yadhavabhyudhaya-chapter4-continued-Brindhavanasanc haree

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BrindhavanasanchAree

 

 

 

Desika says that Krishna made the woods fertile by mere will.There is

nothing to be surprised with this, says Desika , because he is the one

who created the moon, the lord of all the herbs, who delights the whole

universe with his will at the beginning of creation.Now he has become

like a moon to the cowherds, gODHanavamsachandhrah, whose wealth are

the cows and made brindavanam a fertile land for the sake of the cows.

He is sathAm gOptha., protector of the good and by his glances which

were like rising waves of the sea made the Brindavanam look like the

youth of the earth, abounding in fruits flowers and grass.The grass was

sweet and the ground was soft with them devoid of stones or thorns and

the trees outdid the kalpaka vrksha by their bounty of fruits and

flowers.The gopas were thrilled to find such a place of

habitation.NammAzvar says in his thiruvaimozi 'dhivatthilum pasu nirai

mEyppu uvatthi,' the Lord left the vaikunta and came to Gokula and

relished the caring for the cattle more than residing in Vaikunta.

 

 

 

Desika mentions the killing of ThrnAvartha and BakAsura very briefly and

proceeds to describe the pavai nonbu of the cowherd girls and stealing

their clothes by Krishna.Bhagavtha mentions this vratha as the worship

of Devi Kathyayani in the month of margasira (hEmanthE praTHamE mAsi) by

the young gopis wishing the union with Krishna, reciting the following

sloka: sloka

 

'kArthyAyaani mahAmAyE mahAyOginyaDheesvari nandhgOpasutham dhEvi pathim

mE kuru thEnamah.'

 

 

 

Desika describes the gopivashtrApaharaNa thus:

 

 

 

niSAthyayE snAna samudhyathAnAm

 

nikshiptham AbheerakumArikANAm

 

koolAdhupAdhAya dhukoolajAlam

 

kundhADHirooDO mumudhE mukundhah

 

 

 

When the young cowherd girls went to the river yamuna in the early

morning to take bath and left their garments made of white silk on the

bank, Krishna took them from there and climbed the kundha tree with

delight.

 

 

 

Utthamur swami comments on this sloka saying that first it was koola

dhukoola sangamam the garments, dhukoola, had the contact with the bank

and then there was kundhamukundha sangamam, the contact with the branch

of the kundha tree and with Mukundha.The kooladhukoola sangamam denotes

leaving the old vasanas and bathe in Krishnanubhava and the

kundhamukundhasangamam implies mukthi as the word Mukundha means the one

who gives mukthi,mukthim dhadhAthi ithi mukundhah, Kum, sin, dhyathi,

destroys ithi kundhah. So kundha -mukundha sangamam means that the Lord

destroys all the sin and gives moksha.

 

 

 

When they requested him to give back their garments he made them come

out and pray to him with folded hands This was to make them cast off

their dhEhAthmabuddhi only when they become qualified for mukthi. The

Lord has already willed to give them mukthi after their present life and

only wanted to create the desire in them.He says in Gita 'vAsAmsi

jeerNAni yaTHA vihAya ---thaTHA sarirANI vihAya jeerNAni anYANi samyAthi

navAni dhEhee,just as one casts off the old clothes and put on new ones

the soul casts off the old body and takes a new one.' But until there is

total surrender this changing of bodies will go on. When the soul

surrenders the Lord gives a new awareness under the pretext of giving

back their garments which have undergone change on account of

kundhamukundha sambandha.This is the significance behind the episode of

gopivasthrApahaharaNam.

 

 

 

Krishna became the capilal of Anandhasamrajya for gopis.His vilAsas ,

actions, were like the army protecting the kingdom.His lustre ,kAnthi

was the protecting wall, his sport was like a preventive measure for the

non-entry of others. This means that the premebhakthi was the exclusive

area of the gopis and could not be penetrated by others due to their

lack of understanding.

 

 

 

When Krishna returned from the forest after tending the cattle the young

girls of Gokula felt as though they were attacked by a fourfold army of

cupid.The chathurangasena of a king,namely. ratha,gaja,thuraga padhAthi,

in this case was the sound of the flute, the dust on his body,the

sunlight playing on his body at sunset and the garland of forest flowers

he was wearing. Each one of them stole the heart of the gopis and they

felt as though being attacked by the God of love.

 

 

 

Krishna resembled a tree by his peacock feathers looking like green

branches and the cows took shelter in him as in the shadow of a tree.

