SAINT NAMDEV (WE ARE)

     Namdev, a great 17th century Saint from Maharashtra, India, was a devotee of Lord Pandurang. The Lord helped Saint Namdev in a great many ways due to his intense devotion. Tales of these incidents reached far and wide. His fame finally reached the Mughal Emperor in Delhi. The Emperor decided to test Namdev.


      One day, Saint Namdev was teaching some people about God and chanting. The Emperor ordered his men to place a dead cow outside of the place where Namdev was teaching. When Namdev heard the commotion, He came outside. He immediately felt compassion towards the cow and said that it would come back to life in a few days. The Emperor watched with interest.


    Saint Namdev prayed to The Lord and chanted His Name; devoutly calling to God to bring the cow to back life in a few days. Sure enough, Lord Pandurang appeared in front of Namdev on the 4th day and revived the cow. Everyone was amazed to see the cow come back to life! The Emperor too, lost his pride and bowed in prayer to The Lord. "But," it was asked, "Why did The Lord wait 4 days before bringing the cow back to life?" Namdev explained, "God loves His devotee and does what the devotee prays for. Since we asked Him to bring the cow to life in a few days, He came to revive her in 4 days. If we had prayed to Him to bring the cow back to life at that moment, He would have done so."

Thomas Hewes Hinkley, Cow, 1869.

Note:  I first posted this two years ago during weather and road conditions similar to Chester County, PA’s current cold, gray, slippery, slipping, sorrowful State (correction: Commonwealth).   Blogger, Google's buggy software with a mind of its own, later stripped Saint Namdev’s tale of its gorgeous Thomas Hewes Hinkley cow, which can be seen in our local Brandywine River Museum, so I decided that time and metaphysical tides made it suitable for revival. 

One way or another.  

&c.

Grateful Dead: New Speedway Boogie (Link)

The Cow (Robert Louis Stevenson)

The friendly cow all red and white,
I love with all my heart:
She gives me cream with all her might,
To eat with apple-tart.

She wanders lowing here and there,
And yet she cannot stray,
All in the pleasant open air,
The pleasant light of day;

And blown by all the winds that pass
And wet with all the showers,
She walks among the meadow grass
And eats the meadow flowers.

NOTES:


1. From A Child's Garden of Verses (1885)


2.  Most days I drive from Berwyn to Bryn Mawr along Darby-Paoli, turning left on Conestoga Road.  On either side spread two large cow pastures, which are home to a single herd of beautiful black cows.  The cows are either in one pasture or the other -- never in both simultaneously.  We have never been able to figure out how they cross the road and no one has ever been able to explain this phenomenon to us.  Either people are totally uninterested, they are all participating in a conspiracy against my family or, as I actually believe, these are magical cows.  


3.  Link: Shirley Temple recites The Cow in Dora's Dunking Donuts (1933)


4.  Paintings by Thomas Hewes Hinkley, 1869, Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.  


5.  Link: The Cow (Paul Bowles)

Saint Namdev, The Emperor And The Cow

  

     Namdev, a great 17th century Saint from Maharashtra, India, was a devotee of Lord Pandurang. The Lord helped Saint Namdev in a great many ways due to his intense devotion. Tales of these incidents reached far and wide. His fame finally reached the Mughal Emperor in Delhi. The Emperor decided to test Namdev.

          One day, Saint Namdev was teaching some people about God and chanting. The Emperor ordered his men to place a dead cow outside of the place where Namdev was teaching. When Namdev heard the commotion, He came outside. He immediately felt compassion towards the cow and said that it would come back to life in a few days. The Emperor watched with interest.

    Saint Namdev prayed to The Lord and chanted His Name; devoutly calling to God to bring the cow to back life in a few days. Sure enough, Lord Pandurang appeared in front of Namdev on the 4th day and revived the cow. Everyone was amazed to see the cow come back to life! The Emperor too, lost his pride and bowed in prayer to The Lord. "But," it was asked, "Why did The Lord wait 4 days before bringing the cow back to life?" Namdev explained, "God loves His devotee and does what the devotee prays for. Since we asked Him to bring the cow to life in a few days, He came to revive her in 4 days. If we had prayed to Him to bring the cow back to life at that moment, He would have done so."

Thomas Hewes Hinkley, Cow, 1869, Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania