Sant Shri Mekan dada

Sant Shri Mekan Dada was born on Vikram Savant 1723 on auspicious occasion of Dushera at khombadi village in kutch, Gujarat. His Fathers name was Bhatti Hardhorji and Mothers name was Pababa.

His family was rich and owned plenty of land and cattle. His parents were very religious. Hence their house was always full of Saints and seers, who were fed by them and Bhajan and Kirtan was continuous at their place.

In childhood, Mekan never showed any extraordinary ability, however an astrologer had predicted him to become a great Saint. During his childhood, he was entrusted with work of taking cattle’s for grazing.

When Mekan he was 12 years old, his father was having his house repaired. Mekan has instructed the workers not to digg in a particular area, but on instructions from his father, workers dugg that area and found Pavadi, Tambudi, Khalko (Head Wear), Topi (Head Wear), Chakadi (Wooden Sandal), and Chundadi (Type of Saree). On viewing of these articles, mekan’s latent spirituality overcame him. He picked up these items, left his house and went to nearby religious center known as “Mata Nu Mad” and sought blessings of Kapadi (Saint) Ganga Raja requesting for “Diksha”.

His parents and Ganga Raja tried to reason with him, but he was adamant. At last Kapadi Ganga Raja endowed him with “Guru Mantra” and “Diksha” with lots of blessings.

In Guru’s company at Mata Nu Mad, Mekoji (Mekan) was fully involved in Path, Pooja, Dhyan, Dharm, etc, but he found the environment too sedate and became restless.

Soon Mekan left for Girnar. On reaching Girnar, without bothering about food, water, sleep, he started Guru Dattatraya’s Upasana (Worship). After intense tapasya (worship) of about six months, Dattatraya blessed Mekan, and Mekan took a vow of service to humanity (Manav Seva).

Goddess Ansuya presented him a kavad, and blessed him that this kavad will never run out of food. Mekan started roaming in Saurashtra, feeding poor and hungry people relentlessly and their by earning the name of “Mekan Kavadiyo”.

For Manav Seva, Mekan established Ashrams at Bilkha, Jangi, Lodai and Dhrang in Kutch. He resided twelve years each, at all places mentioned above to serve people.

Mekan had noticed that nearby Kutch desert was very dry and hot, where travelers used to loose their ways and die off heat and thirst. To avoid this, he took help of his loyal donkey “Laliyo” and dog “Motiyo”. Mekan started loading Laliyo with rotis, butter milk and water. By Gods blessings, Motiyo could smell lost travelers from far off, and guide Laliyo to those lost travelers, whose life could be saved by rotis and butter milk and water.

Mekan’s biggest achievement was to show off the light to misguided people around, and show them path to god. He also taught people to abandon idea of untouchablity and treat all human beings as one.

Mekan dada lived for 63 years. During his last days, when he was at his Ashram in Dhrang, he decided to take samadhi while he was still alive. On hearing this eleven of his closest disciples also desided to join him in taking Samadhi. All twelve of them took Samadhi while being still alive. Thirty other disciples spread over other places also took Samadhi at where they were, on the same day, at same time. Hence even today it is believed that they are still alive though not physically.

It is believed that Mekan Dada, is Ninth avatar of Laxman (Brother of Lord Ram). He is also believed to be avatar of Baldev (Brother of Lord Krishna). It is believed that those who visit his Samadhi in Dhrang (Kutch) and whole heartedly wish for something, they get it 100 %.

Sant Mekan Dada it is said was born in 1720. He spent almost whole his life criss-crossing the Rann of Kutch, doing this humanitarian services. In his late life he established himself in Dhrang, in year 1786.He also had five disciples with him, who religiously followed him and along with Sant Mekan Dada did the humaniterian services, as explained above. Rao Desalji was also a great follower of Sant Mekan Dada.
He used to preach villagers and his followers also. He preached against untouchability and superstitions.

The Sant Mekan Dada later took a live Samadhi along with his five followers in Dhrang village. The Samadhis are one of the most revered sites of Kutch and people of all communities go there to pay their respects and offer prayers.

Name of one of his five disciples, who took samadhi with ‘Mekan Dada’ was Mistri Kanji belonging to Mistri community of Kutch.

The Samadhi is at Dhrang Village of Bhuj Taluka. The village is located at a distance of about 40 km from Bhuj town. The premises were Sant Mekan Dada took Samadhi houses his Samadhi Temple, a Temple of Lord Shiva, Samadhis of his five disciples, samadhi of his animal friends “Laliyo”- the donkey and “Motiyo” – th dog, an old ‘Vaav’, etc. Also on display are the robes he wore and things he used during his lifetime.

A trip to the Terath (Pilgramage) of past gods. This sacred place of pilgrimage for Hindus specially the devotees of Aadh Shakti Devi Maata is situated in the mountain cave “HINGLAJ” on the river bank of “HINGHOL” at the tail of Kheerthar mountains called Kanraj in tehsil Lyari of Balochistan province of Pakistan. It is considered one of the famous and largest TEERATHS Pilgramage of Subcontinent.

