Mohan of Sangli
Sai Kaka was born on the auspicious day of Janmashtami* in a place called Sangli in the state of Maharashtra in India. His childhood name was Mohan and from the initial years of his childhood, he was inclined towards spirituality. At the age of 3-4 years, he used to say that he would go to Uttarkashi, not even knowing at that time where Uttarkashi was. Even his family knew only this much that there was place in Uttar disha (northern India ) called Kashi. At that age he used to have glimpses that his present mother Saraswati Devi was also his mother in his past life. He used to like the company of saints and sadhus and , at the age of seven he asked one of the Sadhus that when would he find his Guru and how would he recognize him? That Sadhu replied back that around the age of 18-20 years he would meet his Guru and at first glance only he would recognize him as his Guru. He didn’t have any idea then how and where this question erupted in his mind nor did he meet that Sadhu again. Young Mohan had a special affection for Shirdi Sai Baba and for him it was like he had been related to him for numerous past lives. Mohan was a very bright student in his school and the favourite of both his teachers and classmates. He was ambitious and wanted to be an engineer as he had a good knowledge in Mathematics and Science. However, his inner voice and destiny was showing a completely different path, that of spirituality. At that age, he used to find solitude either at the bank of river Krishna or at the cremation ground or in a room on the first floor of his home. At such a young age, he read about Swami Vivekananda, Ram Krishna Paramhansa, Shri Arvind and many other great spiritual masters. He always wished that like Swami Vivekananda, he too should get a Guru like Rama Krishna Paramhansa who could show him the path to enlightenment. He was young but at the same time eagerly waiting to reach the age of 18-20 years to meet his Guru. Till then his journey continued by meeting numerous Saints and Sadhus like Swami Swaroopanand , Gulwani Maharaj, Nisargdutt Maharaj and many other great saints. (*The traditional day of birth of a mythological icon of India , the Lord Krishna.)
Meeting with The Guru
In 1967, next day after Diwali, he decided to leave for Ganeshpuri, a place near Mumbai to meet his Guru, Swami Muktanand. At the spur of the moment he could co-relate Swami Muktanand with visions he used to get for many years and could ascertain that indeed he was his ultimate Guru. He started his spiritual journey by practicing sadhana under the guidance of Baba in Ganeshpuri aashram and following Baba’s instructions for the next few years. A lot of seekers used to come to take Baba’s blessings from across the globe. Mohan was always around Baba, and therefore known and liked by most people visting the Aashram. In this way, though living in an Aashram, he was connected to the entire world.
From Mohan to Krishna Chaitanya
After five years of his close association with Baba, in 1972, Mohan finally took the formal initiation, Deeksha, of Sanyaas and impersonated a pure white robe for his entire life time. He got his new name of “Krishna Chaitanya”. So Mohan became Krishna Chaitanya. With his new white attire, one could feel the glimpses of Sufism in his facial expression . From that time on, he completely surrendered himself to Baba and his teachings. In 1979, after completing almost 12 years of intense practice, the Sadhana ,under guidance of his guru, and with due permission from him, Krishna Chaitanya started his next journey to the Great Himalayas. During this journey he got the chance to meet Maa Aanandmayi at Haridwar and then moved to Devprayag and finally to Uttarkashi. Uttarkashi, a place which he always wished to visit since his childhood time. As soon as he reached there, he suddenly realized that he knew all surroundings there so well, and felt connected to that auspicious place. He had past life visions that he had born in the same place, where he was now, and then due to some serious illness, at the age of 40-45, he breathed his last in the lap of his mother, the same mother that he had in his present life.
Self Realisation
Twelve years ago Swami Muktanand had initiated him on a path of self discovery, the young man progressed in his tutelage and here he came into his own. Shri Krishna Chaitanya’s heart was over joyed with the progress and experiences he had in his meditations. The bliss was increasing manifolds and he was devoting more and more time to his Sadhna. He would sit in meditation for hours. One day while sitting in his meditation he felt the ultimate bliss – the Samadhi. The process and effect became one. He realised himself and became face to face with the ultimate reality. For close to one and a half day or 36 hours he remained in that state. He didn’t realize how long he had been in meditation. He felt he had been awaken within few moments of sitting for the meditation. For quite a while after awakening he felt as if he had lost his physical body. He kept touching and feeling his limbs and looked at them. He could feel the rocks in the mountain and the trees were tinkling with the same consciousness. The mere thought of that experience would fill him with immense joy.
