Dharam Devi was a devotee of Lord Krishna. Her heart always yearned for the Lord. She cried again and again, “Shyam! How can I live without a glimpse of You?”
We too, sometimes, utter these words, but our words are hollow. As a child, when she looked at the picture of Lord Krishna, she was enchanted by the Lord. Her parents would ask, “What has happened to you? You have been staring at this picture for long, and your eyes are filled with tears. What is the reason?” Dharam Devi would reply, “Mother! Father! Lord Krishna has sent me to this world and has asked me to spread the joy of pure love and devotion. This world is surrounded by the darkness of ignorance, and people are unhappy. They need this great message.” Her shining face and the spontaneous flow of words shocked the parents.
One day, Swami Ramdas, a saint of Anand Ashram, came to meet Dharam Devi.
Swami Ramdas asked her, “To see Sri Krishna, what does one have to practise?” She replied, “Love and devotion. If you wish to behold the beauteous face of Sri Krishna, then cultivate deep love for Him.” Now the saint countered, “In that case, are the mind and intelligence of no use?” This was a difficult question, but the child replied, without hesitating even a moment, “Mind and intelligence are not useless. Through intelligence one can come to know what is true and what is false, what is permanent and what is temporary. Once we realise that truth and permanence are Sri Krishna, then all else is false. Wealth, reputation, high positions, money, everything is false. Truth is the One Krishna. Then you should lay your intelligence at the Lotus Feet of Sri Krishna. The more one tries to understand Sri Krishna, the more complicated it gets. Therefore, do not try to understand Him by means of your intelligence. Instead, one should wrap up one’s mind and intelligence and place them at the Lotus Feet of Lord Sri Krishna.”
Come, let us bow down to the feet of this devotee, Dharam Devi, and request the Lord to grant us also that pure love and utter devotion.
Dada J P Vaswani was a humanitarian, philosopher, educator, acclaimed writer, powerful orator, messiah of ahimsa, and non-sectarian spiritual leader.
