Samarth RamdasSwami
(1608-1681)
Narayan Suryaji Thosar (Kulkarni) aka Shri Samarth Ramdas Swami was born on the auspicious day of Ram Navami to Suryaji Panth and Ranu Bai in Jamb, in Jalna District of Maharashtra.
1. Shantanu Bhadkamkar
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ll Shree Ram ll
Pavan Bhiksha
Shri Samarth Ramdas Swami
Blessing to be sought from the Lord
Bless me O Rama ||
Confer sacred endowment | O Compassionate ||1||
Undivided Devotion | Introspection ||2||
Divine Identification | Total Comprehension ||3||
Company Of Good | Sans Involvement ||4||
Ultimate Experience | With Ultimate Commitment ||5||
Unity with empathy | So says Ramdas||6||
Bless me O Rama ||
Bless me O Rama ||
Courteous Speech | Clean Deeds ||7||
Situation Analysis | With Shrewdness ||8||
Good Acts | Beneficial to all ||9||
Understand people with Insight | Cultivate friendship with all ||10||
Gift me with Knowledge | But with detachment ||11||
Without my seeking | Anything I don’t know ||12||
Everything else as you please | So says Ramdas ||13||
Bless me O Rama ||
Bless me O Rama ||
Art of music | With virtuosic accomplishment ||14||
Diction & Linguistics | With variety & style ||15||
Pleasing Expression | Comforting words ||16||
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Grasp of Epics | Understanding Ancient Texts ||17||
Sense of rhythm | Art of Dance ||18||
Let me be cautious | Well read ||19||
So Says Ramdas, confer upon me | All Good virtues & abilities||20||
Prose
O Lord Rama! Thou art merciful to the distressed; please bless me with you holy
charity. O Rama, please bless me with a total and unreserved surrender in my devotion to
you and also bless me with the capacity for a complete self-confession. Give me the
strength to be completely one with your divine being. I pray, please enable me to rise
above the creature - comforts and the love of wealth. Please inspire me to be always
Salutary Company of sages and saintly persons and instill in me an ascetic detachment. O
Lord Rama! Please endow me with the direct, first-hand experience of the Brahman and
inculcate in me the spirit of exclusive, Single-minded Service. O Ramah, reveal to me
my true self in its pristine purity bereft of ego and body-consciousness, which perpetually
wraps me.
O Rama, please confer on me soft, tender speech and enable me to be clean and pure in
deeds. O Lord Rama, Please inculcate in me the virtue of “Savoir faire” which alone will
enable me to act in the wider interests and happiness of humanity at large. Please endow
me with a keen insight into the deepest recesses of the human heart and also enable me to
befriend the masses. Endow me with the wealth of knowledge and bless me with the
spirit of stoical resignation in not asking for anything that I know nothing about. O Rama
take me under your benign protection and induce me to be unflinching and unswerving in
my devotion to you.
O Rama! Please bless me with celestial music and a true love of sweet and dulcet
melodies. Please endow me with the strength to imbibe the culture of my soil and make
me well versed in the folklore. Let my words and speech take many alluring turns and
twists to bring my fellow men to be your devotees. Let my face beam with majestic
softness and innocence and let heart-winning words escape my lips. Let my words and
sentences enter straight into the hearts of listeners. Let my diction and syntax be faultless
and straightforward. Let me be well versed in the various plots and sub-plots in your long
and variegated life. O Rama! Let my clapping be very rhythmical and also acquaint me
with the art of dancing. O Rama, teach me to be cautious and vigilant and teach me the
tenacity and determination to learn a great many things by heart. Ramdas says, “O lord!
You are the very a bode of countless personified virtues. O Rama! Bestow the best and
the choicest of virtues on me.”
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Samarth RamdasSwami
(1608-1681)
Narayan Suryaji Thosar (Kulkarni) aka Shri Samarth Ramdas Swami was born on the
auspicious day of Ram Navami to Suryaji Panth and Ranu Bai in Jamb, in Jalna District
of Maharashtra.
As a child, Narayan was inquisitive. He had often seen his elder brother, a Brahmin
priest, take certain people into a sealed room, where he would initiate them into
meditation. Curious as he was, he started inquiring into and examined religious
scriptures, thereby attaining a certain level of understanding of the tenets at very tender
age. On an occasion, his mother found him in meditation and inquired as to his. To this
he replied, quot;Mother, I am praying for the whole Universe”.
A devotee of Lord Hanuman and Lord Rama, the former of which appears in carvings on
many of the established maths (monasteries) he constructed. He was also the spiritual
guru of Shivaji, one of the most popular Hindu leaders in history.
Early life: It was at this point that he began to isolate himself in prayer, at which his
mother began to encourage his meditations. However, his family still urged him to
remain secularly inclined, afraid that he would become an ascetic, so preoccupied as he
was with religious study at an early age.
Awakening: When Ramdas (or Narayan as he was known at the time) was twelve years
of age, arrangements were made for his marriage. When he was brought before his bride
to be, the priests chanted quot;Sawadhan!quot; a Marathi word that means, - quot;Be alertquot; - at which
Ramdas bolted away from the ceremony. He thereafter arrived in the town of Takli, near
Nasik, where he took up the practice of meditation, praying fervently to Lord Rama, the
avatar of Lord Vishnu. After twelve years then, he attained realisation and received the
name of Samarth Ramdas.
Sajjangad and association with Shivaji: Both first met in 1649. News about plan of
Afzalkhan’s attack in 1659 was licked due to few Maratha Sardars in Vijapur’s Darbaar,
these sardars took help of Ramdasee people, and finally Ramdas swami has written a
letter to Maharaj having secret message. Maharaj met Ramdas swami before
Rajyabhishek and gave place for his ‘Ashram’ on Parali fort, later that fort was renamed
as ‘Sajjangad’. Few people says Ramdas has opposed “Rajyabhishek” of Shivaji raje, but
there is no historic evidence for that, when Brahmins of Paithan opposed Raje’s
“Rajyabhishek”, Ramdas swami suggested Shivaji Raje to meet Kashi’s Brahmins saying
that those kashi based Brahmins will surely help you.
Memorable works: He wrote the 205 verses called Manache Shlok. Of his many works,
Samarth Ramdas is best remembered for the Dasbodh, a guide to organising one's
spiritual and worldly livelihood, for the establishment of many Matha (monastic schools)
throughout the Indian subcontinent, and for the school of thought, which reflects his
dynamic personality, and efficient method of organisation. He is also remembered for
popularising the 13-character devotional chant of quot;Sri Rama Jaya Rama Jaya Jaya Ramaquot;.
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The Dasbodh is a large book, equally useful for grihastha (married house-holder),
brahmachari (bachelor) and sanyasi's (or other religion-minded persons). The seed of
Dasbodh is a smaller book called Manobodh, which mainly talks about the religious
absolution. Apart from these books, Ramdas also created numerous small songs, and
many small shlokas (quadruplets). One such creation was the 205 numbered quot;Manache
shlokaquot; (shloka's addressed to one's own mind). Another such creation was the 11
numbered quot;Bhima-Rupee Stotrequot;, which are songs of praise to Maruti, the collective
name derived from the starting words of first (and the most popular) of these.
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