Guruvarya



Guruvarya Appa alias Madhav Saraswati Maharaj Tikekar

Appa – Madhavrao Tikekar was born on 13th June 1929 at Kolhapur. His father was a schoolteacher and strict in discipline. Appa had two elder brothers and a younger sister. In very childhood, he was quite naughty, enthusiastic in playing, cycling and swimming and considered to be a group leader. He was beloved by his parents a little bit more as his elder brother had passed away in the very infant stage. At the age of 5, Appa had to undergo two operations of his ear-bone. It was very essential otherwise the infection might have affected the brain. It was performed by a British surgeon in Wanles Hospial and the surgeon was very pleased with this little child- not complaining about any pain or anything.

Appa was very sharp in grasping in school and had a wide reading of English literature. His father being a schoolteacher used to get Matriculation examination papers in English for correction. Appa, though he was studying in 6th standard, used to do corrections in pencil to lessen the burden of his father.

Appa had a three storied house in Kolhapur. It was narrow in width with two staircases. It was near the premises of Kumbhar lane mathi, Babu Jamal Darga and also Vyas mathi. He used to go to these places with his parents. The parents used to take the kids to Wadi very regularly. During one such visits to Wadi, Appa was sleeping with his elder brother Anna and the room where they were sleeping was behind the place of paduka of Lord Narasimha Saraswati. At about mid-night, Anna awoke and saw Appa sitting on his bed in cross leg position and a bright blue light was emerging from the paduka and falling on Appa. The Lord was telling Appa something and Appa was reciting those things but Anna was unable to understand anything. This was the beginning of the spiritual life of Appa though he never disclosed it even to his family members.

Appa completed his B.Com. and later C.A. . Possibly he was the first C.A. from Pune. During his studies he rented an apartment at Vile Parle. He frequently visited Nasik and Machnoor – near Solapur. At Machnoor, he was in close contact with Baba maharaj Arvikar and Baba maharaj was fully aware of the authority of Appa in the spiritual path. Baba maharaj initiated the marriage of Sanjivani – daughter of one of his devotee mr.Godbole- a Sanskrit scholar , with Appa. This was in 1960.At that time Baba maharaj had told Mrs.Godbole –“ Your son-in-law is a great authority” and she thought he must be in a good position in his job. Almost two decades passed and she met one mr. Ghaisas who was also a frequent visitor at Machnoor. When Ghaisas told that he was cured by Appa and got initiation from Appa, she got totally astonished. Then only she realized the words of Baba maharaj.
This fact shows modesty of Appa as well as how secretely he must be doing his ‘sadhana’. Once he casually talked to me and showed me his diary like notebook , he had written by hand, pothi of shrikrishna saraswati, Gurucharitra pothi, a large number of stotras including what swami samarth used to recite during night time. He also told that he contiuously read Gurucharitra pothi which he counted upto 250 times and then stopped counting. He used to read navanath pothi continuously for 99 days.

Initially Appa had regular appointment in Hindustan Ferrodo. Later he started his own consultation practice as tax consutant to various big industries. He travelled a lot by air. Whenever he had to go to Delhi on business trip, he took sometime off to visit to Hrishikesh and other Himalayan caves. As he mentioned me once he met several yogis there some of them having an age of 7000 years or so. He visited Girnar at least 4 times.

I do not know if it is any coincidence but Namadev maharaj of Kolhapur – disciple of Shri Krishna saraswati – expired in 1971.In that year, Swami shri Krishna saraswati called Appa to Kolhapur and suggested that he should start initiating others. Accordingly, in about 1972, Appa initiated his first disciple mr. Tungare who was working with him in Hidustan Ferrodo. Later on Appa initiated a large number of people- may be more than 2500. Appa was a key person in initiating a common place for meditation – a Dhyana Mandir- at Karjat. He took samadhi on 4th may 2001(?) but as he promised he always shows his presence to his sincere disciples. During his last visit to Nasik in our Datta Mandir, he assured me that he is present here.