Visobakhecher And Namdev – God In All Animate And Inanimate

A real life incident involving Visobakhecher and Namdev teaches us that God is in all animate and inanimate. Sant Namdev was one of the pillars of the Bhakti cult that developed around the worship of Bhagwan Vitthal of Pandharpur in Maharashtra during the middle ages. Sant Namdev was also a companion of Sant Dnyaneshwar.

Sant Namdev used to visit the Bhagwan Vitthal Temple in Pandharpur daily and he was attached to the temple. Sant Dnyaneshwar made fun of this attachment as Sant Namdev believed that Bhagavan was only in the temple.

Namdev used to converse with Bhagwan Vitthal daily and he complained to the Lord about other people making fun of him for his attachment.

Bhagwan Vitthal then asked Namdev to go to Visobakhecher who lived in a nearby village and receive spiritual teachings. Namdev was not ready to leave as it meant he will not be able to visit the temple for two or three days. Bhagwan Vitthal convinced him to meet Visobakhecher.

Namdev reached the village of Visobakhecher and found out that he was staying in an old Shiva temple on the outskirts of the village. When Namdev reached the temple he was shocked to find an old man sleeping with his legs on the Shivling.

An angry Namdev woke up the old man and asked him to remove his legs from Mahadev Shiva.

Visobakhecher then asked Namdev to keep his leg where Bhagwan is not.

Namdev angrily pull out the leg of Visobakhecher and placed it in the opposite direction but he was surprised to see a Shivling there. He then moved the leg to a third direction but there too there was a Shivling.

Namdev soon discovered that the there was a Shivling in every inch of space in the temple.

With no place to keep the feet of Visobakhecher; Namdev put the feet of the holy man on his head.

The moment the feet touched the head of Namdev, he was illumined about the all pervading nature of the Supreme Truth.

Tears trickled from the eyes of Namdev and he thanked Visobakhecher and Lord Vitthal.

This real life incident teaches us that any form of attachment is ignorance.