Saint Namdev brings a cow to life

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."

Moral: In this story Saint Namdev teaches us to make prayers sincerely and specifically and that prayer with intense devotion is heard by God every time. Instead of quickly talking to God because our parents make us pray, we should pray to God as if He is truly hearing our prayers. For example, instead of simply saying ‘Thank you’ to God when eating, we can pray to God that may He make us strong and healthy with the food so that we can chant and pray daily as per His Will. We should sincerely thank God for giving us nourishing food and for taking such good care of us.