The field-watchers shouted: "This is Shri Chaturbhujji's field!" The saints looked at each other and smiled: "All the better. Then this grain is ours indeed."
They went on plucking sheaves of gram and wheat from the ripening field. The watchers were stunned. Someone ran to report: "The sadhus are taking all the crops, and they say it belongs to them."
The moment Chaturbhuj heard this, he was filled with prema-ananda. He brought a great quantity of gur and came to the field with a joyful face, saying: "Today I am blessed. The saints have claimed me as their own."
He gave them the gur, had the grain roasted, took them all home, fed them various dishes, and they sat together in satsanga on matters of bhakti, drinking deeply of prema-rasa.
This was Shri Chaturbhujji of Gondwana, disciple of Shri Hita Harivanshji. By the strength of his guru's charana, he sanctified that lowly land, making it as holy as a tirtha. He bestowed Shri Hari-dasata upon all the jivas of that region and greatly expanded the family of ananyata in the bhajana of Shri Radha-Vallabhji. In his poetry he used the chhapa of "Muralidhar," and his kavittas were entirely faultless. The dust of the feet of bhagavad-bhaktas was the ornament of his forehead.
Once, a thief in his former birth had falsely accused a sadhu of theft. When the thief was proven clean by oath, the king realized the sadhu had been wrongly blamed and ordered the man put to death. But the sadhu, who in his previous life had been the thief himself, could not bear to see this. With tears in his eyes he said: "Do not kill him. It is I who took the wealth."
The king was astonished: "O saint, you are truthful. Why do you now falsely claim to be a thief?"
He replied: "This is the infinite mahima of Shri Swamiji, who has made me truthful." He then narrated his entire history. The king heard it, released the man, and resolved to become a shishya. Receiving a new heart, his chitta became soaked in the prema of Prabhu.
A sample of Chaturbhuj's poetry: "That rasa which even the Nigama and Brahma cannot touch, which is far from all, that rasa was revealed by Shri Harivanshji, the very life of the rasikas."
The Guru's Feet Transform Every Ground Into Holy Ground
Chaturbhuj Ji carried the bhakti of the Radha-Vallabh sampradaya into Gondwana, a region that had no prior connection to this stream of devotion. He did not do this through his own cleverness or force of personality. The Bhaktamal is clear about the source: it was the strength of his guru Shri Harivansh Ji's holy feet that made it possible. This is the meaning of charana-bala, the power of the guru's lotus feet. When a disciple has truly surrendered at the guru's feet, the grace that flows from that surrender goes everywhere the disciple goes. The land itself is consecrated. Wherever you carry the real fragrance of your guru's teaching, that place becomes a tirtha. You do not need a famous river or a celebrated temple. You need only the genuine transmission that comes from whole-hearted sitting at the feet of one who knows the way.
Bhaktamal, chhappay 228 and tilak by Priyadas
Satsang Is the Highest Adornment
There is a single detail in the portrait of Chaturbhuj Ji that speaks more than any philosophy: the dust of devotees' feet was the ornament on his forehead. In the Vaishnava world, the forehead receives the tilak, the sacred mark that declares one's belonging. For Chaturbhuj Ji, what declared his belonging was not a formal tilak of sandalwood or clay. It was the dust that rises when saints walk, the dust one receives by bowing at the feet of those who love the Lord. His heart, we are told, remained saturated with prema in the mahananada of satsang. This is the teaching: seek the company of those who are soaked in devotion, and let that company mark you. The beauty that comes from true satsang is not visible to ordinary eyes, but it transforms everything.
Bhaktamal tilak, Priyadas
What Belongs to a Bhakta Belongs to the Saints
One day, wandering sadhus came upon Chaturbhuj Ji's ripening wheat and gram fields and began freely gathering the harvest. His field-watchers cried out: 'This is Shri Chaturbhuj Ji's field!' The saints paused and replied: 'All the better. Then this grain is certainly ours.' When the news reached Chaturbhuj Ji, he did not feel his property had been violated. He felt blessed. He came running with raw sugar in his hands, his face lit with joy. He said: 'Today I am truly fortunate. The saints have claimed me as their own.' Then he brought them all home and fed them well. The teaching here is quiet but deep: a bhakta does not cling to what the Lord has given. What you hold is held in trust. When a saint comes and takes it, the real gift has been given to you, not taken from you.
Bhaktamal tilak, episode of the harvest field
Diksha Is a New Birth: The Thief Who Became Fearless
A thief once slipped into Chaturbhuj Ji's Bhagavat katha and sat quietly among the listeners. As the recitation unfolded, a teaching arose from the ancient texts: the day a person receives the Lord's mantra in initiation, a new birth begins. That very day counts as a second birth. The thief heard this, and something in him shifted. He approached and took initiation. Later, when the man whose wealth he had stolen confronted him publicly, the new initiate held red-hot iron in his bare hands and declared: 'I have stolen nothing in this birth.' The iron did not burn him. The Lord protected him. His inner transformation was complete, and he became proof of it. The teaching is this: diksha is not a ceremony. It is a threshold. When you cross it with sincerity, you become genuinely new. Your past does not follow you with the same grip. The Lord who witnesses the heart also protects it.
Bhaktamal tilak, episode of the thief's initiation
Poetry as Pointing: The Verse That Knows Its Own Limits
Chaturbhuj Ji was a poet who used the signature 'Muralidhar' in his verses. The tradition preserved a sample of his kavittas and called them entirely without blemish, which is high praise in classical Hindi poetry. But what is most striking in his preserved doha is not technical mastery. It is humility. He writes of a rasa that Brahma cannot touch and the Vedas cannot contain, a sweetness that stands altogether beyond ordinary reach. And then he says: Shri Harivansh Ji made this rasa manifest, and Shri Harivansh Ji is the very life of those who relish it. The poem does not try to capture the rasa for itself. It points. A truly honest poet knows that the words are not the thing. The highest use of a verse is to open a door and then step aside, so the reader can walk through toward what the words could only gesture at.
Bhaktamal tilak, doha sample attributed to Chaturbhuj Ji
Hindi text from OCR scan (Khemraj Shrikrishnadas Prakashan, CC0). May contain errors.