Talk:Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa Blesses his Bhakta Puṇḍalika
By Vishal Agarwal
In the city of Pandharpur there lived a man named Puṇḍalika with his wife and with his old parents. Puṇḍalika did not respect his parents at all. One day his parents said to Puṇḍalika that they wanted to go to the holy city called Vārāṇasī and asked if he could take them there. Puṇḍalika replied rudely that he had no time and that they could go on their own.
The parents became very sad. They had no money to go to Vārāṇasī. So they just started walking towards Vārāṇasī, thinking that they would beg for food every day on their way. But after a few days Puṇḍalika thought that he should have been nice to his parents. He felt bad for what he had done to them. One night he could not sleep. He woke up his wife, and they set out on their horses to look for his parents. Luckily, he found them soon on the way to Vārāṇasī. He took them respectfully on horseback to Vārāṇasī, and after the pilgrimage was over, they all returned home.
From then onwards Puṇḍalika was a changed man. He was now devoted to his parents. He served them lovingly, gave food to them, pressed their feet when they were tired, and read holy books to them when they wanted. Far away in the city of Dvārakā, Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa heard about the beautiful change in the behavior of Puṇḍalika and He decided to visit him. Kṛṣṇa’s wife Rukmaṇī said that there was no need to visit Puṇḍalika as he did not even perform pūjā to Him. Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa replied that Puṇḍalika worshipped his parents, served them lovingly, and gave them everything that they wanted, and that this was just like worshipping Him, because He was the Father and the Mother of the whole creation.
When Kṛṣṇa reached Puṇḍalika’s home, the latter was absorbed in massaging his father’s feet and therefore did not pay attention to the visitor. But when he noticed the divine light coming from the body of Kṛṣṇa, he turned around and told Him that he was serving his parents at that moment and could not leave the feet of his father unattended, but that he was throwing a brick at Him so that He could use it as a stool till he was done with his father, and then he would come and attend to Him. Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa humbly stood on the brick, waiting patiently for Puṇḍalika, with His hands on His waist.
When Puṇḍalika’s father went to sleep, he went to the door to welcome Kṛṣṇa. Bhagavān was so pleased with Puṇḍalika’s respect for his parents now that He asked Puṇḍalika to request a boon from Him. Puṇḍalika had just one request Bhagavān, please stay with me forever on this brick. Kṛṣṇa agreed and transformed Himself into the Mūrti of Vitthala (Vit = brick; sthala = location, station).
Puṇḍalika too became a Sant after some time. When he died, people constructed a Śiva Maṇḍir on his grave, and bhaktas constructed a Maṇḍir where Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa had decided to stay in the form of the Mūrti. This story shows how Puṇḍalika earned the blessings of Bhagavān by doing his duty towards his parents.
The Maṇḍir of Pandharpur has developed into a great center of Hindu Dharm since it was founded. Many Sants and bhaktas have been associated with the Maṇḍir for the last 800 years or more. These include Nāmadeva, Jñāneśvara, Chokhamela, Kūrmadāsa and so on. In this chapter, we will narrate numerous incidents from their lives from which we can learn a lot.