It is manifest. It is known to all. And the sadhus bear witness: in Kaliyuga, prema is supreme.
This is not the account of a single saint but a declaration that rings across all the ages. Among the four yugas, Kali Yuga is the most burdened, the most degraded, the most lost. And yet it holds one blessing that surpasses all the others: the ease of reaching Bhagavan through Nama and prema alone.
Three foremost aveshi bhaktas arose as living proof. Shri Kulshekhar Ji, the king so absorbed in dasya-rasa that he charged into the sea with a drawn sword when he heard the katha of Sita's suffering. The bhakta of Narasimha lila, whose avesh during a sacred drama was so complete that the boundary between enactment and reality dissolved. And Rativanti Bai, who loved Krishna as her own child with such intensity that she abandoned her body in the ecstasy of that maternal devotion.
Their prema was proven true before all eyes. Not in scripture. Not in debate. In the body, in the breath, in the final breaking of the heart.
Nabhadas placed this passage as a bridge, linking Krishna's divine love to the human devotees who embody it. What Kali Yuga lacks in virtue, it more than recovers in the raw, unguarded, desperate love its bhaktas bring to the feet of the Lord.
The Hidden Gift of Kali Yuga
Every yuga carries its own path to Bhagavan. In Satya Yuga the path was deep dhyana sustained across lifetimes. In Treta Yuga it was elaborate yajna. In Dvapara Yuga it was intricate puja of the living Deity. Kali Yuga has stripped away all complexity and left a single door open: prema. Pure, undefended love. The Srimad Bhagavatam declares this outright: kaler dosha-nidhe rajan asti hy eko maha-gunah, kirtanad eva krishnasya mukta-sangah param vrajet. Although Kali Yuga is an ocean of faults, there is one great quality: simply by singing the name of Krishna, the soul crosses beyond bondage. This is not a lesser prize for a lesser age. It is a specific grace given to souls who can no longer sustain the rigors of earlier paths. The door is low. Anyone can walk through. All that is required is that the love be real.
Srimad Bhagavatam 12.3.51; Bhaktamal verse 160, tika of Priyadasdas
Avesh: When Love Exceeds Its Container
Nabhadas identifies a particular quality of the most advanced bhaktas of Kali Yuga: avesh. Avesh is the condition in which Bhagavan so completely fills the devotee that the ordinary limits of body, time, and story dissolve. Kulshekhar Ji charged into the sea to rescue his mother Sita Ji from Ravana because for him the katha was not a poem. It was happening now. The bhakta at Nilachal Dham who enacted Narasimha in the Ramlila became Narasimha. Rativanti Bai Ji, hearing that her son Krishna had been bound to the ukhala, could not survive the pain of that separation and left her body in love. None of these three chose avesh. It came because there was no space left in them for anything other than Bhagavan. Nabhadas holds them forward as the chief witnesses that prema is alive and manifest in Kali Yuga. Their lives are not biography. They are demonstration.
Bhaktamal verse 160 and tilak, Nabhadas; tikaEn commentary
Sadhus Are the Witness
Nabhadas does not merely assert that prema is the supreme path of Kali Yuga. He calls sadhus as witness. This is a significant gesture. In the tradition of Vaishnava teaching, the sadhu-samaj, the community of saints, carries a particular authority: it is the living continuity of those who have directly experienced what the shastras describe. When Nabhadas writes that sadhus are the witness to the manifestation of prema, he is saying that this truth is not theoretical. It has been seen. It has been felt in the presence of those whose love exceeded all ordinary measure. Every generation of bhaktas passes this testimony forward. To hear the accounts of Kulshekhar Ji, the Narasimha bhakta, and Rativanti Bai Ji with an open heart is to receive the witness. To hear these accounts and remain unmoved, to hold bhakti at a careful distance, is the one loss Nabhadas regards with grief.
Bhaktamal tika by Priyadasdas; tilak commentary on verse 160
The Name as the Full Inheritance of the Age
The Vaishnava acharyas have consistently taught that the nama, the holy name of Bhagavan, is not a simplified substitute for deeper practice. It is the complete inheritance specifically prepared for souls born in Kali Yuga. The Kali-Santarana Upanishad names the Hare Krishna mahamantra as the singular means of crossing this age. The Bhagavatam's eleventh canto states that whatever fruit came to the yogi of Satya Yuga through centuries of continuous meditation, the bhakta of Kali Yuga receives quickly through nama-sankirtana. This teaching has a practical consequence: no bhakta of Kali Yuga need look elsewhere for a higher path. The path given to this age is already the highest. The name of Krishna, sung with sincerity, carries the full potency of every path that came before. Prema, the love that broke Rativanti Bai Ji open, is available through the simplest means imaginable: calling out.
Srimad Bhagavatam 11.5.36; Kali-Santarana Upanishad; Bhaktamal tika
Nothing Complicated Is Required
The central teaching of this passage in the Bhaktamal is not about three remarkable individuals. It is about what their lives reveal: in Kali Yuga, the one requirement for the highest spiritual attainment is a heart willing to love without reserve. Kulshekhar Ji was a king with learning and status. But what moved Bhagavan was not his kingdom or his scholarship. It was the shaking of his whole body when he heard katha, the sword drawn not in strategy but in helpless maternal love. Rativanti Bai Ji performed no elaborate sadhana in the moment of her liberation. She simply heard that her child had been bound, and her heart broke open completely. This is what Nabhadas is pointing to: Kali Yuga does not reward complexity. It rewards sincerity. The bhakta who brings nothing but an unguarded heart to Bhagavan has brought everything the age requires. Prema is the dharma of this yuga, and prema asks for no prior qualification.
Bhaktamal verse 160 tikaEn; Priyadasdas tika
Hindi text from OCR scan (Khemraj Shrikrishnadas Prakashan, CC0). May contain errors.