Gondavalekar Maharaj
Gondavalekar Maharaj
Personal life
Born	Ganpati Raoji Ghugardare (Kulkarni) (1845-02-19)19 February 1845 Gondavale Budruk, Satara State, British India
Died	22 December 1913(1913-12-22) (aged 68) Gondavale Budruk, Satara District, Bombay Presidency, British India
Religious life
Religion	Hinduism
Philosophy	Bhakti Yoga, Vaishnavism
Religious career
Guru	Tukamai
Disciples Brahmanand, Anandsagar, Bhausaheb Ketkar, Dr. Kurtakoti, Pandurangabuva, Tatyasaheb Ketkar, Pralhad Maharaj

Brahmachaitanya (also popularly known as Gondavalekar Maharaj) pronunciation^ⓘ (19 February 1845^[1] – 22 December 1913) was an Indian Hindu saint and spiritual master . He was a devotee of the Hindu deity Rama, and signed his name as "Brahmachaitanya Ramdasi". He was a disciple of Tukamai.^[2] He advocated for japa meditation through recitation of the Trayodaśakṣarī mantra (Sanskrit: त्रयोदशाक्षरी मंत्र, lit. '13-alphabet mantra in Devanagari script'). He promulgated mantra recitation as an effective means to attain spiritual progress and moksha (spiritual liberation).^[1]

He was born on 19 February 1845 as Ganpati Ghugardare.^[1] He was born into a Deshastha Brahmin family to Raoji and Gitabai Ghugardare. His place of birth was Gondavale Budruk, a small town in present-day Satara District, Maharashtra, India. His parents were devotees of Vitthala, a Hindu deity. Lingopant, his grandfather, held the title of Kulkarni or rural record-keeper of Gondavale during the Maratha regime. Kulkarni was later adopted as the family name.^[1]

He memorized the Hindu philosophical scripture, Bhagavad Gita at a very early age. He is believed to have attained enlightenment at a young age.^[2]

At the age of twelve, Ganpati left home in search of enlightenment. He travelled extensively, and eventually arrived at Yehalegaon, a village near present-day Nanded. There, he met Tukamai, a saint revered to be a living synthesis of the three distinct paths to self-realization: Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Karma Yoga. He stayed under the tutelage of Tukamai for nine months. He would obediently follow the latter's instructions during this time. On one occasion of Ram Navami, Tukamai initiated Ganpati with the mantra "Śrī Rāma Jaya Rāma Jaya Jaya Rāma (Sanskrit: श्री राम जय राम जय जय राम)",^[1] and bestowed upon the latter the title of "Brahmachaitanya."

Over the next few years, Brahmachaitanya travelled across the Indian subcontinent. He went to various regions and towns such as the Himalayas, Ujjain, Ayodhya, Kashi, Calcutta, Indore and Nasik. During March 1866, he returned back to Gondavale and adopted a householder lifestyle.^[1] His first wife, Saraswati, and their son died shortly afterward. Later, he married a daughter of the Deshpande or district record-keeper of Atpadi. His second wife was blind since birth. She later came to be known as Aaisaheb. He also embarked on a pilgrimage along with his mother, Gitabai, to Kashi and Ayodhya. Gitabai probably died in Ayodhya.

During later years, Brahmachaitanya continued to expound spiritual methods revolving around devotion to the deity Rama. He also had a Rama temple built as an extension to his residence.^[1]

With time, the number of his disciples and followers soared. To cater to these increasing numbers, he arranged for the construction of Rama, Dattatreya, and Shani temples along with accommodation facilities at Gondavale. He also had Rama temples built in other rural regions of present-day Maharashtra.

