Shree Samarth realized that till the foreign rule persisted there was no chance of healthy growth of the society. He therefore decided that unless there is change in the rule the society which had hit rock bottom in all fields wouldn’t improve and moreover till that happened there was no glimmer of hope for the religious upheaval. Fortunately precisely at that time King Shivaji was trying his best for uprooting the foreign rule with the sole aim of the benefit of the society. Shree Samarth got the person he was looking for in King Shivaji. He wanted all the people to help him in his endeavor with all their might. Shree Samarth wanted the people to be ruled in a proper manner so that they could live fearlessly, happily and then try and imbibe religion in the true sense of spirituality. He wanted independence not for the society to misuse it for it to do anything according its whims and fancies but for upholding the principles of morality and great virtues. For gaining independence he knew that he would require selfless people for which he started the new Shree Samarth sect of Sanyasis. These neo politicians were different from the others in the sense that others saw politics as their way of life to pursue their ambitions, often tainted with evil desires whereas the Sanyasis of the Shree Samarth sect were first accountable to the God and then to everything else which gave their work a halo of its own. He knew that for this movement to succeed the members of the sect had to have some platform from which they could raise their voice to be heard not only by the people but by the rulers as well. Therefore he established Maths (Holy places where like minded religious people could reside and work) at many vantage points. He was very choosey in appointing the heads of the Maths knowing fully well that anything wrong done by the head would ruin the whole movement. He selected people who were multifaceted; who were spiritually oriented, set high standards of morality and at the same time were able to work for the society and were very adept in politics too. All of them had a readymade role model to follow, Shree Samarth himself. He was of the opinion that those who get themselves labeled as saints but quietly sit amid people who are suffering from lack of knowledge, basic amenities, atrocities of the foreign rulers and extreme poverty without doing anything are a shame on mankind let alone be called as saints. Therefore he firmly believed that the saints should help the people in distress by their knowledge, piety, strength gained out of their Sadhana and by being one of them rather than maintaining an aloofness which most of the saints presumed to be their duty, yet what Shree Samarth perceived as a crime. He told this to all the heads of the Maths in no uncertain words. This way he blended an inseparable solution of spirituality, social work and politics. He saw to it that the people became fearless through the work of the volunteers of the sect who in fact were staunch disciples of Shree Samarth. This was probably the only example of a saint leading a political movement and that too a winning one. He thus proved to be unique amongst a galaxy of saints India ever produced.
Shree Samarth realized that till the foreign rule persisted there was no chance of healthy growth of the society. He therefore decided that unless there is change in the rule the society which had hit rock bottom in all fields wouldn’t improve and moreover till that happened there was no glimmer of hope for the religious upheaval. Fortunately precisely at that time King Shivaji was trying his best for uprooting the foreign rule with the sole aim of the benefit of the society. Shree Samarth got the person he was looking for in King Shivaji. He wanted all the people to help him in his endeavor with all their might. Shree Samarth wanted the people to be ruled in a proper manner so that they could live fearlessly, happily and then try and imbibe religion in the true sense of spirituality. He wanted independence not for the society to misuse it for it to do anything according its whims and fancies but for upholding the principles of morality and great virtues. For gaining independence he knew that he would require selfless people for which he started the new Shree Samarth sect of Sanyasis. These neo politicians were different from the others in the sense that others saw politics as their way of life to pursue their ambitions, often tainted with evil desires whereas the Sanyasis of the Shree Samarth sect were first accountable to the God and then to everything else which gave their work a halo of its own. He knew that for this movement to succeed the members of the sect had to have some platform from which they could raise their voice to be heard not only by the people but by the rulers as well. Therefore he established Maths (Holy places where like minded religious people could reside and work) at many vantage points. He was very choosey in appointing the heads of the Maths knowing fully well that anything wrong done by the head would ruin the whole movement. He selected people who were multifaceted; who were spiritually oriented, set high standards of morality and at the same time were able to work for the society and were very adept in politics too. All of them had a readymade role model to follow, Shree Samarth himself. He was of the opinion that those who get themselves labeled as saints but quietly sit amid people who are suffering from lack of knowledge, basic amenities, atrocities of the foreign rulers and extreme poverty without doing anything are a shame on mankind let alone be called as saints. Therefore he firmly believed that the saints should help the people in distress by their knowledge, piety, strength gained out of their Sadhana and by being one of them rather than maintaining an aloofness which most of the saints presumed to be their duty, yet what Shree Samarth perceived as a crime. He told this to all the heads of the Maths in no uncertain words. This way he blended an inseparable solution of spirituality, social work and politics. He saw to it that the people became fearless through the work of the volunteers of the sect who in fact were staunch disciples of Shree Samarth. This was probably the only example of a saint leading a political movement and that too a winning one. He thus proved to be unique amongst a galaxy of saints India ever produced.