Shilpille Bai Ji's Story | An AI Short Video | Pujya Premanand Govind Sharan Ji Maharaj

From the blessed lips of Pujya Maharaj Ji, devotee character stories — hear the complete narrative in the video above.

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When we sing the Namavali, the remembrance of Shilpille Bai comes to us. In it, "gave poison to her son, worshipped Shilpille, found the sweetness of devotion." See how much faith a bhakt has. How devoted they are. One is a princess and the other a zamindar's daughter. Both were friends. One day a saint who was a lover of Bhagavan came to the king's court. The king was a devotee of saints. Saints kept coming. And the work of saints is to remain absorbed in the continuous service and remembrance of their Lord. Service and remembrance—this is a very great power. If we remain in service and remembrance at all times, then no maya or illusion can ever defeat us.

Wherever we turn away from service and remembrance, that is where the influence of maya takes hold. The king had the shalagrama form of Bhagavan. He was serving with great devotion. And these two young friends, their hearts tender with youth, were watching this. An idea came to their hearts: we too will serve the Thakur like this. What we see and hear deeply affects our hearts. If we see and hear impure things, our hearts will think only of those. Our hearts become inclined toward unworthy deeds. But if we hear devotional talk and see devotional sights, our thoughts will be devotional. Our hearts will be inclined toward devotional inspiration. The saint stayed for many days. Every day there was service, kirtan, and discourse, their hearts becoming simple. The two friends spoke to each other: let us go and ask the saint to give us Thakur Ji also. Both held his feet and prayed: Guru Dev, our hearts too are filled with the desire for Thakur service. Please give us Thakur Ji to serve.

Now these were just children. The saint reflected: the path of service requires great care. These are still children. What if service becomes an offense? One must be firmly established in service. How can these children fully cultivate the feeling of service?

So the saint said to both girls: tomorrow we will bring Thakur Ji and give him to you. He went about the village and found round stones lying about. He brought two stones and said: here, these are your Thakur Ji. See how much devotion should be placed in the words of the guru and in the object of service given by the guru! They had firm faith: my guru dev gave this to me. This is my Bhagavan. Both placed them in their hearts with devotion. Now one was a zamindar's daughter and one a princess on a golden throne, and they named their Thakur Shilpille Govind. Both placed them on a throne and began worship. Devotion grew with every moment. Continuous naam jap, constant remembrance of the guru-given Thakur—special miracles manifested in their hearts.

If you walk by the rules given by Shri Ji, by constant naam jap, by whatever means you serve—whether you have purchased something from the market and installed it, whether you sometimes serve it and sometimes don't—that too is good. At least there is devotional feeling. But the siddhi that is attained comes from guru's grace, from the guru-given Thakur. Just as Dhanna Ji saw Thakur Ji manifest in the mortar where he was grinding hemp seed, so did the guru-given Thakur become manifest here. Now as these girls grew older, the time came for their marriage.

The princess was married to a prince. When she took her leave from her parents, she took her Thakur Ji, who was on the throne, and placed him with great care in a beautiful box with the throne, and held it to her heart. Inwardly she was burning with the thought: Lord, I have accepted you as my beloved. In the ways of the world, there is another beloved. But Lord, we cannot have two beloveds. I have accepted you in my heart with all sincerity.

In this mood she went to her new home. The palanquins were moving with the royal retinue. She was in the palanquin and the prince was on horseback. The prince kept coming near the palanquin, wanting to see her. But she would neither look at him nor speak to him. And she was so beautiful—because of her brahmacharya and Bhagavan worship. This grieved the prince's heart. He thought: what is it that she will not even speak to me? He kept trying to speak, but she would not listen. Instead, she kept opening the little box and gazing at her Thakur Ji. From the power of naam jap and service, the Thakur had become no longer merely stone.

When she gazed at her Shilpille Thakur Ji, she beheld the darshan of the dark, beautiful Shyam Sundar. She saw the graceful three-fold bend of Shri Lal, the Maharaj Shyam Sundar. Such intense attachment! When there is guru-given, guru-blessed anything at all, there is divinity in it. We can only have faith. We cannot give this. It is guru-given. We cannot give our life force, but not this—this is guru's grace. Whoever has firm steadfastness in the guru's word, in the guru-given object, in the guru-given Thakur, becomes fulfilled. Now the prince understood: it is what is in this box that is the barrier between me and the princess.

He called two or three maidservants and said: engage her in conversation, distract her. Give me the box. The clever maidservants entertained her with pleasant chatter and jokes. She, absorbed in her sadness, slowly let the box slip from her lap. The servants took it and gave it to the prince. The prince said to the princess: this very box is the wall between us—let me throw it into the river. Now her heart filled with pain. Deep sorrow. The prince is a prince. He immediately called the soldiers to lift the palanquin. I have taken it. But she is attached. Such a beautiful princess—because she was radiant with devotional power, there is attraction in that.

The princess said, "If we do not have our Thakur, then from today I will renounce food and water, I will renounce my life. If our Thakur is not near us, from today how can I drink even a drop of water? I have fed our Thakur and raised him, and now the Thakur has been cast away." Such anguish overwhelmed her, just as Meera Ji says: Drishya bin dukhan lage nahi, na raat mein nind hai, na din mein ann jal hai — without the sight of him, suffering overtakes me; there is no sleep at night and no food and water during the day. The anguish became so great that the prince was terrified. The entire palace was consumed with despair—what would happen in society if the new princess were to end her life? The new princess had only just arrived.

These people were so heartless that their behavior drove her to the brink of death. The prince fell to his knees. Kneeling before the princess, he said, "I do not wish to make you suffer. But I also cannot abandon you. Now tell us—what is the remedy by which you will smile? Tell us how to make you content?" She replied, "We cannot live without our Thakur. If you wish to see us alive, then bring our Thakur to us." They had thrown the Thakur into the river. With his family, the prince went to the banks of that river.

The prince said to the princess, "You have such love for the Thakur. How much does the Thakur love you? If the Thakur truly loves you, then prove it to me, and I will obey your command for my entire life." She said, "Do you wish to see how much the Thakur loves us?" She stretched out her hands and called out with yearning: "Govind! Without you, I cannot live anymore." The moment she prayed from within, the Lord appeared from the water with a throne, as if carried on a current of wind, and embraced her to his chest.

The entire family, the prince, witnessed this. The prince accepted servitude to the Thakur with his whole heart and said, "As you command." Just as when Meera Ji was married to Rana Ji—on the first night of their union, Meera Ji said to him, "Be careful. You are not our husband. Our marriage is with Giridhir. Shyamsundar alone is our husband. In outward behavior you have become husband, but if you understand what I am saying, then never touch us in this life. This life belongs only to Giridhir, to no one else." She got down from the bed and served him as a servant would.

The Rana said, "Oh, what fortune! What blessing has come to me, that I have the opportunity to serve one so blessed. I am privileged. In solitude, I will always conduct myself toward you as a student to a guru. But in society, I must treat you as a daughter-in-law, or people will not let us live. In public I will behave as your husband, and in private we will have the relationship of guru and student—you will be our guru, and we will conduct ourselves accordingly." This is how Rana Ji treated her, and this is how that prince behaved. Our devotion to bhagavat should be such that we have firm faith in the mantra the guru has given us, in the sadhana the guru has given us.

Within us there should not be even a particle of wavering.

This text is taken from auto-generated video captions—there may be errors in the words. Please watch the video for the authentic teaching.

Original video: Bhajan Marg (YouTube)