Thread by @elektrotal

So I will. This is the story of Shri Vitthoba, who is also know as Vitthala or Panduranga, who is Vishnu himself present on earth. This deity is a big part of Bhakti worship in the South and West of India, centered around Maharashtra and Karnataka

https://twitter.com/elektrotal/status/1360040289562370049

Vitthoba, is the lord who stands on a brick, arms on his hips, awaiting his devotee. He's an incredibly huge cultic figure and commands incredible devotion, and his praises have been sung by some of the greatest devotional saints and poets in Hinduism

here, a kirtan in honor of him from my Guru as mood music.

In the olden times, there lived a man called Pundarika. To be honest, he was kind of an asshole. He never really held down any work, and he was basically a local goon who went around and harrassed people and roughed them up.

Pundarika lived with his parents, and when he wasn't outside bullying farmers, he was mistreating and abusing his elders. He'd yell insults and laze about and did nothing to help the family, and his parents were at their wit's end

Now, one day it happened that a Saint was passing through their village, and stopped for food. He was a bhakti saint, and his devotional practice was through singing and celebrating his passionate love for the divine.

Pundarika saw this saint singing, and was taken aback. This old dude who had nothing but the clothes on his back and a copper pot to drink out of was the happiest man he'd ever seen.

The guru, seeing the layabout just outside his periphery, invited Pundarika to come and join him for bhajans and devotion one day. Pundarika hesitated. He had no time for useless rituals and lengthy pujas, but the saint persisted.

"Look my son," he said, "I am not a ritualist. I don't care what you do or when or how. I sing the song of Bhakti, of service through devotion and devotion through service, and my lord Krishna rewards me with his love"

Pundarika was slowly convinced, and took up his spiritual practice. But as anyone taking up a new spiritualism can attest, it is incredibly hard to shift your mind from the material to the devotional, and even harder to get out of the ruts you live in.

In short, Pundarika went and sang the songs and chanted the malas and devoted himself to worship, and still had no peace. His mind was troubled, and he slowly reverted back to his normal asshole behaviors

He tried to focus, but someone would come into his attention and he'd snap at them. Everything he did wasn't good enough for his personal satisfaction, and it was always someone else's fault.

"Ma, can't you see i'm praying? leave me alone!"
"Look pops, i'm trying to meditate. go milk the cow yourself and stop bugging me!"

It doesn't take a buddha to see that this is not the rock solid foundation for a healthy spiritual awakening.

Finally, Pundarika went back to his guru and cried out that nothing was working, and everyone kept disturbing his attempts to calm down and be devotional. How could he be devoted if his parents kept getting in the damn way??

The guru sighed. "Serve your parents," he said. "Serve them fully and with love and grace and dignity. Treat them with respect and remember that they are not a burden sent here to punish you. In doing so, you will attain the peace you seek."

"Your family is your link to God, Pundarika. They gave you life, and they have raised you and cared for you, and treated you well even as you ran roughshod over them. This is a reciprocal relationship, and you are not holding up your end of the bargain."

The message got through, and Pundarika went back and started mending his relationships and rebuilding the trust and love that comes from healthy family bonds.

Time passed, and Pundarika got married. In doing so, he started to let his spiritual practices slack, and started reverting to his old habits again. He wasn't as abusive as before, but he was certainly shoving his folks to the side in unfair ways

Finally Pundarika's mother had had enough. She and her husband decided to take a pilgrimage to Kashi to worship and be free of this misery. Pundarika and his wife thought this was a fabulous idea, and decided to join in.

They bought themselves a pair of horses and joined the pilgrim caravan that his parents were walking with. Walking, while their son and his wife rode alongside.

Soon the pilgrimage came to the ashram of a great sage, and decided to spend a couple of nights there, to sit and learn from the wise one as well as purify themselves for the rest of their trek.