Another audience with Guru
After attaining enlightenment and experiencing the greatest joy he could ever imagine, he felt an acute longing to meet his guru once again. But he thought it was right to complete his journey of four pilgrimages, Chaar Dhaam, around India as proposed by Ma Anandmayi, before going back to his guru. So he embarked on this arduous journey and after completing the journey he went back to Ganeshpuri in 1981. As soon as he reached the aashram, he was overwhelmed to see his guru. Baba too was overjoyed to see his enlightened disciple. Baba gave him new directions and counseled him on certain issues that were going to define his future missions. Baba didn’t insist that his enlightened disciple stay in the Aashram for long. Instead, he ordered Shri Krishna Chaitanya to embark on a journey to Amarnath.While bidding adieu, Baba too couldn’t control his emotions. Shri Krishna Chaitanya had never seen baba in that state ever before. He realised the reality behind this unusual expression of emotions at Uttarkashi while he was returning from Amarnath. In Uttarkashi he received the heartbreaking news of his Guru’s demise. Baba had attained Mahasamadhi and had left his physical body. While bidding farewell to his disciple, baba was aware that this would be his last meeting with Shri Krishna Chaitanya in the physical realm. The heart wrenching news of his guru’s demise unsettled Shri Krishna Chaitanya. Even with a failing health he managed to reach Ganeshpuri. With tears rolling down his cheeks uncontrollably he offered his last respects to his guru’s place. Memories of the time spent in the Aashram kept roaming in his mind. He had voluntarily left his home, but never felt as if he was alone. His guru’s demise made him feel that he was orphaned. Finally he left the Aashram , never to come back. Now he had become a complete mendicant.
From Shri Krishna Chaitanya to Kaka Ji
After spending sometime in Sangli, Shri Krishna Chaitanya again started travelling across the length and breadth of the country. Now the entire world was his extended family. His graceful manners and sensitive dealing would endear him to complete strangers and make friends out of fellow travellers. Baba Muktanand’s disciples are spread all across India so where ever Shri Krishna Chaitanya went, he would meet his fellow brothers-in-arm and at their insistence he would stay at their home. During his travels he visited Delhi quite often. His seniority and the gravity of his personality was such that he was addressed as Kaka Ji. In Maharashtra , his disciples of sheer respect and love , started addressing him as Aba Ji or Aba Saheb.
Kaka ji to Sai Kaka
The graduation from Mohan to Krishna Chaitanya to Kaka ji to Sai Kaka is an interesting story. Once while Kaka Ji was in Delhi , his brother-in-arm Puran Chand Joshi introduced him to one of India ’s leading poet, novelist, story writer and litterateur Amrita Pritam. Both were impressed by each other’s personalities, and both were perceptive. The poet in Amrita Pritam was impressed with the simplicity, realization and wisdom of the man sitting in front of her. One day Amrita Pritam had a dream in which she saw Shirdi’s Sai Baba is calling her. She was really excited and emotionally charged because of this dream but a question was nagging her mind, “how am I connected to Sai, where is he calling me?” While she was grappling with these questions, her friend Mr. Sathpati arrived, and she shared her dream with him. Mr. Sathpati was an Indian Administrative Services officer and had a deep understanding of spiritual practices. He told her that she should offer a chaadar (a sheet of cloth) at any of Sai Baba’s temple. One day Amrita Pritam was ready to go to Sai Baba’s temple. It was the month of December and to offset the impact of cold shiver Amrita ji went on to the terrace to be under the lukewarm sun. She started tending the flowers that were kept on the terrace. Suddenly Imroz appeared smiling and said, “Today your destination has changed, you wanted to go to a Sai temple now I have received a call that Kaka is coming to meet us”. Amrita Ji said Sai has sent him”. She decided not to go the Sai temple and brought out a red embroidered cloth from her almirah she had brought from Assam . According to Assamese tradition, the Patka is offered to any visiting great man or an enlightened soul. They call it gamachha. When Kaka arrived, Amrita addressed him as Sai Kaka. During tea, she offered that red embroidered Patka and put it on his shoulders saying, “You yourself came to accept it, it’s a miracle”. Since then Kaka became Sai Kaka and it was Sai Kaka who disclosed Amrita Ji’s relation to Sai Baba in due course of time. He told her that in one of her past lives, she had been his disciple. Amrita Ji has mentioned Sai Kaka in many of her poetries, write ups, books and her monthly magazine Nagmani. The spiritual connection between Sai Kaka and Amrita Ji lasted for more than a decade and she wrote lots of poetry on him. She would say that in her quest of life, meeting with Sai wasn’t a coincidence. Many times she got Sai’s messages through Kaka.
