Starting the Ashram
One night the young Sri Kaleshwar was meditating in the Hanuman temple on top of the hill in Penukonda. He asked the question, "Where will I build, oh God?" Within moments a star fell from the sky and a message came. "See where the star is falling down."
Then he came and saw the land where our ashram now resides -- but the land was very expensive. He had no money and so he talked with the landowner and said he wanted to start a Shirdi Baba temple. The first day the owner said no, and still wanted too much money. The following morning he came to Sri Kaleshwar and said he will sell it for a minimum price. A few more days passed and a person came to Sri Kaleshwar and said he would like to donate the money to buy the land. Once all the paperwork was complete Sri Kaleshwar broke a coconut and put to Baba's picture and then the building started. Shirdi Baba told Sri Kaleshwar to have everybody bring building supplies. They'll love to bring the cement, iron, bricks, paints, fans, cots, rose plants and marble.
"I made a deal, several thousands of years back, to the Boss, “Ok, I'll do something.” With the Big Boss, whenever we're walking, at the time when he's in India the information was lost. That's one of my biggest mission - to bring back all the Jesus, whatever he done, the channels, to bring the Mother Divine available to have darshan, and to having abilities in a lot of students. I'm on the job, simple. I don't have any personal attachments, personal desires in my life - just to create. So, we'll go the depth."
But water was a big problem. The ground level didn't have much water. He drilled for water once, twice, three times but nothing was coming out. Finally Sri Kaleshwar broke a coconut and prayed to Baba, "This is the final point - if it fails, forget your ashram. There's no water to drink, no water to do the abishek to you." Then the water started flowing and it was enough where Sri Kaleshwar could donate some to the village. Drinking water was a big problem for thousands of people in Penukonda.
The negativity came when Sri Kaleshwar opened the ashram. He was also a student in the college and buying food was especially a problem. He made a deal with the college canteen that he would pay them once a month or even once every two or three months if he had no money. The old woman and man that ran the canteen would come to the ashram as pure devotees. He told them, "I can't pay until after three months, you have to take care of me." They said, "No problem."
He would go to a local temple to get two chapathis, packed them and kept them as his food for one or two days. He kept them very carefully and while he meditated -- going in a deep trance -- hundreds of thousands of ants were eating his chapathi! He took it, removed the ants, and refreshed it by spraying some water to make it soft again. Then he looked at Baba's picture and said "Thank you!"
The first five or six years of his Ashram life were very hard. When he opened the ashram there weren't even doors. The ashram people were all really hungry. A few vegetables were available and they wanted to make a soup, but there was no rice.
In the living room there is a Baba picture and Kaleshwar was looking at that picture and said: "You really want me to go to the village and beg for food?"
Then from nowhere a Japanese student came. It was just his first visit and he came with a bag of fruit, some rice, flowers and dakshina. Kaleshwar looked at Baba's picture again and said, "Thanks. You're the problem then you're the solution." Baba creates the problem, and then he gives the solution.
"When I started the ashram, simple hut and the Hanuman little bit there. Inside where is my Dwarkamai bed, there’s a well. Same here the firepit, this group is like three feet depth. And the rock, is there where my swing. All the Indian devotees who come, they use to sleep in the hut. The backside of apartments some toilets is there. Still my place, you’re fine. And I use to sleep there (under his tree), only on the simple rock. Somebody offered an old chair to sit. I’m sitting in front of the fire and just meditating and just walking toward the southwest going to my cave." - Sri Kaleshwar
