There is no clue as to since when has the Tekdi of Mataji in Dewas (M.P.) been the epicentre of spiritual activities. However, the image of Goddess Chamunda that has emerged on a rock here continues to be a source of tremendous faith and devotion amongst the several invisible spiritual masters residing in and around the hills of Malwa. People had no idea as to in which era which Mahapurusha took refuge on this hill to do his sadhan until the time Swami Vishnu Tirth Maharaj who came to stay at the base of the hillock in the twentieth century perceived through his divine vision that Bhartrahari, the erstwhile ruler of Ujjain and also the elder brother of Maharaja Vikramaditya had chosen this place to carry out his penance and austerities. At that time the hillock was covered from all sides by a dense forest which was infested with a host of wild animals, serpents, monkeys and what not. This is much before the city of Dewas had even come to exist.

Years later, Yogi Nag Nath of the Nath sect came to stay here along with his disciples to do his sadhan. In the twelfth century Chand Bardai, the court poet of Maharaja Prithviraj Chauhan of Delhi, was drawn towards the abode of Divine Mother Chamunda. In the early nineteenth century, Yogi Sheel Naath Maharaj chose Dewas and this hillock as the seat of his meditation and in the middle of the twentieth century Swami Vishnu Tirth Maharaj graced the site by staying in the Narayan Kuti at the base of the hill.

Swami Vishnu Tirth Maharaj was gifted with a divine vision and an uncanny ability to peep into the past. He roamed the subtle extra-terrestrial planes and was in contact with the invisible spiritual masters. This book is a detailed account of his narration of the hill and also a recount of some of the Mahapurushas who came here to do their tapasya.

We are pleased to inform you that with the blessings of His Holiness Swami Shivom Tirth Maharaj, who is one with the Absolute now, we have been able to bring out the translation of the book Sadhan Shikhar authored by him. With its phenomenal revelations about some of the unknown facts till date, Sadhan-Shikhar has earned the distinction of being a landmark book in the area of spirituality and mysticism. During his spiritual progress an aspirant gets to know and see even those things which are not visible to the eyes; which includes the events in the distant past and future. He undergoes transcendental experiences which run counter to those on the physical plane and which perplexes the mind of modem thinkers, who ignore them as mythical and fictitious. However, as a result of his relentless spiritual practice, spiritual knowledge gets bestowed on the seeker by way of mystic experiences which is not mere imagination or half- truth.

Sadhan-Shikhar is an exposition on the spiritual journey of five great spiritual masters who performed their sadhan and austerities during the last 2000 years on the divine hillock of Dewas in M.P. They are, Bhartrahari Maharaj, Yogi Nagnath, Chand Bardai, Yogi Sheel Nath and Swami Vishnu Tirth Maharaj. The hillock is also known as Mata Ji ki Tekdi. Swami Vishnu Tirth Maharaj, the spiritual master of the author narrated to his worthy disciple, the details of the spiritual journey of the four of the above five saints. Since no satguru will ever publicize his state of accomplishment in spirituality, the author took it on himself to enlighten us about his guru de v on the basis .of his own personal experiences with him.

The hillock is an abode of Ma Chamunda and hence a pilgrimage site and a center of attraction for all the spiritual beings, both visible and invisible. At the base of this hill is also the Narayan Kuti, one of the ashrams of the Shaktipat lineage, set up by Swami Vishnu Tirth Maharaj himself.

I am sure that the book will be appreciated by those English readers who are in quest of truth and wish to be familiar with the mysteries of the spiritual

What I am going to narrate here dates back to the times when the city of Dewas did not even exist, though the hillock of "Ma Chamunda" was there at that time also. Those days the hillock was under the cover of a thick forest which was widely spread for miles together in all directions, making it a cosy abode not merely for the animals of the wild but also for thieves and dacoits. It is about two thousand years ago that a mahapurusha by the name of Bhartrahari showed up on this hillock. Devoting himself to sadhan, he stayed here for many years and also composed the famous epic "Vairagya Shatak” during his sojourn. As a result of Bahartrahari's stay and relentless sadhan, the hillock began to blossom as sadhan-shikhar (pinnacle of sadhan) and gradually metamorphosed into an epicenter of sadhan.

