A maidservant near the queen was a Hari-bhakta who would lovingly chant the Nama with deep sighs of anuraga. One day she was uttering the names Navalkishor, Nandakishor, Brindavanchandra, with tears filling her eyes. Shri Ratnavati, the queen of Madhavsingh, heard this and was overwhelmed. A longing arose in her to hear the Nama and yasha.
She began asking: 'What do you keep saying? Whose Nama do you take? You seize my heart and draw it toward yourself.' Tears streamed from the queen's eyes too, and she lost awareness of her body.
The maidservant replied: 'Do not ask me this. Remain absorbed in your royal pleasures.' But the queen's longing became extreme: 'You must tell me everything.'
Seeing her deep shraddha, the maidservant related matters of the prema-patha and recited the bani of rasika saints: 'Prem descended from svarga and entered every lane. Viraha entered the heart and a sweet, rasika priti took root. The wound desires no salve; this is the way of the premi. Prema in samsara is hard. Do not take it up, O Jagadisha. But if you do, then give your tana, mana, dhana, and shisha.'
Hearing this, the queen relieved the maidservant of all household duties, seated her at her own bedside, and regarding her with guru-buddhi, began serving her with great reverence. Know this to be a new way of priti: a queen bowing before her own servant, because that servant carried the fragrance of Hari.
Ratnavati had the indranila-mani svarupa of Prabhu manifested and installed. Merging her bhava with the temperament of her instructress, she began performing seva. She would pamper the Lord with many kinds of raga and bhoga, sing premaful guna, and even in dreams see only seva and anuraga.
But she wanted more. The maidservant counselled: 'Build a santa-seva-shala near the palace. Station guards on all four sides. Whenever any beloved bhakta or sadhu of Hari arrives, bring them respectfully to this santa-nivasa. Wash their charana, seat them, serve them many kinds of pakwana. Watch from above through a screen. Then Shyamasundara Prabhu will become visible to your eyes.'
Ratnavati did exactly this. But in time, she could not stay behind the screen. Casting aside shame and family honour, she came down and fell at the charana of those joy-giving santas. She said: 'My longing to serve prasada to the santas with my own hands is indescribable. Whatever your ajna may be, in that alone lies my happiness.'
Seeing her fathomless priti, the santas gave their blessing. She took bhagavat-prasada items on a golden thali, and with tears of premananda brimming in her eyes, joyfully served bhojana to all. The sadhus too were submerged in sneha. Ratnavati, with her own lotus-hands, applied chandana, offered tambula-bida, and then sat down to listen to the charcha of Shri Shyamasundar. Her eyes overflowed with rasa.
The news spread throughout the city. The royal relatives sent alarmed letters to the raja. Premsingh received the letter, touched it to his forehead, read it, and was plunged into premananda. He distributed much wealth as congratulatory gifts and had auspicious instruments played at his gate.
Ratnavati was the daughter-in-law of the kula of Prithviraj of Amer. She had deep love for satsanga, katha, and kirtana. She cast aside worldly shame and queenly pride. She never abandoned her resolve for bhajana, harboured no attachment to her husband, and knowing him averse to bhakti, turned her chitta away from him. She planted the flag of bhakti's glory where no one expected it: in the inner chambers of a palace.
Grace Arrives in Unexpected Forms
Ratnavati was a queen surrounded by silks, ceremonies, and the full weight of royal privilege. Yet the spark that lit her entire spiritual life came not from a priest or a sage but from a maidservant who breathed the Lord's names while going about her daily duties. The dasi did not intend to teach. She was simply living inside the Name, the way a fish lives inside water. Ratnavati heard her and felt a recognition she could not yet explain. The story asks us: are we willing to receive grace from wherever it arrives? The sacred rarely announces itself through the front door. It slips in through the ordinary, through the overlooked, through the person we assumed had nothing to offer us. The seeker's first skill is the readiness to be surprised by where the teaching comes from.
Bhaktamal, Tilak on Shrimati Ratnavati Ji
The Queen Who Bowed Before Her Servant
After hearing the dasi speak of the way of love, Ratnavati did something that astonished the world around her. She relieved the maidservant of all her household duties, seated her at the head of her own bed, and began to honor her with full guru-buddhi, the understanding that this woman who had walked in her shadow was her true teacher. The Bhaktamal pauses to mark the moment: know this to be a new way of priti. In the path of devotion, the ordinary flow of deference is reversed. Rank yields to realization. Position yields to fragrance. Ratnavati had learned to follow the fragrance of Hari wherever it led, and that path led her to bow before the one society would call lowest. To love God sincerely is to stop measuring people by the world's measures.
Bhaktamal, Tika on Shrimati Ratnavati Ji
Love Is Total or It Is Not Love
The verses the dasi shared with Ratnavati were not comforting words. They carried a clear and unsparing message: prem in this samsara is hard. Do not take it up. But if you do, offer your body, your mind, your wealth, and your very head. These are not the teachings offered to those who want to add a little piety to an otherwise unchanged life. They are a warning that love of this kind asks for everything. Ratnavati heard these words and was not frightened. She was awakened. She gave away her queenly pride, her family's honor, her comfort, and her protected position behind palace screens. She walked out in full view, knelt before wandering sadhus, and served food with her own hands. The path she walked teaches that half-hearted devotion is not devotion at all. The heart either gives itself entirely, or it stays safely on the shore.
Bhaktamal verses shared in the Tika, verses 3-4
The Sadhu Is the Lord in Disguise
When Ratnavati asked how she might receive the darshan of the Lord, her dasi-teacher gave her a practical instruction: build a hall for receiving saints near the palace, post watchmen to welcome any sadhu who passes, wash their feet, seat them, feed them lovingly, and watch from behind a screen. Then, the dasi said, Shyamasundara will become visible to your eyes. This is the ancient teaching hidden inside a simple act of hospitality. The Lord conceals himself in those who love him, and may be found there by those who know how to look. Ratnavati took this instruction to heart so completely that even the screen eventually became unbearable. She came down, walked out, and said to the saints: my longing to serve you with my own hands is indescribable. The path to God sometimes runs directly through the dust on a wandering sadhu's feet.
Bhaktamal, Tika on Shrimati Ratnavati Ji
Satsang Is Its Own Fruit
The Tilak of Priya Das says of Ratnavati that she was deeply priti-vati, filled with loving attachment, toward satsang, katha, and kirtan. The gathering of Hari-bhaktas was supremely dear to her. She performed great celebrations with joy. She lavished daily tenderness on the Lord. She planted the flag of bhakti's glory and never abandoned her resolve for bhajan. For Ratnavati, satsang was not a means to something else. It was the living environment in which the heart breathes. When she sat among saints listening to the loving conversation of Shyamasundara, her eyes overflowed with rasa. This quality, the capacity to be genuinely nourished by the company of seekers and by the remembrance of the Lord, is itself a sign that the heart has tasted what it came here to find. The seeker who loves satsang has already begun to arrive.
Bhaktamal, Tilak by Priya Das on Shrimati Ratnavati Ji
Hindi text from OCR scan (Khemraj Shrikrishnadas Prakashan, CC0). May contain errors.