Fw: unable to post

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- sadagopaniyengar

sgopan

Thursday, August 21, 2003 6:53 PM

unable to post

respected sir, though i am able to receve msgs from now, i

am unable to post. i append ar article titled "Quite a mouthful": i

would be grateful if you could have the same released in

"Oppiliappan". with respects, dasan, sadagopan

 

 

Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

Quite a Mouthful

 

What is the most infectious of gestures? One would be tempted

to say “a smile”, but there are any number of cases where a smile of

goodwill or friendship hardly begets another, especially these days

when people are in a constant, headlong rush through their lives,

with hardly a moment to spare for others. Think hard though we might,

we are unable to find any human gesture which prompts a similar

reaction in the perceiver—other than, of course, the Yawn. It is

indeed surprising to find that in a group of persons, a yawn from one

immediately sets off a chain of yawns from others. However hard one

might try and control it, the yawn is so infectious that our

neighbour’s action prompts an almost involuntary and equal reaction

in us.

 

As a matter of etiquette, most of us cover our mouths with our

palms when we do yawn, in order to spare others the sight of our

denture and palate, which are not the most seemly parts of the human

anatomy. In these days of health and infection-consciousness, even

people who have perfect teeth and have nothing to hide by way of

uneven molars or dentures stained with tobacco or nicotine, do cover

their mouths when a yawn seizes them. On the rare occasions that they

don’t, we are treated to the sight of their cavernous mouths with

their unappetizing contents. Thus a human yawn reveals nothing

profound and, to the contrary, may well lay bare what is better

hidden. However, what would you say if someone told you of something

astonishing and wonderful revealed by a yawn? We would be inclined to

scoff, unless the source is extremely credible.

 

Sri Krishna’s infancy is marked by innumerable tales of His enchanting

exploits, which continue to enthrall us till date and which have

generated a distinct genre of literature known as “Pillai Tamizh”,

the first exponent whereof was Sri Periazhwar. The Bhagavata Purana

too delights in recounting these enthralling episodes from Sri

Krishna’s childhood. If we, who are hearing these tales as part of

the folklore handed down from the distant past from one generation to

another, can be moved beyond measure despite our hardened hearts,

imagine the experiences of those who had the incredible good fortune

to witness these events first-hand and at close quarters!

 

 

The Bhagavata Purana speaks about an extremely significant yawn,

which revealed to the onlooker sights too wonderful for words,

absolutely amazing and astounding. Need we say whose gaping mouth it

was that exposed such magnificent murals of the mundane world? Could

it be anybody other than the enchanting little Lord, Sri Krishna?

Everything about the kutti Kannan is endearing and sweet, says the

MadhurAshtakam—“adharam madhuram, vadanam madhuram…..MathurAdhipatE:

akhilam madhuram”. Hence what might appear gross and unseemly in mere

mortals is extremely enchanting in the Lord, even His yawn. Everything

He does is indeed wonderful and magnificent, simply divine, as He

Himself says in the Gita—“Janma karma cha mE divyam”.

 

Ever since the PoothanA episode, where the ogress tried in vain to

eliminate the divine toddler by offering Him a poison-filled breast,

Yasoda grows extremely protective and possessive about Sri Krishna,

and never lets Him out of her sight. Though He has just started

taking unsteady steps (“taLar nadai ittu varuvAn”), the little Lord

keeps active, crawling all over Nandagopa’s palace, expending a lot

of energy, which makes Him extremely sleepy, come evening. Always

alert to the needs of her precious darling, Yasoda picks Him up for

feeding, offering Him a breast full of the milk of maternal love and

affection. After suckling to His heart’s content, the incredible

infant pushes the breast away, and, in an endearing gesture

indicative of His sleepiness, opens His pearly mouth in a great yawn.

