SAINT NAMDEV ENLIGHTENMENT BY VITHOBA

THIS STORY SHOWS TWO IMPORTANT LESSONS IN
 A SADAKA'S(SPIRITUAL ASPIRANT'S) LIFE--

1) IMPORTANCE OF SURRENDER TO GURU, FOR
    COMPLETE ENLIGHTENMENT EVEN TO SUCH 
     SAINTS AS NAMDEV, WHO WAS IN CONSTANT 
     COMPANY OF VITHOBA.

2) GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE EVERYWHERE & NOT
     NECESSARILY ONLY IN TEMPLES.

Vithoba found Namdev had not yet realised the Supreme 
Truth and wanted to teach him. When Jnaneswar and 
Namdev returned from their pilgrimage, Gora Kumbhar 
gave a feast to all the saints in his place and among 
them were Jnaneswar and Namdev. At the feast, 
Jnaneswar in collusion with Gora, told Gora publicly, 
‘You are a potter, daily engaged in making pots and 
testing them to see which are properly baked and which 
are not. These pots before you (i.e., the saints) are the 
pots of Brahma. See which of these are sound and 
which not.’

Thereupon Gora said, ‘Yes Swami, I shall do so’, and 
took up the stick with which he used to tap his pots to
 test their soundness; and holding it aloft in his hand he
 went to each of his guests and tapped each on the 
head as he usually did to his pots. Each guest humbly 
submitted to such tapping. But when Gora approached
Namdev, the latter indignantly called out: ‘You potter, 
what do you mean by coming to tap me with that stick?’ 

Gora thereupon told Jnaneswar, ‘Swami, all the other 
pots have been properly baked. This one, (i.e., Namdev) 
alone is not yet properly baked.’ All the assembled 
guests burst into laughter. Namdev felt greatly 
humiliated and ran up to Vitthal with whom he was on the 
most intimate terms, playing with him, eating with him, 
sleeping with him, and so on. Namdev complained of this 
humiliation which had happened to him, the closest 
friend and companion of Vitthal.

Vitthal (who of course knew all this) pretended to 
sympathise with him, asked for all the details of the 
happenings at Gora’s house and after hearing 
everything said, ‘Why should you not have kept quiet 
and submitted to the tapping, as all the others did? 
That is why all this trouble has come.’ Thereupon 
Namdev cried all the more and said, ‘You also want 
to join the others and humiliate me. Why should I 
have submitted like the others? Am I not your closest 
friend, your child?’ Vitthal said, ‘You have not yet 
properly understood the truth. 

And you won’t understand if I tell you. But go to the saint 
who is in a ruined temple in such and such a forest. He 
will be able to give you enlightenment.’ Namdev 
accordingly went there and found an old, unassuming 
man sleeping in a corner of the temple with his feet on 
a Shiva lingam. Namdev could hardly believe this was 
the man from whom he — the companion of Vitthal — 
was to gain enlightenment. However, as there was none 
else there, Namdev went near the man and clapped 
his hands. 

The old man woke up with a start and, seeing Namdev, 
said, ‘Oh, you are Namdev whom Vitthal has sent here. 
Come!’ Namdev was dumb-founded and began to think,
 ‘This must be a great man.’

Still he thought it was revolting that any man, however
great, should be resting his feet on a lingam. He asked 
the old man, ‘You seem to be a great personage. But 
is it proper for you to have your feet on a lingam?’ 

The old man replied, ‘Oh, are my feet on a lingam? Where 
is it? Please remove my feet elsewhere.’ Namdev removed 
the feet and put them in various places. Wherever they 
were put, there was a Shiva lingam. Finally, he took them 
on his lap and he himself became a Shiva lingam. 

Then he realised the truth and the old gentleman said, 
‘Now you can go back’.It is to be noted that only when 
he surrendered himself, and touched the feet of his 
guru, enlightenment came. After this final enlightenment 
Namdev returned to his house and for some days did 
not go to Vitthal at the temple, though it had been his 
habit not only to visit Vitthal every day, but to spend 
most of his time with Vitthal at the temple. 

So after a few days, Vitthal went to Namdev’s house and 
like a guileless soul enquired how it was that Namdev has 
forgotten him and never visited him. Namdev replied, 
‘No more of your fooling me. I know now. Where is the 
place where you are not! To be with you, should I go to 
the temple? Do I exist apart from you?’ Then Vitthal said,
‘So you now understand the truth. That is why you had 
to be sent for this final lesson’.”