Pandharpur is the holy abode of Lord Vithoba, and it is located in Maharashtra. Notable saints like Dnyaneshwar, Namdev and Tukaram’s holy feet touched the divine Pandharpur, and made the temple city into most auspicious. Similar to them, during the 18th century AD, there was a famous Warkari Saint, who lived in Pandharpur, and his name was Bhagwan Das. He was born in the family of weaver community, and he used to stitch beautiful clothes for Lord Vithoba at free of cost.
Even for stitching clothes for other people, he used to charge only a nominal rate, and he had lived a simple life. Due to his good nature, the people who lived nearby his place were moved with him in a friendly manner.
One day due to sickness, he didn’t stitch clothes for Lord Vithoba. He felt very much worried for that, since he is supposed to stitch dress during the auspicious Krishna Jayanti Festival day. However, during the night of the festival day, slowly he went inside the temple, and to his surprise, he found that Lord Vithoba was wearing a costly dress, with a lovely smile on his face. Everybody had praised him for his good service. Bhagwan Das then informed the temple management, that due to sickness, he was unable to stitch clothes for Lord Vithoba. But the temple manager told to him, that during the evening, Bhagwan Das came to the temple office, had urgently submitted the dress, and went away quickly.
Bhagwan Das then realized that Lord Vithoba had appeared in his form, and presented the dress which was not stitched by him, to the temple manager. He immediately conveyed the message to him, and everyone in the temple began to admire him for his pure bhakti on Lord Vithoba. After this incident, Bhagwan Das become a staunch devotee of Lord Vithoba. He used to sing beautiful songs on Lord Vithoba in the Pandharpur Temple, and it had melted the hearts of the devotees, and all of them were mesmerised with his divine songs on Lord Vithoba.
Still now lot of Vithoba devotees are living in Pandharpur, and they used to regularly visit him at least once in a day, and also lot of people living in Maharashtra used to visit Pandharpur, during festivals and other auspicious days.
“JAI PANDHARI NATHA NAMO NAMAHA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR