Tukdoji Maharaj
Tukadoji Maharaj (Manikdev Banduji Ingale) was born on April 30, 1909 in the village of Yavali Shaheed in the Amravati district of Maharashtra. As Vithoba of Pandharpur is the family deity of his family, he developed a passion for meditation, bhajan and pujan from his childhood. He dropped out of school after finishing his education. While Aroli was at Varkhed, he made Adkuji Maharaj his Guru. Later, he started composing poems for kirtan and bhajan. One day Gurumaharaja called him (तुकड्या) 'pieces'. 'Say the pieces,' (तुकड्या म्हणा) he said. He wrote numerous abhangs ending with the phrase 'Tukadya Mhene'. Due to this he came to be known as Tukdoji Maharaj.
Tukdoji Maharaj was involved in social reforms in the rural regions of Maharashtra, including construction of roads. He wrote Gramgeeta which describes means for village development. Many of the development programs started by him have continued to work efficiently after his death. He was once even claimed as a mad by one of the British officers.
Tukdoji Maharaj once attended a World Religions and World Peace Conference in Japan. His hymns fascinated many Western and Eastern scholars. He used to reveal the nature of God beyond all religions, sects and castes through his bhajans.
He received spiritual initiation from Samarth Adkoji Maharaj of Warkhed gram. Early in childhood, Saint Tukdoji Maharaj performed rigorous penance and spiritual exercises in self-realisation. He also was a great orator and a musician who composed more than 3000 bhajans (spiritual poems) in Hindi and Marathi, having performed for the spiritual teacher Meher Baba in 1937 and 1944. He has also written many articles on Dharma, society, nation and education.
He studied the existing religious sects and other schools of thought and discussed religious and secular problems of the devotees. He was determined to re-define socio-Spirituality and revitalise and awaken the nation.
Tukdoji Maharaj believed that India is a country of villages and that rural development would lead to the development of the nation. Rural development and rural welfare seemed to be the focal point of his ideology. The measures suggested by Tukadoji Maharaj on how to make the village self-sufficient proved to be very effective. He worked tirelessly for the eradication of godlessness and old superstitions. Interfaith harmony was also a feature of this Rashtrasantha's ideology. Tukadoji Maharaj used to advocate monotheism from a conscientious point of view. Till the last breath of his life, he carried out spiritual, social and national awakening by propagating the ideology he intended through his effective khanjiri bhajan.
In 1941, Tukdoji Maharaj performed individual acts of civil resistance, so-called satyagraha, and took part in the mass upsurge of the 'Quit India' movement. He was arrested in 1942 and was imprisoned in Nagpur and Raipur Central Jails. He strongly opposed the inhuman muscat pressure of the British. Therefore, Tukdoji Maharaj was arrested and kept as a prisoner in Nagpur and Raipur jails.
‘अब काहेको धूम मचाते हो दुखवाकर भारत सारे, आते है नाथ हमारे।
झाड झडूले शस्त्र बनेंगे, भक्त बनेगी सेना।
पत्थर सारे बॉम्ब बनेंगे, नाव लगेगी किनारे।।’
Such songs sparked the uprising of the Quit India Movement. As a result, the British Government arrested him from Chandrapur on 27th August 1942 at 4 am and kept him in the Central Jail at Nagpur till 21st September 1942. He was secretly transferred to Raipur in the ensuing riots and four months later he was released on parole in Wardha and Chandrapur districts. In the year 1936, in the company of Mahatma Gandhi, Rajendra Babu, he got acquainted with Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Azad and other national leaders. He worked with Gulzarilal Nandaji in Bharat Sevak Samaj. When India had become independent, he concentrated on rural reconstruction, establishing the 'All India Shri Gurudev Seva Mandal' and developing programmes for integrated rural development. Rajendra Prasad, who was the first President of India, bestowed the title of 'Rashtrasant' on him.
He took part in Acharya Vinoba Bhave's land reform movement, known as the Bhoodan Movement, and he worked with relief aid at the time of the Bengal famine in 1945, at the time of the Sino-Indian War in 1962, and the Koyna earthquake in 1967.
He attended the World Conference of Religion and World Peace in Japan in 1955.
He was one of the founding Vice Presidents of Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
He died on 11 October 1968.
In 2005, the Nagpur University was renamed to Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University. The postal department of India issued a commemorative stamp in his name in 1993.
Books written
- Gramgeeta (in Marathi; later translated by others in English, Hindi, Urdu, Gujrati, and Sanskrit.)
- Sartha Anandamrut
- Sartha Atmaprabhav
- Geeta Prasad
- Bodhamrut
- Laharki Barkha Part 1, 2 & 3
- Anubhav Prakash Part 1, 2 and 3
Gramgeeta and society for the future:
