History: Shri Vyaghreshvar Kulaswami Parivar

Shri Vyaghreshvar Kulaswami Parivar: The journey from the establishment till today.
Chitpavan Brahmins with surnames as Ranade, Manohar, Phaphe, Kandrap, Akhave, Dikshit (Bharadwaj Gotra), Vaishampayan, Sahasrabuddhe (Nityunandan Gotra), Dharap, Vidwans, Marathe (Kapi Gotra), Ketkar (Gargya Gotra) and Kashyap Gotri Joshi's have their Kulaswami, here in the place called Asud in the form of "Shri Dev Vyaghreshvar". It seems that the origin of these aliens is in this village or its surrounding villages. Later, on these families might have migrated from native villages elsewhere in search of employment or because of their professions. This congregation and their descendants would have frequently come to the temple for darshan of "Shree". Later, due to their engagements in professional lives, and probably due to the relocation of the residential premises, their visits here would have become rare and rarer. ..

Anyway, the image of our cosmic idol was in their minds all the time. And that's why ... in the decade 1970s to the 1980s, Shri Vyaghreshvar repeatedly entered in to the dream of Mr. P. V. Ranade from Pune, signalling him to bring all the above mentioned families together. ... Mr. P. V. would not get any clue from these dreams. At that time, many members from these families only knew that Shri Vyaghreshvar was their Kulswami, but did not know exactly where "he" was located. Mr. P. V. talked to people known to him such as Shri Gopal K Ranade, Shri. J.(Bapusaheb) Ranade, Babasaheb Ranade, Colonel Ranade and many others. and in the mid-1980s the ideological circle began to spin. After that time, Mr. P. V. Ranade, Gopal Ka(Goka) Ranade, Shri. S. J. (Bapusaheb) Ranade, Babasaheb Ranade, Colonel Ranade, Maininath Ranade, Dhanukaka Ranade, L. Mu Ranade, Atmarampant Dharap, Gajananrao Joshi from Belgaum-Goa and many like minded devotees of Shri Vyaghreshvar, established Vyhareshvar Kulaswami Parivar in 1981.They made it a point to bring together all the people who had Shri Vyaghreshvar as their Kuladaiwat. Two descendants of the founders of the welknown Construction company ‘Ranade and Partners’ Dhanukaka and Mr. Mannath (Minakaka) Ranade arranged for a room for the central office of the Trust in the heart of Pune city i.e. Deccan Gymkhana. ... The next step now was the unanimous decision to celebrate Mahashivratri festival in the temple of Vyghreshvar in Asud.

With the blessings of Shri Vyaghreshvar, the overwhelming enthusiasm of the newly formed family members and the support of locals like Shri. Rajabhau Biwalkar, Shri. Diguanna Joshi, it was hardly surprising that the work would be a big success. After a break of several years, in 1982, the first "Mahashivratri-Festival" was celebrated by Vyaghreshvar Kulaswami Parivar. !! The ‘Bilwapatre of trust & belief’ were offered to Shri Vyaghreshvar by the devotees of the Parivar. The sound of ॐ resonated once again from the santum sanctorum. The power of the presenter is immense. One should have the power to catch it...

Mr. Shrikrishna Ranade became the Chairman of Trust and Mr. Gopal K.(GoKa) Ranade was appointed as Secretary, the first executive committee was constituted and Shri. Vyhareshvar Kulaswami Parivar Trust started functioning with a bang. The soft-spoken Go Ka.Worked with fidelity and started shaping it. He travelled to many places in India, not only Maharashtra but Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat etc. with his own money and brought the members who had settled in these parts of India,under this umbrella.

Like Mahashivratri, Maharudra in the month of Shravan and Tripurari Pournima in Kartik began to be celebrated in the temple of Vyghreshvar. Social work has also been taken up along with religious programs. With the efforts of Late Mr. S.J.(Bapusaheb) Ranade, iron bridge was built on the 'Asav' river, which has been in use by people till date. The work of bringing electricity to Asud village was done. Employment was generated for the local people. Parivar expanded and now the need to build residential accommodation for the visitors (Bhaktniwas) was felt. The question of space Mr. Rajabhau Biwalkar helped in acquiring suitableland. One notorious element, who did not hold any position in the trust, came in the way and tried to snatch this piece of land in his name but Mr. Rajabhau defeated his motive and the Trust got its own land.

