The saint Samarth Ramdas, belived to be the reincornation of Lord Hanuman Himself was the Guru of Chhatrapati Maharaja Shivaji the Great. Chhatrapati Maharaja Shivaji was instrumental in reestablishing the Hindu Dharma in Bharat varsh. Samarth Ramdas was the inspiration behind the moral force of Chhatrapati Shivaji in this act. It was as a tribute to Ramdas's extraordinary patience and determination in rehabilitating the Hindu religion in India that people named him Samartha (all-powerful) Ramdas, a name which he richly deserved. When in the morning one meets the other the greeting was exchanged with ‘Ram Ram’, this practice of greeting was established by Samarth. It is interesting to note that even today this is practiced in many parts of Bharat.
While propogating the advaitha philosophy, he had established many mutts throughout India South through North. These mutts had been carrying his message to people. Wherever he had established his mutt he had built the temple for Maruti, and Lord Maruti becomes the head of the congregation and the temple becomes the centre of activity. He selects the competent person to head that particular branch of mutt and carryout the activity.
One such mutt established by him is in Srigeon, Sattara District Maharashtra and saint Samarth Ramdas had built a temple for Maruti here also. This is one of the early temples built by Samarth. This temple is considered as one of the siddha peet of Lord Maruti today and is very popular among the devotees of Lord Hanuman. The mutt established here had been handed over to Sri Dattathriya, direct disciple of Sri Samarth Ramdas. Sri Dattathriya had been carrying the teaching of Guru Samarth Ramdas to the people with this mutt at Srigeon as the base. As the Maratha kingdom extended beyond Maratha and spread throughout India in late eighteenth century, the activity of the mutt established by Samarth also spread in-order to reach the message and teaching of Saint Ramdas to the people.
When Marathas established the rule with Gwalior as the capital, the activity of the Sri Dattathriya mutt also spread its activity to the new region. Sri Dattathriya’s son Sri Raghavswami Yashwanthswami’s son Sri Lakshman Swami while on a visit to Gwalior, established branch of the Mutt here, which is now popularly known as ‘Aabha maharaj’ Mutt. The Mutt established then is in the Dal Bazar area very near to Maharani Luxmibai Autonomous Commerce degree Collage. Earlier this collage was known as Victoria Degree Collage, where Sri A.B.Vajpayee had studied.
As the practice Sri Lakshman Swami had established the mutt with Lord Maruti temple as the base. Lord Maruti in ‘veer roop’ made of stone was brought from the Srigeon Siddh Peet and was installed in Gwalior. The Lord in the ‘veer roop’ is seen standing in standing posture with a gadha in His right hand and sanjeevi parvat in the left hand. His right leg is seen resting on Ahi Ravan.
It was decided that a temple for Lord Sri Ram will also be built facing the Lord Maruti. But even after a long time the work pertaining to the Lord Sri Ram’s temple was not taking off. What was preserved to be a simple task, had proved to be not so. It was then dawn on the Saints that some thing is wrong with the planning. On praying to the Lord Maruti to lead the way and through some light on the matter, Lord had given the divine direction that He will not be able stand in the ‘veer roop’ in front of His Lord Sri Ram. Then it was decided to consecrate a new idol for Lord Maruti in ‘dasa roop’ in front of the ‘veer roop’ Maruti. After ‘prana pradishta’ of the dasa roopa Maruti the construction of temple for Lord Sri Ram was taken up and completed without any hindrance.
On completing of the sankalp of building the temple and establishing the branch of the mutt, His Holiness Sri Lakshman Swami had proceeded on pilgrimage to Rameshwar in South. On his way he stayed in the Samartha mutt in Thanjavur which was under the care of His Holiness Yagyavahnacharya. The daily poojas of the mutt was performed by HH Yagyavahnacharya to the Lord Maruti idol made of sapta dhatu (mold of seven metals). Sri Lakshman Swami attended the daily poojas of the mutt during his stay in Tanjavur, continued his pilgrimage and proceeded towards Rameshwaram in south India.
Sri Yagyavahnacharya of Thanjavur mutt was old and he felt that it is time to handover the daily pooja of the idol of Lord Maruti made of sapta dhatu so that the tradition will continue. He opined that he had to select able person who will be able to perform the pooja with the vigor and devotion that is required. But he had no inclination as to who should be handed ever the sapta dhatu idol. One fine day he had ‘dhrishtanth’ (divine direction) that the idol be handed over to Sri Lakshman Swami of Gwalior. He shared this divine direction of the Lord Maruti with his disciples, who were unhappy about the decision of their Guru. Few days after this Sri Guru Yagyavahnacharya attained samathi, after giving direction that the sapta dhatu idol should be handed over the Sri Lakshman Swami on his return from Rameshwaram. On the very same day Sri Lakshman Swami who was returning from the pilgrimage of Rameshwar, had a dream directing him to go back to Thanjavur, since the poojas done by HH Yagyavahnacharya had been disturbed. On this Sri Lakshman Swami, who was unaware about the instruction of HH Yagyavahnacharya to hand over the sapta dhatu idol to him, returned to the mutt at Tanjavur. Meanwhile the disciples of the Mutt who were unwilling to part with the idol worshipped by their Guru decided to keep the idol in the Mutt itself. Therefore when enquired Sri Lakshman Swami was informed that HH Yagyavahnacharya had attained samati and the poojas are performed by them without any interruption. They had not mentioned anything about the direction given by their Guru to handover the idol to Sri Lakshman Swami.
Sri Lakshman Swami started wondering as to why he had been asked to come back to Tanjavur. After a thought, next day he set out towards north on his return to Gwalior. While he was on the outskirts of Thanjavur the disciples of HH Yagyavahnacharya came to meet him. Then they told him that their Guru HH Yagyavahnacharya had directed them to handover the idol of Lord Maruti made of sapta dhatu to him. This direction of their Guru before attainment of samati was ignored by them, since they felt that the idol which is old and worshipped by their Guru should be in the mutt at Tanjavur, as disciples of the mutt they should continue the poojas. Therefore they had not informed Sri Lakshman Swami about this direction of their Guru. On the previous night after he had left the mutt without the sapta dhatu, Lord Maruti had appeared in the dream of one of the disciples and told that direction of HH Yagyavahnacharya is the direction from Him and therefore they should obey by handing over the idol to Sri Lakshman Swami. Realizing that they had done injustice to the orders of their Guru, they had handed over the sapta dhatu idol of Lord Maruti to Sri Lakshman Swami.
Then on this idol worshipped by HH Yagyavahnacharya of Thanjavur and brought to Gwalior by Sri Lakshman Swami is worshipped at this Aabha mutt. The ‘shotosauppachar’ pooja to this sapta dhatu idol of Lord Maruti is performed daily at this Abha mutt. The idol is about five inches tall and the Lords’ right hand is showing ‘abhaya mudra’ while His left hand is resting on the hip. Lord’s right leg is seen stepping forward showing good sign. It is a delight to witness the shotosauppachar pooja performed to this Lord Maruti who is right inside the Sri Ram Sannadhi.
Gwalior is a nice place to visit and has lot of tourist interest. Make it a point to stay for an extra day and have dharshan of this peaceful temple and witness the pooja performed to this Maruti in Aabha maharaj Mutt. You will feel the heaven.
Ed: November 2023
* Author works for MP Police, Gwalior
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