The Ancient Roots of Devotional Thought
The question of whether the Divine is to be experienced in form (sakar) or beyond form (nirakar) has shaped Indian spiritual thought for centuries. As early as 600 AD, philosophers across the subcontinent were deeply engaged with this question. By 800 AD, Jagadguru Shankaracharya had travelled the length and breadth of India, establishing four sacred seats of learning in each direction, awakening spiritual consciousness and guiding society toward devotional worship of the Divine in form.
In a celebrated debate on the philosophy of duality and non-duality, Shankaracharya defeated the great scholar Mandanmishra — with Mandanmishra’s own wife bearing witness — and both husband and wife thereafter embraced the path of renunciation.
By 1400 AD, the revered Ramanujacharya revived and reaffirmed the glory of devotional worship within the Ramanand tradition. This set the stage for a flowering of saints across India between 1500 and 1600 AD — among them Rohitdas, Tulsidas, Mirabai, Narsinh Mehta, Bawa Balnathand, Ramdevpir and Devayat Pandit — each a radiant expression of the path of love and devotion.
Between 1800 and 1900 AD, saints of the highest realisation — Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekananda, Yogi Aurobindo, Swami Ramdas, and others — further illuminated the living reality of devotional worship, affirming that the Divine is not distant, but present within all of creation.
A Young Soul Finds His Path
It is said that in 1915, a group of saffron-robed (khaki) sadhus camped on the banks of the Auranga river near Vasalad. The head of this group was the revered Mahant Sitaramdas Bapu — a saint from the well-known Ratanpati Mundera ashram in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.
Among those drawn to this gathering was a young boy named Bhaktiram, who sat quietly in meditation beneath a banyan tree. Having lost his mother at a young age — a grief that had never left him — Bhaktiram felt a deep stirring in his heart as he observed the brotherhood of the sadhus. The longing to join them, to become a sadhu himself, rose within him like a wave.
Mahant Sitaramdas Bapu, upon seeing Bhaktiram for the first time, recognised something extraordinary in the boy and declared that he would one day bring great light to the ashram. Just as the Yamuna merges into the Ganga, Bhaktiram joined the saffron community and set out with them toward the Nashik Kumbh Mela.
On the Road to Nashik
The group journeyed from village to village, travelling south, sharing the teachings of the Ramanand tradition with all who gathered to listen. Bhaktiram, young among the monks, quickly became beloved by all — young, middle-aged and elder sadhus alike. His gentle, innocent eyes drew the attention of all who encountered him.
For Bhaktiram, the brotherhood of sadhus became a vast extended family. By the grace of the Divine, even the care of the group’s trained elephants — their feeding, watering and adornment — became a joyful duty that eased the grief within him. The elder sadhus would recall their own younger days and bring laughter to the young monk, and slowly the pain of loss gave way to the warmth of belonging.
When the sadhus went to nearby villages to seek alms, Bhaktiram sometimes accompanied them. Villagers and mothers, seeing the young monk, were moved to tears — reminded of stories of saints from times past — and offered generously with full hearts. Guru Sitaramdas ensured that Bhaktiram was always protected and never troubled by the rigours of the disciplined khaki order.
Day by day, Bhaktiram settled into the rhythms of monastic life — regular, disciplined, purposeful. His soul, already inclined toward the Divine from a previous life, awakened quickly. Listening to Mahant Sitaramdas’s daily teachings to villagers, Bhaktiram absorbed the deeper mysteries of Sanatan Dharma and developed a natural understanding of the body, mind and spirit. Where once there had been childlike restlessness, a fearless calm now appeared in his eyes and voice. The rigorous training in discipline, restraint and discernment became a part of who he was.
Arrival at Nashik and the Gift of Initiation
The group arrived safely at the Nashik Kumbh Mela. On the banks of the Godavari river stood ancient banyan trees whose hanging roots had grown thick as trunks — so ancient and vast that they resembled sages themselves, standing still in deep meditation, their long roots like the matted hair of ascetics. Beside them stood an old tamarind tree, silent witness to the sacred gathering.
Mahant Sitaramdas Bapu had already given his consent to formally accept Bhaktiram as his disciple. The day Bhaktiram had longed for with every fibre of his being had finally arrived. At midnight on the day of the Kumbh Mela, Bhaktiram approached his revered guru and humbly requested formal initiation. Recognising the extraordinary intensity of the young monk’s devotion and will, Gurudev graciously performed the sacred initiation ceremony beneath the tamarind tree at one o’clock in the night.
And so Bhaktiram took his first step into a life that would touch countless others — the life that would one day be known across Gujarat and beyond as that of Bapasitaram.
Bapasitaram 🙏
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