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[[File:Shivaji British Museum.jpg|200px|right|Shivaji's portrait (1680s) housed in the British Museum]]
[[File:Shivaji British Museum.jpg|200px|right|Shivaji's portrait (1680s) housed in the British Museum]]


So, this great king Shivaji was a man without any temptation for women and once He was presented with a very beautiful lady who was the daughter-in-law of a big nawab, because they looted lot of money and lot of precious things and this lady as well when her caravan was passing through some passage in the mountains. So Shivaji looked at her. He asked her to remove her veil because she was a Muslim lady and then looking at her He said that if my mother was as beautiful as you are, I would have been equally beautiful, is the best way to say you are my sister.
In the history that I know of, two very beautiful incidents I’ll tell you which come to My mind today is one of Shivaji. When Shivaji – it’s twice it has happened in his lifetime which is very remarkable – he was once presented with a lady who was very beautiful, and people had plundered her things and all her ornaments, because she was a daughter of a Muslim courtesan, as you call the courtier. And they tried to plunder him and they brought this  beautiful woman before Shivaji. So Shivaji looked at her and said, “Please remove your veil,” because Muslims have a veil. And when she removed her veil, he said that “If my mother was as beautiful as you are, I would have been equally beautiful.” What a thing to say – what a poetic thing to say: that is that “If you were my mother, I would have been as beautiful as you are,” means you are my sister. And then he got very angry with all these people and asked them that “You better take her away and never do such a thing to any woman!” And not only, but he gave lots of ornaments and lots of things to her to say that she’s a sister going to the husband with all respect and regard. And this gentleman, her husband, was a very deadly enemy of Shivaji. How he solved the problem with such purity and then this gentleman became sort of a milder person with this gesture of his.
 
He himself had to marry four times because of certain problems of political nature where He had to marry four women, but He married them, because He had to marry and all the four wives were his wives and no other women came into his head. This is such a tremendous character. This is first sign of a personality who is really mature, who has no attention towards another women, which is very common in Maharashtra. It is not difficult for them they do not understand what I am talking about. This is one of the things one has to understand how respectful He was to other women. That He gave away all her things, all her money, all her jewelry, all that was looted of that nawab also, all the arms everything, and sent back all the people to the nawab, because if there is a lady she is the shakti, she is traveling so nobody has business to trouble her. This was his respect for women who belonged actually to another party. He had so many qualities that it is impossible to describe on that but absolutely honest, absolutely honest He was and He lived like a saint. He did not care for comfort. If you go and see his things that the had you will be amazed, He could sleep on the stones, but for his kingship He had to wear all the ornaments, all the dresses which He used to wear. If you go in Bombay museum you will see chilkhat we call it a cover made out of iron mesh. He used to wear that, it is so heavy that you cannot lift it, but He had to wear it and He used to fight his wars wearing that, but like all other kings you see in the west He did not have weaknesses, He had no habits, extremely honest, Spartan in temperament, and absolute ideal king He was, an absolute ideal king. He talked to everyone on the same level, treated everybody with respect, never showed off that he was a king, but He kept his dignity all the time and when it was needed to be corrected with all courage He corrected people, He did not care for cheap popularity either. Such a man was a blessing to Maharashtra because He is such an ideal for us and for people to follow and His mother was a great lady who brought him out of the clutches of the Mughal people who tried to convert forcibly Hindus to Islam. (...)
[[http://www.amruta.org/1984/02/07/puja-in-satara-shivaji-the-anchavatara-satara-india-1984/ Shivaji The Anchavatara, Satara (India), February 7th, 1984]]
 
In the history that I know of, two very beautiful incidents I’ll tell you which come to My mind today is one of Shivaji. When Shivaji – it’s twice it has happened in his lifetime which is very remarkable – he was once presented with a lady who was very beautiful, and people had plundered her things and all her ornaments, because she was a daughter of a Muslim courtesan, as you call the courtier. And they tried to plunder him and they brought this  beautiful woman before Shivaji. So Shivaji looked at her and said, “Please remove your veil,” because Muslims have a veil. And when she removed her veil, he said that
 
“If my mother was as beautiful as you are, I would have been equally beautiful.” What a thing to say – what a poetic thing to say: that is that “If you were my mother, I would have been as beautiful as you are,” means you are my sister. And then he got very angry with all these people and asked them that “You better take her away and never do such a thing to any woman!” And not only, but he gave lots of ornaments and lots of things to her to say that she’s a sister going to the husband with all respect and regard. And this gentleman, her husband, was a very deadly enemy of Shivaji. How he solved the problem with such purity and then this gentleman became sort of a milder person with this gesture of his.


