Bhaktha Chokamela

Once there lived a person named Chokamela in Pandaripur, who belonged to a low caste. He was a great devotee and after doing all his daily chores and duties he would sit and meditate on the Lord. He would go near the temple daily and go round it and always desired to have the darshan of the Lord. The priests of the temple who noticed this and observed that it was chokamela's daily routine, they scolded him and threatened him if he again came near the temple. But Chokamela stood and argued with the priests saying that, "In the eyes of the Lord everyone are equal and anyone can approach him with a pure heart". The priests didn't reply because they knew that what chokamela had said was the truth. But Chokamela left the place, since he didnt want to have a conflict with them.

On reaching his hut, he started praying to the Lord to give him darshan, since he wanted to be free from all the troubles of this material world. His pure love and prayer made the Lord come over to his hut. Chokamela was very happy to have the Lord himself in his hut. The Lord asked him, what his wish was. But Chokamela said that apart from the darshan of the Lord he didn't want anything else. The Lord was also pleased with his answer, so he took Chokamela to the temple and sat and talked with him inside the sanctorum or garbagudi till early morning. In the meanwhile the priests, as usual, opened the door of the temple in the early morning and were shocked to find Chokamela sitting inside the temple. In their anger they asked him to vacate the place immediately without telling anyone about him entering the temple. Chokamela told them that it was the Lord who had brought him inside, but they wouldn't listen to him and asked him to vacate his house and go elsewhere. Chokamela tried his best to explain them but since no one was prepared to listen to him, he went home and told his wife about it and they vacated the place and crossed the river chandrabhaga and built a nice little hut on the other side of the river and started living there.

Though Chokamela had shifted his house, his thoughts were always immersed on the Lord. One day when Chokamela was sitting outside his house, his wife brought him food and started serving him, when the Lord suddenly appeared and expressed his desire to have food with him. Chokamela was extremely pleased, he took the Lord near a tree and made him sit on a rock and started serving food for the Lord. Chokamela's wife brought some curds which happened to slip and fell on the Lord's yellow robe. Chokamela felt sorry for what happened and immediately cleaned it. When all these things were happening, a brahmin happened to see it and became extremely angry and jealous. He came and slapped Chokamela, for having served the Lord, with food made by a low caste or untouchable. Immediately the Lord's Cheek swelled and the finger marks were printed on the cheeks of the Lord. The brahmin was shocked and questioned himself on how such a thing could happen. He realised his mistake of thinking Chokamela to be only a low caste, whereas he was a great devotee of the Lord. A devotee whose pure heart and prayer could bring down thenLord to his hut. He at once fell at the feet of the Lord and Chokamela and begged them to pardon him for his mistake. He felt sorry for having slapped the cheeks of Chokamela. Chokamela pardoned the brahmin and touched the cheeks of the Lord, immediately the swelling on the cheeks of the Lord disappeared.

Later the brahmin went to the village and explained the whole incident to the other villagers, who came running to Chokamela and prostrated in front of him and asked for forgiveness for all that happened and took him to the temple . From that day onwards Chokamela was allowed to enter the temple. Chockamela used to come to the temple daily and offer his prayers to the Lord and finally he reached the feet of the Lord

Tulsidas

Once there was a minister in the court of Akbar by name Atmaram. He had a son by name Tulasi, who was very intelligent, handsome and very learned. Tulasi made his parents very happy and they felt blessed to have such a son. When Tulasi came of age he was married to a pretty, educated girl by name Matha Devi. Matha Devi and Tulasi had a very good mutual understanding. She was very devoted to her husband. Tulasi inspite of being very intellingent was spending most of his time in the pleasures of life. Matha Devi who was observing this, thought that it was not appropriate for him to spend his time in such pleasures, so she advised him to keep himself under control . But her advise just lasted only for a few days and later it used to fade off and again he used to be his usual self.

One day Akbar wanted to go for hunting and asked Tulasi to accompany him. Tulasi who though didn't like to go, couldn't refuse the emperor so he went for hunting. After tulasi had departed, Matha Devi got a message that her mother was seriously ill. Tulasi's mother consoled Matha Devi and asked her to leave immediately, and that she would take of Tulasi in her absence. Hence Matha Devi left to see her mother. When Tulasi returned back, he didn't find his wife and started searching her all over and was quiet shocked when his mother told him about her departure to her mother's place. He was very dejected and sad and was unable to have his meal in the absence of his wife. He was not bothered about his mother-in-law.

