Biography of P.P. Bhaktaraj Maharaj

General and special characteristics

All objects and living organism have two types of characteristics, genera and special. The general characteristics refer to those qualities which are common to that class e.g., the general characteristics of a cow are – an animal with four legs, tow horns and a tail, whereas the special characteristics of a certain cow may be that it yields more milk or does not yield milk at all or has s single horn or is very aggressive. In the same way, the general characteristics of gurus and saints are those which are found in all gurus and saints. Here, only the special characteristics of Baba are considered. However, discussing all the special characteristics of a saint of the highest order like Baba is beyond our ability. Hence, only some special characteristics are described here.

Actually there is not much to learn from a saint’s worldly life. One just finds that saints behave in various ways; but cannot realize that they are basically one in the principle. Hence, without discussing the worldly special characteristics of Baba, we have discussed only the special characteristics in detail.

Behavior in general

Frank and homely behavior:
When Baba goes to a disciple's house, He tells them what He wants to eat, where He will sleep, etc.
Many a times He has fetched water in a disciple's house, even when it had to be fetched from a distance. He would finish His morning ablutions after getting up early in the morning when there would be no water available during the day. If the lady from the house is ill or has gone out of station, He has even cooked for the family. Indeed Baba cooks well.

Being hasty:
When Baba has to go to some place or has to go for lunch with His disciples, He hurries everyone up.

Paying attention to the minutest details:
Baba pays attention to details such as where to keep His clothes, wallet, spectacles, etc. in a bag, how to arrange the bags in the dickey or carrier of His car, the quantity of wheat, mustard, etc., in stock. Once He said, "As I was a shopkeeper before becoming a spiritualist, I am used to keep a track of the quantity of goods as well as their storing place. Thai's why I probably still like doing these chores."

Unpredictable:
Concerning worldly matters if Baba says that He will be at a particular place at a particular time, then one cannot be sure that He will definitely do so. This type of behavior is probably due to the following three reasons : first, to teach His disciples that they should not have any expectations. Secondly, since Baba is beyond the time and space barriers, He cannot get bothered about such binding and thirdly, He acts only according to God's will. However, one does not realize the cause of such a type of behavior.

The best disciple

Service
- Before His Guru would wake up in the morning Baba would keep warm water ready for His Guru's bath. At night, only when the Guru retired, would He sleep for two to three hours.
- He would eat a meal as an offering of His Guru only after His Guru had finished eating.
- He would never sit in front of His Gum.
- When the Guru was in front of Him, Baba's gaze always rested at His Guru's feet.

- To prevent sleep causing any breach in the service of His Guru, Baba spent many a night standing on His toes, so that He would not fall asleep.
- When the Guru told Him to massage His feet or sing holy songs, He would continuously do so for hours till the Guru wished Him to stop.
- Whenever the Guru traveled by a horse-carriage, Baba would run behind the carriage.
- Whenever the Guru took off His holy slippers (Paaduka) while visiting a place, Baba would immediately pick them up and hold them in His armpit.
- Once when He failed to serve His Guru properly i.e., He forgot to bring along the Guru's shawl and clothes when the Guru had gone to bathe on the banks of the river Narmada, Baba set out to end His life.
- Even after becoming a Guru Himself, Baba continued to serve other saints with the humility of a disciple.

Test
Once the Guru beat up Baba severely with a stick, but Baba bore it all without a word.

Devotion
- In the morning Baba would wash His Guru's feet with water and drink it as holy water.
- Since Baba had offered all His belongings i.e., body, mind and wealth to His Guru, no separate existence was left for Him. Hence, even after reaching the stage of a supreme (Paraatpafy Guru, He would still say that everything is happening because of His Guru.
- Even though Baba is in the state of being in contact with God all the time {sahajaavasthaa). He too, at times misses His Guru .

His favorite subject: Spiritualism
Spiritualism is Baba's only favorite subject. Even if He is very sick, when someone asks a good question about spiritualism, He starts talking on it enthusiastically.

Verbal knowledge without study of books
Without reading or having studied any book, Baba easily quotes points from various holy books, holy songs, etc.

Loving Baba
Just as the quality of sugar is its sweetness, the main quality of Baba is His loving nature. His nature is love for its own sake without any expectations. Often He is seen tucking His devotees sleeping in the cold with blankets or serving food to anybody visiting Him at any odd time. Because of this loving nature He wants people around Him all the time. If there are no people, then He gets restless, because if there are no people, on whom will He shower His love! Devotees too are attracted to Him because of this very characteristic.

Holy Songs
Singing holy songs is Baba's most liked form of relaxation. Baba means holy songs and holy songs mean Baba. When He was a disciple, singing holy songs was His spiritual practice and service. He has sung holy songs while standing before His Guru for several hours. After He became Guru Himself, by blending Himself with God, He started guiding His disciples through singing holy songs. 

Traveling
It is doubtful whether there is another saint in the modern times who has travelled millions of miles like Baba. Every second or third day Baba visits a new village or town. The motive behind this travelling is that if the disciples have to progress, then there has to be the maximum Guru-disciple contact. Now because of worldly ties the disciples cannot go to Baba regularly. Hence, Baba visits them Himself. There is one more point behind this travelling and that is instead of all the disciples from Dhule, Jalgaon, Nashik, Pune, Bombay and other cities and towns spending their time and money in going to see Baba, it would be much better if Baba went there Himself, so that all the disciples in a particular city or town can visit Him, remain in His company and get the benefit of service to Him.

Festival of serving food (bhandaaraa)
Since food is considered to be the greatest among all the offerings (Daan), Baba has organised bhandaaraas in thousands of places till today. It also helps in developing close ties among the disciples.

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