Periazvar kanda kannan-Krishna wishes to go and tend the calves

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Krishna wishes to take the calves for grazing

 

Krishna wanted to go with other lads to forest taking the calves for grazing and asked Yasodha for the staff with which to tend the calves. .Yasodha. who did not want to part with him calls the crow to bring him the staff in order to delay him.

 

"Bring a staff to my son," she says, and describes Krishna as follows:

 

He is playing with the bow made out of the sticks broken from the fences and wears the ornament called aimpadaitthali on his chest and a cluster of peacock feathers on his head and follows the calves.

 

He is roaming in the beautiful Kudandhai, Thirulkkottiyur and Thirrupperai (all are among the 108 Vaishnava divadesams) and holds Panchajanya, the conch in His hand. To him Azvar as yasodha calls the crow to bring a staff well shaped and painted with lac.

 

Azavar then describes the act of Krishna in tending the calves. He runs here and there with his locks moving and falling on his forehead. While he was at his task he also tore the beak of the asura who came to kill him in the form of a crane and later killed Kamsa , who sent him, as well.

 

The devotees go into raptures in describing the locks of the Lord moving to and fro on his forehead as we see in the krthi of Thyagaraja , `alakalallalaadagagaani,' where he admires the forelocks of Rama moving charmingly on his forehead while he fought with the rakshasas on protecting the yaga of Visvamithra.

 

Krishna , who has the hue of the ocean ,went to Duryodhana , who was saying the same thing over and over again that he would not give the kingdom to Pandavas , as a messenger, and confirmed the war. To him, Yasodha asks the crow to bring a staff. Here the staff may mean to thothra vethra, the cane theLord held in hand as the Parthsarathy. In the pasuram azvar says `onRE uraippaan orusollE solluvaan,' while applying to Duryodhana as the one saying the same word over and over again, it could also refer to Krishna whose word, once given , is kept as he tells Droupadi in Mahabharatha, sky may fall or the Himalayas may crumble but His word once given stays .The Lord had said this in Ramavathara also, `raamo dhvirnaabhibhaashathe,' Rama never speaks two things, meaning that, once said, he will keep his word.

 

Azvar as Yasodha further elaborates on the glory of Krishna. He was the one who slept on a banyan leaf as an infant holding the whole universe in his stomach as well as on the bed of Adisesha in the milky ocean. `aalatthu ilaiyaan aravinanai melaan.' He went into yognidra for a long time after the deluge .Azvar says `neelakkadaluL nedunkaalam kanvaLarndhaan,' slept for along time in the blue ocean. But the ocean in which the Lord is lying on the bed of Sesha is the milky ocean and not blue. But the devotees are fond of this expression which means that due to the dark colour of the Lord the milky ocean looks black. Kamban also uses the word `karunnkadal' referring to the milky ocean.

( Madurai TNSeshagopalan in his harikatha on Ramayana gave a quaint explanation that an emerald when put in milk will make the milk appear black in colour and the Lord has .pacchaimaamalaipOl mEni, body like a mountain of emerald.)

 

Yasodha tells the crow to bring the staff quickly lest it will come to harm. She says that he has already took off one eye of the crow when it harmed Seetha in Chitrakoota where Rama was sleeping on her lap. If the crow does not want to lose its other eye also it better hurry and bring the staff this refers to the tale of Kakasura . who attacked Seetha with his beak and Rama sent a darbha grass as Brahmastra and Kakasura not obtaining support anywhere came and fell at the feet of Rama when he took off his one eye and since then all crows have only one eye.

 

This perhaps reminded the Azvar about ramavathara and he proceeds to describe the same in the next two verses. He says, Krishna was the one who to bring Seetha back bridged the ocean and fought with Ravana and felled his ten heads and twenty arms at once and gave the kingdom of Lanka to Vibheeshana, saying that till the name of Rama shines on earth the kingdom of Lanka will flourish.

 

Fianally Azvar ends the decade saying that Krishna is the one who is found on the Thrumala hills.