Second in his lifetime we hear about a fort which is now very close to My house in Poona was, there was a Rajput lady called Kamal Kumari, who was entrapped by the man who was the officer of that fort, who was a Muslim, and he was telling this Kamal Kumari that “You must marry me.” And she would not accept. They had brought her from somewhere, sort of, by force. And she would not accept; she was Rajput. And he said, “By tomorrow, you’ll have to marry me.”
Second in his lifetime we hear about a fort which is now very close to My house in Poona was, there was a Rajput lady called Kamal Kumari, who was entrapped by the man who was the officer of that fort, who was a Muslim, and he was telling this Kamal Kumari that “You must marry me.” And she would not accept. They had brought her from somewhere, sort of, by force. And she would not accept; she was Rajput. And he said, “By tomorrow, you’ll have to marry me.”
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That’s why it’s called as the Fort of the Lion, Sinhagad, which you can see from My house very clearly. But these are the monuments of a small thing called a rakhi. A small symbol of expression that can capture forts after forts.
That’s why it’s called as the Fort of the Lion, Sinhagad, which you can see from My house very clearly. But these are the monuments of a small thing called a rakhi. A small symbol of expression that can capture forts after forts.
Another one where , I’ve told this story before but I’ll repeat it today, was when Alexander the Great arrested one king called Puru. Alexander had married an Indian lady and the great Alexander was in jail. That was the day of Vishnumaya. So she sent – this lady was very clever, his wife – she sent a rakhi in a small, little thali covered nicely to the King Puru. And, as the rituals are, that day this was presented to him. So he had to accept. If it is sent, you have to accept. The sister sends it with deliberations but you have to accept. And he accepted it, and it was tied, then he said, “Who is my sister?”
They said, “Your sister is the wife of Alexander.”
Said, “Oh God, that means I have arrested my own brother-in-law.”
Immediately he becomes a brother-in-law, immediately! No marriage took place, nothing – he’s a brother-in-law. He rushed to the jail, fell flat before the great emperor. He couldn’t understand, “What’s happening to Puru? Why did he do all this?” He said, “Sir, I am sorry,” in his own language, “I’m sorry I didn’t know you were my brother-in-law. I’m sorry whatever I’ve done. Will you forgive me?” and all that. And he brought him, asked him to sit on his throne. He couldn’t understand, “What’s this going on?”
“Please.” Made him sit there, garlanded him, did his aarti, gave him ornaments, gave him big garlands of diamonds and rubies and things, and touched his feet, washed his feet and then, with great honour, sent him home. He couldn’t understand, “Has he gone mad or he’s possessed by someone?” He must have thought some Greek has possessed this fellow, the way he was surrendering. When he went home his wife was smiling. He said, “Why are you smiling?”
She said, “I knew the trick will work with Indian mind.”
“What was the trick?”
She showed him one string. “This was the trick.”
He couldn’t understand, started looking at it. “What is this?”
She said, “This is the rakhi. This is the thing I sent him. This has the symbol of a sister, that’s how you’re released.” Alexander sat back. He said, “Oh God, these people can release their enemies on a string? I can’t capture these people. They are too good. They are too subtle. These subtleties we cannot understand.” And he turned back. But he took some poets with him who sang his praise, how he was, what a generous man.
But I must say it’s rather surprising to see such a subtle man in Greece. But maybe that was the time for them to understand subtleties, but today I don’t have much hopes. As I’ve seen them, they are not that subtle. They only have people like Onassis who are their heroes, whom they worship.


[[http://www.amruta.org/1987/08/09/shri-vishnumaya-puja-new-york-1987/ Shri Vishnumaya Puja, New York City (United States), August 9th, 1987]]
[[http://www.amruta.org/1987/08/09/shri-vishnumaya-puja-new-york-1987/ Shri Vishnumaya Puja, New York City (United States), August 9th, 1987]]


