rukmini panduranga -v

Gora Kumbhar was a potter.

He made pots. This was his living.

So, every day he would bake pots. He had a small shop, and he and his wife would make pots. But although Gora Kumbhar would work, he would also be absorbed in chanting the Name of Vitthala, the Name of Panduranga.

So, before he started his work one day, his wife gave him his little three-year-old son to look after. He said, ‘Yes yes, I will look after him’ and the wife went to wash their clothes by the river.

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So, Gora Kumbhar started working.

And the child was playing there.

So, he put the clay down and added water. You know, in that time, 12th Century, they used to crush the clay with their feet, so that it became very soft. So, he was chanting, and at the same time crushing the clay.

So, his mind was fully absorbed in chanting the Name of Panduranga. He was not aware of what was happening around him, he was not aware where his son was, nothing.

So, the son crawled over, and fell into the place where he was crushing the clay. As he was crushing the clay, he was not aware, and he stepped on the child, and crushed the child also. He crushed the child with the clay completely, but he was not conscious of it.

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So, after some time, his wife came and was looking for the child everywhere, and calling the child. The wife came to Gora Kumbhar and said, ‘Where is our son? I left him here when I went to wash the clothes, and now I’m looking for him everywhere, and I can’t find him.’

As she was talking to him, she noticed the clay was red, blood red. And then they saw the hand of the child. She screamed. When she screamed, he came back to his conscious state again, back to normality, and realised he had crushed his son.

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What to do?

They looked for the pieces of him, and they did a cremation.

So, to punish himself for what he did, he broke both of his own arms, and when he did that, of course he could not work any longer. Six months passed, and all the little they had, started to disappear and they became very poor, with nothing.


~vishwananda~
inauguration speech
April 14th, 2019