HADIDAS MAHAPURUSA

Main entrance to temple

                               HADIDAS MAHAPURUSA

CHHATIABATA

Born : 1772 AD
Mahasamadhi : 1830

Mahapurusa Hadi Das, a great saint of Orissa, was born at Champapur just one km  from Chhatia in the state of Odisha in 1772 A.D. to the parents Chemei Ojha and Devaki of a blacksmith family.  Hadi Das grew up in abject poverty throughout his infancy. He was really poor in money but rich in spiritualism and devotion. His parent had lost all the children before Hadi Das was born. For this reason his parent out of love and affection named their child as "Hadi" (a low caste) Actually his real name was Hadi Das (the servant of vishnu). His spiritual teacher was Mastaram Das, a saint from western India residing at Puri at that time. Hadi Das came in contact with him and was inspired and initiated by him for his spiritual and divine power and admited him as his guru.

Hadi Das chose for his ancestral occupation a place at Chhatia called / Kalagiri / surrounded by trees and bushes. Later on he got this piece of land from Guljar Hussain, the Zamindar of Darpanigarh. The Bata or the tree under which he was working is said to be still preserved as a symbol. The temple there carry the name of the place ' Chhatia" and the name of Bata as well. Hadi Das took his mahasamadhi under a cave inside the Bata.

Despite poverty, backward caste, public humiliation, and torments meted out to him from the conservative Brahmins, separation from his own wife Padmavati, the nobility, Saintlihood , divinity, social service, love of God, spiritual knowledge, miracles for the good of the society, tolerance, kind-heartedness, broad-mindedness, universal brotherhood did not die down. He struggled and walked on the thorns of life and digested all shorts of scoldings and ill treatments as a true stoic but never deviated from his spiritual values and exceptional ideology. His blacksmiths occupation continued wonderfully. His theological preachings were meant to bring spiritual reformation in society. He had a number of disciples. He was a saint within and mad without. He was never showy and spontaneous flow of his religious doctrines were written down by his disciples on the palmleaf and brass leaf at that time. Niladri Nanda of Chhatia, Duryodhana Mallik of Paikarapura, and Mandaradhar Das of Adambaru were his perfect disciples. He had enemies for which he displayed his spiritual miracle to put-down his enemies. He underwent hardships and sufferings at the hands of intolerant and jealous upper class but gradually his divinity unfolded itself and he came to be recognized as a great saint.

The future prophecies, the past and the present activity of the people, the truth of spiritual doctrines are displayed through his countless Bhajanas, Malika and other spiritual texts like "Sankhanavi" "Ananta Gupta Gita", "Anantagoi", "Bhabananabara", "Hanumanta Gita", "Nila Madhava Gita" etc. His contibutions and literary achievements have been appreciated in a thesis "Hadi Das Rachanabali" by a local educationist Prof. R. Sahu.

After Hadi Das breathed his last in the late 1830 he was regarded as a great saint of Orissa like Panchasakha. He was popularly known as twelfth incarnation of Mahapurusa  Achutananda  Das a great saint of Nemalabata. He was a torch bearer for morally degraded society, an embodiment of spiritual potency and a spiritual soul.

Source : http://www.mhdmahavidyalaya.org

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