“I am your Friend, a Friend who never betrays, a Friend who wants to see you happy,” says Sadguru Shree Aniruddha Bapu. Bapu (as he is known to his followers) or Dr. Aniruddha Dhairyadhar Joshi is a MD (Medicine) a professional medical consultant. Bapu insists in his congregation that, He is one of us. But for millions of His followers, He is a Father, a Sadguru and a true Friend.
Bapu is a perfect family person. His exemplary conduct as one only endorses His conviction that it is possible to achieve the highest purpose in life without having to turn away from worldly duties as spirituality is not escapism.
Besides, Bapu says in Satyapravesh (the first of the three volumes of His work Shreemadpurushartha) that “an excessive and unreasonable inclination towards cessation of worldly engagement as also a way of life essentially motivated by material and self-seeking activity, both classify as extremist thought and are largely responsible for the imbalance in individual human life as well as that in society.”
In keeping with the value of due commitment to worldly duties, Bapu upholds alertness in worldly affairs along with awareness of reality. If the present moment demands a change on our part, it must happen. This will only culminate into appropriate action. How well we are equipped to cope with the inevitable will make all the difference. Bapu has already set about equipping us.
The Aniruddha’s Academy of Disaster Management has been a step in that direction. The training given here is not only to manage natural and man-made disasters but about being agile, not dwindling / diminishing under crisis, working within limited means or mustering alternatives in the absence of means. It is of course about learning crowd control and other relevant skills like rescue methods, first-aid but also about efficient co-ordinated team work and also bonding with the society at large. Accidents and falls, snake bites are disasters too and can occur in homes as well as workplaces. What we require is preparedness – a perpetual state of calm wakefulness.
Bapu writes in the ‘Third World War’ a book he authored in 2006. The coming times are times of war. “…the next twenty to twenty five years, conflict is going to become an aspect of every day doing and in every region of the earth… what is most important is that the task of salvaging the world on all fronts as also that of its post-war rehabilitation, will in all probability, fall to India’s lot…”
Bhakti and seva go hand in hand and together are in fact, a way of life. The bhaktas are thus part of activities that are ‘devotional services’. The many avenues open to the bhaktas are thus part of activities that are devotional services. The many avenues open to the bhaktas are opportunities to offer Bhakti and seva to the Bhagawant and His childern.
- Annapoorna Prasadam
- Kolhapur Medical Camp
- Blood Donation Drive
- Making of Eco-friendly Ganesh idols
are some of the projects undertaken under the guidance of Sadguru Bapu to keep bhaktas alert, aware and humble.
‘I will never forsake you’, Bapu assures His bhaktas. He practices what He preaches – Purity at all times and at all costs – His conviction, a path that He will walk no matter what.
Sadguru Bapu has set for Himself just the one mission: to get the Universe to fulfill the purushartha of Maryada (Restraint), to teach and establish it. Only then can the reign of Shreeram, the Maryadapurushottam be ushered in.
He neither insists nor requests that we walk this path. He acknowledges the human ‘free will’. But all those who wish to walk it are welcome to the new era, the era of pure love, of human / humane dharma, an era of pure friendship and joy.