Krishnanandalahari-Yadhavabhyudhaya of Vedantadesika- Krishna the butter thief

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Krishna the butter thief

 

thrasyan mukundho navaneethachouryAth

nirbhugna gAthrO nibhrtham sayAnah

nijAni nissabdhadhaSAm yayAche

baddhAnjalim bAlavibhooshaNAni

 

Krishna stole butter and was hiding with his body contracted out of fear from the gopis. Desika calls him Mukundha, the one who gives Moksha,as well as bhoga, here enacting fear. His limbs were trembling with fear and he was afraid of being found out by the sound of his ornaments and hence begged them not to make noise! To think about this fearful posture of Krishna will remove all our fears.

 

Once Krishna wished for the forest fruits and approached the hunter girl who was selling them with handful of grains. Desika says , the one who gives Aranyakaphala wanted Aranyakaphala. The part of veda taught in the forest is called Aranyaka , that is, upanishads and the Lord is the giver of the fruit of that knowledge, namely moksha and here he himself desired aranyakaphala, the forest fruits. There is pun on the word aranyakla.

 

He carried a handful of grains to buy the fruits as is the custom in those days and being a child, all the grains were falling off from his hands when he ran towards the vendor.There were only few grains and what the hunter girl saw was his hand marked with the sign of conch and disc (sujAtharEkhAthmaka sankachakram) She thought that she should give herself to those hands, which is of course more desirable to the Lord than the fruits as He expects only the heart of the devotee more than the other offerings. Then she filled his hands with fruits and her basket was immediately filled with precious gems.Desika refers to him as kreedAsisu, one who appeared as a child by his leela.The gems were not in any way inferior to Kousthubha,'rathnaisthadhA kousthubha nirvisEshaih.'

 

Krishna was frequently engaged in some mischief or other like stealing butter, freeing the calves even when it was not milking time, and other such deeds and once his long suffering mother wanted to tie him to the mortar to keep him out of mischief. Desika says that the mortar has done some punya to acquire that good fortune that Yasodha wanted to tie Krishna to it. 'ulookhalE kuthrachith AtthapuNyE.' Desika uses a pun on the word banDHu by saying that she wished to tie him banDHum iyEsha who is the relative of the good, sathAm banDHuh. The punyaphala of the mortar was to have the contact of the body of tne Lord and also serving the purpose of his further deed , namely the freeing of the sons of Kubera from their curse.

 

Then comes the description of the difficulty Yasodha was experiencing in tying him to the mortar. Bhagavatha says that whatever rope she tried it was found two inches short, dhvayangulOnam.

 

Aneetham agrE nija banDHanArTHam

dhAmAkhilam samhitham apyapoorNam

nireekshya nirviNNa DHiyOjananyAh

sankOcha shakthyA sa babhoova vanDHyah

 

On seeing that all the ropes even when joined together were not enough due to his maya his mother became desperate. Then krishna took pity on her and made himself small enough to be tied while he made the ropes short earlier.

 

The sight of Krishna bound to the mortar was enjoyed by the devotees variously.

 

Leelasuka says,

 

varamimam upadhEsam AdhriyaDHvam

nigamavanEshu nithAntha chAra khinnAh

vichinutha bhavnEshu vallaveenAm

upanishadharTHam ulookhalE nibaddham

 

Listen to this best advice, you who are fatgued in wandering in the forest of vedas! The Brahman of the upanishads whom you try to find, is bound to the mortar here in the house of the milkmaids.

 

Desika himself refers to Krishna as Brahmakishora, Brahman in form of a child in Gopalavimsathi.

