baba had lived a very long life of Tapasya and for a considerable length of time had his base at a place called Galtaji near Jaipur (then called Amer). He took the young Ramarao to Kashmir which was his base then, and ordained him into the Ramanandi tradition giving him the name Ranchhoddas. Under his tutelage Ranchhoddas ji studied the scriptures and practised Yoga, Japam and Dhyana. Soon Ranchhoddas ji became adept at sitting in the meditative posture for long hours with little consciousness of his body.
The Parivrajak : As a wandering Sadhu
Convinced that the young disciple was now prepared enough to draw upon experiences from the wider world, Gurudeva, asked him to visit Tibet and also take learnings from the Lamas of that region. Gurudeva however cautioned him with regard to being distracted towards acquiring ‘Siddhis’ (special powers) and instructed him to concentrate single-mindedly on his pursuit of getting firmly established in a pure and devotional life in which even the last trace of ego and worldly desires had to be gotten rid of. Returning from Tibet, Gurudeva instructed the disciple to travel all over Bharatavarsha and visit sacred places of pilgrimage, using this time to see and meet great ascetics and saints who lived in different parts of the country. Those were the times when the railway network had not come into being and thus Ranchhoddasji Maharaj travelled everywhere on foot.
During this time he also lived for several years in Bengal and served the people during famines which that part of the country witnessed quite frequently. During the famines, on one occasion, Maharaj intervened with the open sale of girls and young women that was going on. He was mercilessly beaten and became unconscious. On some occasions, Maharaj managed to collect money to prevent such sales and restore the girls to their families.
There is an interesting anecdote of that phase that is indicative of the unbending renunciation that Maharaj always personified. The Royalty of Bardhaman, also called Burdwan, in Bengal, was greatly fascinated by Maharaj and once invited him to his royal court, making him sit on an expensive seat made of silver. Maharaj, to keep with his host’s wishes complied. When he was leaving the Raja decided that the silver seat be gifted to Maharaj and arranged for a carriage to transport the silver seat. At this point, Maharaj firmly declined the gift, knowing it to be contrary to his ways of austere living. Not having expected this and feeling a bit slighted, the Raja remarked “Maharaj ji, you will perhaps not easily get anyone else making such a gift.” At this Maharaj quickly retorted, “You may be quite right there, Your Highness. But you too will perhaps not get another one to give up this gift as a mere trifle.”
In the Chitrakoot region
Sometimes in the later part of the nineteenth century, though there is no certainty with regard to the exact year, Maharaj moved to the region of Chitrakoot. This region, which is spread over one district of Uttar Pradesh and another in Madhya Pradesh (about 150 km west of Prayagraj) is very special to the devotees of Sri Ramachandra, as the Lord, it is believed spent several years – by some account around eleven or twelve years – in the Chitrakoot region. The place where Sri Rama is said to have lived along with Devi Sita and Lakshmana was the hillock known as Kamadgiri. This place is also the site of the famous ‘Rama-Bharata Milap’. The circumambulation (Parikrama) of Kamadgiri is done by the thousands of devotees everyday. Since time immemorial Yogis and ascetics have made the region a place of deep spiritual Sadhana and thousands of Sadhus remain immersed in it.
Maharaj had first started staying in the dense forest near the place called Devangana. He later moved to another site known as Atri-Anasuiya where the great Rishi Atri and his spiritual consort Anusuiya Devi had their hermitage. Maharaj also lived for a certain duration on the banks of a rivulet called Juri. There he spent night after night on the banks of the stream immersed in meditation. This place was in such interior from any human habitation that Maharaj mainly took fruits and roots that grew there. Maharaj lived a life of great austerity and used a coarse fibre like gunny as a clothing, and thus was also addressed as Taatambari Baba (one who wears ‘Taat’ (gunny). Only during the last few decades of his life did he start wearing a short knee-length Dhoti and an ‘Uttari.
Living on the banks of Juri for a long time, Maharaj finally moved to Janakikund at the behest of a highly respected elderly Sadhu who served the visiting Sadhus by running an Annnakshetra and providing for the visitors’ needs. This Sadhu, Sri Bodharamdas ji had been conducting this service for long years and as his life span was coming to an end he was concerned about the continuity of the Annnakshetra and the inconvenience that would be caused to the visiting Sadhus in the event of its closure.
