Surdas Chooses Blindness Over Sight

Dadi: "Guddu, if God offered you any wish in the world, what would you ask for?"

Guddu: "Hmm... superpowers? Lots of money? The ability to fly?"

Dadi: "Tonight I'll tell you about Surdas - a blind poet who received sight as a divine gift and then asked to be made blind again."

Guddu: "WHAT?! Why would anyone do that?!"

Dadi: "That's what makes this story so extraordinary. Surdas was born blind. Because of this, his family neglected him and treated him poorly. But he developed a passion for music and devoted his life to composing songs for Lord Krishna."

Guddu: "He composed music even though he couldn't see?"

Dadi: "Sometimes blindness sharpens other senses, beta. His inner vision of Krishna was so vivid that he wrote verses as if he was an eyewitness to Krishna's divine play."

Guddu: "What happened with the vision?"

Dadi: "One day, Surdas fell into a well! He called out to Lord Krishna for help, and he was miraculously rescued. Radha, Krishna's beloved, asked why Krishna had helped the blind saint. Krishna explained it was because of Surdas's exceptional devotion."

Guddu: "Did Surdas meet them?"

Dadi: "He couldn't see them, but he recognized the divine sounds - particularly the tinkling of Radha's ankle bells. Instinctively, he reached out and grasped her anklets!"

Guddu: "*giggling* He grabbed a goddess's jewelry?"

Dadi: "Radha told him who she was, but Surdas refused to believe her. 'How can I know you're telling the truth? I'm blind! I cannot see you!' He held onto the anklets stubbornly."

Guddu: "What did they do?"

Dadi: "At that moment, Lord Krishna granted Surdas vision in his eyes. For the first time in his life, Surdas could SEE. And what did he see? Sri Krishna and Sri Radha in all their divine glory!"

Guddu: "That must have been amazing!"

Dadi: "Beyond description. All his life, he had imagined them. Now he saw them - radiant, beautiful, divine. He returned the anklets and stood in wonder."

Guddu: "Then Krishna offered him a wish?"

Dadi: "Any boon he desired. Think about it, Guddu - a lifetime of blindness, and now the offer of anything in creation. What would most people ask for?"

Guddu: "To keep their sight, of course!"

Dadi: "Surdas made a different choice. 'My Lord,' he said, 'you have already given me everything. After receiving your divine darshan, there is nothing more left for me to see in this world.'"

Guddu: "Wait... he didn't want to see anything ELSE?"

Dadi: "He said something profound: 'I do not want to see anything else with eyes that have been blessed with YOUR vision. No worldly sight could ever compare. Please make me blind as before.'"

Guddu: "*quietly* He wanted to keep only THAT vision..."

Dadi: "To preserve it as the only thing his eyes had ever beheld. Radha was deeply moved. Krishna granted his wish. Surdas became blind again - by choice."

Guddu: "Dadi, that's beautiful but also sad."

Dadi: "Is it sad? Think about it differently. Every sighted person sees thousands of ordinary things - dirty streets, ugly buildings, unkind faces. Surdas's eyes saw only one thing in their entire existence: the divine couple in all their glory. Nothing else ever diluted or diminished that vision."

Guddu: "His blindness became a protection of something precious."

Dadi: "Exactly. After this, Surdas composed about 100,000 songs! His physical blindness, far from hindering him, deepened his spiritual focus. He described Krishna's form so vividly that people wondered if he was secretly sighted."

Guddu: "He wasn't - he was just filled with that one vision."

Dadi: "When he died at 85, people said he entered Krishna's divine abode. A lifetime of darkness had led to eternal light. A moment of sight had become infinite vision."

Guddu: "Dadi, what's the lesson?"

Dadi: "That sometimes, less is more. That protecting something precious matters more than accumulating new experiences. That the deepest seeing happens with eyes closed. Surdas knew that worldly sights would only clutter the beauty he had witnessed. He chose purity over variety."

Guddu: "I think I understand... kind of."

Dadi: "You will understand more as you grow. For now, just remember: there are things worth giving everything for. When you find them - a divine vision, a true love, a profound truth - protect them fiercely. Don't let them be diluted by lesser things."

Guddu: "*yawning* Goodnight, Dadi. May I find something worth choosing blindness for."

Dadi: "May you see with your heart what eyes can never capture. Goodnight, my deep-seeing boy."