There’s story of Shivaji which I must have told you before also, that his Guruji wanted to take his test. Because Mahamaya is a testing… testing power. And he said… to his disciples he said: “I’ve got a terrible boil on my foot which is about to burst out,” a huge thing he had here, tied up. “And it’s leaking now with the pus is coming out. And I cannot get it cured unless and until one of you can suck it.” – Imagine! How many of you would agree? Won’t even think of it, isn’t it? What a test! And especially Indians who are so worried about their personal cleanliness. They wash their hands fifty times. So everybody looked at it, quite worried. (Laughter.) Shivaji had come that time. And Shivaji said: “All right, I will do it.” And it was a mango he had put in there. And he sucked it and he said: “It’s very nice and sweet…!” (Laughter.) One day again he asked that: “I want the milk of a tigress.” Everybody was quite frightened. Who is going to milk the tigress? Shivaji said: “All right, I’ll go!” He went in the forest, and he was looking out for a tigress who has given her cubs a – they, they are even worse. And he saw some cubs there. So he went near them and he started saying: “See, my guru wants your mother’s milk. Can I have it? I want to have your mother’s milk!” The tigress was looking at him. And he bowed to her. He said: “You see, my guru wants your milk. What am I to do?” And she could see that. She came and stood before him. He had taken a pot with him. He milked her. And he took that for his guru. Because even a tiger, even a serpent respects the dedication to reality.  
There’s story of Shivaji which I must have told you before also, that his Guruji wanted to take his test. Because Mahamaya is a testing… testing power. And he said… to his disciples he said: “I’ve got a terrible boil on my foot which is about to burst out,” a huge thing he had here, tied up. “And it’s leaking now with the pus is coming out. And I cannot get it cured unless and until one of you can suck it.” – Imagine! How many of you would agree? Won’t even think of it, isn’t it? What a test! And especially Indians who are so worried about their personal cleanliness. They wash their hands fifty times. So everybody looked at it, quite worried. (Laughter.) Shivaji had come that time. And Shivaji said: “All right, I will do it.” And it was a mango he had put in there. And he sucked it and he said: “It’s very nice and sweet…!” (Laughter.) One day again he asked that: “I want the milk of a tigress.” Everybody was quite frightened. Who is going to milk the tigress? Shivaji said: “All right, I’ll go!” He went in the forest, and he was looking out for a tigress who has given her cubs a – they, they are even worse. And he saw some cubs there. So he went near them and he started saying: “See, my guru wants your mother’s milk. Can I have it? I want to have your mother’s milk!” The tigress was looking at him. And he bowed to her. He said: “You see, my guru wants your milk. What am I to do?” And she could see that. She came and stood before him. He had taken a pot with him. He milked her. And he took that for his guru. Because even a tiger, even a serpent respects the dedication to reality.  
[[http://www.amruta.org/1985/04/20/mahamaya-shakti-birmingham-1985/ Mahamaya Shakti. Seminar in Birmingham (UK), 20 April 1985.]]
[[http://www.amruta.org/1985/04/20/mahamaya-shakti-birmingham-1985/ Mahamaya Shakti. Seminar in Birmingham (UK), 20 April 1985, start at min 20'40]]





Revision as of 15:12, 10 June 2016

Excerpts

(Work in progress)

Shivaji's portrait (1680s) housed in the British Museum
Shivaji's portrait (1680s) housed in the British Museum

In the history that I know of, two very beautiful incidents I’ll tell you which come to My mind today is one of Shivaji. When Shivaji – it’s twice it has happened in his lifetime which is very remarkable – he was once presented with a lady who was very beautiful, and people had plundered her things and all her ornaments, because she was a daughter of a Muslim courtesan, as you call the courtier. And they tried to plunder him and they brought this beautiful woman before Shivaji. So Shivaji looked at her and said, “Please remove your veil,” because Muslims have a veil. And when she removed her veil, he said that “If my mother was as beautiful as you are, I would have been equally beautiful.” What a thing to say – what a poetic thing to say: that is that “If you were my mother, I would have been as beautiful as you are,” means you are my sister. And then he got very angry with all these people and asked them that “You better take her away and never do such a thing to any woman!” And not only, but he gave lots of ornaments and lots of things to her to say that she’s a sister going to the husband with all respect and regard. And this gentleman, her husband, was a very deadly enemy of Shivaji. How he solved the problem with such purity and then this gentleman became sort of a milder person with this gesture of his.

Second in his lifetime we hear about a fort which is now very close to My house in Poona was, there was a Rajput lady called Kamal Kumari, who was entrapped by the man who was the officer of that fort, who was a Muslim, and he was telling this Kamal Kumari that “You must marry me.” And she would not accept. They had brought her from somewhere, sort of, by force. And she would not accept; she was Rajput. And he said, “By tomorrow, you’ll have to marry me.”

