Guruvarya
Guruvarya Appa alias Madhav Saraswati Maharaj Tikekar
Appa – Madhavrao Tikekar was born on 13th June 1929 at Kolhapur.
His father was a schoolteacher and strict in discipline. Appa had
two elder brothers and a younger sister. In very childhood, he was
quite naughty, enthusiastic in playing, cycling and swimming and
considered to be a group leader. He was beloved by his parents a
little bit more as his elder brother had passed away in the very
infant stage. At the age of 5, Appa had to undergo two operations
of his ear-bone. It was very essential otherwise the infection might
have affected the brain. It was performed by a British surgeon in
Wanles Hospial and the surgeon was very pleased with this little
child- not complaining about any pain or anything.
Appa was very sharp in grasping in school and had a wide reading
of English literature. His father being a schoolteacher used to
get Matriculation examination papers in English for correction.
Appa, though he was studying in 6th standard, used to do corrections
in pencil to lessen the burden of his father.
Appa had a three storied house in Kolhapur. It was narrow in width
with two staircases. It was near the premises of Kumbhar lane mathi,
Babu Jamal Darga and also Vyas mathi. He used to go to these places
with his parents. The parents used to take the kids to Wadi very
regularly. During one such visits to Wadi, Appa was sleeping with
his elder brother Anna and the room where they were sleeping was
behind the place of paduka of Lord Narasimha Saraswati. At about
mid-night, Anna awoke and saw Appa sitting on his bed in cross leg
position and a bright blue light was emerging from the paduka and
falling on Appa. The Lord was telling Appa something and Appa was
reciting those things but Anna was unable to understand anything.
This was the beginning of the spiritual life of Appa though he never
disclosed it even to his family members.
Appa completed his B.Com. and later C.A. . Possibly he was the
first C.A. from Pune. During his studies he rented an apartment
at Vile Parle. He frequently visited Nasik and Machnoor –
near Solapur. At Machnoor, he was in close contact with Baba maharaj
Arvikar and Baba maharaj was fully aware of the authority of Appa
in the spiritual path. Baba maharaj initiated the marriage of Sanjivani
– daughter of one of his devotee mr.Godbole- a Sanskrit scholar
, with Appa. This was in 1960.At that time Baba maharaj had told
Mrs.Godbole –“ Your son-in-law is a great authority”
and she thought he must be in a good position in his job. Almost
two decades passed and she met one mr. Ghaisas who was also a frequent
visitor at Machnoor. When Ghaisas told that he was cured by Appa
and got initiation from Appa, she got totally astonished. Then only
she realized the words of Baba maharaj.
This fact shows modesty of Appa as well as how secretely he must
be doing his ‘sadhana’. Once he casually talked to me
and showed me his diary like notebook , he had written by hand,
pothi of shrikrishna saraswati, Gurucharitra pothi, a large number
of stotras including what swami samarth used to recite during night
time. He also told that he contiuously read Gurucharitra pothi which
he counted upto 250 times and then stopped counting. He used to
read navanath pothi continuously for 99 days.
Initially Appa had regular appointment in Hindustan Ferrodo. Later
he started his own consultation practice as tax consutant to various
big industries. He travelled a lot by air. Whenever he had to go
to Delhi on business trip, he took sometime off to visit to Hrishikesh
and other Himalayan caves. As he mentioned me once he met several
yogis there some of them having an age of 7000 years or so. He visited
Girnar at least 4 times.
I do not know if it is any coincidence but Namadev maharaj of Kolhapur
– disciple of Shri Krishna saraswati – expired in 1971.In
that year, Swami shri Krishna saraswati called Appa to Kolhapur
and suggested that he should start initiating others. Accordingly,
in about 1972, Appa initiated his first disciple mr. Tungare who
was working with him in Hidustan Ferrodo. Later on Appa initiated
a large number of people- may be more than 2500. Appa was a key
person in initiating a common place for meditation – a Dhyana
Mandir- at Karjat. He took samadhi on 4th may 2001(?) but as he
promised he always shows his presence to his sincere disciples.
During his last visit to Nasik in our Datta Mandir, he assured me
that he is present here.
----- OM TAT SAT ------
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