For an ordinary person memory is a means to recount the past incidents, occurrences, astonishing events, sensitivities etc. of his life. However, the subject matter of this book is not on account of the memories of the past. This book bears an account of the experiences of a spiritual master who, while gazing from the window of cosmic consciousness, was able to look into the days of yore. He had nothing to do with these events in any of his previous lives.

Hence there was no question of him carrying the accumulated impressions of these incidents within him. Yet the antiquity dating back to thousands of years exhibited itself before him in the form of a visual display. This spiritual master was none other than my Gurudev, Swami Vishnu Tirth Maharaj.

We can recollect the events of our past life sometimes through our own lingering memory of them and sometimes through our dreams. However, our voluntary exertion in no way facilitates the choice and subject of our dream. It is not possible for us to dream of a past event whenever we wish to. Besides, if anyone wants to know about his past life there is no way available to him to find about it. Even if the astrological calculations throw some light on the subject, there is no method by which it can be verified. Against this, a spiritual aspirant on the path of sadhan, can reach a state where there are ways available to him whereby holding on to a series of his accumulated impressions, he can embark on a reverse journey through which the details of his past (in his current life and also his earlier lives) comes alive before him vividly.

However, Maharajshri's state of spiritual accomplishment was far more penetrating and discerning than this. Not only did he have the knowledge of his own numerous past lives but he was also endowed with such qualification that as and when he focused his mind on an event dating back to the past, that event would materialize before him by way of a motion picture. He was able to perceive and recognize the subtle and divine spiritual rays of the spiritual masters at a place that was inhabited by them several years back. He was gifted with a vision to witness the events of the past exactly how and where they had taken place. I had a firsthand experience of this when I was with him in Jagannath Puri where all the details about Gurudev Swami Gangadhar Tirth Maharaj and Swami Narayan Tirth Dev Maharaj emerged dramatically before him. "Punuruday" (translated in English as 'The Second Dawn') was written by me in the background of this very information.

Five mahapurushas have had a very close association with the hillock of Ma Chamunda in Dewas. They are Bhartrahari, Yogi Nagnath, Chandbardai, Yogi Sheelnath and Swami Vishnu Tirth Maharaj. Whatever I am going to write here has come to me by way of narration from Swami Vishnu Tirth Maharaj. Obviously, he never counted himself as one of the mahapurushas associated with this hillock. Besides, how can anyone eulogize himself as one?

Generally the spiritual masters are known to be yonder the unnatural boundaries of caste, religion and community but the world has its own outlook on them and identifies them with one or the other sect. Bhartrahari, Yogi Nagnath and Yogi Sheelnath are counted as the saints of the Nath Sect. Our society never recognized Chand Bardai as a saint. His spiritual life was his private affair and therefore the world could never get to be acquainted with his saintly mould. Public acclaimed him only as a great poet and a worthy friend. The way Maharajshri revealed his persona goes to show that he was an accomplished mahatma. He veiled his inner state from the world throughout his life. On the other hand, Swami Vishnu Tirth Dev Maharaj Ji is identified with Shaktipat. However after being in his close proximity for several years, it has been my experience that his perspective on spirituality was far more extensive and encompassing.

Moreover, Shaktipat is not a sect. The practice of Shaktipat has been inherent in the naadyog of the Nath Sect, in the' bhakti marg of the vaishnav Sect and also in the gyan marg followed by the votaries of the vedanta philosophy. The underlying essence of Shaktipat is to experience the knowledge of the spiritual texts within one's own self. By liberating the aspirant from the confines of effort, Shaktipat enables sadhan to be real and spontaneous and puts an end to the suppositions of the existence of variant paths and doctrines. However due to their myopic outlook people tend to see Shaktipat also as a sect and refer to the natural sadhan consequent to Shaktipat as 'sadhan pranali' .