Mere Gol-Matol!

There was an old lady in a village. She questioned about God to a saint, He gave her a piece of round stone – and told her that this is your God.

“Yes, this Gol-Matol (rounded) is your Bal-Gopal.”

“mere Gol-Matol,! mere Gol-Matol!” She spoke with fervor.

She took those words very seriously, and started taking care of the Gol-Matol as her own little child.

She would bathe it, dress it, feed it with food whenever she’d eat and made it sleep with lullaby.

As the time passed, her attachment and care for the Gol-Matol grew very intense, and it became the only thing that mattered to her in her life.

One day she heard from the villagers that some thieves were moving about at night, entering into homes and stealing valuable items.

She got scared. She couldn’t let thieve steal her most valuable possession – her Gol-Matol.

She decided to protect it with her life – she wouldn’t sleep at night, watching out for thieves to dare come and steal.

In the morning she was occupied with caring for her Gol-Matol – bathing, dressing, food and so on, and the night was spent in watching out for thieves. So she had no time to rest and sleep.

several days passed like this. and on one night, as she was watching out the door, a figure appeared at the door.

A blue form with four arms holding Shank, Padam, Gada and Chakra (Conch, Lotus, Mace and Disc). Lord Narayan had arrived at her house.

“Who are you? I won’t let you take my Gol-Matol!” She spoke with conviction.

“Ama, I’m Vishnu and I’ve come to take you with me to Vaikuntha.” The Lord spoke lovingly with his trademark smiling face.

“Vishnu? Vaikuntha? I don’t know any of these. I don’t want to go anywhere.” perplexed, She spoke with her child-like innocents.

“Ama, it’s not easy to attain my Vaikuntha loka – even great saints do intense penance for years with just one desire to attain it. So why are you not willing to go?”

“I won’t go anywhere without my Gol-Matol.” She said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Oh, that’s the matter!” Lord gave a wider smile “Your Gol-Matol can also come with us.”

“Then I will go with you to Vaikuntha!” She said with happiness in her eyes and innocent smile on her face.

So as it happened, she along with her Gol-Matol were taken to Vaikuntha by the Lord Narayan himself.
Sriman Narayan

I had heard above story from Sadhavi Ritambhara (commonly known as Didi Maa) on TV (Sanskar or Astha channel?), a few years ago. Reproduced in my own words, highly paraphrased as inspired by the divine while writing it.

This post was originally posted by me (a few minutes ago) as an answer to this question on OS.ME. So, credit also goes to the @kajal-patel for asking the question.