Krishna and Gopikas- Reponse to the query -Part 1

[Guest guest]

SrI:

SrImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya namah:

 

Dearest Srivaishnavas,

 

Krishna, Rama avathArams are the most enjoyable and divine and they

always enchant us with the wonderful

deeds of the Lord. AzhwArs and Acharyans have deeply immersed

themselves in these avathArams in particular and had seen the same

Rama, Krishna in the archA mUrthys in Dhivya Desams. Thsee special

Rama Krishna avathArams have got a spociality in them. The Sarvagnan,

SarvEshwaran, Sarva shakthan, the Supreme Lord- who is unpapalleled

and Peerless- who has none equal to or above Him… oppAril appan-

ParamAthmA- PurushOtthaman- Jagath kaarNanan; Jagath rakshakan- The

Only One who could grant mOksham [mOksha pradhan]; the Ultimate

enjoyment for NithyasUris and mukthAs at Srivaikuntam. One can go on

describing and extolling His positions, Roopam, Swaroopam, vibhuthi

(rulership) i.e. this world [leelA vibhUthi] and Paramapadham [Nithya

vibhUthi], His innumerous kalyANa guNas… In spite of such Greatest

qualities, His dayA [comnpassion] is Supreme and the most important

One; manisarkaay- padaathana pattu- For the sake of human beings-

what

all troubles; briths (as avathArams) He undertakes. He took the

avathArams in the lowly human forms – and stoops down so low with

such

east accessibility to illiterate Gopas, GopikAs, pasu (cows), pakshis

(jatAyu), monkeys, boatmen- hunters (Guha), et al. His sowlabhyam

[coming down so low] and sowseelyam [easily accessible for all] is

amazingly true and present in such Greatest Parathvam…

 

He moved with everyone equally and attracted them all with His

sowlabhyam and sowseelyam. He is thus possessed with the most

wonderful gunAs –namely Sowlabhya, Sowseelyams. Rama is addressed as

Gunvaan- mentioning this gunA especially.

 

KrishnAvathAra sowseelyam is Ultimate and there is no match for that.

aRivonRum illAdha Aykulatthu- He appeared in the group of cowherd

folks who were completely illiterate; having no saasthra jnAnam- did

not even know how to eat with right hand or left.. [idakkai, valakkai

theriyaadha].. He mixed with them as if He had been a cowherd Boy for

ages and even Devendran, Chathu mukha BrahmA were all misled. He

reared cattle; tendered calves; played with Gopa boys, shared their

food, taking a bite from their palms; played with Gopikas and danced

with them… He allowed Himself tied down to a mortar by the illiterate

Gopa lady (YasodhA) and NammAzhwAr marveled as His such a sowseelyam

and fainted for about six months it is told [etthiRam? etthiRam] .

 

This sowseelya gunA which can not be seen in anyone else in such

grandest proportion is the natural swabhAvam for the Lord.. It is His

one of His inherent kalyANa guNa for the sake of us- due to His

mercy,

dayA on us. How many of us understand that? Hardly any. The Lord

Himself says in GitA- avajAnanthi maam mUDA! …. Sa mahatma

sudhurlabha:

 

Ravana talks lowly about Rama coming to the forest, leaving His

coronation for His younger brother; Sisupalan talked in

un-parliamentary language (sudusol) about the deeds of KaNNan- as

cowherd Boy.

 

avyaktham vyakthimApannam manyanthE maam abuddhaya: |

param bhAva majaanantha: mamaavyayam anutthamam ||

 

I, who was born as the son of Vaudevar, am being considered as if

born

due to the bondage with Karma; and they do not understand my supreme

sowseelya guNaa. The same holds good for all His avathArams. Without

understanding His true nature and guNAs, we (people) talk low about

His deeds performed during these avathArams. Those who do that are

foolish; and who equate Him with them as humans and evaluate His

actions in their view point as humans.

 

Still, it continues. Even today such talking goes on. Even sincere

devotees sometimes get doubts on His vaali vandham, Gopika dance

etc..

The Lord Himself tells Vaali: sookshuma: paramudhuehEya: Dharmam is

very subtle; it is not easily comprehensible. KaNNan played with gopa

sthrees – and even today many of us are not able to digest; But we,

srivaishnavites, should never get such thoughts about His such

grandest deeds. But it is essential to get our doubts cleared so that

we reinforce our devotion on Him stronger and it grows from strength.

There is no better time that talking about it now on His

janmAshthami.

Please forgive me if I am again trespassing where fools do rush in

where angels fear to tread. This is only to clarify the foolish

arguments and thoughts in us. Swamy desikan himself most mercifully

has enlisted the Freqently Asked Questions on this incident and

answered to clarify our doubts. It is Swamy who blessed us with the

unparalleled abhaya pradhAna saaram to clarify many aspects on

Saranagathi during RamavathAram. Swamy mentions in his

yaadhavaabhyudhayam about Krishna avathAram and let us enjoy them and

get our doubts cleared. [reference: the most brilliant article

written

by Naavalpaakam SrI U VE Dr Vasudevachariar Swamy, Trivandhrum in Sri

Hayagriva Priya and I was so lured by the article that I wished to

share with all of you- anything good in these posts is only due to

the

wonderful original article and Swamy Desikan's excellent analysis.

