who was initially named Narayan by his maternal relatives had at some point moved to Ahmednagar, Maharashtra where his father had been a care-taker of a property. He was later renamed as Ganesh and his grandfather often called him Ganu, a shorter version of his name. When he arrived at Pandharpur, Das Ganu was contacted by a resident at Shegaon, Ramchandra Krishnaji Patil who was also a devotee of Gajanan Maharaj. He advised Das Ganu to write a biography on Gajanan Maharaj. It is believed that he had once visited Nashik, Maharashtra and the surrounding pilgrimage sites including Kapiltirtha. He lived at Kapiltirtha for around 12 years. Contemporaries of Gajanan Maharaj identified him by several names such as Gin Gine Buwa, Ganpat Buwa, and Awaliya Baba. Parallels with other prominent saints and spiritual masters According to his biography Shree Gajanan Vijay, Gajanan Maharaj used to consider a few other spiritual personalities such as Narasingji, Vasudevanand Saraswati (Tembhe Swami Maharaj) and Sai Baba of Shirdi as brothers. Gajanan Maharaj appeared as the Hindu deity Vitthala in Pandharapur for his one devotees Bapuna Kale. He also appeared as Samarth Ramdas for another devotee. There are some similarities between Gajanan Maharaj and Swami Samarth of Akkalkot, another Hindu guru and mystic. They both were Paramahans and AjanBahu. They represent different forms taken from the same source . He is regarded as an enlightened being. He received a significant following in Maharashtra and thousands visit the Shegaon temple every year. According to the Shree Gajanan Vijay, he was an exponent of three streams of Yoga i.e. Karma, Bhakti and Gyan Yoga. Appearances and divine powers According to a legend, a money lender named Bankat Lal Agarwal first saw Gajanan Maharaj in a "superconscious state" on 23 February 1878 on a street, eating leftover food which was thrown (and thus spreading the message of food is life and food should not be wasted). Sensing him to be not an ordinary man who needs food to eat but a Yogi, Bankat took him home and asked Maharaj to stay with him. In his lifetime, he performed many miracles such as giving a fresh lease on life to one Janrao Deshmukh, lighting the clay-pipe without fire, filling a dry well with water, drawing sugar cane juice by twisting canes with his hands, curing leprosy of a man, curing himself of the many bites of honey bees, etc.