Talk:Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa Blesses his Bhakta Puṇḍalika:Jayadeva and Padmāvatī
By Vishal Agarwal
One of the greatest Sant–poets of Hindu dharm is Jayadeva. He was born to very religious parents in the village of Kenduli Sāsan in Odisha. This village is very close to the town of Puri, which has the famous Jagannātha Mandir. Jayadeva was very young when his parents died. Jayadeva’s father owed a small amount of money to a man named Niranjan. Niranjan had no pity on the fact that Jayadeva was just a young boy with no one to support him. He decided to cheat Jayadeva and snatch his home from him as well.
Niranjan created some fake papers about the money owed by Jayadeva’s father and took them to Jayadeva, saying, “Look at these papers, Jayadeva. They clearly say that if the loan is not repaid to me, I can take your home.” Jayadeva, being very innocent, quietly signed his papers. Just then, Niranjan’s daughter came running to them and said, “Father, our house has caught fire. Please hurry back.” Although Niranjan had been extremely cruel to him, Jayadeva rushed to Niranjan’s home to extinguish the fire. He walked with some water inside the burning house. A miracle then occurred – as soon as Jayadeva entered the house, the fire extinguished on its own.
Niranjan realized that Jayadeva was a Sant and confessed that he had brought fake papers to snatch his home from him. But, being a kind man, Jayadeva forgave him immediately.
Jayadeva wanted to be closer to the Jagannātha Mandir and therefore moved to Puri. He studied Sanskrit and soon became a fine scholar. Sudeva, a learned Paṇḍit of that area, married his beautiful and noble daughter Padmāvatī to Jayadeva. The married couple returned to Jayadeva’s village. After some time, Jayadeva decided to go on a pilgrimage. He was already quite famous for his beautiful Sanskrit songs on Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā. A king insisted on giving money to Jayadeva while he travelled for his pilgrimage.
On his way, a group of dacoits robbed Jayadeva. But even worse, they cut his hands and feet and threw him into a dry well. Although Jayadeva was bleeding and in great pain, he remembered Kṛṣṇa and kept chanting Bhagavān’s name. Soon thereafter, the King of Bengal named Lakṣmaṇa Sena was passing by with his soldiers and servants. When they saw Jayadeva chanting the names of Bhagavān even though he was bleeding to death, they pulled him out. Many physicians attended to Jayadeva, and he survived. Lakṣmaṇa Sena was deeply impressed by Jayadeva’s character and his bhakti for Kṛṣṇa. He invited Jayadeva to spend a few days in his palace, where the King arranged a feast for the scholars of his kingdom.
The dacoits heard of the feast. They dressed themselves as noble Paṇḍits and showed up to eat free food and get presents from the King. When they saw Jayadeva, they were shocked. They thought that Jayadeva would get them arrested. Jayadeva saw them too, but he did not believe in revenge. Instead, he asked the King to give some gifts to them. Some soldiers asked the dacoits, “How do you know Jayadeva, who is a very saintly person and is greatly respected by our King?” The dacoits lied and said, “Jayadeva is a crook who merely pretends to be a Sant. He had committed a great crime for which he should have been beheaded. Instead, we had only his hands and feet cut.”
But the moment the dacoits had completed their false story, the ground under them split open. As everyone watched in shock, the dacoits were swallowed alive by the earth. The very next moment, another miracle happened – Jayadeva’s hands and feet grew back, and he was perfectly healed. The King bowed to Jayadeva and requested him to explain the miracle. Jayadeva told him how the dacoits had robbed him and had cut his hands and feet. But Jayadeva also said that he was sorry that the dacoits had lost their lives because of him. In fact, he was grateful to the dacoits because they had shown him how evil money was, since it causes people to become greedy and cruel towards each other.
Jayadeva spent some time with the King of Odisha too and finally settled down in his home village. There, with Padmāvatī’s help, he started writing his masterpiece – the Gīta Govinda. The picture on the left shows a scene from this beautiful poem. In this poetical work, he describes very beautifully the love that Kṛṣṇa had for Rādhā. One day, he was about to complete the verse with the words “...Kṛṣṇa touched Rādhā’s feet,” but he stopped before he was about to write them. He thought, “How can Bhagavān touch anyone’s feet?” He went to his wife and said, “I am confused about my poetry. Let me go and bathe in the river and return. I think a cool dip will clear my mind.” Saying this, he left.
Padmāvatī was surprised to see Jayadeva return in a second. Jayadeva said, “I think it is alright to complete the verse with the words ‘...Kṛṣṇa touched Rādhā’s feet.’” He took out the palm leaf on which he was writing the poem and then completed the verse. Then his wife fed him lunch, and he went inside to take an afternoon nap. After some time, Padmāvatī heard a knock at the door. She was surprised to see Jayadeva standing there. She asked, “When did you step out? I thought you were taking a nap.” He was surprised and replied, “Of course not. I left an hour back to take a cool dip and am just now returning.” Padmāvatī then brought back the palm leaf on which the verse was written complete. She went into the bedroom and saw that her husband, whom she had thought was sleeping there, was in fact not there at all.
The couple now understood what had happened. While Jayadeva went out for a dip in the river, none other than Kṛṣṇa came to complete the verse, had food from Padmāvatī’s hands, pretended to take a nap in the bedroom, and then disappeared. Jayadeva now touched the feet of his wife and said, “Padmāvatī, you are my Guru. Kṛṣṇa chose to give his darśana to you instead of to me. By completing this verse in your presence, he taught me that there is no shame in touching the feet of someone you love deeply, no matter how great he is.” The couple spent the rest of their lives in Kenduli and in Vṛndāvana, singing the praises of Kṛṣṇa.