Evolution of love

Sant Bhanudas

There was a pious Brahman who was a Vishnu bhaktha, Bhanudas was born in this family. As he grew up the ceremony of the scared thread was performed and he was sent to learn the Vedas. Bhanudas was not interested in learning and would not go to the classes properly. His father was angry about it and shouted at him. Afraid of his father Bhanudas decided to run away from home. He went in to the forest and found an underground temple. When he went inside the temple, he saw the statue of Lord Narayana and prostrated at him lovingly and began his prayers. Seeing the kid’s devotion god was pleased and took the form of a Brahman and came in front of him and gave him some milk to drink and asked him not to be afraid of any one and assured that he would take care of him and feed him regularly. Meanwhile his parents were searching for him every where but could not find him. They also prayed to the god for his return and decided that they would not shout at him and ask him to study anymore. Bhanudas was in the underground temple for 7 days. One day when he came out, a villager from his village saw him and went and informed this to his father. His father then came to the forest with a few other villagers and started searching for him. They finally entered the underground temple and saw him sleeping with his head on the feet of the god. His parents were happy seeing him and embraced him and asked him how he survived for seven days in this temple with out any food. Bhanudas then told them that a Brahman would come and give him food regularly and take care of him. They then understood that it was god who had saved his life and that god would take care of him and so dint send him to school any more.

Bhanudas then devoted himself completely to the worship of god. A few years later he was married. Years passed by and his parents passed away too. Bhanudas was now forced to take up his father’s profession. Bhanudas was not interested in worldly affairs but only wanted to be in the service of Vitthal. A few men came to Bhanudas and told him that his father had taken care of his family needs till now and now it is the duty of Bhanudas to take care of his wife and children. They also told him that since he did not study he will not be able to earn like other Brahmans and then came out with a proposal. They said that they would give him capital to become a cloth peddler and he could make his living out of this. Slowly he could return them the initial amount given by them. They then bought clothes for him from the market and called the other cloth peddlers and asked them to teach Bhanudas the secrets of the trade and take care of him. The peddlers agreed to this and happily took Bhanudas with them. They then thought him the secrets of the trade and finally told him not to speak the truth to any customer as otherwise he would only be making a loss. Bhanudas then replied to them that he would never lie to anyone. The peddlers then laughed at Bhanudas and said that once he sees money by not speaking the truth he would change automatically. Bhanudas would sit and chant the name of god continuously, he never lied to anyone and as a result everyone coming to the bazaar would go only to Bhanudas. He would tell his customers his exact cost price and the margin he was expecting. If they bargained he would ask them to go to the next shop and continue with his chanting. Now all customers were buying clothes only from Bhanudas. As a result other peddlers were not happy with Bhanudas and felt that he was drawing all their customers and that he was the reason for their poverty.

One day all the peddlers went to a far off village to sell their clothes. It was almost evening when they reached the village and Bhanudas came to know that there was a Hari kirthan happening in the village that night. He then asked the other peddlers if they would come for the kirthan. All of them refused and said that they were too tired to go the kirthan. Bhanudas then asked them to take care of his cart and clothes and went to the kirthan. He went there, embraced the saints and started participating in the Hari kirthan. In the mean time the peddlers spoke to one another and decided to free the horse of Bhanudas so that it would get lost. They also took the bundles of cloth from the cart and threw it in a pit. They then decided that they would tell Bhanudas that when they were sleeping some thief had come and taken these away. Vitthal on seeing this came as a Brahman and took the horse of Bhanudas and sat down in the market place holding it. Vitthal then decided to teach a lesson to the other peddlers. A group of thieves came there and took the clothes and horses of all the peddlers and ran away. Bhanudas then finished his kirthan and came back to take some rest. When he was returning he found a Brahman holding his horse, as soon as he came near him the Brahman disappeared. He then took his horse and went to meet the other peddlers. The peddlers on seeing him told him the truth and said that it was because of their greed that Vitthal had punished them. Bhanudas now understood that the Brahman who was holding his horse was none other than Vitthal and felt bad that god himself had come down to take care of his belongings. He then decided that he would not get in to worldly affairs any more and would return home and be in the service of god. Bhanudas then gave his horse, cart and his clothes and asked them to distribute it among themselves. From then on for every Ashadh (July) and Karthik (November) ekadasi he would go on a wari (lead a band of people to Pandharpur by singing the praise of god)