This lady didn’t know what to do, so with someone very secretly she sent a letter to Shivaji with a rakhi. But it reached the mother of Shivaji. Mother sent a letter, sent a message, to Shivaji on a horse that “Come here as fast as possible – if you are eating your food, then come here to wash your hands,” to that extent. And Shivaji was so obedient to his mother, very obedient. One has to learn from his character. He rushed there, because obedience was his power.

He rushed there and asked, “Mother, what is it?”

So she said, “No, I want to play chess with you.” He said, “Why now?”

“I must play chess.” He couldn’t understand. And she played chess and she won something. She could have told him, but she just wanted to sort of put a Vishnumaya on him. He lost.

“Mother, what do you want?”

She said, “Today I want you by night to capture this fort.”

“Today?”

“Yes.”

Then she showed him the letter and the rakhi. Rakhi was so powerful that a mother had to ask her son, who was responsible for the deliverance of Maharashtra from the clutches of the Muslims, that he should go to this fort and capture it. Such a powerful message out of that string. So. All right. Came out. He was quite upset how to do it. Suddenly there was one gentleman called Tanaji, had come to invite him for his son’s wedding with his uncle. And he saw him so upset; he said,

“Why are you so upset, sir?”

He said, “My mother has asked me such and such thing.”

He said, “All right, I’m going. You don’t have to go, because we’ll have many Tanaji’s like me but we have only one Shivaji. I’m going to do it.”

He said, “But your son is going to marry.”

He said, “First let my sword marry this fort, then I will marry my son.”

Such people we had also. Such sacrifice. Only on that rakhi. Think of that, only one rakhi. All right. They didn’t know this girl, they didn’t know her father, they didn’t know anything about her, they had never seen her. Can you think of somebody who will do like this in modern times? We are supposed to be very evolved, powerful, great people. Even in the pictures we need not show it. Nobody will come to see such a film because they’ll feel so low.

And he went there and he used a kind of a big lizard which went and fixed the nails. With a rope he climbed up and they conquered and won that fort.

It was decided that if they are successful they should lit fire which Shivaji can see and come down. He saw the fire early in the morning so went there, and under a tree the dead body of this Tanaji was lying. He looked at it and he said, “We have got the fort but we have lost a lion.”

That’s why it’s called as the Fort of the Lion, Sinhagad, which you can see from My house very clearly. But these are the monuments of a small thing called a rakhi. A small symbol of expression that can capture forts after forts.

[Shri Vishnumaya Puja, New York City (United States), August 9th, 1987]

There’s story of Shivaji which I must have told you before also, that his Guruji wanted to take his test. Because Mahamaya is a testing… testing power. And he said… to his disciples he said: “I’ve got a terrible boil on my foot which is about to burst out,” a huge thing he had here, tied up. “And it’s leaking now with the pus is coming out. And I cannot get it cured unless and until one of you can suck it.” – Imagine! How many of you would agree? Won’t even think of it, isn’t it? What a test! And especially Indians who are so worried about their personal cleanliness. They wash their hands fifty times. So everybody looked at it, quite worried. (Laughter.) Shivaji had come that time. And Shivaji said: “All right, I will do it.” And it was a mango he had put in there. And he sucked it and he said: “It’s very nice and sweet…!” (Laughter.) One day again he asked that: “I want the milk of a tigress.” Everybody was quite frightened. Who is going to milk the tigress? Shivaji said: “All right, I’ll go!” He went in the forest, and he was looking out for a tigress who has given her cubs a – they, they are even worse. And he saw some cubs there. So he went near them and he started saying: “See, my guru wants your mother’s milk. Can I have it? I want to have your mother’s milk!” The tigress was looking at him. And he bowed to her. He said: “You see, my guru wants your milk. What am I to do?” And she could see that. She came and stood before him. He had taken a pot with him. He milked her. And he took that for his guru. Because even a tiger, even a serpent respects the dedication to reality. [Mahamaya Shakti. Seminar in Birmingham (UK), 20 April 1985, start at min 20'40]


