Once, Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva together went to meet Lord Krishna to discuss the evil happenings in the world. After the meeting three of them decided to be born on earth as three Brahman brothers with Goddess Lakshmi as their sister. There was a devout Brahman called Govindpant living on the banks of Ganges along with his wife and they had a son called Vithoba. When Vithoba was eight years old he was invested with the sacred thread and was taught the Vedas, Sashtras and many other holy books. The religious studies and thoughts took him and out of the house and he left his home and visited many shrine of India. After wandering in many place he finally reached Alandi which is situated on the banks of Indrayani River. He had his bath in the river and was praying to Lord Krishna a Brahman called Siddhupant came towards. Siddhupant was attracted towards see the pious nature of the young man and he came and bowed in front of Vithoba.
Siddhupant enquired about him and Vidhoba replied that his house is in Apegaon on the banks of Ganges and he also revealed his other details to Siddhupant. Siddhupant was pleased with the way Vidhoba replied and invisted him to his house for the midday meals. Lord Krishna came in Siddhupant’s dream and told him to dress up his daughter and marry her to him. Siddhupant when he woke up offered his daughter’s hand to Vidhoba but Vidhoba was very clear that without the command from Lord Krishna he will not marry. Lord Krishna appeared in Vidhoba’s dream in the night and told him to marry Siddhupant’s daughter because it was the womb of this young through which the four incarnations were coming out into this world. Vidhoba agreed for the wedding and the wedding took place.
After their wedding, Vithoba and Rakhambai started their journey to Pandharpur and then to Rameshwaram. Soon after their wedding Vithoba lost his parents which brought great gloom to his him. He started visiting Pandharpur on the eleventh day of Ashad and eleventh of Karthik and prayed to have a son. Vithoba unable to bear the grief started his journey to Benares in the hope of becoming an anchorite. He met a famous saint in Benares and begged him to teach the divine doctrine. He even lied to saint saying that he was alone and not married. Saint made him his student and Vithoba being a smart student learned everything from the saint. The saint later made a trip to visit the holy places and reached Alandi also where he met Rakhambai who was worshipping the Ashwatta tree. The saint blessed her by saying that she will be mother of eight sons and she narrated her story and her husband’s.
The saint knew that Rakhambai was talking about Vidobha and was angry. The saint took Rakhambai to Benares and made Vithoba to confess the truth. The saint made him change his anchorite’s clothes and made him a householder again. Vithoba returned to Alandi and was out casted by the people there saying that he after garlanding saintliness have come back to his wife’s arms and drove him away from Alandi. Vithoba never gave ears to anything what people said and the people were agitated at his indifference. They threw him out from the village and he and his wife built a hut in the woods and started living there. They later had three sons and a daughter. The eldest was Nivratti, who was the human form of Lord Shiva; the second was Dnyandev who was the incarnation of Lord Vishnu and third Sopana was the incarnation of Lord Brahma. The fourth was daughter Muktabai, who was goddess Lakshmi’s incarnation.