Yasoda, who never misses even the minutest of her darling’s movements

which are so delightful, witnesses this yawn too, with the beautiful

coral-red lips parting gracefully to reveal the inside of the tiny

mouth, with dazzlingly brilliant teeth, pearly-white and orderly. The

opening mouth gives off an amalgam of scents—that of the milk drunk

just then, mixed with the natural fragrance of the Lord’s breath,

full of the scent of the Shruti—the nigama parimaLam.

 

However, it is not the beautiful mouth or the brilliant teeth or

even the heady scent wafting from the Lord’s mouth that Yasoda finds

remarkable. What takes her breath away is the sight that the open

mouth offers. Instead of the normal spectacles of the throat, the

larynx etc. that greet our eyes upon the opening of any mouth, Yasoda

witnesses the entire galaxy, indeed several of them, inside the kutti

Krishna’s tiny mouth. She sees the Earth, with its innumerable

subdivisons, majestic mountains, shoreless seas, islands and

peninsulas, mighty rivers, virgin forests with their towering trees

and myriad forms of flroa and fauna and all sorts of beings and

non-beings. The gaping mouth of the Lord reveals too the vast expanse

of the skies above studded with countless stars, the brilliant Sun,

the magnificent Moon, the different directions, the heavens above and

the worlds below. The vast visual panorama consisting of the entire

bewildering vista of Creation unfolds before Yasoda’s unbelieving

eyes, making her more wide-eyed than ever. What is more, she is able

to see, in a corner of the world on display, the extremely familiar

contours of Nandagokulam, with the gOpAs and gOpikAs going about

their tasks, the generous cows and buffaloes (“vaLLal perum

pasukkaL”), the beautiful sand dunes on the banks of the Yamuna and

even Herself, peering into the mouth of her precious infant.

Overwhelmed by the incredible spectacle, Yasoda knows not whether she

is awake or asleep, and pinches herself to ensure that what greets her

eyes is indeed reality and not a fantastic dream. Unable to assimilate

what she sees and stupefied beyond measure, the dazed Yasoda simply

shuts her eyes in wonderment.

 

The realisation dawns upon Yasoda, reinforced by all the earlier

superhuman exploits of her darling, that the toddler that has come to

grace her vamsam is no ordinary child, but an infant extraordinaire,

unlike any other child anywhere—“Ayar putthiran allan, arum deivam”.

She realises too that He is no mere mortal child of the cowherds clan,

but a divine manifestation descended upon earth to emancipate errant

humanity. However, once the Lord closes His mouth, the amazing

spectacle disappears and Yasoda too is beset again by Bhagavan MAyA,

reverting her to the status of a doting and intensively protective

mother.

 

Does this episode, of the Lord revealing the entire Creation in His

mouth, have any significance, or is it just one more display of His

“aghatita ghatana sAmartyam” (making the impossible happen)? Was it

just a show put on to impress an impressionable mother or does it

have any philosophical significance?

 

It is not easy to divine the purport of the greatest of mantrAs, viz.,

the ashtAksharam. Acharyas have hence adduced several examples to

enable easy comprehensibility and retention. The Ramayana sloka

 

“agrata: prayayou Rama: Sita madhyE sumadhyamA

prishthatO tu dhanushpANi: LakshmanO anujagAma ha”

 

tells us that while on the jungle trail, Sri Rama led the way,

followed by Sri Sita, with Lakshmana bringing up the rear. This sloka

is quoted by Swami Desikan to enable us to remember the extremely

significant entities represented by the Pranavam, with the first

letter akAra (A) indicating the Lord who is the universal saviour,

the next letter, the ukAra (U) denoting Sri Mahalakshmi who acts as

the bonding factor between the Lord and the individual soul, and the

last letter, the makAra (M) indicating the Jeevatma, who is a natural

servitor to the Divine Duo. This is as far as the Pranavam, which

forms the first word of the three comprising the ashtAksharam, is

concerned.

 

The third word of the mantra, the Narayana sabdam, explains to us the

nature of the Lord and the realtionship subsisting between Him and

us. Literally, it means the Lord, who forms the residence of all

beings and objects, sentient and non-sentient-(nArANAm ayanam ya:).

