Narada Muni’s search for greatest devotee of Lord Vishnu

Once sage Narada got a question that who is the greatest devotee of Lord Vishnu. He thought, “Instead of finding myself let me ask Lord Vishnu.”

Also, in his mind he was thinking that “since I am always chanting the name Narayana on my vina, so my beloved Lord will surely tell that I am his greatest devotee.” But he wanted to hear this directly from the Lord. So, Narada went to Lord Vishnu and prayerfully asked, “My dear Lord, can you please tell me who is your greatest devotee?”

Lord Vishnu reveals the answer

Narada was desperately waiting for the answer.  Lord Vishnu looked at Narada, smiled a little and said, “My dear son, a farmer residing on earth is my best devotee.”

The celestial sage could not believe what he heard, “How can this be possible? On my lips and in my heart, there is always the name of Narayana. What this fortunate farmer is doing that I am not doing? He could not resist himself and blurted out, “Dear Lord, can you please tell me what devotion he performs that you consider him the best?”

Lord Vishnu understood what is going on in Narada’s heart. So, he said, “Instead of me telling you about his devotional activities. Why don’t you go to his house and see for yourself what he is doing?”

Farmer’s devotion

Narada agreed with the Lord. He took the address and immediately flew with a lightning speed and reached the house of the farmer. He wanted to eagerly see the best devotee of Lord Vishnu in the entire creation. Instead of directly going and asking farmer about his activities, he thought because a devotee never likes to hear his glorification so let me hide myself and see his activities.

He saw that the farmer got up early in the morning. As he got up, he folded his palms and chanted the name Narayana.  He then began his morning duties. Till afternoon he was busy in his household work and then he had gone to his farm. In the afternoon, just before taking lunch, he folded his palms and chanted the name Narayana and again he got busy with his work. And in the night just before sleeping, he again chanted the name Narayana.

Narada was perturbed, “The farmer took the name “Narayana” only three times but he takes the name Narayana every moment but the Supreme Lord considered farmer to be his greatest devotee.”

Lord Vishnu explains why farmer’s devotion is best

He immediately went to the abode of Lord Narayana. The Supreme Lord understood why Narada is here.

Before Narada could say anything, Lord said, “Dear Narada, I have a small work for you. Will you please do it?”

Narada said, “You do not have to ask me. Just order me.”

The Lord said, “Can you please bring me a pot of water which is filled up to brim?”

Narada said, “sure, my Lord.” As he was about to leave to fetch water, the Lord said, “But one important thing you have to remember. Make sure that not even a single drop falls down from the pot. If it happens, I will not accept the water.”

Narada nodded his head and left to bring the water. Finally, he brought the pot completely filled with water. Also he had made sure that not even a single drop falls down.

Lord Vishnu appreciated the effort of his dear devotee and thanked him. He then asked, “Now tell me, when you were bringing water for me and making sure that not even a drop falls down then how many times you chanted my name?”

Narada was speechless.   He realized that he did not chant the name of “Narayana” even once while doing this service.

Lord continued, “The farmer was busy whole day but from his busy schedule he found time to take my name. Is it true or not?”

Narada who was feeling embarrassed nodded his head in affirmation.

Lord further said, “so now tell me who is my greatest devotee?”

The celestial sage got answer to his question that who is the greatest devotee of Lord Vishnu.

So, 3-minute bhakti is sufficient?

One of my friends told me this story when in college I was trying to convince him to practice Krishna consciousness. When I heard this story, I did not have any answer. Because the story looks so nice.

According to this story there is no need to always chant the name of God. We just need to focus on our work and 3 time in a day – morning, afternoon and evening – we should just chant the names of God.

As devotees we chant 16 rounds of Hare Krishna Mahamantra daily which takes around 2 hours. Then we do mangal arati, Narasimha arati, Tulasi Arati, chant Siksastakam prayers and read or hear Srimad Bhagavatam for an hour a day. So, we spend almost 5 hours in the morning in prayers and during the day too we are supposed to always be conscious of Krishna and if we have any extra time then we should utilize it in practicing and propagating Krishna Consciousness. 

But if we follow the footsteps of the farmer then it means that in a day, we have to chant the name of Krishna just 3 times which will at max take 3 minutes. So, 3 minutes of chanting will make us too the greatest devotee of Krishna!

What is the truth of this story?

I asked this question to devotees. They heard it but did not have the answer. However, one senior devotee told me that story is very interesting, but can you please tell that this story is from which scriptures. Does it appear in any of the four Vedas or 18 puranas or in Ramayana and in any other literature written by Vaisnava acharyas.

I had no answer because I had forgotten to ask the reference from my friend. Later I read about this story at many places and by other persons too but no one has given me reference of this story.

So, now the question is if this story is not mentioned in any of the scriptures then can we not say that this story is false? Here the question to Lord Vishnu is who is his greatest devotee. This is not an ordinary question. Answer to this question is so important for our spiritual life. So, if such an important story is not mentioned in any of the scriptures and by any great Vaisnava acharyas, so it seems that this story is not authentic.

I do not claim that I know all the scriptures, so if you know the source of this story then please do let me know in the comment section.

Also, this story of farmer is not in line with the teachings of the scriptures and the sages.

Examples of great devotee of Lord from scriptures

In Bhagavad Gita, Krishna himself explicates the activities of his pure devotees.

Krishna says, “Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion.” Bhagavad Gita 9.14

Krishna is saying that his pure devotees always chant his glories. 

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Siksastakam Verse 3 says

“One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than the straw in the street; one should be more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige, and should be ready to offer all respect to others. In such a state of mind one can chant the holy name of the Lord constantly.”

Again Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is saying to constantly chant the holy name, the Hare Krishna Mahamantra.

In Ramayana we see that the monkey warriors while constructing the mammoth bridge, Ram Setu, were not just writing the name of Lord Rama on the stones but were constantly chanting the names of Lord Rama while doing their work.

Srimad Bhagavatam tells the story of Ambarish Maharaj who was an emperor and a great devotee of the Supreme Lord. As a ruler of the world, he was extremely busy but still he was constantly engaged in practicing devotion to God.

Great devotees of Lord work hard but also

So, from the examples given in the scriptures and by analysing the life of the pure devotees of Lord we can say that they were always engaged in chanting and singing the glories of the Lord. And they did their work very seriously too. It was not that they were lazy and gave up their duties but while doing their duty they always chanted the name of the Lord.

Once a person had a query that why Krishna is so much concerned about Arjuna. Krishna said that it is because Arjuna always keeps on calling his name. To prove that he took the person to Arjuna’s bedside. Although Arjuna was sleeping at that time but with each breath, he was calling the name of Krishna.

In Vrindavana also we see that Mother Yashoda and other gopis while churning the butter keeps in singing the songs which glorifies Lord Krishna.

And if we see the life of sage Narada, we find that still he constantly chants the name of Narayana on his vina. I think that if the farmer story was true then Narada would have stopped constantly chanting the names of Narayana.