Janabai - Vitthala Grinds the Flour

Dadi: "Guddu, what if God came to help you with your homework?"

Guddu: "*(laughing)* That would be amazing! But God doesn't do homework."

Dadi: "There was a woman named Janabai whose love for God was so pure that he actually came to help her grind flour!"

Guddu: "Wait, what?!"

Dadi: "Janabai was born into a poor family and became an orphan very young. She worked as a servant in the house of Sant Namdev, doing all the household chores - washing clothes, grinding flour, cooking, cleaning."

Guddu: "That sounds like hard work."

Dadi: "Very hard, beta. In those days, there were no machines. Women would wake up before anyone else - when it was still dark - and grind grain by hand using heavy stones. It was exhausting!"

Guddu: "And she had to do this every single day?"

Dadi: "Every single day. But here's what made Janabai special: while she worked, she never stopped thinking of Vitthala - her name for God. Every turn of the grinding stone, she'd sing his name. Every sweep of the broom, she'd remember him."

Guddu: "So her work became prayer?"

Dadi: "Exactly! And her devotion was so pure, so constant, that something miraculous started happening. Lord Vitthala himself began appearing to help her!"

Guddu: "The actual God?!"

Dadi: "She wrote in her songs: "Vitthala grinds the grain wearing his yellow dhoti, telling Jani just to watch and sing." Can you imagine? The Lord of the Universe, wearing work clothes, helping a servant girl grind flour!"

Guddu: "Why would God do that?"

Dadi: "Because she never asked for it. She never prayed for miracles or wealth or escape from her hard life. She just loved him, purely, constantly, through every moment of her work. And God cannot resist such love."

Guddu: "What else did he help with?"

Dadi: "Everything! She sang about Vitthala carrying water with her from the river, not letting her feet get wet. About him sweeping the courtyard with her and carrying out the trash. About them making cowdung cakes for fuel together!"

Guddu: "God making cowdung cakes?! That's so... humble!"

Dadi: "That's the whole point, beta! For Vitthala, there was no work too low when it meant being close to his devotee. And for Janabai, there was no work too hard when her beloved was beside her."

Guddu: "Did other people see these miracles?"

Dadi: "Once, after an all-night devotional gathering, Janabai was too tired to wash clothes. An elderly woman appeared and offered to help. Later, Sant Namdev told her: "That was Lord Vitthal himself, disguised out of love for you.""

Guddu: "She didn't even recognize him?"

Dadi: "Love doesn't always need recognition. It just serves. Another time, some people accused Janabai of stealing Vitthala's precious shawl. The truth was that one morning, Vitthala had accidentally worn her torn blanket to the temple and left his silk shawl at her place!"

Guddu: "God wearing a servant's torn blanket?"

Dadi: "That's how intimate their relationship was. When they were about to punish Janabai, Vitthala himself appeared and explained everything, saving her."

Guddu: "What can I learn from this, Dadi?"

Dadi: "Several things, beta. First: no work is too small for devotion. Grinding flour became sacred because of how Janabai did it. Second: God responds to pure love, not grand gestures. Janabai couldn't read or write, but her illiterate love moved the Lord of the Universe."

Guddu: "How did her poems survive if she couldn't write?"

Dadi: "Tradition says Vitthala himself wrote them down for her! And women in Maharashtra still sing her songs while doing household work - keeping her memory alive."

Guddu: "There's a temple for her?"

Dadi: "Yes, showing Janabai grinding grain with Vitthala beside her. That image is etched in the heart of every Maharashtrian - God and servant, working side by side as equals."

Guddu: "Next time I do chores, I'll think of Janabai."

Dadi: "And maybe, if your heart is full of love while you work, you'll feel a presence beside you too - not grinding flour perhaps, but sharing the work, turning the ordinary into something divine."

Guddu: "I'll try, Dadi. I'll really try."

Dadi: "That's all Janabai did. She tried, every day, to remember God in her work. And look what happened - she became a saint whose songs are sung six hundred years later. Small devotion, big grace."