Maharaj Narsih Mehta!

Pranams at the lotus feet of Maharaj Narsih Mehta!

Chapter – 4

Narsihji was confident that Lord Krishna would do some arrangements to send off his daughter to her in-law’s house.  The priest felt it is utter foolishness to believe Narsihji, finally, he got frustrated and decided to leave the house.  As usual, Narasihji engrossed in the Namasankeerthan of Lord Krishna, his wife, and son also joined with him.  The priest thought what kind of madness is that calling the names of Lord and is that going to do any good at the time of need? Soon the priest heard the sound of cheering, he rushed to the shrine and found Lord Krishna was offering the things which Narsi Mehta wanted to give as dowry to his daughter.  The priest could not believe his eyes, it multiplied his respect to Narsi Mehta, and highly praised his pure devotion to Lord Krishna.

There was an interesting incident that took place in the life of Narsi Mehta.  There was the wealthiest man Madan Mehta in the nearest village who was searching for an appropriate groom for his daughter. He sent his family priest to Junarghar in search of a groom for his daughter.  The priest was introduced to Sarangdhar, one of the friends of Madan Mehta, he took the priest all around Junarghar in search of the groom, he informed the priest to meet Narsi Mehta.  Sarangdhar did not like Narsi Mehta, so he took this opportunity to disgrace him.  The priest liked Shyamaldas who was the son of Narsi Mehta and decided to perform the marriage.   The Brahmins of the village wrote a letter to Madan Mehta about the family of Narsi Mehta who is poor, and his son is characterless.  Madan Mehta wrote a letter to Narsi Mehta with an intention to insult him, he wrote Narsih to attend the marriage ceremony with elephants, horses, and valuable clothes as gifts.  Narsi Mehta received the letter of Madan Mehta and became desperate; he went to Lord Krishna and performed Namasankeerthan.  As usual, he received an instruction from Lord Krishna to remain optimistic.  The day of marriage has arrived, Narsi Mehta with a few people from the village proceeded to the village of the bride, people of Junarghar mocked at him, they laughed at the pitiful condition of Narsi Mehta.  Suddenly Narsi Mehta could witness a huge crowd of people in marvelous attire, and valuable gifts in their hands, there was grand arrangements like elephants and horses as instructed by Madan Mehta, all those arrangements were made by Lord Krishna and cheerfully giving instructions to the people assembled.  Narsi Mehta shed tears of love for his beloved Lord and prostrated before him.  The people of the bride were highly impressed and stunned to witness the grandeur of the arrangements made by Narsi Mehta which was not less than a royal wedding.  Thus, Shyamalda's marriage took place in a splendid manner.

Maharaj Narsih Mehta!

Pranams at the lotus feet of Maharaj Narsih Mehta!

Chapter – 3

The wealthy man offered a house with a small shrine of Lord Krishna so that Narsih can do the daily worship of his favorite Lord at his heart’s content, he arranged stock of grains and pulses and all those ingredients required for three years and offered 5000 gold coins for running the family.  Afterward, Narsih Mehta’s house reverberated with the sounds of Namasankeerthana and lectures on scriptures, saints and devotees throng from various places to participate in the daily events and rituals of Lord Krishna.  He received the devotees of Lord with humility and great reverence; he served them with a sumptuous meal.  Within six months all those grains and pulses have vanished; once again the family went back to extreme poverty.  But Narsih Mehta continued his daily rites and devotion to Lord Krishna as if he was least affected by the situations in the family.

Those days the marriage of daughters was performed at a young age,  but the girl remains in the maternal house till she attains the period of menstruation, later she will be sent to her in-law’s home on an auspicious day.   The daughter of Narsih was married at a young age, one day the family priest of the groom of Kunwarbai arrived and informed Narsih to send back her to in-law’s place with all those formalities like dowry.  The priest was found the family is in utter poverty, and there were no arrangements made to send off their daughter.   Manekbai was worried about the future of her daughter, Narsihji requested the priest to give some time so that he can make arrangements for sending her off, saying so he continued his usual routines Namasankeerthan and worship of Lord Krishna.  But the priest was not convinced with the idea of Narasih, he decided to leave home on the next day.

Maharaj Narsih Mehta!

Pranams at the lotus feet of Maharaj Narsih Mehta!

Chapter – 2

It was the duty of Narasih to take care of the cattle in the house.  He took good care of them, he sincerely performed  all those tasks  was assigned to him, during the leisure hours engages in the recitation of Bhagavannama.  But his sister-in-law was not happy to feed poor Narsih and his family, she found every opportunity to abuse Narsih for the poor financial condition in the family.  

