Story of Krishna’s Muslim Devotee for who His Rath waited for 90 days.

This sounds like a fairy tale. Yet, this is the true story of Muslim devotee of lord Krishna for who Krishna's Ratha waited for over 90 days and defied to move an inch, until he came! The Saga of Salabeg!


SalaBega was the son of the Mughal subedar, Lalbeg.
His father on one of the military excursions, came across a young widowed Brahmin taking bath at Danda Mukundpur near Pipili. Fascinated by her youthful beauty, Lalbeg forcibly kidnapped and married her, and forcefully converted her to Islam. He assigned a residence to her in Cuttack near Lal Beg Fort.
Lalbeg remained with them only till the time SalaBega was born and then departed, leaving behind Lalita and the child by themself.

Despite her forced conversion to Islam, Lalita continued to worship Lord Jagannatha and also raised her child in a strong sentiment of bhakti for the Lord.

SalaBega’s mother still missed her Lord Jagannath and kept her devotion secret to all. She always had utmost faith in Lord Krishna.

Salbeg grew up to become a soldier like his father and joined Aurangzeb’s army. Once in the war, Lalbeg got killed and SalaBega was badly injured and was battling for life. The injury was very serious, infection spread and his condition worsened, the pain becoming intolerable.

His mother called a Hindu Sadhu of the name Bala Mukunda, who chanted the maha mantra near his bed for 21 days and put holy vibhuti (ashes) on his forehead. Salabega’s mother also kept encouraging her son to pray Lord Jagannatha for his recovery,
and in fact, suddenly his health was restored. His miraculous healing encouraged him to develop an even deeper faith and devotion to Sri Jagannatha.
Gradually his faith and worship for Sri Jagannatha made him very unpopular with the Muslims, and finally he was driven out of his house and deprived of all rights. So he decided to walk alone and penniless to Puri, but when he reached there he was not allowed to enter Lord Jagannatha’s temple, neither any Matha or Hindu house was willing to give him shelter. Finally he built himself a small hut made of Tala palm leaves at Balagandi (बालागंडी) in Grand Road, from where he anxiously waited for the chariots to come by for the Ratha Yatra festival.
With great amazement of the people, all the three chariots, one after the other, stopped in front of his hut, while he stood singing his famous prayers.
Jagannatha’s chariot could not be moved for over one hour and finally the Pandas humbly prayed Salabega to pull the ropes of the chariot so that it would start moving again.
When the Subadar of Cuttack Mirja Ahmed Beg came to attack the Jagannatha temple in Puri, Salabega went to meet him and by his pleading, averted the attack. King Narasimha Deva, grateful, gave Salabega official permission to build a permanent housing instead of the simple hut, and people started to visit his Matha from all over India.
His mother Lalita also came to stay with him in Puri, and when she passed away Salabega took her body to the Svarg dvara (स्वर्गद्वार:), the crematorium in Puri, for her final rites. However, the temple priests not only forbade him to access the crematorium, but also attacked his Matha to show their spite and hatred for what they considered an act of presumption and arrogance....

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#salabegasamadhi #KrishnaStories #DevoteesofKrishna

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