Probably this was the will of Vyaghreshvar !!All the people started to work fast. Spadework started at the hands of Late Atmarampant Dharap. Late Mr. S. N. Ranade and all the devotees of Vyaghreshvar, through their relentless efforts, the Vyaghreshvar Bhaktniwas came into being. Today the accommodation and food arrangements for the visiting devotees are made through small donations. Soon sheds were erected opposite the Vyaghreshvar temple. Late Mr. Go Ka worked for the trust with his heart in it,since its establishment, till December 1994. It was an excellent work. He raised army of workers. He encouraged his sons Late Satish and Shri. Suresh to do the work of Mandava (pavillion) without any renumeration. With his blessings today his son Shri. Suresh and Daughter-in-law Mrs. Prachi Satish Ranade personally supervise the this work. After the demise of Mr. Goka, Mr. Arun Vaishampayan assumed the duty of Secretary of the trust till the working committee elections were held. Later Mr. A.D. Ranade assumed this post. He did a tremendous job during his small tenure. Apart from the religious functions, by taking up social works such as holding medical camps for the villagers, building steps to approach the bridge etc. He gave new dimension to the trust activities.

From 1996 to 2002, Mr. S. G. Ranade was the secretary of the trust. He too, took up the works related to social cause quite effectively. He tried to bring the villagers from the surrounding villages together, in the activities of the trust. After the 2002 elections, the new secretary Mr. V.B. Ranade started with a bang. However with some very important task assigned to him in his school duties, the trust responsibilities were shouldered by new president Mr. Dhananjay S. Ranade. He had inherited all the qualities required to serve Shri Vyaghreshvar, from his father late Mr. Bapusaheb Ranade. He took all the board members in to confidence and followed the path of consent. Problems were infinite. However, with the support of all the board members and volunteers, the work became easier.

Some villagers, under the influence of bad elements mentioned above, demolished the Dharmashala. The trust president had to approach the court. The time (2 full years from 2006 to 2008) and the money ( all the expenditure related to court matters was borne by the trust members personally, without any financial burden to the trust), which otherwise could have been used for productive purpose, were lost. In the end, the villagers came to know about the bad intentions of this evil being and they resorted to reconciliatory approach. Everyone now started to work for Shri Vyaghreshvar. The trust continued to contribute towards social cause along with the religious activities. In 2004, many activities such as arranging medical camp, dental camp, building a bus shed, common water taps were undertaken. For the last about 5 years, books, notebooks etc. were supplied free of charge to the students in Asud and Murud, thanks to the donation by Air Commodore (Rtd) Shripad Achyut Ranade. Also through the generous donation by him, the Vyaghreshvar Kulswami Parivar undertook the Gram Saksharta Abhiyan (Village literacy campaign) for illiterates from Asud and surrounding areas. 4 girls from Asud, were sent to Pune for advanced schooling course conducted by Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. In order to inculcate interest in reading, a library has been started for benefit of the devotees coming from outside and for the local villagers as well. This was possible because of the donation given by Late Kirtankar at the national level, Mrs. Pushpalata Ranade.

For all the people from Konkan area, the Vyaghreshvar Kulswami Parivar organised a Patanjali Yogvidya Shibir (as per Shri Ramdeo baba practice) on the grounds of Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth. Many people from Dapoli and nearby area took part in it, which included people from various religions. The credit for organising very first camp like this in Konkan region goes to our trust Shri Vyaghreshvar Kulswami Parivar. The trust committee completed the construction of first floor of Bhaktniwas, erecting pavilion for the festival, constructing new toilets and bathrooms, levelling of ground and constructing boundary walls. Since 2009, at least 15 trees are planted during every monsoon. One big hurdle in this is shortage of water. To overcome the situation, the trust tried to drill 4 borewells out of the donations from Mr. Deepak Vaishampayan, Mr. Nitin Ranade who is the director of AmbadasKashthoushadhi and Ad. Ashutosh Ranade. These efforts , however, did not yield expected results. Feasibility of digging a big well is being looked into or Rain Water Harvesting will be resorted to.