How One Soul Sparked Bhakti in an Entire Kingdom
King Ambarish was a pious devotee of Shri Krishna, for whom Krishna hurled the Sudarshan Chakra to destroy Durvasa Muni. Raja Ambarish had many wives, but he was not interested in worldly enjoyments. He was a competent and honest ruler.
One young princess, who was in love with him and wanted to marry him, sent him a proposal for marriage through her father. Raja Ambarish refused to accept her proposal saying that he already had many wives, with whom he did not get to spend sufficient time. She replied that in that case, she would like to be his maid servant. Raja Ambarish was impressed with this response from the young princess and agreed to accept her as his wife. The marriage was performed.
The young queen took the service of her husband very seriously and although was given a separate palace to live, she would quietly go to King Ambarish's palace and perform services in his temple and other places, without letting his servants know who she was.
However, within a week, Raja Ambarish discovered this fact and asked her to perform devotional services to Lord Krishna in her own palace. Hearing this, she secretly accepted her husband, Raja Ambarish, as her own guru.
Over the years, as she continued to practice devotion, her devotion grew to a level that she was always in ecstasy singing Kirtans, with tears constantly flowing from her eyes. Her longing for Lord Krishna increased to such an extent, that Raja Ambarish’s started longing to see her. When the longing became very intense and Raja Ambarish could not bear it any more, he went to see her. Upon seeing Raja Ambarish, she went into a state of bhav (stumbh), as she beheld the Divine visions of Hari and Guru in him i.e. Krishna and her Guru Ambarish. She was overcome by this intense sentiment of devotion. Raja Ambarish, her guru, now pacified her, and asked her to sing kirtans.
All other queens realized how the young queen was able to win over the heart of a saintly and renounced husband as Raja Ambarish. Seeing this, they started practicing devotion themselves, just like the young queen. And the whole family of Raja Ambarish became ardent devotees of Shri Krishna. In the same wave, the entire kingdom took to worship of Shri Krishna, and thus, the whole kingdom was filled with devotion.
This is how one saintly devotee creates a wave of devotion in the hearts of so many people. And where there is devotion, there is abundant joy, love and peace. The whole kingdom experienced this wave and was thus blessed.