There was a Brahman living in the sacred city of Pandharpur who decided to set out on a yatra. One day he was at Vidyanagar and decided to meet the king Ram Raja, so that he could get some gifts from the king. (It was customary those days for the kings to give dhanam (gift) to Brahmans) He went to the palace and told that door keeper that he had come from Pandhari to meet the king. The king then called him and gave his respects to him and asked him to join him in his prayers to Ambika. He then took the Brahman with him to his temple and on the way was a huge garden which was created by the king to send flowers to the temple. The temple was built in a great manner and the walls were platted with silver. There were a lot of Brahmans performing poojas. The goddess was adorned with lot of jewels and the best garments. The king then performed his pooja to the god and sat down for a while. He then asked the Brahman if he had seen any temple and god equivalent to this, also told him that it is hardly possible that Vitthal would be worshiped with so much of elegance at Pandharpur. He then said that as it is the poor Brahmans who do the service to god there it may be difficult for them to spend so much as he does here in this temple. This made the Brahman get angry and then he told the king that he has told this without seeing Pandhari. He then said that the city of Pandhari was designed by none other than Vishwakarma (He is the architect of the Devas) and that the temple was plated with gold. He then said that the city of Pandhari had forests of wish trees, herds of wish cows and there were a lot of touchstones. He then said that there were vaishnavas who perform kirthans on Vitthal, there is Chandrabhaga flowing with nectar. He also said that Indira and all the 330 million gods stand there at his service. He then said that this Ambika who is the king’s family goddess comes to Pandhari regularly and sweeps the temple. Listening to these words of the Brahman the king was furious and said that he is going to punish the Brahman to death. The Brahman then told the king that if one had not seen the ocean he would think that the river in his city is the biggest and that he was also deciding in a similar way. The king then agreed to go with the Brahman to Pandhari and asked his ministers to prepare for the journey.

The king then started towards Pandhari with a small army and the Brahman was coming behind him. On the way the Brahman was thinking that if the king doesn’t see the things the way I have described to him, he will kill me, so thinking of Vitthal in his heart he was praying all the way. On reaching Pandhari, the king sat on an elephant and started looking at the city. He saw that the temple was glittering with gold and all other things exactly as how the Brahman described it to him. He then prostrated to the Brahman and told him that what he told of Pandhari was true and he could see that. The Brahman was amazed and thanked Vitthal for saving his life. As they entered Pandhari the king saw a herd of wish cows, saints and brahmans performing kirthans, all rivers taking a bodily form and coming and taking a holy dip in Chandrabhaga. The king then had a dip in Chandrabhaga and went to the temple. When he went in there, ashta maha siddhis (8 supernatural powers) were serving god and he could see his deity Ambika as one of them. He then saw Narada singing the praise of Vitthal there. The king then embraced Vitthal and then fell on his feet. The king then fell on the Brahman’s feet and told him that he was his Sadguru and said that he had seen a million times more than what the Brahman had described and that he has not seen a sacred city as wonderful as Pandhari.

Ram Raja then prayed to Vitthal asking him to come with him to Vidyanagar. Vitthal then told him that he would come with him to Vidyanagar, but if on the way he keeps him down he would stay there and that after coming there if the king is guilty of any injustice he would return to Pandhari. The king was overjoyed hearing this and he ordered people to be placed at intervals between Pandhari and Vidyanagar and took Vitthal to his city. The temple officials did not resist as they knew that he was a king and that their resistance would be in vain.

