On the banks of the Saryu in Ayodhya stands Janaki Ghat, and there lived Shri Pandit Ramavallabhasharana Maharaj Ji, a saint whose life was woven into the very transmission of the Bhaktamal itself. The great soul Shri Gomatidasa Ji Maharaj of Shri Hanumannivasa, together with Shri Kanaka, concluded that chhappay 187, beginning 'Agar ekarasa bhajana rati, uraga ashta,' was composed by Swami Shri 108 Agradeva Ji and was placed at the end by Shri Nabha Swami Ji, recognizing it as auspicious. This means that the saint's lineage did not merely receive the scripture. They helped shape it, preserve it, carry it forward. The sacred Shri Yantraraj Ji is enshrined at several locations connected to this tradition: Shri Sitasharana Ji Maharaj's bhavana, Chhapare Janakinagar, Apahar Gram, and Godana Shri Ahalyasthana. He founded Shri Ram Vallabha Kunj, also called Madhukar Niwas, belonging to the Rama bhakti stream of the Ramananda Sampradaya. The entry closes with a verse that speaks across centuries: 'Blessed are those who remain ever absorbed in this contemplation.' Not in grand acts. Not in spectacular miracles. Simply absorbed. That steady, unwavering absorption in the Lord is what this saint lived and what his tradition still guards on the banks of the Saryu.
Lav-Leen: The Absorption That Never Stops
The closing verse of this entry carries the whole weight of the saint's teaching: "Dhanye te nara yahi dhyana je rahat sada lavleen" -- blessed are those persons who remain ever absorbed in this contemplation. The word lavleen is the key. It does not mean visiting a temple occasionally or thinking of the Lord at auspicious moments. Lav-leen means dissolved into it, the way a drop dissolves into a lamp flame, the way a river dissolves into the sea. The absorption is constant. It is the baseline of consciousness, not the peak experience. Ramavallabhasharana Maharaj built his entire ashrama on the Saryu so that seekers would have a place where this absorption was kept alive, where the name of Sita and Ram was on every breath, where lav-leen was not an aspiration but the daily atmosphere.
Bhaktamal entry for Shri Pandit Ramavallabhasharana Maharaj, tikaEn; closing verse of the entry
The Guru's Voice Closes What the Disciple Opened
The scholars of the Hanuman Niwas tradition, studying the Bhaktamal carefully, reached a finding of deep significance: the final chhappay of the text, verse 187, which opens with "Agar ekarasa bhajana rati, uraga ashta," was composed not by Nabhadas but by his own guru, Swami Agradeva Ji. Nabhadas, recognizing this verse as a mangala, an auspicious blessing, placed it at the very end of the scripture as a seal. The guru's voice closes the garland the disciple wove. This reveals something essential about transmission: no scripture is one person's isolated creation. The Bhaktamal was always a conversation across generations, guru to disciple and back again. The beginning and the end are held in one embrace. Every true teaching is like this: it begins with the guru and returns to the guru.
Bhaktamal tilakHi and tikaEn for entry 119; research of Shri Gomatidasa Ji Maharaj and Shri Kanaka
Sacred Geography as Spiritual Practice
Ramavallabhasharana Maharaj did not merely reside in Ayodhya; he planted himself at Janaki Ghat with full intention, establishing Shri Ram Vallabha Kunj, also known as Madhukar Niwas. Madhukar means the honeybee, the wandering devotee who gathers sweetness from every flower of dharma and offers it back to the Lord. His ashrama rose on ground where Lord Ram himself once walked, where pilgrims have descended stone steps for centuries calling on Sita and Ram. The teaching here is that place matters. Sacred geography is not superstition but concentration: certain sites hold the accumulated prayers of generations, and to practice in such a place is to draw on that stored devotion. To build one's sadhana on holy ground is to plant in the richest possible soil.
Bhaktamal tikaEn for entry 119; Sri Ram Vallabha Kunj, Janaki Ghat, Ayodhya
Bhakti Does Not Distinguish the Courtroom from the Ashrama
Among the devotees connected to this lineage recorded in the tilak are men of learning and the law: Shri Durga Prasad Ji, a vakil of Chhapare Janakinagar, whose son Babu Harnayan Prasad served in the High Court, and Babu Suryaprasad Ji, a vakil of Apahar Gram, whose son Madanmohan Singh was celebrated as a poet. These were lawyers and men of letters, educated and worldly, who nonetheless felt the pull of Janaki Ghat so strongly that they gave their devotion to this lineage. The teaching the tradition draws from this is plain: bhakti does not ask that you abandon your station in life. It asks only for the center. Lawyers and poets, householders and wanderers, can all come down to the Saryu, cup the holy water in their hands, and for a moment be dissolved in something larger than themselves.
Bhaktamal tilakHi and tikaEn for entry 119
The Yantraraj and the Lineage That Spreads Outward
The tilak for this entry notes the sacred presence of Shri Yantraraj Ji, enshrined at multiple locations connected to this lineage: at Shri Sitasharana Ji Maharaj's bhavana, at Chhapare Janakinagar, at Apahar Gram, and at the holy site of Godana Shri Ahalyasthana. A yantra is not a decoration; it is a concentrated form, a geometric symbol charged with the energy of the deity it represents and consecrated through the prayers of generations. That Shri Yantraraj Ji appears across all these sites tells us that the spiritual force of this lineage spread outward from Janaki Ghat in multiple directions. A genuine teacher does not hoard the teaching in one place. The living energy of the practice is carried out into the landscape wherever sincere seekers gather, seeding the ground of Awadh with the concentrated presence of Sita and Ram.
Bhaktamal tilakHi for entry 119
Hindi text from OCR scan (Khemraj Shrikrishnadas Prakashan, CC0). May contain errors.