Once Narasih returned home after grazing the cattle, after a long day of hard work he was tired of hunger and thirst.  He requested his sister-in-law for food, but she was so angry and shouted at him, and served him with the stale Rotis, even though the fresh food was available at home.  Somehow Narsih consumed the meal and put off his hunger, and left home.  Narasih felt so humiliated and dejected walked away from home, he was not aware of where he was going or whom to meet, thus he crossed several miles away from the village and arrived in a dilapidated shrine of Lord Shiva.  He took bath in the nearby pond and engaged in the veneration of Lord Shiva with the bale leaves, in this way he continued veneration of Lord Shiva and meditation for seven days.  Lord Shiva was pleased with the devotion of Narsih and appeared before him, asked him what would he like to have as a boon.  Narsih requested “ Oh! Prabho, give me the thing which is dearest to you.”  Lord Shiva offered the Dharshan of Lord Krishna and given intense devotion to Lord Krishna.

Narsih returned to the family life at the instruction of Lord Krishna, but the situation in the family did not change a bit, he had to face sheer criticism and humiliation in the family,  the situation became grave day by day.  He had to leave his elder brother and started living separately in a Dharmashala with his wife Manekbai and two children Shyamaldas and Kunwarbai.  He continued the worship of Lord Krishna, recitation of scriptures, and singing in praise of Lord.  Once a wealthy man arrived in the Dharmashala and found the intense devotion and faith of Narasihji revealed his desire to serve him.  He learned all those hardships of Narsih Mehta and pacified him, it was  Akroora  disguised in the form of a wealthy man who came to meet Narsih at the divine instruction of Lord Krishna.

Maharaj Narsih Mehta!

Pranams at the lotus feet of Maharaj Narsih Mehta!

Chapter – 1

Narsih Mehta / Narsi Bhagat was born in a poor Vadanagar Bhramin family in Junagarh in Kathiawar, Gujarat.  He was a 15th-century religious poet, an ardent devotee of Lord Krishna.  His father was holding a responsible post in the royal court, he was brought up by his grandmother Jaygauri. He was lacking speaking ability by birth, and he did not utter a word until eight years.  Once his grandmother took him to Hatkeshwar Mahadeva shrine while returning from the temple she found a Yogi who was chanting the sacred names of Lord Narayana.  His grandmother approached the Yogi, reverentially prostrated before him and described the pathetic condition of Narsih Mehta.  The Yogi made the boy seated near him and whispered a few sacred chants on his ears and advised him to recite ‘Radhe Krishna’, to sheer dismay Narsih Mehta uttered the name of Lord Radha Krishna.  Thus Narsih Mehta began to speak in the name of Lord, he sang in praise of Lord Krishna, verse flew out of his mouth nectar-like streams; his devotion to Lord Krishna was Sakhyabhava/dearest companion.  He found the presence of the supreme Lord in everything and everywhere, he composed illustrious ‘Harimala’.

He was taken care of by his elder brother Bansidhar.  He was introduced Narsih to Sanskrit education, but he was not interested in studies, he immersed in the devotion to Lord Krishna, worship of Lord Krishna, recitation of his sacred names and listening to the glorious myths of Lord Krishna and in the service of saints and holy men.  In this way, he has fully devoted his life in the service of Lord Krishna and his devotees, therefore he rarely returns to home.    He was married to Manekbai at a young age and lived with the family of his elder brother.  As a family man, he did not show much interest in worldly matters, his interest was mainly in the spiritual life.  Therefore he had to face the aggression of the wife of his elder brother.  His elder brother sincerely wanted Narasih to become a responsible family man and  tried all his efforts to bring back Narasih to the household chores.   His elder brother’s wife found the  trouble in the loving relationship of these two brothers, she constantly found fault in Narasih and spoiled the peace in the family.

Sant Tulsidas Maharaj

Pranams at the lotus feet of Tulsidas Maharaj!

Chapter – 6

Tulsidas Maharaj wrote verses in Sanskrit while living in Varanasi,  he wrote several verses  praising Lord Ramachandra in Sanskrit spending hours sitting in Prahladghat during the day, all those verses would get disappeared by night and this practice continued for eight days in a row.  On the eighth day Tulsidas Maharaj had the Dharshan of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi in his dream, Lord instructed Tulsidas Maharaj to go to Ayodhya and write the verses in Awadhi language,  and blessed that those verses would be considered as equivalent to Sama Veda.

Tulsidas Maharaj wrote many spectacular verses of life lessons,  and the most popular one among is “Do not visit the place where there is people are unpleasant or not welcoming, do not stay with the people who have no compassion or affection in their eyes for you, even if the place is enriched with the mountain of gold.”