Mistakes, errors, omissions are entirely mine. Sri Vasudevachar

Swamy

is the one who wrote the Tamil meanings for Swamy Desikan Dhivya

sahasranaamam released and as blessed by Srimad PaRavaakkOttai

Andavan

Swami. Also, asmadhAchAryan His Holiness Srimad PaRavaakkOttai

ANdavan

Sri Gopala Desika Mahadesikan Swami had delivered a two hours

upanyasam on this subject few years ago on a sravaNam day -

wonderfully quoting the very reference which is in this article. It

is

Acharya anugraham that I am able to find the same reference in this

article and we share here now]

 

It may take a few posts and the article is a bit long and hence we

will cover it as a series.

 

suraanganaabhi: samayE Gruthaayaam swEnaiva gOpAkruthi bhUmikAyAm |

akarmavaSyasya vibhOsthadhAseeth arChAphalasparSanamaathraleelA ||

[from Yadavabhyudhayam- 8.67]

 

This sloka- a wonderful sloka- has answers for many questions.

 

1. Question: The ultilate pinnacle of Sowlabhyam [eLimai] – joined

hands with Gopa sthrees and enjoyed being with them, united with

them.

Even some of them were married [to others]. They too were happy being

with Him. This is against saasthrAs. Does this deed bring a bad name

for KaNNan?

 

Answer: We should first of all, not think that He [bhagwaan] and us-

as one jaathi (one group). He is Iswaran; Lord; ruler of all of us;

It

is His sankalpam even for our very existence; breathing. He is never

touched by punya, paapams; He is akilahEya prathyaneekan (untouched

by

imperfections; or bad guNAs); He is not bound by Karma at all; His

birth is an avathAram for the sake of us. We are all bound always by

Karma; We are tied down by our papams and punyams. He is above vidhi

nishEdha saasthrAs; SaasthrAs are for us to be on right track for

getting rid of our paapams, and accrual of punyas and to please Him

as

SaasthrAs are His agnyA- instructions. Sage Vyasa also says clearly:

aroopavadhEva hi tathpraDhAnathvaath. Bhagawaan DOES not belong to

human race; He is in manidha jaathi at all. We can not hold Him down

with the rules laid down for us.

 

Also, We can not compare and equate our actions with his dhivya

chEshtithams )leelAs); Can we lift the huge Govardhana mountain with

the little finger as a Boy? Can we dance on top of many heads of

poisnous snake Kaalingan? Sage Suka takes the example of Rudra

himself

to explain this in Srimad Bhaagawatham: Bhagawaan'e leelAs are very

many. Rudra's leelas are few; Even them, we can not do or perform.

Rudra drank the poison and did not perish [as it was Deva kaaryam and

the Lord Sriman Narayanan blessed him to undertake the task]. Can we

drink poison and survive? When such is case with Iswaran, why to talk

about SarvEswaran?

 

Hence, KaNNan does not belong to us – human race. Iswaran;

Parabrahmam- is He. Veda declares Him as apahathapaapma. Swamy

EmperumAnAr Sri Ramanuja comments this as: by His nature, He is not

bounded by Karma [apahathakarmathvam,

karmavaSyathAgandharahithatattvam ithyarTTha: ]

 

So, if some of His acts appear to us the acts of paapam, He is

unbounded and untouched by such acts at all. Hence, will paapam never

ever affect or come to Him due to these acts- the question does not

arise at all for Him… Swamy desikan touches upon this aspect in the

above sloka with the word.. akarmavaSya.. Thus He does not belong to

jeeva jaathi; and also He is our Ruler, Lordship and Isawarn and due

to both aspects, He does not get affected by Karma and PunYa paapams

says engaLAzhwAn in the commentary on Vishnu purANa for the same

subject under IswaratvEna apahathapaapmatvaat.. Hence no dhOsham for

Him.

Let us look at more questions in next posts...

 

Acharyan ThiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

Regards

Namo Narayana

dAsAnu dAsan

 

 

 

ramanuja, Geetha Raghavan <geetha123>

wrote:

> I am de-lurking to ask for help. I went into one of

> the general Indian discussion boards on a popular

> Indian search engine. One of the discussion was about

> Krishna and 16K gopikas. Some of the comments were

> insulting to Krishna, to say the least. I was very

> much upset by such comments but I did not know enough

> about the significance of the gopikas to send a reply.

> Can someone on the list explain the significance to

> me? Next time some ignorant soul passes some nasty

> commment, I will be able to explain the significance

> to them.

>

> Thanks,

>

> Geetha

>

>

>

>

>

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