Satsang "SHIRDI DIARY' DADASAHEB KHAPARDE

"SHIRDI DIARY' DADASAHEB KHAPARDE

By V.B. Kher
Since August 1985, the "Shirdi Diary" of the Hon'ble Mr, Ganesh
Shrikrishna Khaparde is being featured in the issues of Shri Sai Leela
month after month. The "extracts" of Shirdi Diary reproduced therein
first appeared in Shri Sai Leela in 1924-25. I deliberately refer to what was
published as "extracts" for I am not sure that the whole of Shirdi Diary has
yet seen the light of the day. When the Shirdi Diary was first serialized in
Shri Sai Leela, G.S. Khaparde the right hand man of the late Lokamanya
Tilak had retired from the centre of political activity to its periphery, with
the rise on the political firmament of Mahatma Gandhi who had cast a
spell on the Indian National Congress and the masses. Sai Baba the Sadguru
and spiritual mentor of Khaparde had also passed away and Khaparde was in
semi-retirement. He had ample time to look back on his life and think of his
interests which he could not pursue in the midst of his hectic political life
as an activist and a leader. So it was with his permission and knowledge that
the Shirdi Diary made its appearance in the issues of earlier years of Shri Sai
Leela i.e. 1924-25. The reader may rightly raise the question on what basis
I make this assertion. And he would be justified in doing so. I have to answer
this query and place material available at my disposal before the reader.

Fortunately for all of us Balkrishna alias Babasaheb Khaparde, the eldest
son of G.S. Khaparde authored a biography of his father. The biography is
written in Marathi and was first published in 1962. In the preface, the
author has stated candidly at the outset that the book is "not a biography
but edited material gathered from Dadasaheb Khaparde's diaries for the
purpose of the biography".
The hero of the biography was born on 27th August, 1854 on the day of
Ganesh Chaturthi and was therefore named after the Lord of the Ganas.
We shall now touch upon the early life of Ganesh only in passing. His father
Shrikrishna Narhar alias Bapusaheb who had experienced poverty in his
childhood had by his enterprise and dint of hard work risen to the position
of a Tahasildar (Mam-ledar) in the British Raj in the Province of C.P. fr Berar.
Ganesh had his primary and secondary education in Nagpur and Amraoti.
He failed twice in Matriculation because he was more interested in study of
subjects and books other than those prescribed in the curriculum. Besides, he
was weak in mathematics. After matriculating in 1872, he joined the Elphinstone
College in Bombay. He was a favourite student of Dr. Ramakrishna Bhandar-kar
who was the Professor of Sanskrit. Ganesh had studied Sanskrit extensively in
a traditional manner under a shastri during his childhood at Akola and had,
therefore, an excellent grounding in the subject. Moreover, he was a voracious
reader of the Sanskrit literature, and before joining the Elphinstone College
had already poured over Bana's Kadambari and Bhavabhuti's Uttararama
-Charita, So he found the Sanskrit taught in the College a child's play. He also
enjoyed reading English literature. Professor Wordsworth who taught him
English was the grandson of William Wordsworth, the famous nature-poet
of the English language. Under these two professors he acquired a sound
knowledge of these two languages. In fact his knowledge of Sanskrit was so
good that he was selected unanimously to debate in Sanskrit with Swami
Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of Arya Samaj, when the latter visited the
Elphinstone College. No wonder that Ganesh was complimented by the
Swami himself on his high standard of performance.

(Source Shirdi Diary)
http://www.saileelas.org/books/dairy.htm