 

Those who think of the Lord in this state of being bound to the mortar will be freed from the bondage of karma without any effort on their part.Desika further says ,'thapasvinee thathkrathuneethirAdhya savreedam AraNya kaTHAsu thasTHou. The rule called thatthkrathu in vedanta is that whatever one thinks on so he becomes. In the case of Krishna, whatever leela of Bhagavn one thinks of, the result is just the opposite.This is illustrated by Desika saying, those who think of Krishna as being bound they get freedom from their bondage. And he says that with a poetic expression. The thathkrathu nyaya went and hid itself in the stories of the forest out of shame on its failure. Aranyakas are the upanishads which contain this nyaya and hence the word Aranyaka is used as a pun to denote forest.

 

The eyes of Krishna were full of tears and that amused the onlookers because he looked like an elephant bound to its post. Desika describes this in Gopalavimsathi thus. Yasodha is grasping Krishna in her hand and threatens him and Krishna is seen crying and smudging the eyeliner applied to his eyes with his hand. What a delightful picture of the leela of the Lord! Desika calls him miThyAgOpa, the pseudo cowherd in Gopalavimsathi because being visvagoptha, the protector of the whole universe, he is now pretending to be a cowherd boy feigning fear

 

..Then Desika describes very briefly the release of the sons of Kubera from their curse.Krishna dragged the mortar playfully and it was stopped by the two twin trees and when dragged further by him it uprooted the trees. The two sons of Kubera, Nalakoobara and Manigreeva who were cursed by the sage Narada to become trees got back their original form.Bhagavatha says that Krishna thought that the sage Narada is dear to him and the time has come to fulfil his promise to the yakshas and hence he enacted this scene.The two yakshas bowed down to Krishna and went their way.

devarshirme priyathamah yadhimou dhanaddhaathmajou

thatthathaa saadhayishyaami yadhgeetham thanmahaathmanaa (Bh.10-10-25)

"the devarshi Narada is dear to me and these are the sons of Kubera(who is also a devotee) and hence I will fulfill what has been promised by Narada."

 

 

As he took the form of a lion-man to prove the words of Prahlada and the boon of Brahma, both of whom were His devotees, now he allowed HImself to be bound to the mortar in order to free the twins and to prove the words of Narada . That is the karunaa of the Lord.

 

Nammaazvar in his thoruvaimozi, the largest and profoundest part of the Divayaprabandha, wonders what made Him , whose stomach contained the whole universe to go and eat butter. It could not be hunger since He had everything inside His stomach. Is it perhaps as a medicine to dissolve some of the earth, maN karaiya ney ooN marundho, remaining inside, maNdhaan sOrndhadhu undElum, when He gave out the universe at the time of creation , azvar wonders. But the intake of the universe and bringing it out had happened long time ago! Moreover when his mother examined the mouth of Krishna she saw all the universe inside and the butter is also a part of it!

 

Krishna not only stole butter from the house of gopis but he ate the whole lot! Periazvar says, `veNNai vizungi veRum kalattha veRpil ittadhan Osai ketkum,' they heard the sound of empty vessel being thrown by Krishna after swallowing the butter. Why should he do so when he got enough butter in his own house ? The stealing butter and swallowing butter have a deeper significance.

 

Most of the people from whom he stole butter were happy about it and kept it only for him to come and steal it. They found that their prosperity increased by it. Those were the people who loved Krishna Only a few who did not understand his greatness complained. But Krishna, though Yasodha told him not to got the house where he was not liked, to quote Periazvar, 'nEsamilaadhaar agatthirundhu nee viLaiyaadaadhE,' had no distinction between those who like him and those who did not, as he said later in Gita, `samo aham sarva bhootheshu name dhveshyo asthi na priyaH,' "I am the same towards all there is no one whom I hate and no one whom I am partial to."

 

Now the butter signifies the heart of people. The Lord steals the heart unaware. Those who already love Him are happy about it but those who turn away from Him do not want to give their hearts to him. They have ahankara and mamakara without knowing that everything belonged to the Lord only through whose grace they have they did. But if He decides to steal their hearts He does it without their knowledge . In the Gita He says , `kshipram bhavathi dharmathmaa' one is transformed in no time if the Lord wills it.