Most of the folks, exhausted from having walked all day, passed out immediately, but Pundarika found himself wide awake. Early in the morning as dawn was breaking, he saw three absolutely stunningly beautiful women enter the ashram

Their clothing was absolutely filthy, covered in dirt and sludge and old vegetables and all of it. They came in, cleaned the floors, fetched the sage's water and washed his clothes and generally kept the house. Then they disappeared into the ashram and emerged sparkling and clean

And as they passed by the stunned Pundarika, they vanished. He was completely baffled and asked the residents of the Ashram if they knew anything, but no one said a word, and the sage only offered an enigmatic smile. To be fair, though, that's how he responded to everything.

The next night, he saw the three women again, and this time he threw himself at their feet and asked who they were. The three looked at him and then at each other. The first one replied, "I am Ganga, and these are my sisters Yamuna and Saraswati. We are the holy rivers."

Pundarika could not believe what he was hearing. Ganga smiled at him and continued speaking. "Each day, pilgrims bathe in us to wash their sins away and to refresh their souls and their connections to the world around them, and our clothes become stained with their leavings."

"We come here to wash away our own sins through devotion, so that we may continue providing our important service to the people. Service to humanity is service to the divine, and even the divine need to restore themselves in order to care for those who depend upon them."

"And you, my dear Pundarika," said Ganga with a sparkle in her eye, "you are the worst sinner of all." Her sisters laughed with the sound of water burbling over rocks. "You pretend to devotion, but your actions speak louder than your utterances."

"Even after all this time, you still treat your parents like crap. Even after you swore you had changed, even after you said you set aside your evil ways and even after you went and did all the performative nonsense that people do when they want to look like they're changing"

Ashamed and completely read for filth, Pundarika fled back to his sleeping area. The next day, he was a changed man. He gave his parents his horses, and swore up and down to only do actions that helped people or brought goodness to the world.

Some time later, in Vaikunta, Krishna was dreaming of his long gone youth, and the pastimes he had shared with his girlfriend Radha. His consort Rukhmini saw his face, and immediately divined what the lord was doing, and in her fury she stomped off to earth.

Krishna immediately ran after her, but Rukhmini was a goddess, and if she did not want to be found, not even the Lord of Lords could do it. So Krishna went searching through town and wood to find her and apologize.

Searching here and there, Krishna finally found Rukhmani in a jungle near the ashram of Pundarika. After reconciling, Krishna realized that this was the home of his devotee, a man who had completely changed his ways and had finally, after years of work, reformed himself.

"Rukhmai, my beloved devotee resides here. Let us go and bless him and reward his progress towards being a better person." She agreed, and they approached the ashram.

But inside the ashram, Pundarika was caring for his parents as they lay sleeping. He had progressed in his faith enough to know that Krishna was here to see him, and that He was right outside, but Pundarika had sworn to care for his parents first. So he asked the lord to wait.

And by "Asked", I mean that Pundarika literally threw a brick outside so that Krishna wouldn't have to stand in the mud, and told the lord to wait till he was done massaging his parents' legs.

and because of it, we have a bunch of great folk art of a man telling God to buzz off.

Rather than being taken aback at this seeming insult, Krishna was overjoyed. He happily stood on the brick and waited, hands on his hips, for Pundarika to finish his devotions.

Finally Pundarika came out and begged for the lord's forgiveness. "What is to be forgiven, my child?" replied the lord. "You have devoted yourself to a life of service, and in serving your parents you serve me. I will happily wait as long as necessary."

Krishna then asked Pundarika if he desired any boon for his lifetime of devotion. Replied Pundarika, "What could I possibly ask for that would beat God himself waiting at my doorstep for me?"

"Come now, I insist. What do you want?"
"Very well, my lord. Stay here and bless all who wait to see you waited to see me."
Krishna laughed, and became known as Vitthala, The one who stands on a brick. And now he waits for all of his devotees to come to him.

And Pundarika finally found his peace. Jay Shri Krishna!

#hinduthread Vithoba, Krishna, Pundarika.