govindhan gunam paadi en aavi kaaththiruppen - post 8

[Guest guest]

Dear Srivaishnava perunthagaiyeer,

 

In the previous post, we saw mother yasOdhaa saying "nee poigai pukku nanju

umizh naagaththinOdu piNangavum naan uyir vaazhnthu irunthEn, en seyya ennai

vayiRu maRukkinaai". "hey krishNa, why you were born to me, I lived

dangerously with all anxiety about the welfare of you, when you were caught

and twined by that deadly snake". Why she says all these to young krishna

was, she warned krishna previously about the inherent danger, recently they

have shifted to this place brindhaavanam, and she knew the danger in going

to that western side of yamunaa river ghat where kaaLiyan lived. See

ooththukkaadu venkata kavi's krithi in raaga naattai

 

Pallavi:

sonnadhaik kEL kaNNaa un

thuRuthuRuththa vishamaththanam

yaavaiyum maRanthu en sol uNanrnthu naan {sonnadhaik)

 

anupallavi:

munnam nam ooril gOkulaththil

munainthu unakku vantha idargaLai eNNI - brundhaa

vanamidhil kudi puga vanthOmE gOpaalaa

vaLar iLa madhiyE

madhi muga nidhiyE

enadhu udal uyirE

yadhu kula nidhiyE [sonnadhaik]

 

charaNam:

idar illaa ivvooril kizhakkilum theRkilum

vadakkilum senRukoL aanaal thavaRiyum

kuda thisai sellaadhE gOpaalaa angE

kuRRamuLLa idam enum echcharikkai seidhEnE

pakshamuLLa enthan uyir achchudhanE inimElE [sonnadhai]

 

meaning: mother yasOdhaa says - hey krishna please listen, patiently hear

me, please keep all your naughtiness under check and realise my words and

its content and do accordingly.

 

Hey gOpaalaa, the growing young moon, the moon faced wealth of mine, my body

and soul, the treasure of this yadhu clan, krishna, previously lot of

troubles came to you in gOkulam. So we decided to shift from gokulam, came

here to this brindhaavanam.

 

In this place there is no hurdles for you. You can go to east, south, and

north, but never venture in west, hey gopaalaa. There is a bad spot in west.

So I warn you not to go there in west. Hey loving achyuthaa, you, who is my

dear life, so please listen to me and act accordingly.

 

Points:

1. See the lyrical beauty in "vaLar[ginRa] iLa madhiyE, madhi muga

nidhiyE, enadhu udal uyirE, yadhu kula nidhiyE".

 

2. She indicated there is an inherent danger in west direction and did

not mention what it is. This also raised the curiosity of the naughty

krishna. It is the psychology of a human being that whenever something is

forbidden, then the curiosity to see what it is, to do that forbidden act,

to experiment with that prevented thing, is more.

 

3. There is no specific reference in bhagavatham and yadhavaabhyudhayam

that yamunaa had a curve in that place and this kaaliyan ghat was in the

westerly direction of brindhavanam. But it can definitely be inferred that a

river ghat will definitely curved in that place so that it affords a secured

corner for the kaaLiyan to live in. If bhagavathaas can give out any such

reference I am thankful.

 

In spite of this warning from mother, krishna went in the west direction and

landed in the kaaLiya ghat. We were seeing that kaaliyan did "piNangi" with

my lord krishna. Why kaaLiyaa was so furious- for this young boy krishna

made some usual childish pranks of

1. Taking kaaLiyan in hand and hanging in air

2. pulling the snake by its tail.

3. shaking the snake vigorously so as to make the snake get irritated

easily

 

See how nicely these are described.

kanRinai vaal Olai kattik kanigaL udhira eRinthu

pin thodarnthu Odi oR paambai pidiththuk koNdu aattinaai pOlum

nin thiRaththEn allEn nambi - 2-4-8 periyaazhvaar thirumozhi

 

meaning: The calves had in their tails dry leaves of palm and coconut trees

tied by you and thus they were scared [which made noise since they were

dry]. This made them run hither and thither. One of the calves was also

thrown at the bimba tree [viLaa maram] to make it shed the fruits. {[the

calf asuran [dhEnukan] and fruit asuran both were killed by you by this

single act}. Then you ran into the kaaLiyan ghat, caught him and hung him,

shook him etc, I simply can not judge you on your strengths, oh my dear

krishna.

 

Now one more paasuram -

thadampadu thaamaraip poigai kalakki

vidam padu naagaththai vaal paRRi eerththu

padam padu painthalai mEl ezhap paainthittu

udambai asaiththaanaal inRu muRRum

uchchiyil ninRaanaal inRu muRRum 2-10-3 periyaazhvaar thirumozhi

 

meaning: oh mother yasOdhaa, in the lotus ridden pond the snake kaaLiya

entered and spit all his poison [and thereby made it dry]. krishna, your son

entered that pond and caught hold of that snake by its tail, pulled him by

the tail. Then it spread its hood and started hoo hooing. By then he started

diving and jumping on the snake. When the snake twined krishna, he simply

just shook him away. Then climbed on his top and stood there.

 

Points:

1. Any child will play with the small snakes particularly the village

ones, for they know not the fear of playing with snake. Krishna is already a

daring child. So there is no wonder in this catching etc.

 

2. He also did pull the snake by its tail, started dangling by its

tail, shaking it vigorously so that the snake becomes half-dead. Here since

kaaLiya is a mighty big snake, so he started resisting krishna. This pulling

by tail etc are also part of the child plays, when the snake is little more

longer and or size wise big.

 

3. But the girls and other gOpaas, since were already afraid of that

kaaLiya, by the time he jumped into the pond and caught him, shook him, etc,

they ran back to the village, fearing the ensuing danger for krishna,

rushing to seek help from others and elders.

 

4. By the time all came krishNa was twined by kaaLiya and that is why

yasOdhaa's reaction was

nanju umizh naagaththinOdu piNangavum naan uyir vaazhnthu

irunthEn,

en seyya ennai vayiRu maRukkinaai, Edhum Or achcham illai.

 

5. but why aazhvaar describes "udambai asaiththaanaal inRu muRRum"-

those who came rushing saw krishna was twined and thought the lord is no

more, already killed by that snake or the poisonous emission. So krishna

proved to the rushing gopaas and others by showing signs of life by shaking

himself. Has the lord shaken his body only. No, the force of the shake was

so heavy that it gave life to all those watching him. It also shook

kaaliyan's confidence.

 

6. Already when he shook his body when caught between two trees, the

trees broke and fell. That was when krishna was in crawling stage of a child

growth. Now he is a young lad who grazed cows and calves- more so calves.

This shake of the body almost killed kaaliya but for kaaliyaas wives.

 

7. The wives of kaaliya did very beautiful sthothram of the lord to

give their lord back to them. That sthothram saved kaaliyan. [That sthothram

is the main point, which inspired me for this series. I will share with all

of you that perhaps after two more posts].

 

8. Why he has to do all these childish acts- of catching, holding down,

shaking the snake etc- for he is "theeraatha viLaiyaattu piLLai" - for

subramania bhaarathi who enjoyed kaNNan in his favourite forms as friend,

child, lover, king servant etc.

 

Let us enjoy that viLayaattu guNam - playful character of that gOvindhan,

till we have the next post and save our souls.

 

Dhasan

 

Vasudevan M.G.