The Great Shivaji Maharaj

• At the age of 15 took the oath of Swaraj
• Along with his mavalas won 35 forts one after the other. 
• Mirza Raje Jaisingh, in the Purandar Treaty, took over 23 important Forts. Shivaji Maharaj remained with 12 unimportant forts. 
• Shivaji Maharaj faces defeat for one year.
• Mirza Raje invites Shivaji Maharaj to Delhi for celebrating Aurangzeb’s birthday. 
• Shivaji Maharaj raises voice in the Court of Aurangzeb for being insulted.
• Shivaji Maharaj put under house arrest by Aurangzeb. 
• For four months, Shivaji Maharaj under arrest, plots a plan to escape with perfection.... and he along with his son, Sambaji do escape. 
• Shivaji Maharaj reaches Raigad and resumes his Rule. 
• Shivaji Maharaj invests 2 years to strengthen his administration. 
• After two years he starts on his Expedition to win back his forts. 
• After many years, when Aurangzeb arrives alongwith his huge army to attack Maharashtra, Shivaji Maharaj summons his Minister in charge of the accounts. 
• Shivaji Maharaj asks his Minister about the number of Forts captured by him so far. 

       His Minister replies, ‘from the river Narmada in Gujarat till the river Cauvery in Karnataka,  Shivaji Maharaj has spread Hindavi Swaraj to 200 Forts’! 

• Shivaji Maharaj smiles and says, all his efforts for so many years of gathering these Forts was for this very day when he would be required to fight the Mughal King Aurangzeb. Now is the time in history which will decide on who will Rule the throne in Delhi. 

The reason for describing this story today is, the testing time we are faced with because of the Pandemic. 

We are under house arrest, our wealth may have got eroded or will be. The enemy is in the form of the Pandemic or later on in the form of economic breakdown. But we should remember the lessons taught by the great Shivaji Maharaj. 

‘Even if our treasures are reduced to 30%  or lesser, even if we are put under house arrest for a long period, even if the enemy is at our doorstep to kill us, we should be stable. We should be proactive to plan, be patient, strategise to escape, work to create systems, be courageous and hardworking towards expansion so that one day we not only gain all the past glory but have more than 6 times the previous peak we attained. 

Nobody knows what the future holds for us. But history definitely has some answers for us. Let’s learn from history and create one ourselves.