Maharaj, who by his very nature, never liked to be pinned down to routine management of affairs of an ashrama that such a responsibility would entail, consented to help when a younger Sadhu assured him that he would manage the place on a day to day basis, with Maharaj providing overall guidance. Within a few days Sri Bodharamdas ji, entrusting the responsibility to Maharaj, passed away and Maharaj ensured that the services of the Annakshetra did not stop.
Thus began a phase in his life of performing rigorous Sadhu-Seva in the Chitrakoot region. For this, Maharaj had to travel to several villages in that region and bring sacks of grain offered by the devoted villagers on bullock-cart, sometimes even carrying the offerings himself. His life of intense Tapasya combined with selfless Seva soon placed him in an exalted position among the Sadhus of the region. Maharaj was also endowed with great Yogic powers which he seldom used unless in situations which deeply stirred his compassionate heart upon seeing someone’s intense suffering. The Sadhus and ascetics of the region began to address him as Paramhansa of Janakikund.
Travels to Gujarat
Around 1920 Maharaj again started his travels to distant parts of the country. This time he walked westward and reached Gujarat. He first visited the Kutch region and stayed in Anjar and walked through the Rann of Kutch. Later he visited Saurashtra region where he stayed on the banks of river Aji outside the city of Rajkot. Very soon countless local people became attracted to him, and Maharaj began to guide them in their spiritual lives. He often discoursed on themes from his favourite scriptures like the Ramacharita-Manas and Bhagwad-Gita. He emphasised the necessity to build one’s character and develop empathy towards their fellow-beings.
On the loving and earnest entreaty of these devotees, Maharaj began to visit this area more often. There came up circles of devotees and disciples in towns in Saurashtra region like Gondal and Junagarh who looked upon Maharaj’s guidance for the nourishment of their inner lives. Over the years, permanent ashramas came up in Rajkot and nearby town of Gondal where devotes regularly met and engaged in Satsanga. In Gondal, Maharaj placed a young Sadhu from Chitrakoot, Sri Haricharandas ji in charge, and that ashrama has since then flourished and grown from strength to strength. Sri Haricharandasji, who passed away only a few years ago, later set up at least four more institutions including a Super-Speciality Hospital in Gondal, and Annakshetras and Dharmashalas in places like Badrinath.
In mid-1940s, through Maharaj’s inspiration, a grand event of Sri Rama Mahayagna was organised in Rajkot that resulted in coming together of hundreds of volunteers. Through this event, not only did a huge spiritual tide rise in the region but thousands of poor people too were served. A close and enduring bonding among the devoted volunteers was also a natural concomitant of this event, something that would come to great use during the plethora of humanitarian service projects that Maharaj undertook in the concluding phase of his great life.
The phase of great humanitarian service (1950 to 1970)
Probably, the most important chapter in Maharaj’s public life was the phase of the last two decades of his earthly stay. During this time, a powerful wave of humanitarian service inspired by Maharaj, swept across several parts of the country with the involvement of countless devoted volunteers. This period saw hundreds of thousands of persons in some of the most impoverished regions being served through programs like blindness elimination camps, relief and rehabilitation during droughts, famines, floods and other natural calamities, eventually laying the foundations for numerous service institutions for the future.
Maharaj was deeply moved by the plight of vision disability of the elderly people, particularly from poor rural communities, that often made them completely incapacitated and dependent on others even for the most basic functions. Knowing this age-related vision disability to be medically curable, Maharaj set about to launch a sustained campaign to address this problem.
In pursuit of this goal, Maharaj organised the first eye camp ‘Tara Netra Yagna’ in Chitrakoot in the year 1950. A large team of doctors and volunteers went to Chitrakoot with great enthusiasm, little knowing what lay in store for them. The doctors were such who had hitherto served only in city hospitals in Mumbai and Rajkot and thus accustomed to fairly organised settings with professional systems and procedures. In this camp they found themselves in a setting where a simple village cot was the operation bed, a tent served as the Operation Theatre, and medically untrained volunteers acting as their assistants – in short, they had to completely rely on improvisation and make best of whatever was available. Open air grounds served as the camp arena. Volunteers were told to be prepared to do everything from washing the toilets – which they themselves had prepared, cooking and serving meals and nursing the patients. As a large number of women patients were also expected, the services of a good number of female volunteers were also enlisted.
