In Khandwa, next to Shri Badey Dadaji’s samadhi is Shri Chottey Dadaji’s samadhi (samadhi means mausoleum). Shri Chottey Dadaji was from Rajasthan and at 18 years of age he left home in search of a Guru. In the train to Kashi someone told him about Dadaji in Sainkheda. He got off immediately at the very next station and started walking to Sainkheda.
Upon reaching Sainkheda he joined the line of devotees waiting to seek Dadaji’s blessings. Dadaji blessed him and gave him a tikkar to eat (tikkar is a form of Indian bread). Shri Chottey Dadaji stayed back and never left Dadaji after that.
One day Dadaji asked his barbar to take off Shri Chottey Dadaji’s turban and shave his head bald. A few days later Dadaji hit him multiple times on his head and locked him up in a room without any food or water. When a few days passed, Dadaji’s disciples grew concerned for Shri Chottey Dadaji and one of them, Shri Bhramanand shared their concern with him. Dadaji opened the locked room and tended to a wounded Shri Chottey Dadaji. He used his tongs to pull out maggots from his head rubbed ashes from his Dhuni (holy fire) on his wounds and gave him water to drink. He then gave him a new name, Chottey Dadaji and told everyone that from this day Shri Chottey Dadaji belonged to him.
In 1930, Shri Chottey Dadaji fell very ill. Dadaji performed a healing ceremony which involved the burning of 40 Kgs of dry red chillies. It is said that in spite of the burning chillies smoke not one of the 100 – 200 gathered devotees experienced discomfort of any kind.
After this transformation Shri Chottey Dadaji also gained spiritual powers and was treated with equal reverence as Dadaji by the devotees. Shri Chottey Dadaji’s nature was totally opposite to Dadaji’s nature. Where Dadaji used to curse and hit people with his stick for their good, Shri Chottey Dadaji would calmly and softly explain things to the devotees. The devotees would come to Shri Chottey Dadaji to understand the meaning of Dadaji’s curses and beatings and he would explain to them what potential calamity he has removed from their lives.
Shri Chottey Dadaji was so down to earth that he would wear whatever his disciples would get for him – shoes, socks, coat, sherwani, hat, crown etc. Since he had asthma, one particular devotee used to cart him around in a hand rickshaw in the Darbar which he got from Asansol, West Bengal. He had a gramophone which he loved listening to and loved playing for his devotees especially children. Shri Chottey Dadaji was particularly fond of children, they would sleep on the floor around his bed and whenever he would get his meals he would share them with the children. In fact when he used to play with children, sometimes an onlooker would wonder if he is one of them.
In December 1930 when Dadaji took samadhi, Shri Chottey Dadaji asked his disciple Shankar Lal Gupta, a lawyer to find out who that land belonged to because Shri Chottey Dadaji wanted to purchase it and build Dadaji’s samadhi on that. He made it a point to purchase the land before starting work on the samadhi and sent off Shankar Lal with money. Once the land was purchased from a local Bhayti family, Shri Chottey Dadaji asked his disciple Rajanand to make the samadhi.
After Dadaji, Shri Chottey Dadaji became the whole and sole head of the congregation in part due to his spiritual powers. He set new rules, made changes in the daily routine of Dada darbar introducing new prayers and chants which are still followed in Dada Darbars all over today.
He had a disciple named Luger Dada whom he had instructed to carry a leather shoe in his pocket. Due to this Luger Dada used to not enter the temple and pay his obeisance from outside. Although Shri Chottey Dadaji was of a very calm nature, he would not tolerate anyone violating the rules or any form of sacrilege in the Darbar. Anyone doing so would get a thrashing from Luger Dada. All were treated equal, kings, princes and the common man worked and ate together in the Darbar.
As much as he was loved by many, there were still a few who did not accept him as Dadaji’s successor. They would devise ways to harass him.
One such person was a barber who lodged a case against him in the police station. A police officer came to arrest Shri Chottey Dadaji during the evening prayers time. One thing led to another and the police resorted to using batons and the police officer fired two rounds from his pistol. One bullet narrowly missed Shri Chottey Dadaji and got lodged in the wall behind him. After this Shri Chottey Dadaji refused to stay in Khandwa and fought the case from nearby Hoshangabad. He paid extra fees for the case to be fast tracked and not only was he honourably discharged; the court paid him compensation of Rs. 80,000 (which was a very considerable amount at the time). When he got the compensation, Shri Chottey Dadaji took the money and threw it in the Dhuni.
In another incident there was a case related to riots being heard in the courts. Shri Chottey Dadaji’s lawyer, Radhakrishna Gupta informed him about a person who due to give testimony against him. This person was a known troublemaker and not of good character. Shri Chottey Dadaji asked his lawyer to get an adjournment for 8 days which was not an easy thing to get at the time. Fortunately, the judge did grant the adjournment. As fate would have it, on the 6th day the would be witness died of natural causes.
