Yadhavabhyudhaya-chapter4-Krishna the butter thief

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Krishna the butter thief

 

 

 

thrasyan mukundho navaneethachouryAth

 

nirbhugna gAthrO nibhrtham sayAnah

 

nijAni nissabdhadhaSAm yayAche

 

baddhAnjalim bAlavibhooshaNAni

 

 

 

Krishna stole butter and was hiding with his body contracted out of fear

from the gopis. Desika calls him Mukundha, the one who gives Moksha,as

well as bhoga, here enacting fear. His limbs were trembling with fear

and he was afraid of being found out by the sound of his ornaments and

hence begged them not to make noise! To think about this fearful posture

of Krishna will remove all our fears.

 

 

 

Once Krishna wished for the forest fruits and approached the hunter girl

who was selling them with handful of grains. Desika says , the one who

gives Aranyakaphala wanted Aranyakaphala. The part of veda taught in the

forest is called Aranyaka , that is, upanishads and the Lord is the

giver of the fruit of that knowledge, namely moksha and here he himself

desired aranyakaphala, the forest fruits. There is pun on the word

aranyakla.

 

 

 

He carried a handful of grains to buy the fruits as is the custom in

those days and being a child, all the grains were falling off from his

hands when he ran towards the vendor.There were only few grains and what

the hunter girl saw was his hand marked with the sign of conch and disc

(sujAtharEkhAthmaka sankachakram) She thought that she should give

herself to those hands, which is of course more desirable to the Lord

than the fruits as He expects only the heart of the devotee more than

the other offerings. Then she filled his hands with fruits and her

basket was immediately filled with precious gems.Desika refers to him as

kreedAsisu, one who appeared as a child by his leela.The gems were not

in any way inferior to Kousthubha,'rathnaisthadhA kousthubha

nirvisEshaih.'

 

 

 

Krishna was frequently engaged in some mischief or other like stealing

butter, freeing the calves even when it was not milking time, and other

such deeds and once his long suffering mother wanted to tie him to the

mortar to keep him out of mischief. Desika says that the mortar has done

some punya to acquire that good fortune that Yasodha wanted to tie

Krishna to it. 'ulookhalE kuthrachith AtthapuNyE.' Desika uses a pun on

the word banDHu by saying that she wished to tie him banDHum iyEsha who

is the relative of the good, sathAm banDHuh. The punyaphala of the

mortar was to have the contact of the body of tne Lord and also serving

the purpose of his further deed , namely the freeing of the sons of

Kubera from their curse.

 

 

 

Then comes the description of the difficulty Yasodha was experiencing in

tying him to the mortar. Bhagavatha says that whatever rope she tried it

was found two inches short, dhvayangulOnam.

 

 

 

Aneetham agrE nija banDHanArTHam

 

dhAmAkhilam samhitham apyapoorNam

 

nireekshya nirviNNa DHiyOjananyAh

 

sankOcha shakthyA sa babhoova vanDHyah

 

 

 

On seeing that all the ropes even when joined together were not enough

due to his maya his mother became desperate. Then krishna took pity on

her and made himself small enough to be tied while he made the ropes

short earlier.

 

 

 

The sight of Krishna bound to the mortar was enjoyed by the devotees

variously.

 

 

 

Leelasuka says,

 

 

 

varamimam upadhEsam AdhriyaDHvam

 

nigamavanEshu nithAntha chAra khinnAh

 

vichinutha bhavnEshu vallaveenAm

 

upanishadharTHam ulookhalE nibaddham

 

 

 

Listen to this best advice, you who are fatgued in wandering in the

forest of vedas! The Brahman of the upanishads whom you try to find, is

bound to the mortar here in the house of the milkmaids.

 

 

 

Desika himself refers to Krishna as Brahmakishora, Brahman in form of a

child in Gopalavimsathi.

 

 

 

Those who think of the Lord in this state of being bound to the mortar

will be freed from the bondage of karma without any effort on their

part.Desika further says ,'thapasvinee thathkrathuneethirAdhya savreedam

AraNya kaTHAsu thasTHou. The rule called thatthkrathu in vedanta is

that whatever one thinks on so he becomes. In the case of Krishna,

whatever leela of Bhagavn one thinks of, the result is just the

opposite.This is illustrated by Desika saying, those who think of

Krishna as being bound they get freedom from their bondage. And he says

that with a poetic expression. The thathkrathu nyaya went and hid itself

in the stories of the forest out of shame on its failure. Aranyakas are

the upanishads which contain this nyaya and hence the word Aranyaka is

used as a pun to denote forest.

 

 

 

The eyes of Krishna were full of tears and that amused the onlookers

because he looked like an elephant bound to its post. Desika describes

this in Gopalavimsathi thus. Yasodha is grasping Krishna in her hand and

threatens him and Krishna is seen crying and smudging the eyeliner

applied to his eyes with his hand. What a delightful picture of the

leela of the Lord! Desika calls him miThyAgOpa, the pseudo cowherd in

Gopalavimsathi because being visvagoptha, the protector of the whole

universe, he is now pretending to be a cowherd boy feigning fear

 

 

 

..Then Desika describes very briefly the release of the sons of Kubera

from their curse.Krishna dragged the mortar playfully and it was stopped

by the two twin trees and when dragged further by him it uprooted the

trees. The two sons of Kubera, Nalakoobara and Manigreeva who were

cursed by the sage Narada to become trees got back their original

form.Bhagavatha says that Krishna thought that the sage Narada is dear

to him and the time has come to fulfil his promise to the yakshas and

hence he enacted this scene.The two yakshas bowed down to Krishna and

went their way.

 

devarshirme priyathamah yadhimou dhanaddhaathmajou

 

thatthathaa saadhayishyaami yadhgeetham thanmahaathmanaa (Bh.10-10-25)

 

"the devarshi Narada is dear to me and these are the sons of Kubera(who

is also a devotee) and hence I will fulfill what has been promised by

Narada."

 

 

 

 

 

As he took the form of a lion-man to prove the words of Prahlada and the

boon of Brahma, both of whom were His devotees, now he allowed HImself

to be bound to the mortar in order to free the twins and to prove the

words of Narada . That is the karunaa of the Lord.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almost immmediately Desika switches to the migration of the residents of

Gokula to Brindvan.