Contact with Gyanganj
After experiencing self realization in Uttarkashi, Kaka had another experience simultaneously. He met two souls in their causal body and these angel like energy fields took him on a journey to Gyanganj. Journey to Gynaganj is one of the most adventurous events of Kaka’s life. Mostly, Kaka keeps quite and does not talk about his experience of Gyanganj but after a lot of prodding once he gave a fleeting glimpse of the life in Gyanganj. He told us that there is a secret place in Tibet to perform spiritual practices. In all spiritual texts it is mentioned under many different names Gyanganj, Gyanamath, Bhuswarg, Shambhala etc. Ordinary human beings with little or no spiritual development cannot enter this realm. Only highly developed yogis and sadhaks can do this, enter this realm in their causal and physical body. Pundit Gopinath Kaviraj’smaster Guru Swami Vishudhanand would visit Gyanganj even with his physical body. He learnt Surya Vigyan (Sun Science) from this place. Gyanganj exists on three planes, physical, divine and spiritual. And the enlightened souls too exist on three levels – Causal, Greater Causal and Ultra Spiritual. They possess the ability to easily transcend all the three levels, and those living in their causal body, have the power to appear in their physical body too. In that land, words and voice are not needed for communication. Words and voice are needed till Vaikhari level. In Madhyama, Pashyanti and Para levels only intent is enough to communicate. In Gyanganj, if a great man looks at you, you can feel his intent and the message that he wants to convey. Using the computer jargon his intents are instantly decoded and you get to know what he is trying to say. Actually if the developments in present day science are to be compared with the level of developments in Gyanganj, they stand nowhere. Most of the science is involved in three dimensional world but in Gyanganj the yogis are working on the fourth dimension as well. Today’s science has learnt the art of creating energy from an atom but they don’t know how to create atom from that energy. In Gynaganj there are technologies that are referred to as Surya Vigyan and Chandra Vigyan. According to the basic principle of Surya Vigyan, the core of every material is composed of Sun rays, and by changing the ratio of sun rays you can change the property of that material. Rose can be converted into Marigold. By concentrating sun rays, matter can be created in vacuum. All the great souls of our time and the times gone by who left their physical bodies, are living in Gyanganj in their causal body. Great saints like Shirdi’s Sai Baba, Sant Gyaneshwar and his dada guru Shri Gahaninath, kaka’s dada Guru Swami Muktanand, kaka’s dada Guru Bhagwan Nityanand, Mahatapah, Mahavatar Baba ji and others are living in Gyanganj. They keep appearing in the subconscious of Sadhakas and other blessed souls and telepathically direct them to perform deeds that are helpful to the humanity. A visit to Gyanganj actually opened a new dimension in Kaka’s life and he became a bridge between the causal centre of existence in Gyanganj, and the physical world he was living in. Those two unknown great men would often take Kaka ji to Gyanganj. Kaka started receiving messages, that were suggestions for some, and orders for others, and this has been on for the last 20 years.