srimadbhagavatham-skandha1-chapter8

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chapter-8- Krishna saved the child Parikshit and Kunti's hymn.

 

When Krishna was about to leave for Dvaraka after consoling the Pandavas

and Droupadi, he saw Utthara running towards him with a plea to save her

foetus The words of Utthara were significant. She said

'nAnyamthavdhabhayam paSyE yathra mrthuh parasparam.' "In this world

where everyone is the enemy of every one else, I do not see any other

saviour than you." She told Krishna that she is being burnt inside with

the missile as though with a red hot iron and prayed that her foetus

should be saved even at the cost of her life.Then Krishna understood

that this is the Asthra sent by Asvatthama to demolish the clan of

Pandavas and protected the foetus with His sudarsana chakra as a shield

by entering inside the womb of Utthara.

 

'anthasThah sarvabhoothAnAm AthmA yogEsvarO harih;svamAyayAvrNOth

garbham vairAtyAh kuruthanthavE.' The Lord who is the inner self of all

and resides in all covered the foetus with His mAya for the sake of

propagating the clan of Kurus. Actually the Lord is capable of

protecting the child without entering inside the womb as He is the

antharyami of all but he appeared inside in a minute form to grace

Parikshit, who later became a great bhagavatha. He came to be called

Parikshit because as a child he was examining (pareekshaNam) everyone

who came near, desirous of finding the divine being who appeared to him

while he was in the womb of his mother. The asthra Asvatthama sent was

the Brahmasthra and was infallible .Hence even though the foetus was

saved the child was born charred. Then Krishna touched the body with His

foot and by the padhsparsa of the Lord the child came to life.

 

When at last Krishna started for Dvaraka Kunti came to him and praised

him with a hymn, which is wellknown as Kuntisthuthi and very beautiful

for its import.

 

Kunthisthuthi:

 

"You are 'Adhya Purushah eeSvarah prakrthEh parah,' the prime purusha,

who resides within all beings without they being aware of it.You are not

recognised by the ignorant, like an actor who is well disguised in his

costume. You are hidden behind the curtain of your maya. You are

adhOkshaja, beyond sense-cognition and avyaya,immutable. When you are

not seen even by sages and paramahamsas how can a mere woman like me

understand you."

 

The famous verse 'krishnAya vasudhEvaya

dgEvakeenandhanAyacha,nandhagopakumAraya govindhAya namOnamah,' occurs

only in this sthuthi. The next verse is also beautiful, 'namsthe

pankajanAbhAya namasthe pankajamAlinE; namah pankaja nEthrAya namasthE

pankajAnghraye, salutations to you having lotus in your navel,and

wearing garland of lotuses, of lotus-eyed and lotus feet.'

 

Then Kunti continued thus:

 

"You have been our saviour whenever we faced troubles and let us face

more and more trouble if it would only secure us your darsan whcih will

free us from bondage. You are akinchanagochara, accessible only to

simple folk who do not have anything except your bhakthi and you are

agochara ,inaccessible to those who are arrogant due to wealth,birth or

learning.Being the innerself of all, taking different sariras is a play

for you."

 

Then Kunthi remembered his balaleela.She said that she is filled with

wonder in imagining his tear-filled face, when his mother tied him to a

mortar, as though in fear because even fear will be afraid to come to

him 'bheerapi yadhbibhEthi.'

 

Kunthi then prayed to Krishna to free her from attachments and make her

think about Him only. As the river reaches the sea inspite of the

impediments on the way she prayed that her thoughts should reach Him

only, cutting off all other attachments, aided by the current of

devotion.

 

The last verse of her sthuthi is as follows:

 

srikrishna krishnasakha vrshnivrshabha avanidhrug

 

rAjanyavamSadhahanAnapavargaveerya

 

gOvindha gOdhvijasurArthiharavathara

 

yOgESvarAkhilagurO bhagavnnamasthE

 

It means "salutations to you Krishna,the friend of Arjuna(who also had a

name krishna), the bull among the yadhavas, You are like the forest fire

for the bamboos in the form of wicked kings.You have incarnated for

removing the suffering of cattle, brahmins and devas and you are the

Yogesvara and Jagatguru."

 

Sootha said that on hearing this Krishna smiled a little as though

bewitching every one through his mAya. Then he started towards Dvaraka

only to be stopped by Yudhishtira who was not consoled thinking about

the effects of war which he tried his level best to avoid and thought

that he could never be expiated from his sin. This again was the leela

of the Lord who wanted to take him to Bhishma to listen to the

instruction on dharma and also for gracing Bhishma in hislast days and

exrtract sahasranama from him.