Bhakta Sakkubai- TK Rangaswamy

In our country, sacred places of pilgrimage are considered to be the forms of Brahman. Pandaripura in Maharashtra is considered to be Nada Brahman. The Lord of Pandaripur is Panduranga. The melodious sound emanated from the Bhajans of devotees and echoed over the town of pandaripur seems to confirm that this place was really a Nada Brahman.

Sakku Bai was the daughter of one Gangadhara Rao and his wife Kamala Bai who were devotees of Panduranga. In her younger days Sakku Bai was playing in the streets. One day she was making a house with mud. At that time Pandarinatha in the guise of an old man, with a Tambura (musical instrument) was passing by. While he was passing the mud-house got kicked off by his foot. Immediately Sakku Bai got enraged and took him to task for having destroyed her mud-house which she had done with much effort. The old man accepted his fault and felt sorry. He asked her what she wanted. Sakku Bai wanted his Tambura which he gave her and showed her how it should be tuned, simultaneously whispering the Astaksari Mantra into her ear. He asked her to do Japa with that Mantra. Sakku was thereafter sitting alone doing japa always. Her parents thought that she was possessed by some evil spirit and thought of arranging her marriage. But nobody was willing to marry her as she was always moody and meditating, mistaking her to be insane.

© "Kalyana-Kalpataru" (May, 2003) published by Jagdish Prasad Jalan for Gobind Bhawan Karyalaya, Gita Press, Gorakhpur. Reprinted with permission.

Click here to view the full content of the article.

<< Back