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.