(This chapter gives information on the 84 vaishnavas of Shri Mahaprabhuji)
Shri Damodardas Harsani Shri Krishnadas Meghan Shri Narayandas Brahmachari
Shri Mahaprabhuji accepted many jivas as vaishnavas during his life time. From these most of the vaishnavas were very pious & spiritual in their thoughts & actions. From all these a selected few have been mentioned in the book titled "84 vaishanavo ni varta". This book shows in a very simple way the basic principles of Pushtimarg. The vaishnavas of today can easily understand & follow these principles by reading this book. Tilkayat Goverdhanlalji used to say "If you cannot understand the principles of Pushtimarg then read the vartas daily. The vartas are the easiest way to understand our sampradaya".
According to Shri Hariraiji these 84 vaishnavas depict the life of Shri Mahaprabhuji himself. Here we have selected the lives of some of the 84 vaishnavas :
Shri Damodardasji is the 1st vaishnava of Pushtimarg. During his 1st parikrama when Shri Mahaprabhuji was passing through Maharashtra (near Wardha), Shri Damodardasji left his worldly belongings & joined him. Shri Vallabh used to tell Damodardasji - "Damla, this path has been started for you only!". This is the reason why Shri Damodardasji is unmatched & his contribution to the sampradaya can never be measured. He was not a very attractive or intelligent person but his devotion to his guru was firm & unmatched. He was a very kind natured person.
Once in Jatipura Shri Mahaprabhuji was resting in Damodardasji's lap. At that moment Shrinathji came running down from Mount Goverdhan. Damodardasji became worried that the sound of Shrinathji's payal would wake up Shri Mahaprabhuji, so he stopped Shrinathji midway by extending his arm. Damodardasji was such a devout disciple of Shri Mahaprabhuji that he could stop the Lord himself for Mahaprabhuji's sake!
When Shri Mahaprabhuji did the Asur-Vyamoh Leela (Leela pravesh) Shri Gusainji was only 15 years old. It was Damodardasji who gave proper guidance regarding the principles & sewa to Shri Gusainji. Its said that even after his Leela pravesh Shri Mahaprabhuji used to give darshan to Damodardasji every three days & explain the principles regarding Pushtimarg. In this way without Damodardasji's vision & guidance we would not have been able to receive the complete information on Pushtimarg.
Krishnadasji was one of the favourite disciples of Shri Mahaprabhuji. During his prithvi parikrama Shri Mahaprabhuji visited mount Parli near Badrinath. Suddenly a large rock started falling. Krishnadasji stopped it with his hand. Pleased by this, Shri Mahaprabhuji told Krishnadas to ask for three wishes. The three things Krishnadasji wanted were :
He would never get the Mukharta dosh (vice of ill speech)
He would remember all the principles of Pushtimarg
Shri Mahaprabhuji would visit and meet the previous guru of Krishnadasji.
Shri Mahaprabhuji accepted the first two wishes but declined to go to Krishnadasji's previous guru.
Once Shri Krishnadasji was doing charan-sewa (massaging the feet) of Shri Mahaprahbuji at Ganga-sagar. Suddenly Shri Mahaprabhuji thought that it would be nice to eat mumra (specailly processed wheat) in this weather. Shri Mahaprabhuji went to sleep with this thought. Shri Krishnadasji - who was a staunch vaishnav - came to know of this wish by divine power. The fields where the mumra were available were on the opposite banks of the river Ganga. He swam across the river and woke up the owner of the wheat field and purchased raw wheat at twice the price. From there he went to the place where the wheat were converted to mumra, this too at twice the price. He went back to Shri Mahaprabhuji, woke him up by doing charan-sewa and offered the mumra to him. In this way Shri Krishnadasji could know Shri Mahaprabhuji's wishes due to divine grace.
One day Shri Krishnadasji went to his previous guru. Seeing Krishnadas the guru asked "I came to know that you have tajen the diksha from another guru ?". Shri Krishnadasji denied this by saying that Shri Mahaprabhuji was not a guru but the supreme Lord Himself, the guru did not believe these words. Seeing this Shri Krishnadasji lifted a handful of burning coals from the fire that was burning near the guru's seat and said loudly - "If Shri Mahaprabhuji is not the supreme Lord then let my hands burn to ashes!!". Due to Shri Mahaparbhuji's grace nothing happened to Shri Krishnadasji's hands. After 24 minutes the guru told Krishnadas to put down the burning coals.
Shri Narayandas Brahmachari used to do the sewa of Shri Gokulchandramaji. Once Shri Mahaprabhuji visited Shri Narayandasji's village. In a hurry to meet Shri Mahaprabhuji Shri Narayandasji started doing the sewa at fast speed. In this hurry he offered very hot kheer to Shri thakorji and went away to meet Shri Mahaprabhuji. When Shri Gokulchandramaji touched the kheer his hands and lips were burnt. Shri Mahprabhuji came to know about this sitting at a remote place so he came to Shri Narayandasji's house. He went inside the temple and cooled the hot kheer with a fan. After the cold kheer was offered Shri Mahaprabhuji angrily turned to Shri Narayandasji and asked him -"Why did you offer this hot kheer to Shriji ?", When Shri Narayandasji gave the reason Shri Mahprabhuji warned him not to repeat the mistake. Shri Narayandasji had divine powers, gold would be unearthed from each and every place where he would dig. On seeing the gold Narayandasji would call his niece and tell her "burry this waste!!" in other words he considered gold (wealth) to be a waste.