All of Creation has the Lord as its resting place, which is the

exalted purport of the Narayana sabdam. And it is this important

concept which is demonstrated by Sri Krishna, when He opens His mouth

to His mother to reveal the existence inside Him of the entire gamut

of Creation. Thus, the episode signifies not merely the Lord’s

magical prowess, but the inalienable and eternal relationship of

Support and the Supported, existing between Emperuman and ourselves.

 

Coming back to the yawn, the revealing of the worlds inside the little

Lord’s mouth is recounted by Azhwars too, with significant

differences. For instance, while the Bhagavatam episode narrated

above appears to have occurred almost towards the incredible infant’s

first birthday (just after Sri Krishna started crawling), the one Sri

Periazhwar alludes to seems to have taken place within the first

month of Sri Krishna’s birth. It is customary for mothers to remove

the sediments from the infant’s tongue, while giving it a bath. Since

the child has no teeth yet to be brushed, mothers clean the tongue, to

remove the remnants of the milk frequently imbibed by the baby. Sri

Periazhwar says that it is during such an exercise that Yasoda was

rewarded with the spectacular vision of the seven worlds within the

kutti Krishna’s mouth. Here is the beautiful pasuram, testifying to

this—

 

“kaiyyum kAlum nimirtthu kadAra neer

paiya vAtti pasum siru manjaLAl

iyya nA vazhitthAlukku angAndida

vaiyyam Ezhum kandAL piLLai vAyuLE”

 

It appears from Sri Periazhwar’s version that it was not only Yasoda

who had the extraordinary experience, but also the gOpis present on

the occasion, for Azhwar refers to the onlookers in plural—“vAyuL

vaiyyagam kaNda mada nallAr”.

 

The Bhagavata Purana itself narrates another occasion where the Lord

afforded a sight of His being a refuge to all beings and objects.

While playing one day with His brother Balarama and other friends,

Sri Krishna deliberately put a fistful of sand in His mouth. The

concerned Balarama and others made a beeline to Yasoda and complained

of Sri Krishna’s unconventional diet. To Yasoda, this appeared a novel

complaint—usually it was butter and milk the brat was accused of

swallowing by the potfulls: now it was sand. What would happen to the

little horror’s stomach? As was His wont, Sri Krishna stoutly denied

having imbibed mud. However, this was an easily- resolved matter.

Yasoda ordered Krishna to open His mouth, so that the telltale grains

of sand would give Him away. When Sri Krishna opened His mouth, it was

not sand that she found in His mouth, but the entire Creation, in its

kaleidoscopic variety, coomprised of the seven worlds, the rivers and

mountains, the Sun, the Moon and the Stars, men, women, children,

deities and celestials, with Gokulam and its inhabitants clearly

seen, and among them a Yasoda with a raised hand looking into the

mouth of the little Lord to confirm what He had eaten.

 

For good measure, Sri Periazhwar throws in another instance of Yasoda

witnessing all the worlds in her darling’s mouth, this time when He

cried, bawling out with His mouth open to reveal the celestial

spectacle—

 

“viN ellAm kEtka azhudittAi, un vAyil virumbi nAn adanai nOkki

maN ellAm kandEn manatthuLLe anji MadhusUdanE endru irundEn”

 

Thus, it appears to have been quite a common pastime for Sri Krishna

to show His mother all the worlds in His tiny mouth, if we are to go

by the flawless accounts of His faithful chroniclers. It would also

appear that whenever Sri Krishna opened His mouth, Yasoda was

accustomed to seeing the celestial spectacle and would have been

surprised only to find mere teeth and tongue in her darling’s mouth.

 

A neighbour’s child was reading out aloud from her book of nursery rhymes—

“Johnny Johnny-Yes Papa

Eating sugar? No, Papa

Telling lies? No, Papa

Open your mouth! Ha Ha Ha”

It was fairly obvious to me as to where this ditty had descended from.

 

Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

Dasan, sadagopan