He died on 22 December 1913, at Gondavale.^[2][3]

He was a proponent of Bhakti Yoga. His teachings were aligned to those of Samarth Ramdas, his spiritual predecessor. The Rama-nama mantra, originally attributed to Ramdas, was promoted by Brahmachaitanya as a means of spiritual evolution. The mantra was central to his teachings.^[4] According to S. G. Tulpule, Brahmachaitanya, like earlier Vaishanavite saints such as Mirabai, Ramdas, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Tulsidas, was a well-known preacher and practitioner of mantra recitation.^[5]

He frequently used pravachan or spiritual discourses and bhajan or devotional hymns to encourage people along the path of devotion. He endorsed cow protection and food donation. He is an important 19th-century religious figure behind the revival of Vedic ritualism in the Indian state of Maharashtra.^[4]

He advised^[1] his adherents to rigorously follow spiritual practices to attain self-realization. According to him, there are two proven ways to moksha or liberation for people active in materialistic pursuits. These are satsangati (Sanskrit: सत्संगती) or company of saints and naam (Sanskrit: नाम) or name of deity. Most of his teachings emphasized on the recitation of naam japa. He advocated for round-the-clock remembrance of the divine through naam japa as a means to happiness, contentment and peace.

His teachings are summarized in his subodh^[6] (Sanskrit: सुबोध) or set of clear instructions.

Teachings stated in the subodh are listed as follows:^[6]

• Keep chanting the deity's name and communicate the significance of chanting to everyone you meet.
• Naam alone is the ultimate truth.
• Naam is the means and the end.
• Stay involved in mantra chanting even when active in worldly pursuits.
• Be happy and stay away from laziness, fear and hate.
• Always be mindful of the divine presence in life.
• Be polite and nice to people and stay fully devoted to Rama.
• Maintain purity in thought and action and refrain from hypocrisy.
• Consider Rama as your friend, guide and master and surrender to him wholeheartedly.
• Give your 100% to everything you do and leave the results of your effort to Rama, thereby surrendering your ego entirely.
• Control your desires and be righteous in your behavior.
• Rama is the giver of happiness, and one should consider performing worldly duties as a way to serve Him.
• Sing and chant His name and always be content and at peace even if you lose all your worldly belongings.
• Pride is the greatest enemy of a seeker, be alert and do not give in to your ego.
• Rama resides in our hearts. He is the epitome of love and yearns for love from all his devotees.

His daily discourses have been compiled into a book called Pravachane.^[7]

Keshav Belsare, also affectionately known as "Baba" (father), was born into a middle-class family in Hyderabad on 8 February 1909. He had learnt texts such as the Bhagavad Gita, Dasbodh and Dnyaneshwari, at an early age. He is claimed to have memorized all of the 700 shlokas of the Bhagavad Gita within a single week. He started out as a teacher of English at Balmohan Vidyalaya in Dadar, and later became a professor of philosophy at Siddhartha College in Mumbai. His lectures were immensely popular in college, and students from multiple disciplines would enrol for his classes. He was known to possess extraordinary clarity and an ability to teach complex subjects in an easy-to-understand manner. He was initiated in 1931. Over time, he became a prominent propagator of Brahmachaitanya's teachings. He actively engaged in promoting these teachings for more than 60 years. He would often conduct discourses on topics ranging from meditation to literary works such as Dnyaneshwari and Dasbodh. He authored more than 50 books in Marathi. His notable works include the biography of Brahmachaitanya, Upanishdacha Abhyas and Bhavarthgatha.^[8]

Dattatreya Bendre (31 January 1896 – 26 October 1981) was a Kannada poet and recipient of the Jnanpith Award. He revered Brahmachaitanya and believed the latter to have bestowed upon him "the gift of poetry".^[9]

Brahmachaitanya and his adherants built and consecrated many temples around India. There are temples dedicated to him in Maharashtra, as well as in Bangalore (Srinivasanagar), and Hebbali in Dharwad District. Ram-naam japa rituals are held on a daily basis at these temples.

The temples are listed as follows:

• Sri Brahmachaitanya Gondavalekar Maharaj – biography by K.V. Belsare^[8]

• Pravachane of Shree Maharaj Archived 15 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine
• Official website of Gondavalekar Maharaj