A Saga in Stone

[Guest guest]

Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika

Yatindra Mahadesikaya Nama:

 

A Saga in Stone

 

“You do choose the weirdest topics! Whoever would

write about stones, of all things!” commented adiyen’s

daughter, glancing at the title. Wistfully

recollecting the good old days when children were

supposed to be seen and not heard, adiyen resolved to

prove to her that writing about stones was not

“weird”-offbeat, maybe, but definitely not “weird”.

However, even after severely racking adiyen’s brains,

not a single complimentary phrase or idiom in Queen’s

English came to adiyen’s mind, concerning stones. “

Heart of Stone”, “Stony stare” and other unappealing

phrases leapt to the mind but not something pleasing.

The Scriptures came to adiyen’s rescue and saved

adiyen from the ignominy of my daughter being proved

right.

 

There are quite a few references to stones in the

Vedas. The Mantra Prasna, dealing with Veda mantras

used in various rituals, auspicious and otherwise,

refers to stones twice. During the Upanayanam

ceremony, the boy is made to stand on a stone, while

his father recites the mantra “AtishttEmam asmAnam

asmEva tvam stthirO bhava”

(“May the Gods make you as strong and unshakeable as

the stone you are standing on!”). With a minor

variation for gender difference, the same mantra is

used to bless the bride in the marriage, (popularly

known in Tamil as “ammi miditthal”) wishing her to be

stone-like in firmness. Elsewhere too, there is a

blessing to be strong as a stone-“asmA bhava, pasrasur

bhava, hiranyam astrutham bhava”. It is noteworthy

that this mantra mentions the stone ahead of gold

among objects of comparison. Similarly, the Chamaka

Prasna in the Fourth Kanda of the Yajus Samhita, which

is a prayer to bless one with all the good things on

earth, seeks to be endowed with stone too-“asmA cha

mE”.

 

Turning to Valmiki’s great epic, a moment’s unwitting

indiscretion results in Ahalya being cursed by her

husband Goutama Rishi to turn into a stone for

thousand long years.

The moment Sri Chakravartthi Tirumagan enters the

Goutama Ashrama, Ahalya is retransformed into the

beautiful lady she originally was. Here, though the

popular version has it that it was the touch of Sri

Rama’s holy feet that was responsible for this

miracle, there is no mention of this in Sri Valmiki

Ramayana, and all that the Maharshi mentions is that

Ahalya regained her original splendour the moment Sri

Rama entered the Ashram. This version must indeed be

true, for Chakravarthi Tirumagan would never have

shown disrespect to a Rishipatni by touching her with

His feet, even when she was in a stony shell.

 

In Sri KrishnAvatAra too, the Lord’s association with

stones is indeed close. It couldn’t be closer, for He

is tied inseparably to one.

Sri Krishna’s weakness for dairy products, His

inability to distinguish between “meum and tuum” in

this regard, and His annoying habit of leading hordes

of young cowherds on a raid of homes for milk, butter

and curds, land Him in trouble, with the

long-suffering Gopis presenting a memorandum to Yasoda

on her son’s misdemeanours. The usually placid Yasoda

is inflamed with anger (“mAtaram jAta rOshAm”), as any

mother would, whose ward has been the subject of

repeated and factual complaints (“veNNai undAn ivan

endru Esa nindra Emperuman”) from outsiders. She

drags the protesting Krishna to the courtyard and ties

Him up to a handy grindstone, telling Him, “ Let me

see how you continue your mischief!” Little does she

know that it is no ordinary kid whom she has tied up,

and the tie-up was possible only because He willed it

(“sirutthAmbinAl kattuNNa paNNiya perumAyan”).

 

Sri Nammazhwar marvels at the soulabhyam, which

prompts the Almighty to permit Himself to be tied-up

to a simple stone, by a simple housewife, with a

simple rope. He marvels too at the mock fear and

yearning for freedom exhibited by the captive

Emperuman-“et tiram uralinOdu iNaindu irundu Engia

eLivE”. It appears that every time the securely bound

Krishna whimpered, Yasoda would silence Him with a

withering look. Krishna tries to regain freedom by

looking at His mother with appealing eyes full of

fear, tears and whatnot, but His attempts are rebuffed

by His unmoved mother, who finally removes herself

from the scene, for fear of being unable to preserve

her composure any longer. She is clear that Krishna

deserves punishment, but being a doting mother, is

unable to sustain the posture of the strict

disciplinarian, in the face of Krishna’s apparently

pitiful state. Left to His own devices, the Lord is on

the roll, dragging the grindstone with him, and passes

between two trees (“PuNarA nindra maram irandin naduvE

pOna mudalvAvO”), bringing them down crashing, in the

process. The trees turn into gandharvas, now free from

the curse that turned them into trees. Yasoda and

others, who come rushing out of the house, are

confronted by the bewildering scene of the crashed

trees around the apparently frightened Krishna, still

securely bound to the grindstone. Krishna is then

untied and taken home, with Yasoda too frightened to

think of what could have happened if the trees had

come down on her beloved son.

 

 

She still doesn’t realise that what she has been

blessed with is no ordinary cowherd boy (“Ayar

puttiran allan, arun deivam”).

 

In Sri NrsimhAvatAra too, it is a stone pillar that

the Lord chose for His dramatic entrance into

Hiranyakasipu’s

Darbar. The latter is so confident that Vishnu would

not dare to come anywhere near his palace, that he

challenges his son Sri Prahlada to prove the existence

of Hari in one of the pillars of his own palace. Since

the stone pillar “gave birth” to Sri Nrsimha, who in

turn is the Creator of all divine beings, Swami

Desikan humorously calls the pillar the Grandmother of

dEvAs (“mahAsura grihastooNA pitAmahi abhoot”).

 

However, it is in the Kali Yuga that the stone has

acquired prominence. Almost all the Emperumans have

chosen the medium of the stone for their arcchAvatAra,

and we find the Lord in most of the divya desams (with

a few notable exceptions) inhabiting images of stone

lovingly sculpted by ardent devotees. With its divine

inhabitant, the stone miraculously comes alive, but

only for those who tend to see in it the omnipresent,

omnipotent Lord, who, in His unmatched soulabhyam, has

contracted His divya mangala vigraha to human

proportions, and makes do with the hot, humid

atmosphere of the sanctum sanctorum of temples,

forsaking His comfortable abode at SriVaikuntam.

Another form of stone the Lord patronises with His

eternal presence is the SALagrAma shilA, which is a

fossilised stone with an insect called “Vajrakeetam”

sculpting the Lord’s signs of chakram, shankha, flag,

etc. In this form, Emperuman resides in every

SriVaishnavite home, sharing the inconveniences of the

householder, and partaking of the latter’s food, often

unworthy of the Lord. This is His simplicity, Asrita

vAtsalyam and soulabhyam at play again. Incidentally,

the Bhagavata says that it is only the immature who

are able to see the Lord in images, of stone or

otherwise: the wise see Him everywhere (“PratimAsu

aprabhuddhAnAm, sarvatra sama dharsinAm”).

After reading this piece, Adiyen’s daughter has

developed a healthy respect for stone, and gracefully

withdrawn her “weird” remark.

 

“Srimate Sri LakshmiNrsimha divya paduka sevaka

SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana Yatindra Mahadesikaya

nama:

dasan, sadagopan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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