King Kashi Naresh Visited Sant Ravidas Ji

Ravidas Ji was born in 1377 in Kashi, Uttar Pradesh, and spent his entire life there delivering spiritual lectures. He motivated people to live their lives at the feet of God and lovingly offered holy water to all who visited him and attended his satsangs.

Once, the King of Kashi, Kashi Naresh, wished to know whether it was true that whoever visited Ravidas Ji received his mercy. With this thought, the king visited Ravidas Ji to have his divine sight and to listen to his satsang. The king sat among the common people, listening to Ravidas Ji’s spiritual discourse.

When his turn came to meet Ravidas Ji, Ravidas Ji asked the King of Kashi,
“What do you need from me? You are a king among kings.”

The king replied,
“I have come to apji not as a king, but as a devotee. I seek your mercy so that the doors of God may open for me.”

Ravidas Ji said,
“You are a king. How will you manage your kingdom after attaining God’s enlightenment? How will you take care of the rest?”

Still, the king insisted and requested Ravidas Ji to bless him with mercy.

Ravidas Ji worked as a cobbler. He took water from the same pot that he used for his work. Closing his eyes, Ravidas Ji held some water in his hand, prayed for mercy, and asked the king to drink this holy water.

When the king saw that the water had been taken from the same pot used for cobbling, he became conscious about its purity. Cleverly, without letting Ravidas Ji notice, he poured the water onto his clothes instead of drinking it.

Even with his eyes closed, Ravidas Ji knew that the king had not consumed the water due to his lack of faith in the mercy.The king returned home and asked his wife to wash his clothes. The queen sent the clothes to a laundryman. While washing, the laundryman noticed a dark stain on the king’s garment and asked his daughter to wash it by hand.As the daughter tried to remove the stain, she applied her saliva to it. The moment she did so, all her inner spiritual centers awakened, and she became a Brahm Gyani. Divine knowledge entered her directly from God.

As time passed, news spread that the laundryman’s daughter had become enlightened and had begun giving spiritual lectures. Hearing this, the king became curious and went to meet her, hoping to receive blessings from a true devotee.

When the daughter saw the king, she immediately bowed before him. Surprised, the king said,
“I have come to receive spiritual blessings from you, yet you are bowing to me. Why is that?”

The daughter replied,
“It is because of you that I received the mercy of enlightenment. The clothes you gave for washing had a water mark on them. When I tried to remove that mark with my saliva, I became enlightened from that very moment.”

The king then understood that the mercy came from the holy water that he had poured onto his clothes instead of drinking it.

Filled with remorse, he returned to Ravidas Ji, apologized for his mistake, and asked for mercy once again.

Ravidas Ji said to the king,
“You have come seeking forgiveness, but I have already forgiven you. However, mercy happens only once. Now you must serve with a pure heart in the temple. You may take care of organizing the shoe rack. With time, you will understand the true importance of mercy.”