It is about 170 miles 250 KM from Karachi. One has to go by road on main Karachi-Quetta Highway (RCD) up to zero point for about 75 miles. Then by road towards west through Lyari town and then to Signal fauji camp stop,crosssing Aghore River. Then through Goongi River and last stop to “Asha Pura” sarai (INN). There are worship places of GANESH DEVA,MATA KALI,GURU GORAKH NATH DOONI,BRAHAM KUNDH,TIR KUNDH,MAHA KALI KUNDA,GURU NANAK KHARAO,RAM JAROKHA BETHAK,ANEEL KUNDH ON CHORASI MOUNTAIN and on the way CHANDRA GOOP , KHARI RIVER and AGHORI PUJA.

During the Treata Yuga, in the days of PERUSHURAM AVATAR , Rishi Dadechi narrated this story. In the TATARI MONGOL CLAN there lived a king named VICHATAR. He had two sons HINGOL and SUNDER. They belonged to Suria Dynasty of Kshtrya class.They were brave but cruel and lived luxurious lives. Their empire was adjacent to China. The people who lived in these countries belonged to Chandra Dynasty of Kshtrya Class and were followers of LORD SHIVA. Prince sunder attacked the neighbouring countries and killed thousands of people and looted gold ornaments and demanded royalties from them. The people then prayed to Lord SHIVA to save them from the cruel prince by fulfilling their prayers and request , Lord SHIVA granted a boon where GANESH DEVA killed the demon prince Sunder in three days. After the death of Prince Sunder , his brother Hingola became furious and swore to take avenge his brother’s death. He underwent penance and by his austerity for years he received the boon that no living being in the three worlds could kill him with any sort of weapon and his death will only occur at a place where Sunlight does not penetrate. He thereafter defeated other kings, extended his reign with terror and cruelty. He referred to himself as HINGOl DEVA.People became very sick and tired in his reign and they performed great Yagna Hawan in their Devi Mata Temple in order to get rid of HIngol , the King. Devi Mata appeared and promised to kill Hingol.Hingol came in SATA DEEP, presently located in Balochistan and went inside a dark cave where Devi Mata with her wooden weapon TRISHUL killed him. In his last moments of life hingol prayed to Devi Mata that in future this place may be called after his name as HINGAL TEERATH and so the place came to be known.

According to another story in the PURAN , once SATI the consort of LORD SHIVA and the daughter of King Daksha was annoyed with her father for not inviting LORD SHIVA in the ceremony of Yagna. She jumped to in Agni Havan Kunda and burnt herself. LORD SHIVA then became furious and came and took the dead body of SATI and started roaming in all the dishas and there was danger created all over the world. Hence LORD VISHNU cut the body of SATI in pieces with his Sudarshan Chakra in order to cool down LORD SHIVA’s anger. The pieces of SATI’S body fell at differant places; the head fell at KUNRAJ mountain and was so called as HINGLAJ TEERATH of SHAKT DEVI MATA. 50 pieces at different places and were known as DEVI TEERATH ASTHANS also by differant names. There is no doubt that HINGLAJ TEERATH is very old and remained famous even during Mahabharat period when King Jaidrath of Sindh constructed Devi temples. When King Sikander of Yoonan, Europe when invaded India, he fought with King Balram at Bali Kot Fort and stayed at Hingol River. At that time, yatri devotees were performing HInglaj Yatr and they were safe. Samrat Vikramjeet, the king of India also visited Hinglaj as yatr after conquering all of India. Raja Todarmal of Mughal regime also visited this teerath. Other Rajput rajas like Bihari Mal, Raja Bhij Singh, Raja Madhoo Singh, Raja Jagat Singh of Jaipur, Ram Devji Pir of Rajasthan with his Army chief Agva Laloo Jakhraj also came to Hinglaj for yatra, Dada Mekhan the great saint of Gujarat also came to Hinglaj Teerath and he was called first KAPRI of Mata and after this all the Yatris are called KAPRIS. Kapris wear mala of Thumra in their neck.

Hinglaj Mata is a Hindu temple in Hinglaj, on the Makran coast in the Lyari district of Balochistan in Pakistan. Legend has it that when goddess Sati, the consort of god Shiva burnt herself in response to her father’s anger at her for not inviting Shiva to a ceremony, Shiva became furious and started to create disasters, problems, violence, and sufferings in the world.In order to calm his anger, god Vishnu took the body of Sati and began to cut it into 51 pieces where they all fell at different parts of the Earth. Hindus believe that the head of Sati fell in the area of Hinglaj Mata in Baluchistan, present-day Pakistan. Thus, this area is a very significant region in the Hindu region and a revered pilgrimage site