In those days a simple surgery like cataract would need around eight days in a camp situation – from initial reception of the patients, their examination, to surgery and recuperation period. The families accompanying the patients completely left the latter to the care of the volunteer corps and felt fully relieved of all worries during the intervening period. The ‘Tara Netra Yagna’ went on for nearly a month. In all, thousands of patients were served in this camp.
Buoyed by the success and life-transforming results of the first camp, the doctors, volunteers and donors kept up the momentum for similar camps in subsequent years. Following the first camp, 17 more sizeably large camps were organised in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra – all in interior places like Jagdalpur in Bastar region, Dhar, Seoni and similar others areas having a large population of tribal and other extremely poor rural communities, that had little access to modern hospitals and medical care.
The then Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Sri Kailashnath Katju, who had been a famed jurist and held important portfolios in the Union Government, visited two such camps during his tenure and was amazed to see the efficiency and scale of service that was being conducted. He lamentedly, compared these camps with the low efficiency of the government programmes and asked Maharaj about the possible reasons. Maharaj replied that the differences were entirely on account of the poor dedication levels in the government system, as most government functionaries saw themselves merely going through the motions of a job they were employed in, even during the tasks related to amelioration of the conditions of the poor people, whereas in initiatives like these volunteer-driven camps, the motive force sprang from a heart pouring with love, full of empathy and spirit of service, and was directed towards the alleviation of the sufferings of their brothers and sisters.
In these camps Maharaj came in touch with several volunteers who, later on, would become pillars of several grand service initiatives and institutions.
A second continuous focus area for Maharaj was to serve during the natural disasters that occurred in any part of the country. In the years 1966 and 1967, Maharaj and this team of volunteers dedicatedly served and fed 15 thousand starving people in the tribal region of Sundargarh in Odisha and in Ranka region (then in Palamu district in Bihar) in present day Jharkhand. For months together similar services were provided during floods in Bharatpur in Rajasthan, earthquakes in Koyana Maharastra in Barmer and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, Kachh and Banaskantha in Gujarat, and several other places.
Journeys Within
Even during the phase of his public activity, Maharaj kept his routine of three hours of Sadhana in the early morning and three hours in the evening. He also trained several close disciples in that routine. Several among them were women – like Damayanti ji, Kumudini ji, and Parvati ji, who took to a life of rigorous spiritual practices, and not getting unmeshed in conventional family lives. They have done great service by recording the words of Maharaj and chronicling their reminiscences. These writings, chiefly in Gujarati, have acted as source-books for other subsequent writings on Maharaj in Hindi.
Maharaj was always deeply fond of Central India with its hills and forests. Even with increased public activity he often went into long periods of solitude in interior parts of this region. These periods could last for several months during which Maharaj did not keep any contact with circles of his devoted disciples. He would either go to a forest area or to some interior village where no one knew him and lived making a hut or in some A temple premises.
Between 1954 and 1956 Maharaj undertook a rigorous Tapasya of ‘Kashtha-Maun, during which, he went into a complete solitude for 2 years in a small room in Jamnagar in Gujarat. Not only he felt rejuvenated by this and braced himself for tasks of service with greater energy, he also guided some chosen disciples on lines of rigorous spiritual training. He also took batches of devotes and volunteers on pilgrimages to places like Badrinath and Kedarnath in Uttarakhand, Pashupatinath in Kathmandu, Jagannath Puri, Rameshwaram and several other places during which time those accompanying him got a precious opportunity to have him near them and listen to his precious words of spiritual wisdom and counsel that he always bestowed upon them. He always insisted that during pilgrimages one should keep up the mood of purity and devotion, leaving worldly pulls behind, and also emphasised on ‘Daan’ (charity) offered with reverence to Sadhus and the poor people in pilgrim-sites. He always organised Bhandaras (community feeding) at places of pilgrimages and distribute Dhotis, blankets and other such items of necessity to the Sadhus and the poor.
Bound by Love – His Special Relation with Anandpur Village
Maharaj had a very special relationship with a small village called Anandpur in Vidisha district of Madhya Pradesh. Once he was camping alone in a forest area called Budhakheda in present-day Lateri Tehsil of Vidisha district, some villagers from nearby Anandpur village, noticed his presence and the word spread that a Yogi was immersed in his Tapasya in the forest near their village. A village lady, Smt. Upadhyay, whose brother had left home some years back to become a Sadhu, thought that perhaps her brother might have returned to the region. With great eagerness she went to see the Sadhu. Upon seeing her, Maharaj told her that she should see his brother in him. Soon the lady’s elderly mother who lived in the nearby town of Sironj visited and Maharaj told her that he was indeed her son and would also perform his filial duties towards her just like any other son.
