Raghu Dasa
There was once a great devotee of Lord Ramachandra named Raghu Dasa. He
lived in Puri under a big umbrella near the Lion Gate of the Jagannath temple.
Once when he went to see Lord Jagannath he saw Rama, Laxman, and Sita on Jagannath’s altar. From that day on he was convinced that Lord Jagannath was
non-different from Lord Ramachandra. Raghu developed friendly love, sakhya
rasa, for Lord Jagannath.
Once Raghu prepared a nice garland for Lord Jagannath and gave it to the
pujari to offer to the Lord. But the pujari did not want to offer it, since
Raghu had used a string made from the bark of the banana tree. At that time use
of such things was prohibited in Jagannath's temple. Raghu felt very sad that
his garland was not offered to Lord Jagannath. He left the temple feeling very
down. Later in the day, the pujari was finishing the evening arati. Before the
Lord goes to bed the pujaris dress Him in a special dress called bada
sringar-vesa. After dressing the Lord, the pujari started to decorate His body
with flowers. But to his surprise, whatever he did, not a single flower would
remain on the Lord's body. The Lord would not accept any of the flowers. All
the pujaris became very worried, thinking that they must have committed some
offense. But what could it have been? They all decided that to try to
understand what offense they had committed, they would all sleep in the temple
and fast until the Lord appeared to them in their dreams to inform them of
their offense. Sure enough, that same night Lord Jagannath appeared in the
dream of the head pujari, and told him, "My devotee Raghu Dasa
brought a flower garland for Me. He prepared it with so much love and devotion.
You saw the external feature of the string and denied him permission to give
the garland to Me. You could not see how nicely he prepared the garland. He
strung it with love and devotion. Now my devotee, being deprived of my service,
is lying in his house keeping die garland in front of him. He has not eaten
anything and is constantly crying. He has not yet slept. How can I accept any
garland from you and sleep peacefully unless My devotee’s desire has been
fulfilled?"
Immediately the head pujari woke up and told everything to the other
pujaris. Then all of them went to Raghu Dasa and explained their offense, and
asked him to give his garland to Lord Jagannath. Raghu Dasa was very happy to
hear that the Lord is so merciful that He was personally waiting to accept his
garland. Raghu Dasa was in ecstasy.
Once, Raghu Dasa suffered from a very serious disease. His health
deteriorated to the point that he could not get up from bed. He had to pass
stool in his bed. The smell was very bad. Raghu Dasa, being very ill, passed in
and out of consciousness, unable to help himself. One small boy was coming to
serve Raghu Dasa. He cleaned his body and put on chandan and offered nicely
scented things to remove the smell and purify the room. When Raghu came to his
external senses, he found that the boy was Lord Jagannath Himself. Raghu told
Lord Jagannath, "My dear Lord, what are You doing here? By doing this low
service to me, You are making me an offender. I am becoming more sinful by
receiving service from You. O Lord, You are very merciful. You are the Lord of
the universe. You are able to do everything. If you want, You can easily cure
my disease. Instead of curing me, why are You doing this low service for
me?" The Lord replied, "Yes, I could easily cure you. But I want you
to be free from all your prarabdha karma so that you will come back to My abode
at the end of this life. Also you should know that as My devotees get pleasure
by serving Me, I also get pleasure by serving My devotees. I always desire to
serve you. There is no difference between Me and My devotee." In this way
the Lord and Raghu had a very intimate relationship.Raghu was very simple and
his nature was like a small boy's. His relationship with Lord Jagannath was
very friendly. Sometimes the Lord would come to him in the form of a boy, and
they would both play together. It was known to people in general that the Lord
came to Raghu to play with him. Everybody respected Raghu. He was very famous
and known among the people as the friend of Lord Jagannath.
Once Jagannath came to Raghu and told him to go with Him to steal
jackfruit from the Kings garden. Raghu said, "Why do You want to steal
jackfruit? If You have a desire to eat jackfruit, then let me know and I will
get a nice jackfruit for You." Lord Jagannath replied, "In this way I
am getting everything from My devotee. In fact, I have everything. Mother
Yasoda would feed Me so much butter and give Me pleasure. But still I go to the
homes of others for the purpose of stealing butter. There is a special pleasure
in eating stolen things. Today I want you to experience that pleasure of
stealing. Please come with Mel"
Helpless, Raghu agreed to the Lord's proposal and accompanied Him. Both
of them entered the King's garden. Jagannath told Raghu, "You should climb
the tree. I will stand on the ground. You will pluck the best and biggest
jackfruit and throw it down. I will stand here and catch it. Then both of us
will run away." Raghu followed the order of the Lord exactly as He had instructed.
He climbed the jackfruit tree and located the best and biggest jackfruit and
plucked it. "Jagannath!" he called out. "Are You ready?"
Jagannath replied, "Yes! I am ready, throw it." Raghu threw the
jackfruit down, expecting Jagannath to catch it. But where was Jagannath? He
had run away. No one was there to catch the jackfruit. It crashed to the
ground, making a big sound and split open. When the King's gardener heard the
sound, he understood that someone had entered the garden to steal jackfruit. He
immediately ran to the spot and found the big jackfruit lying split open on the
ground, yet he didn't see anyone around. When he looked up he saw Raghu Dasa
sitting in the tree. The gardener immediately ran to the King and told him that
Raghu Dasa was stealing jackfruit from his garden. "He is still there
sitting on the top of the tree!" he told the King excitedly. The King
could not believe that Raghu had entered his garden to steal jackfruit. So the
King gathered his ministers and went to the spot where the gardener indicated.
He was surprised to see Raghu Dasa sitting in the tree and the jackfruit lying
on the ground. On the request of the King, Raghu came down from the tree. The
King asked Raghu, "My dear . Prabhu, if you desired to eat jackfruit, why
have you gone to the trouble of coming to my garden in the middle of the night
and climbing a tree? You could have told me. I would have picked the jackfruit
and sent it to your house." Raghu told the King the whole story about how
he was cheated by Lord Jagannath. Everyone enjoyed hearing the pastime of the
Lord, and they all laughed. They glorified Raghu for his greatness. In this
way, Raghu would have pastimes with Lord Jagannath in the mood of friendship.
A devotee gave an eye witness account of one lila of Raghu Dasa with
Lord Jagannath. Once during the Ratha-yatra, the Lords had taken Their seats on
the chariot. After the King swept the road, everything was ready for the
chariot to move. Thousands of people pulled the rope, but the chariot would not
move. Seeing the situation, the British Saheva arranged for a powerful elephant
to pull the chariot. Still the chariot would not move. The Saheva told Raghu
Dasa, "Raghu Dasji, what kind of Lord is this? I have engaged elephants,
yet this chariot will not move." Hearing this, Raghu climbed the chariot
and went close to Lord Jagannath. He spoke into the Lord's ear. Immediately the
chariot started to move. Saheva was surprised to see this. He told Raghu Dasa,
"You are perfect and your Lord is also perfect." Wherever Raghu Dasa
lived he would leave a pot full of prasada outside for anyone to take. He would
take prasada from the same pot the animals and birds took from. This was his
wonderful nature. He was very dear to Lord Jagannath.
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