Gondavlekar Maharaj owned quite a few ancestral lands. Seeing that Maharaj had remained single, his brothers and relatives expressed anguish regarding the property. Whenever the argument over property issues would begin, it would eventually assume a very ugly state. The brothers and relatives would use foul language against Maharaj and Maharaj too would return them with equal aggression. After the argument, Maharaj would himself give them silver plates and make them dine with him.

Once they took Maharaj to their village with illicit intentions. When Maharaj reached there, the argument over property started again. Shri Maharaj was sitting on a platform in a field and all others were surrounding him. Suddenly one of the relatives stood on the platform and threw a huge stone on Maharaj’s head. Maharaj immediately moved aside, looked up at him and said, “What did you do? Bramhahatya could have happened!”

In such situations, the state and level of the person’s mind is manifested through his words. An ordinary person would have said, ‘I would have died!’ But a self-realized person is in the state of ultimate knowledge even in such circumstances. Not to forget that Maharaj later dined with the same person who had attempted to kill him.

The title Brahmachaitanya very much suited Maharaj perfectly, who was always in the highest state of consciousness. The Bhagwadgita addresses such mahatmas as pandits, dheer purush or sthitapradnya.

 - Extract from Shri Bramhachaitanya Gondavlekar Maharaj (Charitra ani Tatvanyan ) – by K.V. Belsare