Shri Balkrishnaji entered Bhagavat-seva at the age of six. Shri Giridhari Krishna Chandra loved him so much that He made the boy His own namesake, having him called "Krishna." He even composed a pada in the child's name. From that young age, Balkrishnaji followed the bhajana prescribed by the Guru Shri Vallabhacharya sampradaya with total completion. His kavita was flawless and unique. His vani was honored by pandits, ornamented with the suyash of Shri Gopalji. Free of all worldly anxiety, he remained absorbed in Bhagavat-chinta alone, always dwelling among mahatma saints. His sole unwavering resolve was the bhajana of Shri Radha-Krishna.
He composed a granth named Prem-rasa-rashi, illuminating the rashi of prem-rasa, and his Thakur Shri Nathji was greatly pleased with his prem-nishtha. This is well known.
Once, he went to Delhi. At a sweetmaker's shop, he saw excellent jalebis being lifted hot from the kadhai. Through manasi bhoga, he offered those jalebis to Shri Nathji right there in his heart. Prabhu, the connoisseur of prem, accepted them. Back at the mandir, when the thar was uncovered at offering time, a thar of jalebis was found there that no one had placed.
Proceeding further in Delhi, he heard a varamukhi singing a raga. Moved by anuraga, he approached her: "O beautiful-faced bhaktini! My moon-faced Lala is a great rasika of raga. Will you come with me to sing for Him?" She, thinking him an admirer, agreed.
Setting aside all worldly shame, he brought her with him. In Vraja, he had her bathe, dressed her in fine garments and ornaments, applied fragrance, and brought her into the mandir of Shri Nathji. Standing her before the Thakurji, he said: "You have delighted many mortals. Now your fortune has awakened. Delight our Lalaji."
Beholding Hari, she became intoxicated. She began to dance and sing. He asked: "Have you seen my Lala?" She replied: "Not only have I seen Him, but I have already surrendered my tan and mana upon His beauty."
She sang, danced, displayed her bhavas, exhibited all her arts, and delighted Bhagavan exceedingly. She became tadakar, drenched everyone present in the rasa of prem, and leaving her body in that very state, attained param-pada.
Then Balkrishnaji met Shri Surji (Surdas). Surji said: "Brother, you are very clever. Compose a pada and recite it to me, but let no shadow of any pada of mine be found in it." He recited five or seven padas. Surji smiled each time and pointed out: "In this one, the shadow of such-and-such pada of mine is present." Finally it was decided he should stay the night and present a new pada in the morning.
Seeing his devotee in distress, Shri Giridhariji Himself composed a beautiful pada and placed it upon his seat. Finding it, Balkrishnaji was overjoyed. He went and recited it to Surji, who listened closely, then said with great pleasure: "Your Thakur, taking your side, has composed it Himself."
Both were immersed in the rasa of Bhagavat-kripa. That pada is sung to this day.
The Heart Recognized Before the Mind
Balkrishna Das entered Bhagavat-seva at the age of six. Before reason could argue, before ambition could distract, before the world could teach him its priorities, something in him already knew where it belonged. The tilak speaks of a composure in those small hands, a stillness behind those young eyes. Giridhariji saw this recognition and drew the child into His own affection so completely that He gave him His own name. What this tells the seeker is that the Lord does not wait for you to become worthy. He recognizes the prem already living in you, sometimes long before you can name it yourself. Your only work is not to cover that recognition over.
Bhaktamal, tilak on Balkrishna Das (verse 81)
Manasi Bhoga: The Offering That Needs No Temple
Walking through the markets of Delhi, Balkrishna Das passed a sweetmaker's stall. Fresh jalebis were rising from the kadhai, golden and dripping, fragrant with syrup. He stopped and, in the space of a single breath, offered them to Shri Nathji within his heart. This is manasi bhoga, the mental offering. It needs no altar, no ceremony, no physical preparation. It needs only the quality of presence and the sincerity of love. The Lord, the tilak says, is the great connoisseur of prem. He does not ask how much was spent or how elaborate the arrangement. He tastes the offering by tasting the love behind it. When the thar was uncovered at the mandir that same day, the jalebis were there. The inner and the outer had become one, because there was no gap between the devotee's heart and His.
Bhaktamal, tilak on Balkrishna Das, Delhi jalebi leela
Beauty Carries Its Own Holiness
When Balkrishna Das heard the varamukhi singing in Delhi, he did not ask who she was or calculate the propriety of stopping. He heard the raga, and he recognized in it something that belonged to Krishna. Beauty, real beauty, does not require an approved biography to be genuine. He invited her to come and sing for his Lala, addressing her not by her profession but as a bhaktini, a devotee, which is what she was about to become. He walked with her through the city without any concern for what others would think. A devotee whose heart is fixed on the Beloved has only one calculation: what would delight Him? Social convention is a small price to pay. When she finally stood before Shri Nathji and beheld Him, she became matavali. She offered everything, her voice, her dance, her whole life's art. She left her body in that state. The devotee had seen in her what she had not yet seen in herself.
Bhaktamal, tilak on Balkrishna Das, varamukhi leela
When the Lord Takes His Devotee's Side
Balkrishna Das met Surdas and accepted a challenge: compose a pada with no echo of any of Sur's vast ocean of verse. He offered five, then seven compositions. Each time Surji listened carefully and pointed, with gentle precision, to the place where a shadow of his own work appeared. At last it was agreed: Balkrishna Das would try once more by morning. He sat in genuine distress, not out of wounded pride but out of a sincere wish to offer something true. Seeing this, Giridhariji composed the pada Himself and placed it on His devotee's seat before dawn. When Surdas heard it, he recognized immediately that no human poet had composed those lines. He said: your Thakur, taking your side, has made this Himself. This is the assurance that runs through the entire story of Balkrishna Das: the Lord is not a passive witness to your bhajan. He takes sides. He steps in. He composes when you cannot.
Bhaktamal, tilak on Balkrishna Das, Surdas leela
A Vrata Is a Life, Not a Moment
The tilak describes Balkrishna Das with a simple phrase that deserves to be held: his one unwavering vrata, his single irreversible vow, was the bhajana of Shri Radha-Krishna. Everything else in the account follows from this. The purity of his kavita, the acceptance of his granth Prem-rasa-rashi by the Lord, his freedom from worldly anxiety, his perpetual company of saints: none of these were achievements he pursued separately. They were the natural fragrance of a life organized entirely around a single vow. A vrata, a genuine vow, is not a resolution you renew each morning. It is a reorganization of the self so complete that the question of whether to keep it no longer arises. Balkrishna Das shows that when the heart is given without remainder, everything else arranges itself around that giving.
Bhaktamal, tilak on Balkrishna Das (verse 81)
Hindi text from OCR scan (Khemraj Shrikrishnadas Prakashan, CC0). May contain errors.