Sometime in 16TH century

July 29, 2014 at 7 26pm

Sometime in 16TH century, a queen from one of the States in Maharashtra, went on a pilgrimage to the
famous and holy city of RAMESHWARAM. While there she saw ,to her dismay, that the great
RAMESHWARAM TEMPLE had been abandoned to the care of sadhus and hermits. No competent scholarly
Brahmins were to be found within its precincts.
The queen, in agreement with the Local King decided to send some learned Brahmin families of which there
were an abundance in her own State ,to live in Rameshwaram and look after the temple .One Hare Krishna
from Nasik was among those scholars sent. Hare Krishna Had two sons Chidambaracharya and Kailas Nath
,who followed their father in scholarship and piety. Chidambaracharya had one son, Vaidyanath, who, in turn,
had two sons of his own , Lokanatha Shiva and Ganapati Bhatt. These two brothers lived in the first half of the
17TH Century. One brother, Lokanatha was assigned the worship of Shivji at the Rameshwaram Temple;
while the other brother, Ganapati Bhatt was assigned Devi worship also at the main temple.
Lokanatha was a great scholar and a great siddha known in his later days as Lokanatha Muni .He formulated
and established the methods of worship and festival procedures that are still followed today at the great
Rameshwaram Temple .He also established the Sri Yantra at another important temple in
Rameshwaram,Gandha Madhana.(Rama Jharukha).
Lokanatha was greatly admired by his contemporary, King Vijay Ragunath Setupati of Ramnathpuram, and
was his chief adviser in all matters relating to the Shastras.
Lokanatha had a son, Nilkanth, who was his fathers equal in every way.
There was, in the time of Nilkanth, a tantria practitioner of a lower order, a worshiper of Bhadre Kali named
Mangaleshwar Gurukall, who used to terrorize the people of Uttar Kosh Mangai(the town where he lived)with
the powers he had acquired. The King of Uttar Kosh Mangai approached Nilkanth for the help of ridding his
kingdom of this evil. The conformation that ensued, resulted in the destruction by Bhadra Kali herself of
Mangaleshwar Gurukall. Nilkantha Street in Uttar Kosh Mangai remains to this day proof of gratitude by the
King and the people of his town for this deliverance. Nilkantha also had a temple of his Mother, Nilkanthi,
named after him as well as receiving a substantial grant of land from the King. He had the further blessing of
four sons, one of whom, Mahadev Bhatt, was as great as his father. Mahadev had a son, named Nilkantha
who, himself, had born in 1872, named Mahadev. Whereas the facts concerning the early ancestors of Panditji
can be obtained from written records, the lines of his grandfather and greatgrandfather are recorded in
memories only. The early death of Nilkantha, whether Mahadev, his son and Panditjis father, was only 13,
resulted in a gap not only in family history but in the hereditary spiritual lineage as well. Mahadev was still un
initiated when his father died. This lack was remedied however in a most wonderful way.
One morning when he was 19 years old, Mahadev went to the Gundhmadhana Temple, which was his job to
care for. Upon opening the door to the main shrine, he saw a radiant young man, apparently near his own age,
meditating while floating in mid air. Mahadev quickly shut the door and asked the pilgrims to the temple to
wait outside, so as not to disturb the meditation of his obviously great Yogi. Later that day, Mahadev met
some travelers on the road approaching Gandhamadhana, who asked if he had seen a man answering the
description of the young Yogi at the temple. That Yogi was the great Narasinha Saraswati of Ganagapur, a
renowed Siddha, considered to be an Avatar of Dattatreya, and more than 400 years old. The travelers were
his deciples, who had left their adobe together with their Guru that morning but had taken nearly all day to
cover the distance he traversed instantaneously.
Narsinha Saraswati stayed in Rameshwaram for several months employing his wonderful powers for the
benefit of the populace. But because he was approached only for worldly boons and never by a seeker after
higher knowledge, he tired of his occupation there decided to leave. On t