Upasni Maharaj

Upasni Maharaj, born Kashinath Govindrao Upasni, (May 15, 1870 – December 24, 1941) was considered by his disciples to be a satguru. He lived in Sakori, India and is said to have received God-realization from Sai Baba of Shirdi. Sakori is located in Ahmednagar District of Maharashtra, about 5 kilometres (3 mi) from Shirdi.

Early life

Upasani Maharaj was the second of five sons, born into a family of Sanskrit scholars at Satana a small village in the district of Nasik. His father's name was Govind Shastri and his mother's, Rukhmini.

Career

After a career as an ayurvedic doctor and three marriages where all three wives died, he began to hear a singing voice that he could not explain. This troubling sound, along with various other problems, led him on a difficult quest that finally culminated in him meeting Sai Baba of Shirdi who is said to have given him God-realization at the age of 42. Sai Baba then claimed to be the one who was calling him inwardly.

He died in Sakori, India on December 24, 1941, at the age of 71.

Meher Baba

Meher Baba (25 February 1894 – 31 January 1969), born Merwan Sheriar Irani, was an Indian spiritual master who said he was the Avatar, God in human form.

Merwan Sheriar Irani was born in 1894 in Pune, India to Irani Zoroastrian parents. At the age of 19, he began a seven-year spiritual transformation. During this time he contacted five spiritual masters before beginning his own mission and gathering his own disciples in early 1922, at the age of 27.

From 10 July 1925 to the end of his life, Meher Baba maintained silence, communicating by means of an alphabet board or by unique hand gestures. With his mandali (circle of disciples), he spent long periods in seclusion, during which time he often fasted. He also traveled widely, held public gatherings and engaged in works of charity with lepers, the poor and the mentally ill.

In 1931, Meher Baba made the first of many visits to the West, where he attracted followers. Throughout most of the 1940s, Meher Baba worked with a category of spiritual aspirants called masts, who he said are entranced or spellbound by internal spiritual experiences. Starting in 1949, along with selected mandali, he traveled incognito about India in an enigmatic and still largely unexplained period he called the "New Life".