In the year 1633, Tulsidas Maharaj completed the composition of the illustrious work Sri Ramacharitha Manas, he returned to Varanasi and recited the couplets before Lord of Varanasi.  Those days the Bhramins scholars have considered Sanskrit as supreme language and the rest of them are inferior, therefore they decided to put the composition of Tulsidas Maharaj to a test.  They piled up all the scriptures of Sanskrit on top of Sri Ramacharitha Manas and kept it inside the sanctum of the Lord Vishwanatha and kept it locked.  On the next day, the priests could see the Sri Ramacharitha Manas on the top of the pile of Sanskrit scriptures that was holding the inscription ‘Sathyam Shivam Sundaram’ / The eternal truth is auspicious and beautiful, signed by Lord Shiva.

Some of the Bhramin scholars of Varanasi were not convinced with the above incident, they have appointed thieves to steal the manuscript of Sri Ramacharitha Manas from the hermitage of Tulsidas.  On that night, the thieves could witness two young men one in blue complexion and another one in fair, holding bow and arrow guarding the hermitage of Sant Tulsidas.  They were horrified and left the place, on the next morning the thieves met Sant Tulsidas Maharaj and enquired about the whereabouts of the two men who were guarding the hermitage.  At once, Sant Tulasidas Maharaj recognized it was none other than his beloved Lord Rama and Lakshman, Maharaj shed tears over the thought of the boundless mercy of his beloved Lord who took great care of him.  Later, the manuscript of Sri Ramacharitha Manas was sent for safekeeping to Todarmal who was the finance minister in the court of Akbar.  Afterward, the thieves became fervent devotees of Lord Rama.

In the year 1680, Sant Tulsidas Maharaj at the age of 126,  on a Shravan Shukla Sapthami, Saturday, uttering the sacred names of Lord Ramachandra left his mortal coil in Assi Ghat, Varanasi.

Sant Tulsidas Maharaj

Pranams at the lotus feet of Tulsidas Maharaj!

Chapter – 5

Tulsidas Maharaj proceeded to the mountains of Chithrakoota at the instruction of Lord Hanuman and lived in an Ashram in Ramghat.  Once he was performing the Parikrama of the Moutain,  he saw two youths with great effulgence, attired in a marvelous garment, one has blue and other one has fair complexion respectively, traveling on horseback in the dense wood.  Tulsidas Maharaj looked at the youths but could not recognize it was Ram and Lakshman, later Hanuman enquired Tulsidas Maharaj about the youths and introduced them as Ram and Lakshman.  Tulsidas Maharaj was extremely dejected, at the thought that he could not recognize his favorite Lord even after appeared before him; he cursed the eyes that mislead the appearance of Lord Ramachandra.  On the next day morning, while he was preparing sandalwood paste for the worship of Lord Rama, there appeared a small boy asking for sandalwood paste for Tilak/symbolic mark on a forehead.  Lord Hanuman gave a hint to Tulsidas Maharaj about the presence of Lord Rama in the form of a child, thus Tulsidas Maharaj had the Dharshan of Rama and he immersed in a state of ecstasy, ultimately he forgot to fulfill the desire of the child.  Lord Rama took the sandal paste and applied the Tilak on his forehead and Tulsidas Maharaj, soon disappeared from the view.  Thus Tulsidas Maharaj's long-cherished wish to witness his favorite Lord Ramachandra was fulfilled.  Further, Tulsidas Maharaj had the Dharshan of Sage Yajjnavalkya and Sage Bharadhwaja while living in Prayag.

Sant Tulsidas Maharaj

Pranams at the lotus feet of Tulsidas Maharaj!

Chapter – 4

It was believed that Sant Tulsidas Maharaj was an incarnation of Sage Valmiki.  In Bhavishyoththara Purana Lord Shiva describes Goddess Parvathi about the reincarnation of Sage Valmiki who got an exemplary boon from Lord Hanuman to sing in praise of Lord Ramachandra in the Kali era.

There is interesting myth which was unheard, Lord Hanuman approached Sage Valmiki several times requesting him to sing in praise of Lord Ramachandra from his great epic Srimad Ramayan, but every time Sage Valmiki refused to recite the Ramayan for Lord Hanuman thinking that it is not worthy to recite the great epic to a monkey who does not even know the supremacy of Lord Rama.  After the battle of Rama with the demon Ravana, Hanuman left to Mount Himalaya and conducted Tapasya for several years.  During this period, Hanuman composed a drama praising the glories of Lord Rama, which was meticulously engraved with his sharp nails on the rocks where he was undertaking Tapasya.  Later, Sage Valmiki found the inscriptions on the rock and felt his composition is inferior to the work of Hanuman.  Lord Hanuman understood the state of mind of Sage Valmiki, he graciously took the rock engraved by him and set down deep into the ocean.  Later, he instructed Sage Valmiki to take birth in Kali Yuga and compose Ramayan in couplets of his own language Awadhi.