Karma Bai - Mira of Marwar

Dadi: "Guddu, what if God came to your house every morning for breakfast?"

Guddu: "That would be amazing! I'd make the best food ever!"

Dadi: "A simple village woman named Karma Bai experienced exactly this - and her food wasn't fancy at all. It was just khichdi!"

Guddu: "Khichdi? Rice and dal?"

Dadi: "The simplest meal possible. Yet Lord Krishna came running every morning, calling out: "Mother, I've arrived - quickly bring the khichdi!""

Guddu: "Krishna called her "Mother"?"

Dadi: "That was their relationship. Karma Bai was born in 1615 in Rajasthan to a simple Jat farming family. From childhood, she was devoted to Krishna, whom she called "Bihari Ji.""

Guddu: "How did he start coming for breakfast?"

Dadi: "Her devotion was so pure, so constant, so full of love, that Krishna couldn't resist. Every morning, she would cook khichdi thinking of him, singing to him, offering each stir of the pot as prayer."

Guddu: "And he actually appeared?"

Dadi: "Day after day! He would come in the form of a little child, eat her humble food, talk with her, and then vanish. This went on for years."

Guddu: "Did her family believe her?"

Dadi: "Her father was away for a long time. When he returned and she told him, he said, "Prove it." So she prayed to Krishna: "Please, show yourself to my father too.""

Guddu: "Did Krishna come?"

Dadi: "He appeared! Her father saw with his own eyes that his daughter's impossible story was true. From then on, everyone knew Karma Bai was blessed."

Guddu: "But she was so ordinary - not a queen or a priestess!"

Dadi: "That's exactly the point, beta. She wasn't special by worldly standards. She was from a low caste, uneducated, poor. But her love was extraordinary."

Guddu: "Did anything go wrong?"

Dadi: "Once, a visiting saint told her: "You should bathe and clean properly before cooking for God. That's the proper ritual.""

Guddu: "That seems like good advice?"

Dadi: "She followed it. But that day, the khichdi was different. It lost its special taste. Krishna ate hurriedly without his usual joy. The delay caused by all the rituals had somehow broken the magic."

Guddu: "Oh no!"

Dadi: "The saint realized his mistake. "Go back to your original way," he told her. "Those rules are for monks. Your pure devotion needs no rituals. Your love IS the ritual.""

Guddu: "So rules can actually get in the way?"

Dadi: "For some people, at some stages. Karma Bai's spontaneous love was more pure than any prescribed ritual could be. Adding formality made it worse, not better."

Guddu: "What happened to her later?"

Dadi: "Her fame spread all the way to Puri in Odisha - where Lord Jagannath (another form of Krishna) lives. The saints there invited her to cook for Jagannath."

Guddu: "Did Krishna appear in Puri too?"

Dadi: "Wherever she cooked with love, he came. She eventually settled in Puri, where her devotion became part of the Jagannath tradition. She lived to be 87 years old."

Guddu: "What's her main teaching, Dadi?"

Dadi: "That God doesn't need grand temples or complicated rituals. He comes for simple love expressed through simple acts. A pot of khichdi cooked with devotion can summon the Lord of the Universe."

Guddu: "Even I can cook khichdi!"

Dadi: "*(laughing)* And if you cook it thinking of God, who knows who might come for breakfast? Karma Bai shows us that anyone - of any caste, any background, any level of education - can have the most intimate relationship with the Divine."

Guddu: "Just through love and simple offerings?"

Dadi: ""What you do matters less than how you do it." That's her lesson. A king might perform elaborate rituals without love. A village woman might cook simple food with total devotion. Guess who God prefers?"

Guddu: "The loving one!"

Dadi: "Always, beta. Always. Now, shall we go make some khichdi together? Maybe someone special will smell it cooking..."

Guddu: "*(excitedly)* Yes! Let's try!"