The wells went dry. Every well. Every stepwell. In a single morning, the entire city lost its water.
Here is how it happened. Shri Kshitidev Ji traveled with a large assembly of devotees, always immersed in Shri Ram Nam kirtan, bestowing grace on all he met. He arrived in the city of a king who had no devotion. The city had no river or pond. Water came only from the stepwells and wells in the royal gardens. When the sadhus went to bathe, the gardeners stopped them.
The saints came back to Swami Ji, grieved. He told them simply: perform Nam kirtan without bathing, and then we leave this city.
As they began Hari bhajan, the wells and stepwells lost all their water.
The gardeners ran to the king. His counselors opened the shastras and found the answer: "A great assembly of sadhus has come here. Only by the grace of the saints can this calamity of water scarcity be removed."
The king and all his subjects took refuge at Kshitidev's feet. He blessed them. He made that entire land devoted to Hari. And then he moved on.
Kshitidev was one of four guru-bhais: Kshitiprajna, Kshitidev, Kshitidham, and Kshiti-Udadhi. All four walked the path of Ram bhakti. What his story reveals is the power of collective kirtan. The saints did not fight. They did not argue with the gardeners or petition the king. They simply sang the Name. And the earth itself responded.
The Name Needs No Preparation
When the gardeners of a bhakti-less king refused entry to the royal wells, the saints could not perform their customary bath before morning kirtan. Shri Kshitidev Ji did not delay, debate, or despair. He said simply: perform Nam kirtan without bathing, and then we leave this city. This instruction reveals a profound understanding of the Name. The purity required for singing Ram Nam is not physical purity. It is the purity of a turned heart, a mind directed toward the Lord. Outer preparation is good when it is available. But when circumstances deny it, the Name remains fully accessible. No gate, no gardener, no king's decree can stand between a sincere heart and the act of taking the Lord's Name. Kshitidev Ji had lived inside Ram Nam long enough to know that the boundary between preparation and practice had dissolved entirely.
Bhaktamal, Tikaa of Shri Kshitidev Ji (entry 129)
Grace Withdraws Where It Is Refused
The moment the saints sat down and began Hari bhajan, every well and stepwell in that city ran dry. Water, which is life itself, withdrew from a kingdom that had refused refuge to those who carry the Name. This was not punishment administered through anger. It was the natural consequence of turning away grace. The Bhaktamal tradition understands the company of saints, the satsang, as the living presence of the Lord moving through the world. When that presence is refused entry, the gifts that flow from divine proximity also withdraw. The story does not say Kshitidev Ji willed the wells dry. He simply directed his assembly to sing. The earth responded according to its own understanding of what had just been rejected.
Bhaktamal, Tikaa of Shri Kshitidev Ji (entry 129)
Sharanagati: Surrender Opens What Force Cannot
When the wells went dry, the king possessed every instrument of worldly power: soldiers, ministers, wealth, authority. None of it could recover the water. His counselors consulted the shastras and found a single path forward: the king must go to Kshitidev Ji and take refuge at his feet. So the king went, bringing his entire city with him. This is sharanagati, the surrender that stands at the center of Vaishnava spiritual life. It is not the surrender of defeat. It is the surrender that opens a door closed to every other kind of effort. Pride keeps that door shut. The willingness to place oneself at the feet of a saint, to acknowledge that what one needs cannot be obtained through one's own authority, is itself a spiritual act. The city that surrendered received back its water and more: it became a place where Hari bhakti was alive.
Bhaktamal, Tikaa of Shri Kshitidev Ji (entry 129)
Congregational Kirtan as the Lord's Presence in the World
Shri Kshitidev Ji's entire way of life was the kirtan procession: a large assembly of saints traveling together, immersed in Shri Ram Nam kirtan at all times, passing through towns and villages and bestowing grace wherever they went. In the Ramanandi tradition, congregational singing of the divine Name is not merely devotional expression. It is understood as the presence of Ram moving through the world in sound. When Kshitidev Ji's assembly sang in that waterless city, they were not appealing to Ram from a distance. They were manifesting Ram's presence in that very place. The transformation of the city came not after the kirtan ended but through the kirtan itself. The Name, sung together in company, reorganizes the world around it.
Bhaktamal, Tikaa of Shri Kshitidev Ji (entry 129)
The Saint Blesses Without Condition
When the king and his subjects arrived in sharanagati, Kshitidev Ji did not lecture the king about his lack of devotion. He did not demand apology from the gardeners who had blocked the saints from the wells. He did not use this moment of leverage to extract concessions or offer a sermon on the consequences of disrespecting sadhus. He blessed them. The water returned. Then, before moving on, he spent time among the people and made that entire land devoted to Hari. This sequence reveals the nature of genuine spiritual authority. It holds no grievance. It converts encounter into initiation, crisis into transformation, the moment of the king's humiliation into the city's liberation. The saint's blessing is not a reward for good behavior but a freely given gift, offered the moment the receiving vessel is open.
Bhaktamal, Tikaa of Shri Kshitidev Ji (entry 129)
Hindi text from OCR scan (Khemraj Shrikrishnadas Prakashan, CC0). May contain errors.