He was unable to go to sleep so after sometime he got up and went off to his mother-in-law place. He went through a dense forest which was full of wild animals. In his desire to see his wife he walked very fast and fearlessly and reached the place in the early morning. The whole village was very quiet and the doors of the house were closed, so he didn't want to disturb anyone. He went around the house. He observed a rope hanging from the top of the building and assumed his wife must have kept it . With the help of the rope he climbed and went up and went to his wife room. Matha Devi was shocked and surprised to find her husband suddenly in her room. She enquired about how she came inside the house when all the doors and windows were closed. Tulasi replied that he had come here with the help of a rope. She was surprised and both went to see the rope, instead they found a deadly Cobra. Matha Devi was shocked .

Later they spent some time chatting with each other. Then she persuaded her husband to give up all the pleasures, telling that material and physical pleasures are only temporary. Human birth is very rare and it should be used for concentrating on God and realising him. She also said that all the love, attention, etc which he was showering on her, instead if he had put even a little effort on realising God , then, by now, he would have succeeded in realising God. These wordings of his wife, had a deep impact on Tulasidas, that he went off in search of God. Twelve years he wandered and lived on fruits and water. One day a brahma raksasha appeared before him and thanked him for helping him by giving water when he was in utmost need and offered him a boon. Tulasi who was not interested in anything asked him to bring Lord Shri Rama, on which the raksasha expressed his inability to do so, but pointed to an old person at a distance and said that he was Lord Hanuman, who alone is capable of giving the darshan of Lord Rama.

Tulasi went to that old person and requested him to help him in getting the darshn of the Lord.
Lord Hanuman asked him to go home and said that he will definitely get the darshan. Tulasi went to his house and was engrossed in singing the bhajans, when he saw a muslim king going by with his huge troop. Later Lord Maruthi asked him if he had seen the Lord and Tulasi shook his head. LordMaruthi explained that the muslim king was none other than Lord Rama and the troop were his the monkeys "vanaras". Tulasi felt sad that he was unable to recognise the Lord. But Lord Hanuman blessed him with the darshan of Lord Rama along with Lakshmana and Sita and then he disappeared.

Tulasi became very famous for his bhajans and talks on the Lord, that one day Akbar ordered him to give him the darshan of Lord Rama, but Tulasi replied that it was not possible for him. Akbar got angry and imprisoned him. Soon thousands of monkeys attacked his kingdom and no one were able to control them. Akbar was advised by some people that the release of Tulasi will bring down the attack of the monkeys. Akbar realised his fault and immediately released Tulasi. Tulasi later went to mathura,brindavan etc and settled down 0n the banks of the river yamuna. Tulasi love for the lord made many a people also become ardent devotees of the lord and finally he left the world.

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Constant touch with the service of the Lord is a must for everyone in this world, if one has to come out from the clutches of the material world or if one is not to skid down from the journey of self realisation.

Sri Jayadeva

In a place called Tindubilva, a brahmin couple lived near the temple of jaganath, since they were childless they used to pray for a child. By the grace of the Lord they got a son whom they named him as Jayadeva. They were very happy to have a child and were enjoying all the pranks and movement of the child. During his eighth year they performed "Upanayanam" for their son. Their love for their son was so intense that they didn't send to school because they thought that it would tire him. So Jayadeva used to play freely and spend his time with the friends. But Jayadeva happened to be a sharp and intelligent boy, so though he didnt go to any school, he was able to to learn and study just by listening to his friends studying. He was able to grasp everything just by listening. Hence by the time he attained sixteen years he became a great scholar
Even pundits who happened to have formal education and training were of no match to Jayadeva. The great pundits and scholars were completely dumb struck by the thoughts of Jayadeva, that they thought he was an incarnation of Sage Vyasa. Jayadeva gave importance to service to God or Lord, so he used to sing bhajans and used to compose a lot of songs on the Lord. Because all his composition came front the heart, people liked it instantly. His most popular composition was "Gita govinda". He married a pious lady by name Padmavathi, she was also a devotee of the Lord. He also sang the twenty four astapadis , these astapadis and Gita govinda are still sung by many devotees of Lord Krishna and enjoyed by everyone. Jayadeva along with his wife reached the feet of the Lord in the end.
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If one is really keen to learn something then there is no need for any one to teach, one can do so by just listening and seeing things around with all ones attention