Sant Shri Gadge Baba was the great hero of 19th century and known for his social services. He was a holy saint who worked for helpless and poor.
On 23rd of February 1876, Gadge Baba was born in a washerman’s family of small village Shengaon of district Amravati, Maharashtra, India. He lived a life of poverty. In starting days of his life he worked in his own field, when he lost his own land he worked as a wage labor. One day he was at a field and keeping birds away from grain. A sadhu who passes near by him, asked Gadge baba ‘if he is the owner of the grains?’ This question turned Baba for realization.
After this comment of sadhu Gadge Baba knows the value of community-sharing and keeps it for his whole life time. Community-service become the base of his teachings of Baba. His teachings were-
Give food to the hungry
Give shelter to the needy
Protect the environment
A public teacher, the Gadge Baba traveled from one place to another place wearing his food pan upturned on his head and carrying his trademark broom. When he entered a village, instantly start cleaning the gutters and roads of village. He also told the citizens of village that their congratulations would have to wait until his work was done. For this job, the peoples of village gave money to Baba. From this money Gadge Baba build educational institutions, dharmasalas, hospitals and animal shelters. He conducted his discourses in form of “Kirtans”(a form of discourse which includes devotional songs by Saints). In which he would emphasis on topics like service to humanity, compassion. During his kirtans he would educate people against blind faiths and rituals. He would use Dohas (couplets of a song) by Saint Kabir in his discourses.Currently almost all organizations build by him are functioning well. On December 20th, 1956 the Great Saint left this mortal world. Even so many years have passed since his departure there is lot of following for him. Government of Maharashtra state also runs a villge cleanliness programme named after him. University of Amravati was renamed as Sant Gadge Baba university.
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Basava [also known as Basavanna] flourished in the 12th century in Karnataka. He was a Prime Minister to king Bijjala who ruled from 1157 to 1167 over Kalyani, a city of historic importance. Basava was indeed a great prophet for in him we find the combination of rare qualities. He was a mystic by temperament, an idealist by choice, a statesman by profession, a man of letters by taste, a humanist by sympathy and a social reformer by conviction.
Basava strove hard to bring about reformation in Hinduism into which social evils had crept in. The social and cultural conflicts which had been going on in India from ancient days were stimulating a new foment within the Hindu society. At the time of Basava there were apologists who had been giving a new interpretation to the irrational religious practices and form of thought. But Basava with a courageous frankness acknowledged the prevailing evils of the Hindu society and suggested ways and means to create a new orientation.
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Eknath was a major saint of the varakari sampradaya founded by Dnanadeva. Born in 1533 at Paithan, Eknath lost his parents at an early age and was brought up by his grandfather. Eknath’s great-grandfather was Shri Bhanudas (1448-1513), a major figure in the Vitthala sect at Pandharpur.
Eknath was initiated by his guru, Janardana, a devotee of Dattatreya. Eknath was unique since he combined a blend of Vedanta and Sufism. Eknath was a devout gurubhakta and wrote under the name of Eka-janardana meaning eka of janardana.
A prolific writer, he wrote Bhavartha Ramayana, numerous Abhangas (unbroken verses and a prolongation of the famous ovi meter) and Bharudas (short poems with two meanings, one secular and the other spiritual). However, his major work was Eknath Bhagavata, a marathi commentary on the 11th skanda of the Bhagavata Purana. Started in 1570, it has over eighteen thousand ovis and was completed in 1573. In the work, Eknath stresses on the uplifting value of kirtana (singing God’s names), remembrance of God’s name (namasmarana) and meditation (dhyana) of the name. He explains beautifully the nine traditional limbs of the bhakti marga (navangani) with examples from saints.
Eknath distinguished two forms of bhakti to Saguna Brahman (God with form) : as an end in itself and as a means. Generally, the advaitic tradition identifies with the latter, considering that meditation of God with form does not lead to moksha (liberation) but only to krama-mukti (gradual liberation). However, a person who attains krama-mukti is freed from samsara (the cycle of births, deaths, and rebirths).
Eknath’s Bhagavata popularized the vedanta philosophy to a great extent. Shri Ranade, a modern day historian, notes that `With Dnanadeva, philosophy reigned in the clouds; with Eknatha, it came down upon earth and dwelt among men.’
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