Once in a village, lived a poor woman named Karmabai. She was a devotee and very kind-hearted. She used to wake up early and prepare prasad (offering) for Lord Jagannath before any other household chores. One day a boy came to her door and asked for food as he was hungry. She happily asked him to come inside and sit. Then affectionately prepared a bowl full of Bajra khichdi. The boy ate it all and asked “Amma, can I come again tomorrow?” She said “It’s all good beta. You can come every day.”
Then from that day onwards, the boy started coming every day for her Bajra khichdi. One day a sadhu was passing by. He advised Karmabai that she was doing lord’s bhakti the wrong way. She should first take a bath and then make prasad afterward. She agreed and the next morning she first did all household chores, then bath, and then afterwards made an offering for Lord Jagannath.
That day, somewhere in the same village, when a pujari came to the temple, he saw some rice on the face of Lord Jagannath’s statue. He got confused as he didn’t offer khichdi as prasad for many days. How come there’s rice on Lord’s face!
Later that night, Lord Jagannath gave him darshan in his dreams and told him about Karmabai. He told him that now it gets a bit late at her house eating khichdi as she does other things first. Due to that, he didn’t get time to clean up thus, he had some rice left on his face.
The next day pujari sent a messenger to Karmabai’s house and asked her to do the same that she was doing earlier. Forget what sadhu told her. She again agreed and started making prasad as the first thing in the morning. This way time passed and one day she died.
The next day, when pujari came to the temple he saw tears rolling down on Lord Jagannath’s face. He got anxious and called for the king of that place. The king also got disquieted and asked the lord the reason for his tears. They both didn’t understand what went wrong. Why is the lord crying?
That night, Lord Jagannath gave darshan to both the king and a pujari and told them about Karmabai’s demise. He downheartedly told them that she used to lovingly feed him with bajra khichdi every day and now without her, where will he go for his khichdi. Saying this, the Lord vanished.
The next day, the king came to the temple and advised pujari to make bajra khichdi in the name of Karmabai and offer it to the Lord every morning. This way he won’t miss her and get upset again.
Moral of the story:
Through Karma bai, the story only tells that rather than getting stuck in rituals or a particular way of doing things, one must have pure devotion towards the lord. A clean heart, sense of devotional service & unwavering faith lead towards the path of Krishna.
