Yadhavabhyudhay -chapter 4 continued

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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.

 

 

There are two ways to mukthi, rasAsvadha, or experiencing the joy of

union with the Lord and brahmajnana, through meditation or

jnanamarga.The upanishad says, 'rasO vai sah;rasam hOvAyamlabDhva

Anandhee bhavathi.' Brahman or Narayana is the rasa and attaining Him

is the bliss. Rasa, Anandha and Brahman are synonymous terms.

 

The rasakreeda signifies the jivas enjoying the bliss with the Lord.

The sages see the leela of the Lord in the world where all the jivas

are around Him holding His hand.So the whole world is the brindavan

and the leela of the Lord in creating sustaining and annihiating is

the rasakreeda. RAsa is also termed as the collection of all the five

vaishnava rasas, namely,dAsya, sakhya, vAtsalya,madhura and shantha.

 

To those who criticise the rasleela the answer would be that Krishna

was only 10 when he was in Brindavan and where does eroticism figure?

Parikshit himself was ignorant on this aspect and asked Shuka how is

it justified for one who incarnated for dharmasamsthapana to play

with the wives of others. And Shuka replied,

gOpeenAm thathpatheenAm cha sarvEshAmEva dhEhinAm yO anthascharathi

so aDHyakshah kreedanEna iha dhEhabhavah

 

The one who is the indweller of the gopis and their husbands and all

beings and the witness self, is now playing in physical form.

 

Srimadbhagavatha says,

rEmE ramESO vrajasundareebhih

yaTHA arbakah svaprathibimba vibhramah.

 

The Lord of Lakshmi enjoyed the company of the cowherd damsels as a

child will revel in his own reflections.

 

The whole of Bhagavatha is considered to be the sarira of the Lord

and the five adhyayas describing rasakreeda are the prANasThAna. It

is bhakthyAh parA kAshTA na sringArasya . It is the height of

devotion and not of physical desire.It is said in Bhagavatha that the

husbands never felt the absence of their wives during the nights of

rasakreeda because their yogasariras were with Krishna while their

bhogasariras were at home doing their duty. As the gopis saw only

Krishna everywhere their love for their kith and kin only

increased,and for the same reason it was reciprocated.

 

 

Vedantadesika in his yadhavabhyudhaya mentions that the brahmacharya

of Krishna was not in any way affected,'na brhmachryam bibhidhE

thadheeyam, and Appayyadikshita , a leading exponent of advaita,

writing commentary on this work says that this is because everythng

is His sarira and He was embracing His own sarira. He quotes the

PAdhmOttharakAnda from PadmapuraNa where Lord Siva tells Parvathi,

who raised the same question, that it is like 'svasariraparishvanga'

embracing oneself.

 

The one who related the story is a parivrajaka brahmajnani and the

one to whom it is told is Parikshit, paramabhagavtha and those who

listened were rshis. All jivas are women and He alone is the Purusha.

(This explanation is given here instead of giving it in the chapter

on rasakrida because it would help understanding and enjoying

Rasakreeda when we come to the chapter.)

 

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