That we had another very great king in Maharashtra called as Shivaji. And he was a king who was like Robin Hood, because he was trying to oppose these Muslim emperors who were dominating India. And the people who were his soldiers and things – they would go and attack people of the other, I mean, from the emperors side and would plunder them. Take their – just like Robin Hood – take their, all their properties and things and bring it to Shivaji. Once it so happened that a daughter-in-law of a Moghul, courtesan, you can say, or a man, who was like a Duke or something was going that way. The daughter-in-law and many people were with her. And she had lots of her jewellery and everything was going with her. The treasury was very large. So, they plundered her and brought all the treasury and everything and plundered that lady and brought her to Shivaji. Now, Shivaji was sitting there and she had covered her face with a veil. So, he said, “Please, lift your veil”. Now, before the king she can’t say anything, so she lifted her veil. He said – see, the beauty of it is, I don’t know if you can feel the subtleness of it. I mean, whenever I remember the words, really it fills Me with such joy. He said, “If my mother was as beautiful you are I would have been equally beautiful”. See the expression. That means, “You are my sister”. “If my mother was as beautiful as you are I would have been equally beautiful”. He took all the treasury and everything and forbid them that “Don’t touch women. The moment you touch them you’ll be ruined. It’s not holiness”. And he sent away all her treasury, everything, all her people with all great respect and complete release of all things that she had. He didn’t keep even a farthing out of her, but he gave his own things to her as a sister and he said that “You can always recall on me, wherever there is a problem, I’m your brother”. [Raksha Bandhan. London (UK), 26 August 1980.]


So now, there are matrakas outside, you can see. And this side is the right side, is all Brahmadeva, Agni, and all these devtas on this side. Outside they are carved and this side, there are ganas and ganapatis on this side. And in front, is Shri Hanuman, like that. It’s a beautifully done thing, I must say. Typically Indian, and this is the statue of, here if you see on the right hand side is Shri Ram Das Swami, the one who was the Guru of our great king Shivaji Maharaj and Shri Ram. They used to respect him because he was the ideal king. See, and Ganesha here, and Hanuman statue.

Sahaja Yogi: It’s a very beautiful thing.

Shri Mataji: And now they have made some place for us for sitting down.

He worshipped from his childhood, you see, and because Hanuman is an angel, you know that, and he doesn’t marry. But he was forced to marry, it seems. So when he was getting married only, he ran away from that place. Because when they said, “Sawadhaan, Sawadhaan,” means now after marriage they say, “All right, be careful, be careful.” Just before the marriage took place, he just ran way from there, without getting married because he cannot be married. He told them, they would not listen and he couldn’t bear it any more, so ran away. Then he went and he came back again in the time of Shivaji and then Shivaji became his disciple. But he took some tests of his disciples. I do not take any tests but he took some tests.

First of all, he said, “I’m very, very sick and I’ve got a very big wound in my foot and it has become a ulcer now. It’s all full of pus and full of all blood and pus and all that, and only a, my disciple can only suck it out. Otherwise nobody can suck it out”. So all his disciples got a fright of their lives. They said, “How can we do that? It’s too much!” But Shivaji said, “All right”. Shivaji came and took out his crown and he just sat down, sucking his wound, you see. And it was nothing but he had tied a big mango and he was just (laughter).

But then he told Shivaji and others that they, said that, “I’m very sick now. You must get me the milk of the tigress, you see. You must go and get.” Those days there were lots of tigers and tigresses here, but not nowadays. So he said, “You must go and get the milk of the tigress for me.” So they all thought, how they can go and milk the tigress? It’s very difficult. So they… Shivaji said, “All right, I’ll go down.” He went in the village and then we went to the forest, you see. And there he saw a tigress, you see. So he went and told the tigress, he just bowed before the tigress and said, “See, I don’t want to disturb you but my Guru wants your milk. So you please allow me to take your milk?” And the tigress came and stood before him and he milked the tigress and took the milk to his Guru and gave it to him.

So the Guru, so people asked him, “How did you manage? How could you do that?” He said, “Don’t you know what our Guru is? He is the Hanuman himself. He is God himself. What is there? I just went and told and tigress knew about him. She just said, ‘All right, if your Guru wants it.’ How can she trouble me? If you have to do anything for your Guru, whatever you have to do for your Guru with full faith and understanding about the Guru, then of course the animals understands. Then why not human being?” So, he said, “I can’t understand why you are very afraid of it? It’s nothing much.” And that is what it is. But in those days, all the Gurus used to take such parikshas (tests – ed.), but when ultimately you see after his all training, the king who was Shivaji, was crowned.

