Dr. Purekar was the man who had brought the Divine Grace of Shri Nathji to the sacred soil of Maharashtra. He had been a doctor of jails in Pinjar, district Akola, when he had been granted a vision of Shri Nathji as God upon earth in 1947.
Thereafter he had travelled all the way to Lahore and found Shri Nathji there. The gates of his soul had opened and he had recognised God.
This was the man that had begun Shri Nathji’s long and meaningful association with Maharashtra. The vision he had seen in his mind’s eye, and the voice he had heard–that God had come down upon the earth in human form–had all become a reality for him.
It was he who had urged his agnostic friend, Dr. Babtiwale, to come to Shri Nathji at Nagpur in March 1979. Dr. Babtiwale, who had at first scoffed at the idea, was instantly converted the moment he came before Shri Nathji, and became one of his greatest devotees.
Now, in March 1973, there was Dr. Purekar singing with khartaals-cymbals- in his hand, like a seasoned singer, the bhajans of Dr. Baptiwale:
“Agar deepak na tum hote
To parvaane na ham bante
Agar tum Dev naa hote
To ham bhee bhakt naa bante
If thou wert not a flame,
We would not have become thy moths
If Thou wert not God,
We would not have become thy devotees.”
Dr.Purekar was a heart patient, and had survived ten heart attacks, much to the wonderment of medical science. It was all the miracle of Shri Nathji’s Divine Grace which was constantly with him.