Upasani Maharaj, also known as Kashinath Govindrao Upasni, was a spiritual teacher from India who was revered by his followers as a satguru. He resided in Sakori during the British rule in India, and it is believed that he attained God-realization through Sai Baba of Shirdi. Upasani was also a significant spiritual mentor of Meher Baba. He passed away on December 24, 1941.
Upasani Baba Maharaj, formerly known as Kashinath Govind Upasni Shastri, was born into a Brahmin family in Satana, India, on May 15, 1870. His father, Govind Shastri, worked as a copyist at a court in Dhulia and had left Kashinath under the care of his grandfather and uncle. Kashinath was very close to his grandfather, Gopala Shastri, who was a learned Sanskrit scholar and had served as a court advisor to Khanderao II Gaekwad, Maharaja of Baroda. After the Maharaja's death, Gopala lost his position and income, causing the family to become impoverished.
At the age of five, Kashinath began receiving a traditional Brahmin education, and when he turned eight, he underwent the Upanayana ceremony performed by a renowned saint in the region named Deva Mamaledara. Despite attending a local elementary school, he struggled with the non-traditional subjects being taught and eventually left after being severely beaten by one of his teachers. Kashinath was much more interested in hearing about the power of sacred invocations (mantras) and austerities (tapas) described in Hindu epics such as the Mahabharata, Ramayana, and Puranas, than in academic subjects.
Kashinath was deeply influenced by his grandfather's ascetic lifestyle, and he too practiced spiritual disciplines with great intensity. However, his parents were critical of his extreme ways and believed that he was a financial burden on the family. Despite his desire to become a mendicant and leave home, they arranged for him to marry a young girl named Durga when he was only fourteen years old. Unfortunately, Durga died of an illness within two years of their marriage. Despite Kashinath's requests to leave, his parents arranged for him to marry again, this time to a nine-year-old girl. Kashinath spent increasing amounts of time away from home and eventually left for Pune to earn a living. However, his lack of formal education made it difficult for him to find a job, and he was forced to do menial work or beg for survival. He even lived among beggars in a temple on the outskirts of Pune who were starving or half-starved.
At the age of nineteen, Kashinath returned to his hometown of Satana with the sole purpose of seeing his beloved grandfather. On his way back, he stumbled upon a cave in a large hill in the middle of a dense forest, which he thought was the perfect place to practice prayopavesha (fasting unto death). After two days of fasting, he started repeating sacred mantras, and eventually went into a deep state of samadhi, which lasted for several weeks. The profound spiritual experience revived his hope, and he left the cave, but was too weak to walk and had to crawl down the hill. At the foot of the hill, he found refuge in a small village inhabited by the Garhwali people, who were a tribe of aboriginals known as bhils. He lived with them for a month, subsisting on wild grains and selling fuel to earn money for his hosts. After that, he continued his journey to Satana and finally reached there on 22 July 1890.
Kashinath Govind Shastri was an Ayurvedic physician who lived in Amaravati, India, around the year 1900. He had returned home after enduring extreme yogic austerities and had resumed his study of Ayurveda to assist his grandfather, who was suffering from paralysis. However, tragedy struck when his father died of cholera within a day of being infected. A year later, his grandfather also passed away, leaving the family in debt and poverty. During this difficult time, the family was supported by Bal Gangadhar Tilak, a prominent Indian independence activist.
Kashinath realized that he needed to take action to restore the lost family wealth and status. He left for Sangli to study Ayurvedic medicine and Sanskrit grammar, completing his studies after three years. He then started a dispensary in Amaravati and edited a Marathi monthly Ayurvedic journal, Besaj Ratnamala. He advertised the patent medicines that he manufactured, and his business became successful.
However, Kashinath still had debts to pay off and was looking to acquire wealth and status. He moved to Gwalior and invested thousands of rupees in acquiring hundreds of acres of uncultivated land. Unfortunately, he made a costly mistake, and within two years, he became embroiled in numerous lawsuits, losing his lands, money, and reputation. His health also suffered.
Kashinath returned to Amaravati in 1908, disillusioned and disheartened. He re-established his medical practice but eventually gave it up and closed the dispensary. In April 1910, he and his wife set out on a pilgrimage to visit holy shrines. Despite the ups and downs of his career and personal life, Kashinath remained a well-known physician in Ayurvedic circles, with a deep understanding of the practice and its principles.
During his pilgrimage with his wife, Kashinath visited several holy sites in India and undertook intensive meditation at the Omkareshwar Temple. However, he suddenly fell unconscious during his meditation, and when he regained consciousness, he was unable to breathe normally. Despite seeking professional treatment in Nagpur, his condition did not improve. In search of a cure, Kashinath visited several yogis, including Kulkarni Maharaj and Narayan Maharaj, but none were able to help him. Eventually, Kulkarni Maharaj convinced him to visit Sai Baba of Shirdi, but Kashinath was initially hesitant due to his high-caste background and prejudice against Muslims. However, he finally set aside his prejudices and visited Shirdi, where he received guidance from Sai Baba and found relief by following the advice of an old physician to drink hot water.
