Shabari

Shabari was a devotee of Lord Ram. She was known by the name of the tribe Shabaras to which she belonged.

She had acquired so great a reputation on account of her piety and devotion that her simple living place was accorded the status of a hermitage, a name generally applied to the abode of sages and hermits. Even in the Ramcharitmanas, Tulsidas calls her ‘hut’ a ‘hermitage’. It was an example as to how individual merits and virtues were recognized by the society existing at that time, and even by the Lord Ram, who visited her abode.

Shabari's guru had predicted to her on the eve of his demise long before, that the Lord would visit her.

She waited till Lord Ram went to her hermitage.

After abduction of Sita, the wife of Lord Ram, when Ram and Lakshman visited her on their way to Kiskindha mountain to look for Sugriv, she welcomed them with flowers and fruits. She took a bite of each fruit to ascertain that it was sweet enough for Lord Ram and Lakshman before giving them to eat.

She was well stricken in age at that time, and was alive just to receive Lord Ram as per the prediction.

Having obtained blessings from the Lord Ram, she felt blessed one.

Her time of death had reached. She prepared a pyre for herself, lit it, and entered into, and ascended to Heaven.