Dasi of Damordasji

 

Damordasdasji had a dasi (female slave / maid) who was very dedicated to Thakorji.  She was constantly thinking of how best to serve Thakorji and was concerned about the comfort and happiness of Thakorji.  Shri Thakorji used to give her intuition of how best to serve him.

In the 84 Vaishnav’s varta, Damodardas had a son who converted to islam.  As a consequence, Damodardas left his Thakorji and all his mobile wealth to Shri Vallabh in his will.  After his death, his wife sent the Thakorji and the wealth to Shri Vallabh in boat.  As the boat neared their house, Shri Vallabh ordered a boat, along with its female slave, to be sunk.  Everyone was shocked, but his order was obeyed.  Being a man of the world, Shri Vallabh knew that legally, Damodardas’s son could claim ownership of everything his father owned – no matter what his father’s will said.  If the Vallabhkul had accepted the wealth, then the investigators on behalf of the son would have inventoried everything in the Guru-ghar.  They could / would cause major damage to the icons in the guru-ghar and would have taken more than the wealth of Damodardas as penalty and forfeit.  To avoid this legal wrangle, Shri Vallabh ordered the boat to be sunk.  I hope the female salve was rescued.  As officially everything was sunk and lost, I am sure a major legal wrangle was avoided.

 

Due to various internal family discord amongst Vallabhkul, this incidence has been used to demean Shri Gopinathji.  It is said that at the time of Dwarikadhishji’s return to Shri Vallabh, Shri Gopinathji made a comment that Shri Narayan was coming home with Lakshmiji.  Shri Vallabh apparently disapproved of his comment.  Apparently, it is because of this ‘attachment’ to Thakorji's wealth, Shri Gopinathji and his son died without heirs.  The fact that Shri Gopinathji had contributed vast quantities of treasures to the haveli of ShriNathji is totally ignored.  Fact that this wealth of Dwarikadhishji would always remain with Dwarikadhishji and not Gopinathji is also ignored.  Those who want to demean the line of Gopinathji use incidences like this unnecessarily disparage him.  It is unnecessary and unkind to continue to do this without any real reason to be so.

 

 

© Bhagwat Shah
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