The Godfather

[Guest guest]

0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Srimate SrivanSatakopa

Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

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yes">                             The Godfather

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0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">This has nothing to do

with Mario Puzo or Mafia Dons or Italian intrigues, much less with sinister

Sicilian secrets.  There is perhaps some

truth in what my daughter, who is my resident editor and relentless critic,

says—that the titles I give my articles are mostly misnomers, much like Tamil

movies, where you have to search hard for a connection between the name of the

movie and the theme.  I, however, am

satisfied if I can somehow make the title figure somewhere in the body of the

text, in or out of context, more often the latter.

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0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Coming to the point, Do

we have a choice of whom we are born to? In other words, can we choose our

parents? It doesn’t appear possible, as ours are births ordained by our karma

and we are born to good or bad parents, as dictated by our deeds past. Given

the option, perhaps some of us would prefer to have been brought into this

world by a father and mother other than those we were born to, but it is only

wishful thinking, for we have absolutely no say in the matter. It is a

different matter that many of our parents too would have liked to have begot

more considerate, more obedient and more affectionate progeny, than some of us

are.

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0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"> In striking contrast, the Lord, whenever He

decides to come down to this mundane world for Dharma samrakshanam, for

protecting the good and weeding out the evil elements, is extremely particular

as to whom He is born to. He doesn’t leave it to chance and plans well in

advance as to who His parents would be and ensures that He is indeed born to

the couple of His choice. We have this on good authority, that of Sri Valmiki,

who tells us that when Emperuman decided upon the RAmavatAra, He simultaneously

chose the elderly Emperor of Ayodhya as His would-be father—“pitaram

rOchayAmAsa vriddham Dasaratham nripam”.

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0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Why should the Lord chose

Dasaratha and not any other person, King or otherwise, for His father? We must

remember that the purpose of Sri Ramavatara was to showcase to the mortals the

virtues, conduct and comportment of an Ideal Man. Sri Rama was the Model

Monarch, an exemplary son, husband, brother and friend. He was rectitude

personified, the very epitome of virtues of all sorts and  a Paragon

of Perfection, the consummate Man

in all respects, everybody’s idea of what an ideal human being should look

like, how he should behave and the standards he should maintain.

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0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">If He was to serve as an

exemplar, the Lord had to have the proper background. His avatara had to be set

in a milieu conducive to generating confidence in the minds of those He sought

to impress. Right from birth, there should not be even a speck of stigma to His

person or those associated with Him. His lineage should be an impeccable one,

lest He had to bear the cross for some misdeed of His forbears. Then, and only

then, would this cynical world attach credence to anyone professing to be a

model to others. It is a hallmark of the Lord’s extreme soulabhyam that He

tailored His birth milieu to impress mundane mortals, for they are of such

nature as to disregard Him even if He were to declare Himself to be

such—“maNmisai yOnigaL tOrum pirandu—engaL MayavanE kaNNura nirkilum kANagillA

ulagOrgaL” is what Sri Amudanar has to say about

yes">  sceptical and mocking mortals. 

A horse from reputed stables would command any number of backers, while

a dark horse would hardly find anyone to bet on it, and the Lord knew this well

when deciding His lineage and locale.

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0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">It is with all this in

mind that Emperuman chose Dasaratha, himself an exemplary Emperor, a

magnificent warrior of proven track record, a benevolent ruler loved by all the

subjects, with all his deeds deeply rooted in Dharma and an administrator par

excellence, taking his kingdom from one pinnacle of prosperity to another. The

reign of Dasaratha was characterised by peace, prosperity, plenty and piety. It

was again with this in mind that the Lord chose the IkshvAku Vamsam to be born

in, with its long and illustrious lineage of sovereigns known not only for

their valour and martial skills, but also for their righteousness,

administrative acumen and deep dedication and commitment to the welfare of

their charges.

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0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Thus the Lord had a

flying start, so to say, in His mission of winning over errant mortals by

setting a personal example, as common people are more prone to set store by

what great ones, belonging to great lineages say, rather than the utterances of

another nondescript specimen of humanity like themselves, as the following

sloka aptly puts—

0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">“yat yat Acharati

shrEshtta: tat tat Eva itarO jana:

0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"> Sa yat pramANam kurutE lOka: tat anuvartatE”.

