King Akbar had photographs of three great devotees in his altar, Swami Sri Haridas- the great devotee of krsna-Guru of Tansen, second Saint shri Vitthal nath and third one- the Queen of Amer-Rani Ratnavati- the Queen who left her opulence, family and everything for Krsna.
Devotees might come in your life as your servant, friend or as a son, one should always respect them as their mere presence can change your destiny. Those who are the servant of supreme personality of godhead Krsna, are worthy of love and respect. The queen of Amer ( Rajsthan), the daughter in law of King Prithviraj Chouhan was thus blessed by her servant with the gift of love of Krsna.
Dasi of Rani Ratnavati was initiated by great guru-Vitthalnath ji, this dasi personally served the Queen. Vaishnavas are blessed with divine qualities and so was this vaishnavi, she would keep quiet and chant all the time “Hey Nandanandan, Hey Raghunandan, hey Murali Manohar, these names of krsna, purified the Queen. Queen at times had tears in her eyes to hear these names from dasi.
An advance vaishanava continuously exhibits symptoms of ecstatic love. Dasi would sometimes cry profusely thinking of krsna, sometimes she would laugh loudly, this took the Queen by surprise. One fine day when the dasi was showing ecstatic symptoms of love for Krsna, the Queen touched her hand. The mere touch of a dasi electrified the Queen and then she asked “Who is this Nanda Nandan? Why you cry for him? Why you love him so much, why you call him all the time? Is there anything wrong with you? Should I call a doctor for you? The dasi said” Oh dear Rani, your doctors can not cure my disease".
Rani said” Even king Akbar consults our doctors, why can’t they fix your problem? To which the dasi said” Oh dear Queen, this disease of separation from Krsna, which can’t be cured by any doctor. I did not know that I will get this disease by loving Krsna. I don’t want to give you my pain. Queen forced her to tell about Krsna, Dasi said” This disease is caused by hearing about him, so please don’t hear about him. This is contagious disease caused merely by hearing about him”. When I went to Vrindavan I got it from there. Queen forced her to tell and said” oh dasi, I can afford this disease as I am the Queen I can get medicine on it easily”. Dasi started smiling and said” This katha of krsna won’t allow you to be Queen anymore; you will incessantly cry like me, I am your dasi I can tolerate it but you are soft hearted Queen and it will be difficult for you to tolerate this disease of separation”.
After testing Rani Ratnavati, dasi said” You will have to walk on fire bed, are you ready? You will have to leave your opulence; if you can leave it then I can tell you about Nanda nandan”, you better enjoy your kingdom and opulence”. Rani said” I can do anything to hear about your krsna. Dasi then told each and every katha of Krsna to the Queen and then she was like never before. Rani took her dasi as a guru and said "You won’t serve me anymore, now you will tell me about Krsna", and thus days and nights passed, Rani Ratnavati kept hearing about Krsna from her dasi. Pain of separation grew in her heart and she felt she cannot live without Krsna and she must see her beloved Krsna once. Ultimately, she became the cryer and was desperate for Krsna. Rani would sit at the lotus feet of her dasi who was an exalted devotee and now her Guru. At times Rani allowed her to sit her on her throne.
The body of devotee is purely transcendental; it cannot be restricted to material positions and relations like servant, friend, father or mother. In the absence of dasi, Rani would continuously chant hari nam, weep and beg Krsna for his darshan. Engaged in astyam seva- continuous service of Krsna, she saw dreams of her playing Raas with Krsna. Krsna started appearing in her dreams and in the deity form Krsna would accept her service. Advised by Dasi, Rani started serving sadhus for more advancement in her Bhaav. Rani started serving and feeding saints, in fact she created separate ashram for sadhus and eventually her glories reached to Vrindavan and sadhus from Vrindavan came to see such an exalted devotee. Dasi stopped her from mixing with sadhus as she was Queen and was not allowed to go out but Rani started dancing with sadhus in Hari Kirtan as she saw Krsna himself was dancing with these Vrindavan sadhus. Dasi warned her of consequences and the news broke out that the Queen of Amer Rani Ratnavati is dancing madly in ecstatic love of Krsna with sadhus of Vrindavan. The ministers of King conspired against Queen and did not like Queen dancing. Non devotees plotted against Queen and made stories against her that reached to the King.
Venom was spread against her and ministers told the king, that Queen is breaking the principles of religion. Prem Sing the son of Queen became a vaishnava in her association and started chanting hari nam, this instigated King further and When the king saw his son with Tilaka and mala in his hand, he took his sword to Kill his own son and said” I will kill him and his mother” But people somehow stopped him. Things got worse when King saw his wife in totally detached avatar; the Queen had shaved her head and wore dress of sadhvi. As Queen was popular among the masses due to her devotion towards Krsna, ministers told King not to kill her directly. Ministers suggested the king to bring man-eater lion and let the lion eat the Queen. Soon King sent lion into her palace and As lion entered in her palace, dasi shouted, “Oh Queen, lion, lion has entered” to which the fearless Rani Ratnavati said” Oh Lord Narsinh has come” seeing her bhaav, Krsna took the form of Lord Narsinh & appeared in front of her, Those ministers who were watching it thinking Queen would be killed through window saw Rani ratnavati worshipping Lord Narsinh and Lord Narsinh had tears in his eyes to see the love and service Rani Ratnavati. Lord Narsinh blessed her dasi too.
Then Lord Narsinh attacked ministers and killed all those who had plotted against Queen, Lord then kicked the throne of King, the king Madhav Singh fell down, The lord did not kill him as he was husband of Queen, he just slapped him and disappeared. Maan Singh the brother in law of Queen-the commander in chief of King Akbar and Madhav singh fell down at the lotus feet of Rani Ratnavati and asked for forgiveness.
(Vitthal nath ji was the son of Mahaprabhu Vallabhacharya (Pushti Sampraday) as per Chaitanya Charitamrit, Vitthal nath ji lived in Mathura and served Gopal ji now known as Srinath ji -in Nathdwara Rajasthan. The disciples of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu namley Srila Rupa Goswami and Srila Sanatana Goswami would often meet Vitthal nath ji and lived with him for months in Mathura worshipping Srinath ji.)
No comments:
Post a Comment