In the kingdom of Jodhpur, near the village of Kithada, the Hari-bhakta Shri Jaytasaran-Bihurji devoted his mind and resources to the seva of santas. Once, when no rains came, all the crops withered. Famine struck, and he became anxious about how to feed the santas. Then, in a svapna, the ocean-of-kripa Prabhu guided him. He was truly blessed.
In the same tradition lived Naga Shri Swami Chaturoji, who remained absorbed in bhajana day and night. Dwelling in Mathurapuri and Shri Braj-bhumi, he gave sukha and santosha to all.
But hear what he did when Shri Guruji came to his home. Chaturadas served him with utterly sincere sneha. Then he placed his youthful and beautiful wife in the service of Guruji, telling her: 'Do whatever Swamiji commands.' Knowing that constant proximity leads to familiarity, he offered his home, wealth, and wife to Guru Maharaj, entreating: 'Please accept all of this with your kripa.'
Guru was pleased and entered the home. Chaturadas prostrated with sashtanga pranama, took ajna, and left for Braj-bhumi, where he drank deeply of the prema-rasa of Shri Bhagavat.
In Vrindavan, he would make pradakshina each day: darshana of Shri Govindadev's bhor-mangala arati and Shri Keshavdev's shringara-arati, rajabhoga at Nandagrama, then through Govardhana and Radhakunda, returning to Vrindavan by the fourth prahara.
Once, at the holy Manasarovara, he went hungry for three days. Then Shri Nandakumar, ever tender toward bhaktas, came in a beautiful human form, brought milk, and made him drink it. Chaturadas found that rupa very dear. He said: 'Please give me some water as well.'
Prabhu went to fetch water but then was nowhere to be seen. The viraha from that rupa caused great dukha to Naga. That night, in a svapna, Shri Krishna said: 'That water was already given to you within the milk.'
And Prabhu added: 'Henceforth you should have no need for water. You reside in Braj-bhumi. Go from house to house among the Brajvasis and drink milk alone.'
Even within the svapna, Chaturadas humbly submitted: 'These Brajvasis worship milk with great prema.' But Prabhu said: 'They will give you milk. My ajna it is; they will give.'
From that day, he would go from house to house taking milk. He told the Brajvasis: 'I have the ajna of Nandakumar; give me milk.' Some refused. He gave them a demonstration: their entire milk supply would spoil, or some mishap would befall them. Then people realized the truth of Prabhu's ajna and began giving gladly. Some women would playfully hide the vessel; Naga would find it himself. Everyone took great delight. In this way, he enacted a rasa-filled lila in the land of Shri Krishna.
I am a sacrifice unto those bhaktas who beg madhukari and serve the bhaktas of Hari. Among the notable ones: Paramanand at Gomsa, Pradhan Bhakt at Dvarika, Khosh Bhakt at Mathura, Bhagavan's fine pair of sevaks at Kalakh and Sanganeer, Vithal at Tonde, Khem Panda at Gunore who served bhaktas and lived in joy, Shyamadas of the lineage of Sen Bhakt, Chighar and Shri Pipa both luminous like the sun, Jetaran and Gopal, and Shri Kevaldas Kubaji.
Concern for Others Is the First Movement of Love
When famine came to the kingdom of Jodhpur and the crops dried to dust, Jaytasaran Bihurji's first anxiety was not for his own household. It was for the santas: who would feed them now, when the granaries were hollow and the fields cracked under a pitiless sky? This inward orientation is itself a teaching. Bhakti does not contract in hardship. The heart that has genuinely turned toward the Lord finds that, in the moment of personal difficulty, it naturally moves outward in care for others. This is not a discipline imposed from outside. It is what love does when it is real. The welfare of God's people becomes inseparable from one's own welfare, and that expansion of concern carries within it, quietly, the faith that Prabhu will not abandon those who have abandoned themselves to His service.
Bhaktamal, Tilak of Jaytasaran Bihurji (ID 248)
The Lord's Word Is Not Conditional on the State of the World
In a dream, the Lord came to Jaytasaran Bihurji and told him to cut and thresh the dry, ruined field: two thousand maunds of grain would come from it. The world around him had already agreed that nothing was there. His neighbors watched and laughed. But Jaytasaran Bihurji did not thresh his field with his eyes on the crowd. He went to that dead field and did exactly what Prabhu had commanded, singing Hari's name as he worked. The grain came. The people who had laughed were silenced, and then filled with joy. The teaching here is simple and total: the devotee stands between two declarations, what the world says is possible, and what the Beloved says will be. The bhakta's choosing of the Lord's word over the world's verdict is itself the miracle. The grain is only the Lord's acknowledgment of what was already present: an unbroken, uncontracted faith.
Bhaktamal, Tikakar's commentary on Jaytasaran Bihurji (ID 248)
Sadhu Seva: The Axis Around Which a Life Can Turn
The Bhaktamal records that Jaytasaran Bihurji was a householder, not a renunciant. He had a home, fields, and ordinary responsibilities. What distinguished him was this: his entire mati, the orientation of mind and heart, was bent toward the seva of sadhus and santas. Whatever resources he possessed, he poured into the service of those who walked in the name of the Lord. Seva of this kind is not a side practice, something one does after other matters are settled. For Jaytasaran Bihurji, it was the central axis. Everything else revolved around it. The householder's path is not lesser than the path of renunciation. It is simply a different vessel for the same love. When that vessel is oriented fully toward the Lord's people, the Lord himself takes note.
Bhaktamal, Tilak of Jaytasaran Bihurji (ID 248)
Madhukari: The Bee's Way of Living Without Grasping
The Bhaktamal places Jaytasaran Bihurji among a brotherhood of bhaktas who practiced madhukari, collecting a small handful of grain or food from door to door, the way a bee gathers a little nectar from many flowers. This practice was not born of scarcity alone. It was a chosen way of living, a deliberate cultivation of humility and dependence on Prabhu's grace flowing through the hands of ordinary householders. The bee does not strip a single flower bare. It takes a little, gives the flower its touch, and moves on. In the same way, the madhukari bhakta touches each household with blessing, receives a small gift, and carries the name of Hari from door to door. This is the teaching: true renunciation is not withdrawal from the world, but the removal of grasping from one's contact with the world.
Bhaktamal, Chhappay verse 146, Madhukari bhaktas section (ID 248)
When the Seeker Chooses the Beloved's Voice Over the Crowd's Laughter
The people who watched Jaytasaran Bihurji thresh his dead field did not stay silent. They laughed. Skepticism is the natural language of a world that trusts only what the eye can confirm. And yet Bhakti asks for something different: not blind dismissal of the seen world, but a willingness to hold a higher testimony, the word of the one who loves you most, alongside it. The crowd saw a dead field. Jaytasaran Bihurji saw a promise from Prabhu. He chose to act on the promise, not on what the field looked like. The grain appeared. The crowd's laughter became jubilation. This sequence repeats across the lives of the Bhaktamal's saints: the bhakta who acts on the Lord's word rather than on visible conditions does not simply receive a miracle. The bhakta becomes a demonstration to everyone nearby that Prabhu's word is real and present, not a matter of ancient scripture alone.
Bhaktamal, Tilak and Tika of Jaytasaran Bihurji (ID 248)
Hindi text from OCR scan (Khemraj Shrikrishnadas Prakashan, CC0). May contain errors.