Experience in Pandharpur (narrated by one of the Master's disciples.)
All the experiences narrated below would not have happened without the grace of our Master. Without His presence we would not have glimpsed even a shadow of the below experiences. When a spiritual aspirant is open towards his Master the aspirant witnesses several experiences and states of being experienced by the master. The experiences get shared from the Higher plane to the lower planes.
Our Master says that "Master is like a Catalyst. In his presence a spiritual aspirant can achieve faster growth".
The first time when we visited pandharpur we visited the place in Toyota Qualis. When we got out of the car there was an absolute stillness. We boarded a lodge and went walking around Pandharpur and could find several samadhis around us. Our master pointed to us that an "I" consciousness was totally absent amongst the people who were walking around. Normally when a person stares at you, you stare back as there is an uneasy sensation and a Feeling of "I" creeps in. That was totally absent in Pandharpur and no person turned at us as they were simply walking as if a spell was cast on them. Our master told that due to the presence of so many buddhas the atmosphere was literally spell casting on all of us.
We could feel that the magnitude and intensity of the stillness and depth increased as we bound towards the river bed of the river Chandrabhaga.
In this atmosphere Our master gave us a challenge to think as much negative thoughts. We could find that it became utterly impossible for us to even think a negative thought. We were searching for negative thoughts. In fact, not even a single thought (negative or positive) did occur in our minds and we could not come out of that state.
Reaching the river bed we could find hundreds of samadhis of saint devotees of Panduranga all around and treaded cautiously fearing stepping on a samadhi as we could find samadhis all around us.
An ordinary person cannot really feel the buddhafield created by the presence of so many saints and the feeling is totally breathtaking even for a person with the slightest opening towards spirituality.
It is a feeling when a person in darkness sees a thousand suns present around him. It is a feeling when a hungry person is given food thousand times more than whatever his hunger demanded.
The energy pouring from all directions is too much to bear and a person becomes overloaded with energy in all his chakras and a sort of madness creeps in.
In this high state we visited the samadhi shrine of Pundalik. After that we went to the samadhi of Narada Rishi. The samadhi of Narad Rishi is situated in the middle of the river Chandrabhaga. The river before His samadhi is called by the name Bhima and the river after His samadhi is called by the name Chandrabhaga. We could feel His presence and stillness emanating from His samadhi at a fair distance from the Samadhi. In total stillness the sound of OM - OMKAR (the sound of soundlessness) can clearly be heard.
At the Samadhi we could see His statue in full smiles. The statue was not a mere statue but Himself. It was fully alive and such aliveness as if He would start laughing.
Muktabai.
The samadhi of Muktabai - The sister of Gnaneshwar is situated on the river bed of Chandrabhaga. Our master told that the samadhi was fully alive in Her presence and instead of a state of madness which was prevalent in and around Pandharpur, A state of absolute clarity - The state of the saint in samadhi touched our master.
Gopalpur.
Outside the temple is the Samadhi shrine of Sakkubai(Janabai). While worshipping the samadhi the pujari for the purpose of doing archana were asking Everybody's name. The first turn was the turn of our master and when the pujari enquired our master of his name our Master was so utterly blank that He could not remember His name. One of us intervened and told His name to the pujari.
we visited the Shiva Temple in Gopalpur. We had a darshan of the Sivalinga which was worshipped by the Pandavas and then We had a darshan of Dattatreya's shrine. Then we visited the Cave in which Jana Bai meditated. Our master told that after sitting for some time engrossed in meditation there was a 100% emptiness.
We were amazed by the fact that after meditation in the cave the face of our Master and face of Janabai looked alike. Our master told that this was due to a deep inner communion between Janabai and Himself. We still have the photograph taken at that time evidencing
this. Sitting there, In a particular depth in meditation the body disappears and there is no longer the sensation of the body. We all experienced that state.
Before entering the Shrine of Vittoba we could find the samadhi of Narahari Maharaj and the Shiva temple that he worshipped.
Vittoba Shrine.
The first step of the temple contains the Jeeva Samadhi of Namdev Maharaj along with his 14 disciples. The extent of devotion in Pandarpur is unimaginable and there are a lot of devotees of Panduranga who have attained Samadhi beside Him. Opposite the Jeeva Samadhi is the Jeeva Samadhi of Chokka Swami, another disciple of Namdev.
Within the shrine, we could find a statue of a King with both of his hands chopped and bleeding. He himself when he was a King chopped both His hands responding out of devotion to Lord Panduranga. The statue was so alive that it was not just a statue but the king himself present in the statue.
Then we had a darshan of Devi Rukmani, the wife of Panduranga. We knew for sure that She had attained samadhi there as we could feel her presence lingering around all of us. Infact many of us felt energy pouring from the crown chakra to all of the head. The sensation was like milk being poured all over the head. We watched the full puja for more than one and a half hours during midnight. That was a special puja arranged by the saints for Our master to have a darshan of it. It was apparent from the totality of the pujari that some saint had descended on Him and making all the moves. In fact the same pujari who had done it in total devotion was surprisingly devoid of bhakthi the next day and he bore not even a slight resemblence of the person that He was yesterday.
The next night during midnight we witnessed the night puja of Panduranga. We sat on the hall that was before the shrine of Panduranga. It was not an ordinary hall. It consists of several pillars and below one of the pillars is the Jeeva Samadhi of Purandaradasa, the author of Purandari. Our master after meditating there told that "so many saints have attained samadhis within the pillars and they were coming out of their samadhis in astral body one by one" and at this point due to that on meditating along with the master we could feel a state of melting and everybody were reduced to tears.
The zenith of the experience was the midnight puja of Panduranga. It is literally enacting Panduranga going to bed to sleep. The puja is totally different from other pujas and the swami is undressed and redressed and finally goes to sleep. On seeing the Statue of Panduranga, we could find that the face was fissured and it bore several wounds. The chest was partly punctured. Our master told that He would have taken a lot of wounds of the devotees and that is why the statue was transfigured. We could find out that the puja was not literal but real and when Panduranga was about to go to sleep we also felt a state of drugged ness and could not manage to keep the eyes open. The sleep was so much pulling inwards and it was like keeping a huge boulder on the top of the eyes. It is not an ordinary unconscious state of sleep forgetting one selves rather knowing fully that sleep is approaching. Somehow we managed to keep our eyes open and witness the entire puja. The state of sleep happened to all of us because of being with Panduranga. He had shown his state of sleep. The puja happened for 2 hours.
Finally after narrating this experience if one goes to Pandharpur with slight openness not only witnessing the outward statues and temples but the inner meaning and significance then the person would realise that the city is not just a city but more than a paradise. Infact words are a poor substitute for the content of Pandarpur.
===Our Master concluded saying that "Millions of people visit the Panduranga Shrine. But only a very few understand the essence of Pandharpur."
Moreover He added that "I have visited so many holy places and temples. But Pandarpur stands like an
Everest compared to all the other small mounts."========