See, after crowning, one day this Ram Das Swami went to his house and wherever he went he used to ask for some alms. Only from one house he used to get and he used to go and just knock his, he had something he used to carry with him that he used to knock and he used to say that, “Jai Jai Raghuveer Samarth”. He used to say like that. He went and said that.

So his disciple was the King there and he understood that, his disciple understood that, “My Guru has come. I have to give something as a dakshina. What can I give him?” So he wrote a letter that, “All my kingdom is yours. I give everything to you, Sir. I owe nothing.” And he sent that letter to him. So when the letter came into his thing, in which he was asking for alms, you see, he opened it and read it and he laughed and he called his disciple. He said, “You see, I’m a Sanyasi ( Monk – ed.). So you can’t give me anything. What will I do with a kingdom? I don’t know how to run the kingdom. But you have to run the kingdom. But you must now, as you have given it to a Sanyasi, do it with a detached mind.” Whole thing should be done with the detached mind of a Sanyasi and for that you must use this, my – he used to cover himself with a loincloth, you see, with a double type of loincloth, which you’ve seen how little loincloth he was wearing. This should be used as the flag to show that just a loincloth of a Sanyasi is the flag of Marathas. And that’s how this orange-colored flag was hoisted as the flag of Shivaji and now it is used politically also by some people. That’s a wrong thing to do. But this is the flag, which you must have seen in My, all My, most of My processions, they use it, is the flag which was taken by this King Shivaji Maharaj as his own flag to announce that he is doing this, he is running this kingdom with the detached mind of a Sanyasi.

So there are many stories about them, lots of stories about Ram Das and his disciple, this king, and how he used to tell him how to run his administration. And Shivaji was the ideal king that we had in this country. Ideal king. A very good character, a very dharmic fellow and a very nice person. And because he wanted four people, four kingdoms to join together, they said that, “If you marry our daughters, only we’ll accept you.” So, he had to marry four women. He married them, and looked after them very well. And he was a very good character and a very nice person and a very good king and he is such a great source of inspiration to Maharashtrians, and he used to worship all these Gods and Rama specially, and when you will go to Tuljapur also you will see how he used to come by his horse all the way from miles together to visit this Devi’s temple.

There is another temple formed by the same Shri Ram Das who found a statue of the Goddess and he calls it Angla Devi. See now Angla in Sanskrit means English. Can you imagine? Something surprising, isn’t it? And he called it Angla Devi. He put that statue in a temple there and he has called it Angla Gaon ( gaon means village – ed.). Angla in Sanskrit means English, you see. Angla. It’s very surprising, isn’t it? So I think, at least the English Sahaja Yogis must go and see. Already he must have thought of a English goddess, you see, from London. When they do my puja, sometimes they call me Londonpur Vasini ( One who resides in London – ed.).

(some portion of speech is missing here)

Shri Mataji : No end to it.

Sahaja Yogi: Can you tell us about his mother?

Shri Mataji: No end to that, either. He was a very obedient son, very obedient son. And his mother had given him a sword which was called, she said that this is given to him by Bhawani. The Goddess Herself has given you this,” and he always used to carry it with him. But then, when the English came here, they took away that one and now it is lost. They don’t know. It was said that they’re willing to give it back. I don’t know what happened. And then people went down there and I think they, it’s a funny thing you see, they don’t realize the value of that. It’s still lost there, but with vibrations, one can find out. But I don’t think they realize the value to us of that sword that’s called as Bhawani Talwar. The Chief Minister from Bombay had gone – he was himself a Muslim – to ask for that and he was denied. I don’t know English people. When will they understand the subtleties of life? I hope sometime to convince them.

His mother was that. She was a very clever woman, and his father was Shahji Rao. Actually, her mothers’ family was Jadhav (a Maratha clan – ed.) and my mother’s family, also same. They come from same family. My mother’s family and Shivaji’s mother’s family is the same family, and they, it so happened that she found out in Shivaji’s childhood that the husband is quite subservient to the Muslim kings, you see. And the Muslim kings are just over-powering everyone here. And then Aurangzeb came in, too. Aurangzeb was one of the worst of all. I think Khomeini must be Aurangzeb. He used to kill at least in one year. So, he was a very thin man, you know, a right-sided, horrible, absolutely thin person. And he used to kill Brahmins or Hindus who would wear this thread. You see, we wear that thread for the [inaudible…] Even the Kshtriayas also wear that and the weight of those threads had to be as much as that of Aurangzeb’s body. He was like that – horrible – this Aurangzeb. And this lady then decided that he, Shahji Rao, was at Golconda and all those places in the south. See he was, he was the sort of, you can say, subservient to the Muslim kings. So she decided to elope with her son Shivaji in the night and she put her son on the horse and with few of her people from her own family, Jadhav family, she eloped. But he tried to follow and capture her but she somehow or other escaped and then she came and stayed in one of the forts.

