From Marwar, Shri Lakhaji set out for Shri Jagannathji's darshana. He did not walk. He performed sashtanga dandavat prostrations the entire way. Full body to the earth, rise, step forward, full body to the earth again. Mile after mile. Day after day. He had made a firm pratijna in his hridaya: he would reach Prabhu only by offering his deha as nyauchavar.
Lakhaji was born in the vanara-vansha, a community of humble origins. But through the prabhava of his bhajana and sant-seva, all the rajas obeyed him. His vishvasa in the mahamantra of Shri Rama Nama was unshakeable.
Shri Jagannathaji saw him coming. Prabhu sent His own palki with pandas and parishadas. They came along the road asking, "Who is Lakha Bhakta?" A companion pointed him out. The pandas took his hand: "Please mount this palki. Prabhu has summoned you this very moment."
He folded his hands: "How can I ride a palki? I have resolved to go only by sashtanga for darshana of Prabhu. Please grant me this blessing, that I may go in this very manner."
The pandas said it was Prabhu's ajna: "Mount it. And the sumirini you have made and brought is very priya to us. Come quickly and place it upon us."
Lakhaji's heart stopped. The matter of the sumirini was known only to Prabhu. This was truly His voice. He mounted the palki and went, saying: "I now understand that Prabhu desires to bestow ever-increasing satkara upon even the most humble of His ashrita. He reads the pothi of prema over and over and extends kripa upon me."
He arrived, offered pranama, received darshana, and offered tana, mana, and prana. Prabhu would not let him move even slightly away from His proximity.
But at home, Lakhaji had an unmarried daughter. He would not arrange her vivaha because he thought: whatever I possess belongs to Shri Hari and the santas. How can I spend it on worldly matters?
Shri Jagannathaji Himself gave the ajna: "Take dravya from us and arrange her vivaha without fail."
This did not sit well in his mana. After some days he departed for home, slipping away without taking leave, out of fear of accepting wealth. With tears filling his eyes from the viyoga of Prabhu, he left.
Shri Jagannathaji then gave a svapna to a bhakta raja, who set up a checkpost on the road. When Lakhaji arrived, he was brought before the raja. The raja said humbly: "Prabhu has given me ajna in a svapna. Please do not be obstinate. Accept dravya for your daughter's vivaha."
Lakhaji accepted. The raja wrote a hundi for one thousand rupees. Lakhaji brought it home, spent only one hundred on his daughter's vivaha, and with all the remaining wealth invited the santas and fed them divya bhojana. Grasping the charana of all the santas, he was filled with sukha.
Even before this, bhaktas had given much for the daughter's vivaha. He had spent every coin feeding sadhus, and was himself filled with ananda.
Back in his village, the people had once gathered to collect wealth for a poor kinsman. One man, inspired by Prabhu, spoke up: "The worldly burden is settled, but for paramartha we should also support Shri Lakhaji and the santas, for that is how one crosses the bhavasagara." Everyone felt lajja and gave fifty mana of wheat, and the most generous among them gave his buffalo.
Just as polluted streams merge into Shri Gangaji and become Ganga herself, Lakhaji, though from the Dom jati, merged into the bhagavata community and became one with them. In this jagat, bhakti alone is the sara. Hold this truth firmly in your hridaya.
Bhakti Alone Is the Sara
The Bhaktamal places a single sentence at the heart of Lakha Ji's story: 'In this world, bhakti alone is the sara, the essential substance.' Lakha Ji was born into the Dom jati, one of the most socially marginalized communities of his era in Marwar. Yet through the force of his bhajana and his seva to the sants, kings obeyed him. Not because he sought power, but because purity carries its own sovereignty. The world measures worth by lineage, by wealth, by social position. Lakha Ji's life quietly dissolves every such calculation. What remains, what cannot be taken away, is the quality of love with which a heart turns toward the Lord. That is the sara. That is the only thing the Bhaktamal is asking you to carry forward.
Bhaktamal, Chhappay 428, tilak by Priya Das
The Body Offered as a Road
Lakha Ji made a pratijna before leaving Marwar: he would reach Jagannath Puri only by sashtanga dandavat, the full eight-limbed prostration, repeated mile after mile, day after day. The body becomes a danda, a stick, with no agenda, no posture of importance, no claim on the next moment. This was not performance. It was the natural expression of a heart so full of longing that the ordinary modes of travel felt insufficient. The body was offered as the medium through which love could speak. When you feel the intensity of your longing for the Lord, notice what it asks of your body, your time, your comfort. Lakha Ji teaches that genuine longing finds its own form of expression, and that form asks something real.
Bhaktamal, Kavitt 425, tilak commentary
Prabhu Moves Toward the Bhakta
Lakha Ji was still prostrating along the dusty road when Shri Jagannath Ji sent His own palki forward with a single instruction: find Lakha Bhakta. The pandas came asking every traveler, 'Who is Lakha Bhakta?' When they finally reached him and invited him to mount the palanquin, he refused out of integrity, not pride. He had made a vow. Then the pandas mentioned his sumirini, the prayer beads he had made and carried, known only to him and to the Lord. That stopped his heart. This is the great secret within Lakha Ji's story: the bhakta moves toward Prabhu, but Prabhu is already moving toward the bhakta. Your longing is never one-sided. It is already a response to something the Lord placed in your heart.
Bhaktamal, Kavitt 425-426, tikaEn
Wealth That Passes Through Open Hands
Lakha Ji held a view of wealth that was simple and total: everything that came through him belonged to Shri Hari and to the sants. When money arrived for his daughter's wedding, he spent one hundred rupees on the wedding and nine hundred rupees feeding the saints, and called it joy. When a famine struck and crowds came to his door, he did not close it. When a raja pressed a hundi of one thousand rupees into his hands by divine instruction, he received it with the understanding that it was Prabhu's arrangement, not his to hoard. This is not poverty or carelessness. It is a specific kind of freedom: the freedom of hands that hold loosely, that receive as a passage rather than a destination. Lakha Ji was happy in the giving. Notice what that happiness reveals.
Bhaktamal, Kavitt 423-427, tilak commentary
The Ganga Does Not Ask What the Stream Was
The Bhaktamal offers a beautiful analogy for what happened to Lakha Ji. Polluted streams carry whatever they have gathered along their path. When they merge into the Ganga, they do not remain what they were. They become Ganga. Their name changes. Their nature changes. The river does not ask what the stream was before it arrived. In exactly this way, Lakha Ji, born into the Dom jati, merged into the bhagavata community through the purity of his bhajana and his seva. He did not argue his way in or petition for inclusion. He simply lived in such a way that the community recognized what was already true. This is sattsang. This is what company with the holy does: it changes name and nature both. The question the story asks you is simply this: which stream are you, and toward which river are you flowing?
Bhaktamal, Chhappay 428, tilak; Mool doha verse 1
Hindi text from OCR scan (Khemraj Shrikrishnadas Prakashan, CC0). May contain errors.