This incident was probably sometime in 1930s or early 40s. Keeping his promise, just a few days before the elderly lady’s demise in mid-1950s, Maharaj suddenly came to Anandpur when the elderly lady seemed to be in fine health. He told the family members to serve Mataji as she would not be among them for long. A couple of days later Mataji passed away and Maharaj kept his promise by participating in her last rites.
Whenever Maharaj visited Anandpur, he brought with him gifts like mangoes, and the entire village called him Mamaji. The great Yogi, as it were, took upon himself this bond of love, out of his own volition, and gave and received simple love and joy.
Laying the foundation for future works
Maharaj ji was keen that with time suitably equipped hospitals, with dedicated doctors and personnel driven by the Seva ideal, get established in remote areas catering to the local population of those regions. He could see even at that time that the advanced medical facilities were available only in big urban centres and very often it was beyond the means and might of the poor ailing people to visit such centres. In 1968, when the ‘Netra Yagna’ at Dhar was going on he instructed his core group of philanthropists, doctors and dedicated volunteers to formalise a Charitable Trust. This was the beginning of Sri Sadguru Seva Sangh Trust. Maharaj ji chose Shri Arvind Mafatlal, who had been magnanimous with his time as well as resources, to chair the Trust and appointed several dedicated volunteers as trustees. He wished the Trust to set up hospitals in Chitrakoot and Anandpur that would serve the poorest among the poor, set up schools and also centres of traditional Sanskrit and Vedic learning.
In the last two-three years of his life, Maharaj ji was in frail health. His weight got reduced to even less than 30 Kg. Submitting to plea and persuasion of the disciples he agreed to be treated in hospitals. During these times he was, at different times, admitted in hospitals at Mumbai, Pune, and Bangalore. On such occasions these hospital rooms also became places of Satsanga. Sometimes, Maharaj, himself an admitted patient, would move around the hospital wards, greeting and blessing other patients. His pure and artless love and the concern he showed for complete strangers when he himself was in immense bodily suffering, deeply stirred everyone’s hearts
He breathed his last at the apartment of a disciple named Rambhai Gokani in Mumbai in April 1970. Maharaj had suggested that his mortal remains be cremated in ‘Teertharaj’ Pushkar in Rajasthan, a place he was greatly fond of and where he had attained to supreme state of realisation during his days of rigorous Tapasya. This site called ‘Sri Ram Dham’ is now a small ashrama where Sadhakas (spiritual practitioners) can visit and stay and soak themselves in the ambience of this place and this great Teertha of Pushkar.
His Legacy
Sri Sadguru Seva Sangh Trust now runs two hospitals in Chitrakoot and Anandpur. The hospital at Chitrakoot does around 1.5 Lac surgeries every year, which is among the highest in any single hospital in India. It was started by the efforts of a young doctor, Vishnu Jobanputra, who left his home and secure career and along with his wife Bharati moved to Chitrakoot where there were hardly any facilities at that time. With time more dedicated doctors joined him and the hospital has now become a state of art centre in eye care with a continued focus on patients from extremely poor backgrounds.
The Anandpur hospital, which started later, now performs more than 50 thousand surgeries annually. An overwhelming percent of these surgeries are free and for the extremely poor and vulnerable elderly population. Apart from specialising in eyecare, this Trust also runs general hospitals, schools and Sanskrit Vidyalayas and Sanskrit college which offers courses upto post-graduate degree.
Another Trust managed by another set of devotees and disciples runs a large hospital in Rajkot that does around one Lac free surgeries annually. A third Trust runs a hospital for the tribal communities in Navsari district in southern Gujarat. Another organisation working in the space of livelihoods has helped increase the income of the farmers in tribal dominated districts in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Rajasthan quite significantly.
All these organisations were either started by those who had the blessed fortune of coming in touch with Sri Maharaj ji or had caught the spirit of selfless service that Maharaj and his cohorts engaged in. These institutions and the lives they are transforming are only growing with the passage of time, which validates the age-old truth that the power unleashed by Mahapurushas is not at all limited to the time of existence of their physical frame. It is rooted in the infinitude of time and space and has unlimited potential to inspire anyone anywhere long after they have shed their mortal coil.
Vinayak Lohani
9th May 2024