Sai Baba was a Muslim faqir who lived among a predominantly Hindu community in the small village of Shirdi in the Ahmednager district. Unlike other spiritual leaders, he didn't give discourses but conveyed his teachings through metaphoric and paradoxical stories. He was able to foster an environment of mutual respect and understanding between the Hindu and Muslim communities in Shirdi, thanks to his spiritual charisma expressed through his words, movements, and glances.
Kashinath, a yogi, visited Shirdi in June 1911, where he heard praise for Sai Baba from local Hindus. However, Kashinath was hesitant to follow Sai Baba as he was a Muslim. He visited a Hindu guru at Kopargaon but was advised to return to Shirdi. Sai Baba communicated to devotees that Kashinath should stay in Shirdi for four years and that there was no difference between him and Kashinath. Kashinath was asked to meditate in a nearby deserted Khandoba temple, focusing on building a connection with Sai Baba rather than traditional yogic practices.
Kashinath Govind Upasani Shastri, later known as Sri Upasani (Baba) Maharaj, followed Sai Baba's instruction to meditate quietly in the Khandoba Temple for over a year. Despite the temple's poor conditions, Upasani experienced intense altered states of consciousness. After leaving the temple, he engaged in hard menial labor and gained a reputation for erratic behavior, sometimes even abusing or beating those who approached him. In 1913, during Guru Purnima, Sai Baba ordered devotees to worship Upasani, who reluctantly allowed it. He then left Shirdi after three years, traveled to Nagpur, and eventually settled in Kharagpur, where he lived among the untouchable castes and performed menial labor. Despite his bizarre behavior, he gained many devotees and his fame reached Shirdi. However, some of Sai Baba's followers became jealous and caused trouble, leading Upasani to leave Shirdi once again after a second operation for haemorrhoids. He traveled to various places in India, giving discourses on spiritual topics, before returning to Shirdi and residing at the Khandoba Temple again.
In 1917, Upasani Maharaj was invited by a group of farmers from Sakori village to live among them. They built a hut for him near the cremation ground on the outskirts of the village. This became his permanent ashram, where he continued his spiritual work. It also helped ease the resentment of some of Sai Baba's devotees who had opposed the idea of Upasani being his spiritual heir. At Sakori, Upasani remained a renunciate and did not wear the traditional saffron robes of a sannyasin. He wore simple gunny cloth and was not affiliated with any religious sect. His behavior towards those who approached him was unpredictable, but his discourses remained consistent and many of them were recorded in the 1920s
Around 1922, Upasani Maharaj built a bamboo cage without any outlet and confined himself in it for over 14 months. He ate, bathed, and performed all necessary bodily functions within the narrow confines of the cage. His devotees attended to his needs from outside and performed daily rituals and devotional songs to him. After 14 months, he asked his devotees to make a door, and he began to come out for short periods of time, gradually staying outside for longer periods. He explained that the reason for his self-confinement was to teach his devotees the true meaning of service, which did not involve serving him personally but rather serving something that belongs to him, such as Baba's garden, temple, or animals. During this time, he also delivered daily spiritual discourses for hours, both from within and outside of the cage, which attracted devotees from increasing distances. His talks were published in a Marathi monthly called Sai Vak Sudha and later in book form. His popularity increased, and new buildings were built at the ashram in Sakori.
During his final years, Upasani traveled extensively to meet his followers, teach young girls in the ashram, and oversee the construction of shrines and temples that were built using donations from his devotees. The last temple that was built in Satana in 1941 was particularly special, as it was constructed at the place where he was born. As the construction was nearing completion, Upasani urged the workers to finish quickly, as he felt that his time on earth was coming to an end. He returned to Sakori on December 23rd, feeling exhausted. The following day, on December 24th, 1941, at the age of 71, Upasani Baba Maharaj passed away and attained Mahasamadhi.
Upasani Maharaj was one of Meher Baba's main teachers, and their first meeting took place in 1915 when Upasani was staying in Shirdi with Sai Baba. Upasani later moved to Sakori in 1917, and Meher Baba frequently stayed there. Meher Baba believed that Upasani gave him divine knowledge, and Upasani also made several comments about Meher Baba's greatness to his disciples. In their final meeting, which took place in Dahigaon in October 1941, after almost 20 years of separation, Upasani was nearing the end of his life. This meeting was significant as it was the last time the two spiritual masters would see each other before Upasani's passing, which occurred just two months later.