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Jnana Deva is not only a great jnani but a devotee as well. One day he asked Gorakumbhar, the potter-devotee to test whether all the other devotees are well baked in the fiery fervour of devotion, ripe enough for the dawn of knowledge and transparent enough to reveal divinity. Gorakumbhar took a stick and started testing each of the devotees to see whether they have risen to the expectations of Jnaneswara. Unfortunately, Namadev was found to have been insufficiently baked, less ripe and less transparent to be a seer, to be a fully fragrant flower of devotion, to be wholly divine.
Disappointed, Namadeva approached Lord Panduranga and expressed his agony and humiliation. Lord Panduranga asked him to go to a particular Sadguru for right knowledge. Namadeva went to the appointed place and found there an old man lying with his foot placed on a Sivalinga. Namadeva was shocked to see the sacrilegious sight. It is a sin to place one's foot on the holy linga. He was annoyed and therefore asked the old man to place his foot elsewhere. The old man, in reply said "young man, I am too old to move. If you find me to be disrespectful to Siva, please remove my foot from where it is and place it on the floor. I shall be thankful to you". Namadeva did as instructed. Lo and behold, wherever the foot of the old man was placed , there appeared a Sivalinga. There was no place, where there was no Siva. Namadeva's eyes were opened. He was full with God within and without. God is omnipresent.
May we by God's grace see and feel God everywhere; love and serve Him everywhere and in everyone and everything.
"There are three kinds of devotees: superior, mediocre, and inferior. The inferior devotee says, 'God is out there. 'According to him God is different from His creation. The mediocre devotee says: 'GodistheAntaryami, the Inner Guide. God dwells in everyone's heart.' The mediocre devotee sees God in the heart. But the superior devotee sees that God alone has become everything; He alone has become the twenty-four cosmic principles. He finds that everything, above and below, is filled with God. Read the Gita, the Bhagavata, and the Vedanta, and you will understand all this. Is not God in His creation?"--- Sri Ramakrishna
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