Amongst his disciples Shri Chottey Dadaji had many rulers from princely estates like Tukoji Rao Holkar, Virendra Bahadur Singh of Sohawal and others. His disciples used to present him various gifts out of love and affection. A disciple from Kannauj used to send essential oils and perfumes used in Shri Chottey Dadaji’s bath. A disciple from Raipur named Gopikishen used to regularly send railway wagon full of rice that was used in the Darbar. Vishwanath Choudhry of Allahabad presented him a black coloured Ford car and a high official from the royal court of Holkar presented him a Plymouth car. These cars can be seen today parked in Khandwa Darbar. Whenever Shri Chottey Dadaji had to travel out of the city, the ruler of Barabanki, Virendra Bahadur Singh would personally chauffer him. If Shri Chottey Dadaji fell asleep in the journey, Virendra Bahadur Singh would drive as smoothly as possible so as not to interrupt his nap.
Shri Chottey Dadaji travelled to many cities in India, Delhi, Allahabad, Dehradun, Multai, Nagpur, Betul, Mumbai, Pune, Indore, Ujjain to name a few.
When the mahant (head) of the Dutt Akhara (a Hindu religious organisation) in Ujjain passed away, Shri Chottey Dadaji appointed Sanyapuri Maharaj as his successor and every time he would travel to Ujjain, he paid him a visit.
Once when he was in Ujjain with his disciple Kishen Mistry, he visited the Omkareshwar temple. He liked it so much that he expressed a desire to have a replica temple made in Khandwa for Dadaji Maharaj. He asked Kishen to stay back for a few days and prepare a blueprint of the temple. Shri Chottey Dadaji liked the blueprint and he approved the construction of the new temple. Gopikishen from Raipur (who used to send a wagon full of rice) expressed a desire to contribute to this endeavour by supplying all the required stone, which Shri Chottey Dadaji approved. But when the red coloured stone started to arrive the locals started giving credit to Gopikishen for constructing the temple. Shri Chottey Dadaji then decided that the temple should be made of marble and he sent a few of his disciples to Makrana which was famous for its white marble quarries. Amongst them were Shri Badey Sarkarji and Prithviraj Chandan from Allahabad.
The foundation was dug and stones were quarried from nearby quarries by his Disciples Shankar Rao Askar and Rajanand. They would load the stones in a bullock cart and the bring them to Khandwa. The cart was driven by Ramdass ji Maharaj, who later on went to establish Delhi Darbar.
In 1942 when Shri Chottey Dadaji was leaving for Allahabad to attend the Kumbh Mela he called Shankar Rao Askar and told him to continue quarrying the stones. He had left Rs. 90,000 with his disciple Radhakishen Gupta to be used for the temple’s construction and told Shankar Rao to use these funds for his work.
Shri Chottey Dadaji took Samadhi on 4th February 1942 at the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad. His closest disciple Shri Badey Sarkarji and 20 others brought his body back to Khandwa and made his mausoleum next to Dadaji’s following all the Vedic principles.
MIRACLES BY SHRI CHOTTEY DADAJI
Sometimes Shri Chottey Dadaji used to get 50 Kgs of Kheer and 50 Kgs of Halwa made (Both are Indians sweets). Initially the cooks used to wonder why so much food is being cooked and if its going to go waste. But every time Shri Chottey Dadaji asked them to, invariably more than the usual number of devotees would visit the Darbar and none of the food would go waste.
In Khandwa, a disciple of Shri Chottey Dadaji from Panduna, used to do seva in the Darbar (loosely translated, seva means physical labour). When the blessed day arrived, the midwife announced that its a daughter and the message was conveyed to him. He went to Shri Chottey Dadaji and reminded him that Shri Chottey Dadaji had told him that he will have 2 sons but his second born is a daughter. Shri Chottey Dadaji exclaimed “No, No, check again, it’s a son.” The man did so and incredibly the child turned out to be a son! It’s believed that Shri Chottey Dadaji was very happy with the man’s devotion and through his divine powers turned the child into a boy. When that boy and his brother grew up (Bhagwant Rao and Sheesh Rao Patel), they too would come and do seva for 6 months at a stretch alternately at the Darbar.
Once a poor woman came and visited Shri Chottey Dadaji. She had wanted to present mangos to him but did not buy them as she did not have money. When Shri Chottey Dadaji blessed her, he asked her “Where are my mangos?”. Feeling ashamed of her poverty, the woman replied that she forgot them at home. Shri Chottey Dadaji took off his right sock and gave it to her and told her that from now on she should keep her money in the sock. From that day onwards, the woman did not ever have money troubles. Her family still has that sock as their prized possession.
During a particularly harsh drought period a woman once went to Shri Chottey Dadaji and said to him that if he is really divine then he should make it rain in Khandwa. He replied that he is just a mere hermit, how could he fullfill her wish? The woman left disappointed. After that Shri Chottey Dadaji performed havan (A vedic Hindu ritual burning of offerings such as grains and ghee).
After that it started to rain continuously for 3 night and 3 days and all the wells in Khandwa filled up.
Once Shri Chottey Dadaji said to his disciple Shri Badey Sarkarji “Go, I give you Holkari!”. After Shri Chottey Dadaji took samadhi, Shri Badey Sarkarji went to Indore and established the Indore Darbar. As his fame grew the local ruling Holkar family also came to seek his blessings and made him their Guru thereby fulfilling Shri Chottey Dadaji’s prophecy.