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0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Why should the Lord  chose

an old man (“vriddham”) almost sixty

thousand years old at the time of begetting a son, as His father? It is said

that Dasaratha, after these long years, felt the need for a son only when he

espied a grey hair or two on his head. This attests to the fact that Dasaratha

was definitely not a doddering old man, beyond the tasks of begetting or

bringing up children. With age comes maturity, the hot-bloodedness of youth

yielding place to measured and mellowed responses, and such a person would be

much better placed both to know and impart the ways of the world to his

progeny, than any other. Dasaratha was senior not only on account of his years,

but also due to his vast wisdom and impeccable conduct, qualifying him to the

three appellations, “GyAna viriddha:, sheela vriddha: and VayO vriddha:”. This

perhaps was the reason for the Lord’s choice of this particular soveriegn as His

progenitor.

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0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">We have a difficulty with

this line of argument,when we consider the other popular avatara, that of Sri

Krishna. Here, though the Lord was indeed born into an illustrious lineage and

had for His father the famed VasudEva, He voluntarily relinquished His royal

credentials and hurried to NandagOkulam on the very night of His birth, to

assume the garb of a mere cowherd’s son—“orutthi maganAi pirandu Oriravil

orutthi maganAi oLithu vaLara”.  Atleast

in the Ramavatara, the Lord set an example only through His conduct and did not

take on the role of a Universal Teacher—“Jagadguru”--, which our Krishna did

later. Is it not all the more important for the GitAchArya to have had an

illustrious background, for His words of wisdom to command acceptance and

following? Literally and figuratively Sri Krishna was a dark horse—why didn’t

this affect His credibility, as is evident from Gita the Guidebook 

being popular beyond measure throughout the

ages and till today? And look at the garb the Lord sported, while delivering

His sermon in the battlefield of KurukshEtra—it was that of a lowly charioteer,

with the reigns in His hand, a stick to goad the horses with tucked into His

belt, His entire tirumEni covered with the dust and dirt of the battle, freely

prespiring as He stood in the hot sun preaching to Arjuna who was comfortably

ensconced under the protective canopy of the chariot. All these hardly make for

an ideal personality or locale for imparting eternal insights and intelligence.

However, despite all these, if Arjuna and the whole world listened spellbound

to the Sarathy, it was the compelling wisdom in the words, as well as the

credentials of the racounteur. Why should the world till date adualte this

cowherd-turned-preacher as “neriyellAm edutthu uraittha nirai gnAnatthu oru

moorthi” and as “GitAchArya”?

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0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Much as the world likes

to listen to those who preach from the high podium of moral authority, much as

it venerates people of high birth and descent, much as it is attracted by the

pomp and glitter of  royalty, the

man-in-the-street, when confronted by a dilemma or doubt of significance, runs

to a person of his own acquaintance and background living round the corner for

clarification, rather than call on the Emperor, whom he reveres but hardly

knows,  to seek wisdom. It is this

propensity of mortals that the Lord encashed on, during the Krishnavatara.

Having failed to fully reform errant humanity during His previous sojourns in

this world,  He tries a new trick—being

born as one among mundane mortals, to live and move with them as one of their

own kind, to gain their confidence by displaying some of their own failings,

feigning their own frailties and appearing affected by their own concepts of

happiness and sorrow.

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0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">It is this strategy that

prompts Him to grow up as “NandagOpan Kumaran”, son of  NandagOpa, a mere cowherd, though an opulent

one. What a come down in the choice of a Father, we might wonder—from

Dasaratha, the all-powerful, universally acclaimed and undisputed Emperor of

all worlds, belonging to the Surya Vamsam, whose assistance in warfare is

sought by even the Celestials, on the one hand-- and on the other, an

unlettered cowherd Nandagopa, belonging to a clan with a wholly pastoral

occupation, whose movement is with only bovine creatures, whose ignorance is

self-acknowledged without reservation (“arivondrum illAda Aykkulam”). Whither

the urbane and all-knowing Emperor Dasaratha, and whither the

unsophisticated  and ignorant rustic

Nandagopa?  However, we have it on the

authority of Sri Nammazhwar that the Lord relished His sojourn in Gokulam,

tending to cows as the pride of the YAdava clan (“Ayar kozhundu”) and as the

son of Nandagopa, than His permanent residence at Srivaikuntam—“divatthilum

pasu nirai mEyppu uvatthi”.