During the month of Ashadh (July) the warkaris arrived at Pandhari and learned that Vitthal had gone to Vidyanagar with Ram Raja. The city of Pandhari and it people now seemed depressed and desolate. The saints and sadhus who had come there for the Ashadhi ekadasi discussed among themselves and decided that someone should go to Vidyanagar and get Vitthal back to Pandharpur. Bhanudas who was sitting in this group then told them that he would go and get Vitthal from Vidyanagar. Bhanudas then left for Vidyanagar. After walking for several days he finally reached Vidyanagar and enquired the people there about Vitthal. No one answered to Bhanudas due to fear from the king. However one Vaishnava told him that Vitthal was in the palace temple and that the king worships him privately and the temple is closed as soon as the king finishes his worship and that the temple is heavily guarded. Bhanudas was happy and at midnight he went to the palace temple. As he approached the temple, the guards fell asleep and the lock opened automatically. He then went in and prostrated to Vitthal and embraced him and pleaded with affection and asked why he had deserted all the bhakthas at Pandhari and came here to be with the king. Vitthal then told him that it was the king who had brought him here forcefully and that he was missing Pandhari. Vitthal then told him that tomorrow morning he would come with him to Pandhari. He then removed his necklace and placed it on Bhanudas and asked him to go and take some rest as he now has to prepare for a journey to Pandharpur tomorrow. The king came to the temple in the morning as usual to see Vitthal. When the pooja was being performed he saw that the necklace was missing. He was very angry and ordered the guards to immediately search for the same. The guards went in all directions to look for the necklace. Bhanudas had bathed in the river and was singing the praise of god. The guards saw the necklace on him and immediately arrested him. They then took him to the king and gave the necklace to the king. The king ordered the guards to impale Bhanudas. Bhanudas then requested the guards that he be allowed to see Vitthal for one last time before his death. The guards then took him to the temple and Bhanudas asked Vitthal why he had done this to him. He then asked him if he had done this only because he had come to take him back to Pandhari. He then told Vitthal that he has understood that he would do this to anyone who comes here to take him to Pandhari as he has now started enjoying the royal service. He then said that even if he takes thousand births he would only come back to him and not leave him. The guards then took Bhanudas away from the temple, placed the impaling stake on his shoulder and hastened to fasten the sharp stake on the ground. As they were about to execute him the impaling stake had burst and flowers fell on Bhanudas, The crowd that had gathered to see his execution and the guards were amazed and they started praising Bhanudas and said that he was a true vaishnava. The guards then ran to the king and told him what had happened. The king then came to Bhanudas and apologized to him and took him to the temple again. As soon as Bhanudas saw Vitthal he embraced his feet. Vitthal then asked Bhanudas to carry him to Pandharpur. Ram Raja then held the feet of Vitthal and cried why he was leaving him. Vitthal told him that he had done injustice by punishing Bhanudas and so he would now leave. He also said that he had come and stayed with him for a few days because of the good deeds he had done in his previous birth. Bhanudas then asked Vitthal how he will be able to carry him all by himself. Vitthal then took a smaller form and asked him to put him in his bag. Bhanudas placed Vitthal in his bag and started his journey towards Pandharpur. When Bhanudas arrived near Pandharpur, he placed the bag on the ground and went to have a bath in the river. When Bhanudas came back after his bath he saw that Vitthal had grown to his old size. He then asked him how he would be able to carry him to the temple. Vitthal then asked him to go to Pandhari and inform the priest that he is back and that all would come with him to take him to the temple. Bhanudas then went to the temple and told them that Vitthal is back and all the saints and the sadhus there were extremely happy to hear this. They then came performing kirthans to welcome Vitthal and took him on a procession around the city and on the banks of Chandrabhaga and took him to the temple and placed him there. The whole city of Pandharpur was in a festive mood and there were celebrations all over. Everyone praised Bhanudas for his deed.