Now you’ll go and see tomorrow another fort where there is the Samadhi, means the tomb of Shri Ram. That you should see. I think you’ll be happy to see that Sajangarh, is on the fort. You have to go. I think you have to walk at the most for a furlong or so but most of you can go by your buses. And then she came there and there was she found a Guru for her son – Radha Pundir – and made Shivaji learn from him about Sanskrit and everything and about how to run a country with valor, honesty, upright way, I mean, in a virtuous and in a righteous way. And then she told him that, “We have to fight the Muslims and the Mughals.” And the Mughals were very powerful, very powerful and extremely cruel. So, the only way was to do a hide and seek game, called as Gameenivika, we call it, guerilla warfare. So in these hills and rocks, she collected her own people who were ordinary villagers. She called them Mawade. These are the people whom she collected and made a army for Shivaji, and that’s how Shivaji started fighting and looting these people and harassing them in these mountains. Where you are moving is all Shivaji’s kingdom, and all these are Shivaji’s forts. So Aurangzeb called him the rat of the mountains because he could never catch him and at every place, you see, he tried to oust the Muslims from here. Ultimately, they had to give in also because Aurangzeb’s sons, four sons he had, they only fought their own father and perhaps he was killed, God knows what happened. But his tomb is in Aurangabad, just down south, you see. He was here. He was very busy with Shivaji, fighting him, and ultimately he died and he has got a tomb there, this Aurangzeb.

Now this Shivaji fought in different ways. There are different stories about him, how he fought. When you went to Poona, I don’t, if you saw that Shaniwarvada, I didn’t know whether you had time to go and see that place Shaniwarvada. It is the same place where, in the center of Poona, where Shivaji used to live. But he had gone onto a fort when the, there was one fellow called Sahistyakar, who was in the court of this Aurangzeb, who said that, “I will catch Shivaji and bring him down.” And he came and settled down himself in his big house, which was called as Shaniwarvada in Poona. So Shivaji came back as in a marriage party and Sahistyakar said that, “Nobody is allowed to come in a group here. No group is allowed but a marriage party.” He could not refuse. So they said, “There is a marriage party that is going around.” And in the marriage party, all these people were all dressed up like marriage party people but inside they were all dressed up like soldiers. And he knew all the ways and roads and at the back they went and he entered through a some sort of a place, tunnel or something inside, and there Sahistyakar was sleeping. And he woke him up and said, “Get up now. I’m here. I’m Shivaji, I’ve come now. Now, why don’t you catch me?” Sahistyakar got such a fright that he jumped out of the window. And, but Shivaji wanted to, see, kill him, so he hit him but only hit him on the fingers, so his life was saved. His fingers were lost, and then Shivaji occupied the place and Sahistyakar ran way. Everybody ran way. So many stories like that.

Then once, I mean after this, you see, they all got very frightened but they tried to follow Shivaji back and Shivaji coming back. You came by that circuitous route on top of the Katraj. They called it Katraj ka Ghat, you see. But there’s no English word for ghat. I mean the circuitous road, which takes you on top of the hill. Is there any way? There is no name for that. We call it ghat. There are so many ghats you are seeing that but this is one of the famous. See, he came on the Katraj Ghat, you see, and what he did, he lighted a kind of a beacons, on the horns of many bulls and made the bulls run on one road, you see, and he himself climbed over this Katraj thing. So every all of them thought that, “This is way Shivaji has gone,” and they followed the other way round and they followed them for quite long distance. Then they found out that they were just bulls, you see, and they were tied with these beacons which were burning. And they thought, “This was Shivaji,” and Shivaji went to his own place.

