A Rigvedi Brahmin named Lakshmidatta lived in Pandharpur. He used to serve the saints with great love. Once, Narayana came to his place in the form of a saint and blessed him that he would have a son who was a devotee of God and was extremely detached from it. According to this, on Margashirsha Shukla Dwitiya Thursday Samvat 1347 AD, his wife Rupadevi gave birth to a son in Dhana Lagna. His son was Mahabhagwat Rankaji. In Pandharpur itself, on Vaishakh Krishna Saptami Wednesday Samvat 1351 AD, a girl was born in the house of Shri Haridev Brahmin in Karkalagna. When the time came, this girl got married to Rankaji. The name of this devoted and devoted wife of Rankaji is famous because of her intense renunciation. Rankaji was also named ‘Raanka’ because of his extreme poverty.
Rankaji was already poor, then why would the world look at him. Both husband and wife accepted this poverty as God’s blessing with great joy; because the compassionate God keeps his beloved devotees away from wealth, the root of all evils. Both of them used to collect dry wood from the forest every day and after selling it, they used to worship God with that and live on God’s blessings. They never imagined any comfort or pleasure.
Namdevji was very worried to see a devotee of God like Rankaji suffering the pain of poverty in this way. Rankaji did not even accept anything given by anyone. Namdevji prayed to Shri Pandurang to remove Rankaji’s poverty. God said- ‘Namdev! Ranka is my heart. If he wishes for anything, how can he be in need of wealth? But knowing the flaws of wealth, he wants to stay away from it. Even if you offer it, he will not take anything. If you want to see, then hide and watch tomorrow morning on the forest path.’
The next day, Bhagwan threw a bag full of gold coins on the forest path. He scattered some coins outside and hid to see the character of his devotee. Rankaji was coming while chanting the name of God as usual. His wife was a little behind. Seeing the bag of coins on the way, he started going ahead, but then thinking something, he stopped there and started covering the bag and the coins with dust in his hands. Meanwhile, his wife came near him. She asked- ‘What are you covering here?’ Rankaji did not answer. On asking again, he said- ‘There is a bag full of gold coins lying here. I thought that you are following me, lest seeing the gold, you get greedy, so I am covering it with dust. If the greed for wealth enters the mind, then one cannot worship God.’ Hearing this, the wife laughed and said- ‘Swami! Gold is also dust. Why are you covering dust with dust?’ Rankaji immediately stood up. Hearing his wife’s words, he said happily- ‘You are blessed! It is your detachment that has made me different. My mind is filled with the difference between gold and dust. You have gone far ahead of me.’
Namdevji, seeing this detachment of Ranka Banka, said to God- ‘Prabhu! The one on whom you bestow your blessings, does not like even the kingdom of the three worlds except you. The one who has tasted the nectar, why would he look at rotten jaggery? This couple is blessed.’
That day, God collected all the dry wood from the forest for Ranka Banka by tying them in bundles. The couple saw that there was no wood to be seen anywhere in the forest today. They thought that the bundles of wood belonged to someone else. It is a sin to even look at someone else’s possessions. Both returned empty handed. Rankaji said, “Look, this is the result of looking at gold that I had to fast today. If I had touched it, who knows how much pain I would have suffered.” Seeing this devotion of his devotee, God appeared. The couple saw the Almighty and fell at his feet.
After living on this earth for 101 years, Rankaji went to the supreme abode with his wife Bankaji on Vaishakh Shukla Poornima Samvat 1452 AD.