Saint Sakhubai

Sant SakhuBai was born into a Brahmin family in Maharashtra. Her parents were religious and both were devoted followers of Lord Vithoba. SakhuBai inherited this devotion from them. When she came to age, she was married into a family near Krishna River, in a village called Karhad. However, her in-laws turned out to be quite opposite of her nature. While SakhuBai was calm, tolerant, and spiritual, her mother-in-law and husband were of a harsh temperament. She faced constant criticism and endured hardships imposed by them. Despite the difficult circumstances, she continued to chant the name of Lord Vitthal incessantly, finding solace in devotion. Her unwavering faith in Vitthal was evident to everyone around her.

One day, without revealing anything to her family, she left home and went to a pilgrimage site. Her mother-in-law and husband realized her absence and went to bring her back forcefully. Not only was she beaten for this by them but they also locked her in a room for a long time. However, even in this difficult situation, she continued her devotion to Vitthal. Seeing this awful condition of his devotee Lord Vitthal felt very bad and told Lady Rukmini about this. He took the form of Sakhubai and directly entered the room Sakhubai was kept in. He rescued her and introduced himself as a devotee of Lord vitthal and told sakhubai that he would take her place as Sakhubai and she should visit Pandharpur temple of  Lord Vitthala. Sakhubai was very happy listening to this and happily agreed to do so and was very overwhelmed after seeing the statue of lord Vitthala at Pandharpur temple. She surrendered her life at the feet of Lord Vitthala after this. The news of her death had not travelled to her hometown yet and thus Lord Vitthal had to continue doing her chores as  he was posing as Sakhubai. Lady Rakhumai couldn’t see his hardships and resurrected Sakhubai from the dead. During this time the news of Sakhubai being dead had travelled back to her village and saw Vitthal doing all hardship in her form for her. She was deeply moved by Lord’s love and affection for her. She told about this incident to all present, and they were astonished with the efforts god had taken and suffered hardship for his devotee. They all bowed down

in reverence. Her mother-in-law and husband, overwhelmed by guilt, sought her forgiveness and surrendered to Lord Vitthal