Once Shivaji was followed like that, many a times. It’s very interesting stories, how he was arrested and came out of Agra and all that. I will have to tell you how he did all that. Very interesting. There are so many stories that I can’t tell you just now. (Mother says something in Marathi)

But tomorrow, they want to take you to Sajangarh. Early in the morning. Morning. I think you should all just get up and go, that’s better. All right? Early in the morning say about… Morning you take your tea and go there. By six o’clock, you should be ready to go. All right. Take your tea in the morning time. By six o’clock you be ready to go because it will take about two hours or so, two and half hours, about nine o’clock. Then you go and have your breakfast and by 11 o’clock, there’s a little puja from 11 to 12. Then we’ll have our lunch and then after lunch, we are going to Kolhapur. It’s rather hectic but we have to do that way, what can you do? We have so many… If you have to see Sajangarh, because that is nothing but what you have to go is to pay homage to Hanuman Himself, you see, who took his birth on this Earth. So it would be a good idea for you to go. Little hectic but I have been there to Sajangarh, long time back. I had come here to play in a [inaudible…]. In 1938 or something, I was here. 1938, I should say. Yes, 1938, I was here. Then we had gone to see [unclear: sounds like Achintyakara]. There are two but this has more value because is a, the, is just barren, nothing but his samadhi is there. His tomb is there. So I think you would like to take darshan. It’s a very beautiful thing to see.

Sahaja Yogi: The tomb of whom, Mother? Whose tomb?

Shri Mataji: Ram Das Swami’s. Shri Ram Das Swami’s tomb is there.

[Conversation. Ram Das Temple, Satara (India), 30 December 1982.]

From Saints, Sufis and Yogis

Chhatrapati Shivaji (Shivaji Maharaj) (1627-1680) was a Maratha leader who unified his people and established an independent kingdom in western India, in what is now the state of Maharashtra. In this he had the support of his mother, Jijabai, and his guru, Samarth Ramdas.

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has stated that Shivaji was "a great Atma Shakshatkari, a realized soul" (1988-1225) and "a born realised" (1996-0728).

A great soul who had such principles, and such beautifying life in his language, in his attitude and everything. With all that, he was a very brave person. (2001-0321)

So, first of all we should know that Shivaji himself was a divine person in the sense that He had no defects in him. He was a detached personality. I do not want to tell you the whole history about him, but his character if you study you will be amazed how detached he was. He was not found of women. He never hankered after them and on the contrary respected women very much. ... He did not have weaknesses, he had no habits, extremely honest, Spartan in temperament, and absolute ideal king he was, an absolute ideal king. He talked to everyone on the same level, treated everybody with respect, never showed off that he was a king, but he kept his dignity all the time and when it was needed to be corrected with all courage he corrected people, he did not care for cheap popularity either. Such a man was a blessing to Maharashtra because he is such an ideal for us and for people to follow and his mother was a great lady who brought him out of the clutches of the Mughal people who tried to convert forcibly Hindus to Islam. (1984-0206)

This Mahakali power is expressed in Tuljapur as Bhavani, and Shivaji Maharaj used to come on a horse all the way for miles together, to get the darshan of this Bhavani at Tuljapur: he knew this; and he had a sword which was called as Bhavani talwar, and people said that the Goddess Herself has given this sword to him. (1990-1221)

He was once presented with a lady, was very beautiful. And people had plundered her things and all her ornaments, because she was a daughter of a Muslim courtesan, as you call the courtier. And they tried to plunder him and they brought this beautiful woman before Shivaji. So Shivaji looked at her and said, “Please remove your veil”, because Muslims have a veil. And when she removed her veil, he said that, “If my mother was as beautiful as you are, I would have been equally beautiful.” What a thing to say - what a poetic thing to say! That is that, “If you were my mother, I would have been as beautiful as you are”, means you are my sister. And then he got very angry with all these people and he asked them that, “You’d better take her away and never do such a thing to any woman.” And not only, but he gave lots of ornaments and lots of things to her to say that she’s a sister going to the husband with all respect and regard. And this gentleman, her husband, was a very deadly enemy of Shivaji. How he solved the problem with such purity and then this gentleman became sort of a milder person with this gesture of his. (1987-0809)


Bibliography: Dennis Kincaid, The grand rebel: an impression of Shivaji, founder of the Maratha empire (London: Collins, 1937); T.T.Mahajan, Shivaji and his diplomats (New Delhi: Commonwealth Publishers, 1991); H.G.Rawlinson, Shivaji the Maratha: his life and times (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1915); N.S.Takhahav, The life of Shivaji Maharaj, founder of the Maratha empire (Bombay: Manoranjan Press, 1921); Richard Temple, Sivaji and the rise of the Mahrattas (Calcutta: Susil Gupta, 1953); Sahaj A-Z: King Shivaji

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