 

Desika seems to be enthralled with the peacock feathers, which is

obvious even from his Gopalavimsathi and here dedicates four slokas to

describe Krishna adorned with peacock feathers.

 

 

 

Krishna shone like a mountain of sapphire with the peacock feathers and

they created a magical effect of love on the others ( peacock feathers

are found in the hand of magicians to effect the illusion).

 

 

 

Yasodha touched the peacock feathers that adorned his crown again and

again and was delighted. Desika uses two adjectives to describe

Krishna, mugDHAnganA mOhanavamsika, the one who enchants the beautiful

cowherd girls by his flute playing and maneeshiNAm mAngalika,one who

effects auspicious happenings for those who meditate on him. That is his

maya deludes those who do not have the knowledge of his real nature as

the supreme self but for those who have conquered the maya and know him

as he is, It fetches auspicious results. But the gopis are blessed even

if they were deluded by his maya into believing that he was mortal

because their desire was towards him and not on worldly things.

 

 

 

The dark hue of the peacock feathers made also the golden hued Lakshmi

in his chest to appear dark.The implication here is that Lakshmi abides

in the heart of the Lord in whchever form he appears. That is why when

he came as Vamana he covered his chest with his upper

garment(angavastra), says one commentator, because he did not want

Lakshmi to look at Bali as otherwise it will not be possible to take

away the possessions of Bali once he gets the Lakshmikataksham.

 

 

 

Krishna came playing his flute which seemed to reply to the message sent

out by the glances of the gopis.This idea we see even in Gopalavimsathi

in sloka 15.Desika says that the gopis are making sound with their

bracelets keeping time to the music and it looks as though the flute is

conversing with the bracelets.Krishna was also dancing while he came

playing the flute, a dance called AbheeranAtyam, the dance of the

cowherd.Desika says the music was something not known even to Thumburu

and Narada. Desika calls Krishna, rAgAbDHi, the sea of music and he

seemed to attract the whole world by his music. There is pun in the word

raga meaning both attachment and tune.He created raga, attachment

towards him through his raga.

 

 

 

Desika describes the state of the mind of the gopis who looked at

Krishna by a beautiful sloka.

 

 

 

apathrapAsaikatham AsrithAnAm

 

rAgOdhaDHou krishnamukhEndhununnE

 

hasthAvalambO na babhoova thAsAm

 

uthpakshmaNAm uthkalikApluthAnAm

 

 

 

The face of Krishna was like the moon, krishnamukhEndhu, that caused the

waves of desire to rise in the sea of love, rAgAbDHi. The gopis tried to

ascend on the sand hill made of bashfulness., apathrapAsaikatha, due to

the fear of censure, in order to escape being immersed in the sea, and

looked up to get some support,uthpakshma but not finding any,

hasthAvalamba,were deeply immersed in their love.

 

 

 

At this juncture Desika asserts that there was no brahmacharyabhanga to

Krishna by sporting with the gopis which is proved in the incident of

saving the life of Parikshith who was born charred by the apandavAsthra

of Asvatthama. In Mahabharatha Krishna says 'yadhi mE brahmacharyam

syAth sathyam cha mayi thishTathi avyAhatham mamaiSvaryam thEmna

jeevathu bAlakah,' that if he is a true brahmachari and there is truth

in him and if his mastery is untarnished this child should live.And

Parikshith came back to life.

 

 

 

There is another story to illustrate this.

 

Once Krishna told a gopi to take food for Vyasa who was at the other

side of river Yamuna. But she was not able to cross the river as Yamuna

was in spate. Krishna told her to pray that if Krishna was a nithya

brahmachari the river should part. Probably the gopi had her own doubts

but she had explicit faith in Krishna and did as he told her and the

river parted and she went to the other side and gave the food to Vyasa.

But again there was flood and she could not go back . Then Vyasa told

her that if he was nithya upavasi the river will part. This time the

girl was really perplexed because just then he ate the whole food

brought by her and termed himself a nithya upavasi. She expressed her

doubt to Vyasa and also told him what Krishna said about Himself..

Vyasa explained that both of them being jeevanmukthas the function of

their bodies did not touch their real Self. The real `I' which

is the pure Self is neither the doer nor the enjoyer.

 

 

 

What does this mean?The Lord is the inner self of all and the experience

of the body does not touch the self. The whole world is the sarira of

the Lord and the experiences iof the world do not touch Him who is the

self.Krishna, being the supreme self, all the experiences are for the

others and not for Him. He appears to have the experience through His

maya.