purAna & the sibling ideal-Part 6

[Guest guest]

Dear bhAgavatOttamA-s,

 

In the "purAni-c" story we are currently following Vishnu, the brother of

Parvati, demonstrated to the whole world what true "sahodara-dharma" is ---

the

highest ideal of filial affection !

 

Taking the guise of a common cowherd the Supreme Lord followed Parvati unto

the earthly world for the sole and express purpose of being able to

shepherd his lost and forlorn ("vAzhA-vatti") sister.

 

Vishnu himself was under no curse of Siva; He was not obliged to suffer the

indignity of an earthly appearance which His hapless sister was fated to

undertake; He took up no cudgels with Siva; He made

no attempt at interference into the private discord between sister and

brother-in-law.

 

Instead Lord Narayana chose to act, silently and voluntarily, in the most

effective way a brother could perhaps do under the circumstances.

 

He simply chose to heap upon Himself the same misery that Parameshwara's

curse had cast upon Amba. He simply decided to be beside Amba in her hour

of crisis... and to remain her constant companion both physically and

morally... providing filial solace in the

period of harrowing confinement she spent as a derelict cow on earth.

 

A brother's empathy is a gift of the gods, indeed!

 

Nothing ever substitutes the warmth of reassurance and the courage of

fortitude that a sibling's

mere presence provides a sister as she burns in the private hell of marital

distress and trauma.

 

Vishnu thus took the form of a common cowherd and faithfully followed the

cow across the lands, hills and lakes....

 

Brother and sister, celestial exiles both, travelled through scores of

villages, across expanses of

grassland and over miles of deserts.....

 

It is said in the "purAna" that Narayana, by and by, came to enjoy His role

as a ragged cowherd. In fact so much did he like the job of tending to His

sister, Parvati the cow, that Narayana decided secretly that if ever He

was obliged to return to earth in another "avatAra" He would surely again

don the guise of a common cowherd.

 

The ancient seers explain that was why in his Krishna "avatAra" the Lord

thoroughly enjoyed Himself in Brindavanam, frolicking and sporting as He

went amidst the bucolic community of calves and cows! Of all the

epithets that stuck to Krishna in those times, it is said, the one most

endearing to Him was "gOpala" --- "He who loves to tend to the cows"! Of

all his friends then, those dearest to His heart were the "gOpikA-s" -- the

"milk-maidens of "AyarpAdi" who tended the herds ("perrUm passukkal"

vide "AndAl's tirup-pAvai")"!

 

Indeed the very sight of jostling herds of cows, the great SriVaishnava

poet, Swami Vedanta Desikan has sung (in one magnificent and immortal

phrase in his "gOpAla-vimshati" (Verse#3)), the sight of herds brought on

alternatively "both misty tears and beaming smiles to the cowherd lad,

Krishna's visage":

 

"..... aasra-vilEkshaNam-anukshana manda-hAsam....gOpAla-dimba

vapusham..."

 

The sight of herds, it is said, always reminded the Lord of the harrowing

days that He and His sister, Parvati together underwent in bygone times of

another "yugA". It unfolded to Him many poignant, bitter-sweet memories of

the untold travails and tribulations that He and Parvati, the Divine

Siblings, suffered thanks to the terrible curse of Siva......

 

Now what are those special memories? And what are those "travails and

tribulations"

which He and Parvati experienced? What are those extraordinary memories

that moved the

cowherd Krishna, the "avatAra" of the Supreme Lord Narayana, to moments of

such melting nostalgia as described by the poet?

 

To find out we will go to the next post.

 

adiyEn,

sudarshan