Shri Shridhar Swami was born in Lad Chincholi, Karnataka, India on December 7, 1908 as the son of kamalabai and Narayan Rao Deglurkar. He was the youngest of five siblings, the eldest, Govind, having died before his birth. A recent English translation of an ancient Hindu relic, Shripad Shri Vallabha Charitramrita (originally written in archaic Telugu) by Malladi Govind Dixit reveals that Shripad Sri Vallabh had prophesized Shri Shridhar Swami’s birth almost 600 years ago. It is said that while on a pilgrimage, kamalabai had a dream in which dattatreya himself gave an indication that their next child would be an avatar. On 7th December, 1908, the same day as Shri Datta Guru was born, the Deglurkars were blessed with a boy. He was baptized as ‘Shridhar’ on the 12th day after his birth.

Calm and caring by nature, Shridhar displayed a natural fondness for Ram bhakti from the very beginning. His mother encouraged him to continously chant the name of Lord Ram (Hereafter referred to as Ramnam Jap) and thus even at a tender age of five, he could be spotted engrossed in Ramnam Jap in front of a portrait of Lord Ram.

He spent the next few years in Gulberga and Pune pursuing his education. His innate benevolence and kindness was evident even at this tender age when, in order to help his school mates, he began working in a grocery store to pay for their school fees. All this while, the desire for spiritual enlightenment was growing stronger in him.

During the course of time, he got well-acquainted with one of his teachers at school, Shri palnitkar Guruji. Discovering Sridhar’s intense inclination towards spiritualism, he advised him to solicit the blessings of Samartha Ramdas Swamiji. Sajjangad was the abode of Samartha Ramdas Swamiji for the last six years of his life. Legend has it that a stone structure (his Samadhi) surged out of its own at the cremation place of Shri Samartha on the very next day of his nirvana.

His yearning for a spiritual awakening at this point can be guaged by the fact that he started to dispose all his money to the poor and the remaining he just threw. He liked a particular sweet dish, so he bought it, kept it in front of Lord Ram’s idol and then mixed cow dung in it and ate it. Now he could not even think about the dish he once liked so much. On the day of departure to Sajjangad, Which also coincided with Vijayadashmi, he suddenly felt that he was going there to find out the creator of the universe who had control over the living, non living things and also time and space.

He meditated for a while and then wrote on a paper-THAT I

For this I am hereby submitting my body to the God, now he is responsible to pull me out of the wrong track and put me on the right one, if it so happens. I am submitting this document to the scared fire to reproduce it if the need be.

Samarth was a hard task master and although he himself awarded the ultimate title ‘Bhagwan’ to Shri Shridhar Swami he put him through very hard rigors and tested him to the hilt. How he could finally please the probably only Saint (Shri Samarth) who never hesitated to call a spade and even advised to tackle aggression by more severe aggression is something which is unparalleled in spiritualism, spanning a period of about 3 and a quarter years from the full moon day of Ashwin (Hindu month) 1927 to 9th day of 2nd half of Magh, during which period Shri Shridhar Swami stayed at Sajjangad.

Shri Shridhar Swami used to get up before dawn and after the morning rituals, started to work. He used to sweep the floor, serve the food, and wash the clothes on Shri Samarth’s samadhi and utensils which were used by Shri Samarth. He was so deeply engrossed in the work of the Math that many a times he just forgot to have his meals also.

He was now doing practically everything which all the other workers were doing individually. In a sense he was doing the work of a 100 workers at a time. This was possible only on account of his unflinching faith in Shri Samarth and Shri Samarth’s blessings. He was now handed over most pious duty of reciting Dasbodh (The scared book written by Shri Samarth) after the daily puja. Once, a worker who was cooking for all others had to leave for long period. Without thinking for a moment Shri Shridharswami offered to cook and immediately started cooking and serving the food also. For all the water drunk by everybody so he started bringing about 50 bucketful of the scared lake, Sontale which was about a one furlong away.

He even Massaged the visiting elderly people’s legs as he knew that they would be tired. He saw Shri Samarth everywhere and therefore even listened to the kids and their orders let alone those who
purposefully tired to trouble him! He was so utterly devoted and dedicated to shri Samarth. Seeing all this one elderly lady once remarked that he may force the god to eat!

The omnipresent Shri Samarth was seeing this all the while and finally decided after one and a half years of Shri Shridharaswami’s arrival at Sajjanagad that the time had to come to bless him. This was the first time in 300 years that Shri Samarth had himself blessed anyone! Swamiji now used to spend to spend most of his time is in meditation only. He preferred total solitude. He had described Shri Samarth as the, Coolest source of the most powerful light! He himself now looked like one! Shri Samarth had himself given him the title of Bhagawan Shrimat paramhansa parivrajkacharya Shri Shridharaswami Maharaj, but even after that throughout his life he never stopped pursuing spiritualism and spreading the message.

After Two and half years at Sajjangad, Shri Samrath ordered Shri Shridhar swami to proceed Southern India and spread the light of knowledge he had been endowed with. And so Shri Shridhar Swami embarked upon a journey that saw many lives transformed and salvaged. The highlight of his stay in South India was his sojourn at Shigehalli, a small village in Karnataka, where he came across a great yogic saint, Swami Shivananda and on his insistence he stayed at his Ashram.

At last, Shri Shridhar Swami arrived at a small hamlet, by the name of Varadahalli (Varadapur in Marathi) in the Sagar taluka of Shimoga district in karnataka. One of the most picturesque places in the western ghats of India, the place is encircled by hills and is the heavenly abode of the presiding deity, Goddess Durgamba. A folktale suggests that Maharishi Ved Vyasa stayed here. A few hidden caves behind the temple provide evidence for the plausibility of this being a true fact.

After a continuous solitude of six years in Varadpur, from 1968 to 1973, Swamiji decided to undertake Samadhi and left his physical being on Chaitra Vadya Dwitiya in the year 1973 to once more unite with Dutt Prabhu.