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Thus, on balance, we might tentatively conclude that

the Lord did much more by way of enlightening and emancipating mankind (through

the eternally relevant Song Celestial, the Bhagavat Gita) as the son of

non-descript Nandagopa, rather than as the scion of the illustrious Raghukulam

and the son of famed Dasaratha. It is this avatara that Sri Nammazhwar praises

as “ennai pettra at TAyAi TandayAi 

ariyAdana arivittha atthA!”—one who, with infinite mercy, dispelled the

gloom of ignorance and lighted the lamp of knowledge in Azhwar’s soul,

performing the functions of father, mother and Guru, all rolled into one. For

all the precepts set by Sri Rama, it is Sri Krishna who is till today known as

the “Jagadguru” (“Krishnam vanE Jagatgurum” is the refrain of the

KrishnAstakam). And it is Sri Krishna who is acclaimed as the “PoorNa avatAra”,

despite Sri Rama having been a paragon of all possible virtues, perhaps because

His humble environs enabled Sri Krishna to exhibit in full the wonderful virtue

of Soulabhyam, endearing Him to the whole world.

 

 If a

popularity contest were to be conducted for these avataras, with connoiseur

devotees as the judges, which avatara do you think would emerge winner? Pat

would come the answer from everyone, “The Krishnavatara, of course!”. If one

were to go by the depth of emotion generated in the devotee by virtue of

extreme accessibility (soulabhyam), the trait of mixing with lowly mortals as

one among them, adopting their food, dress and conduct (souseelyam), the

retention of Supremacy (Paratvam) even during the avatara and its effective

display when warranted, the universal appeal to various sections of the

proletariat and plutocracy alike, irrespective of age, erudition or

avocation—all these sterling qualities set Sri Krishna apart from other

avataras and endow Him with a popularity beyond measure. The extremely lovable

toddler whom everyone would like to cuddle, the mischievous urchin one would

love to play with, the handsome youth who is the heart throb of all eligible

damsels (and some ineligible ones too!), the mature King whose counsel and aid

are sought by opposing kingdoms and warriors, the master of subterfuge whose

strategies can transform the potential loser into an acclaimed winner, the

Universal Teacher who proclaims the guidebook of good conduct and emancipation

from the battlefield of Kurukshetra—these and other such stellar roles the Lord

donned during the Krishnavatara have no doubt been responsible for its being

adjudged a “Poorna avatara”, despite close competition from His other roles as

Sri Rama, Sri Nrisimha etc.

 

In bringing up a child, it is the father’ role and

responsibility to ensure that his son grows up into a fine specimen of

humanity, wins world-wide acclaim (“avayatthu mundi iruppa seyal”) and

contributes the maximum to the welfare of the society of which he is a part.

Judged by this standard, Nandagopa towers head and shoulders above Dasaratha as

a Father of God. If we go by the dictum, “The proof of the pudding is in the

eating”, Nandagopa seems to have ensured a much more comfortable life for his

offspring Krishna, who never had to encounter any prolonged inconvenience or

distress in His life, while Dasaratha was responsible, directly or indirectly,

for his beloved son spending fourteen long years in the inhospitable jungle and

enduring a lot of grief.  Sri Nandagopa

was extremely protective of the little Krishna and would not let him out of his

eyesight, (leave alone be banished to the jungle) transforming himself from a

placid purveyor of milk and curds into a ferocious warrior wielding a murderous

spear, all for the protection of Sri Krishna (“koor vEl kodum tozhilan

Nandagopan”).  Having at last justified

the title to my daughter’s satisfaction, I would like to conclude this piece

here without testing readers’ patience further.

 

Srimate Sri LakshmINrisimha divya paduka sevaka

SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

Dasan, sadagopan

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