Krishnanandalahari-Yadhavabhyudhaya of vedantadesika-

[Guest guest]

chapter-6 chithrasarga

 

This chapter is called chithrasarga because it abounds in chithraslokas,the slokas with alliteration containing one or more syllable repeated etc which are made into chithrabandhas.

 

Krishna advises to worship Govardhana

When Nandha with gopas was preparing to do Indrapooja, Krishna approached him and said thus:

 

vidhithavAniva vijnApayAmyaham

srnutha mE SakunEriva bhaAshitham

prTHukabuddhiraham prTHuchEthasah

prabhavathO bhavathO na hi SikshayE

 

This is a delightful sloka in which Desika makes Krishna speak like a humble boy towards his elders.

He says," I speak as though I know everything and hear my words as though it is from a parrot.(Sakuni here means birds in general like parrot etc.) I am with meagre intellect and I cannot advise great wise men like you. What is meant here by the word parrot is that he is not telling something new but only what has been taught to him by his elders already because in the next verse he says, 'nigamadhrshtam idham nikhilEna vah,you have already learnt this through the vedas.'

 

What is it? 'athiyajEtha nijAm yadhi dhEvathAm ubhayathah chyavathE jushathE api agham,' if one leaves his own God and worship another he is abandoned by both and incurs sin. All things mountains and the like are the manifestations of Narayana and the Govardhana mountain is the cause of rain for the gokulam and also provides grass and other vegetation for people and the cattle and not Indra. The very name of the mountain as Govardhana shows that through it alone the cattle flourish.

 

bahumathO manujA dhaDhathE DHrthim

bahumathO api ayam ananyaDHrthih sathAm

giriSathOnnathimAnaDHikah

giriSathOpakrthOpi maheebhrthah

 

This sloka contains yamakachathushtayam, two words in the poorvArDha,first half and two in UtthrArDha, second half repeated.

It means that this mountain give joy to all and extolled by the good as the best . It is even more praiseworthy than even the Himalayas which gives joy to Gireesa(Siva) being greater than hundreds of hills.(Pun on the word girisathah, as 'of GiriSa,' and 'hundred hills.'

 

So. said Krishna , this mountain should be worshipped as Lord Narayana Himself. Krishna reassures Nandha that if Indra gets angry on his pooja being stopped and attacks, Balarama will conquer him with his plough as his weapon.This mountain, says Krishna is the gOthra, protector of the cattle and near whereas Indra is 'gOthrbith,' destroyer of mountains and is far away.

Krishna praises Nandha as being wiser than Brhaspathi and asks him to contemplate on this matter.The sloka is rich with alliteration.

 

DHishaNAtheetha DHishaNa lOkaneeyASthu lOkanee

suDHarE asmin vasuDHarE thAtha thEjasvithAthathE

 

Dhishanaatheetha means wiser than Brhaspathi(DhishaNA), second DHishaNA means buddhi. the word lOkaneeya means lOkaneethi and lOkanee denotes perception.The mountains are called vasudDHara , support of the earth while suDHara means the best land meaning the mountain.

 

After this there are many chithra slokas with various bandhachithras, the letters of which are portrayed in a pattern to form gomuthrika bandha etc., all of them extolling the glory of Govardhana.

 

The skilful construction of words are found in the following slokas:

 

!. EkakriyAnvithaslOkAvrtthih

The same sloka split up differently giving different meaning.

 

abhrAnthamathiSayyEha virAjitha thamAgamE

niSAmayAleenaghanam sAlougham athi nandhanam (6-77)

 

The verb is niSAmaya, see. Split up as abhrAntham athiSayya iha virAjithathamA agamE Aleenaghanam athinandhanam sAlougham niSamaya, it gives the meaning 'see the groups of sala trees, which are extending beyond the sky and in them the clouds are hanging.

When split in another way as 'thathama, Sayya iha vi rAji agamE aleenaghanam athinandhanam sAlOgham niSAmaya,' Oh Prosperous one, in this mountain where the birds rest, see the waterfalls delightful with the groups of bees hovering around the trees'

2. Dvayakshara slokas

 

The whole sloka made up of two alphabets:

charucheeree ruchA rOchee ruruchArairachrcharuh

chirOccharochiracharo ruchoro ruchirAcharah (6-78)

The two alphabets are adhanthya , not belonging to those of dental class.There are other slokas with only dental alphbets, (6-79 to92) and slokas with the same akshara in each padha such as

rururooruriraroram dhoodhadheem dhadhadhAdhidhah

lAlilOlAlileelAlO hAhAhoohoohahEha hi (6-95)

 

3. EkAkahara slokas

 

Only one alphabet used through out:

 

nAnAnAnAnAnAnAnA nAnAnAnAnAnAnAnA

nAnAnAnAnAnAnAnA nAnAnAnAnAnAnAnA (6-96)

For this sloka there are four different meanings given by commentators.Other similar slokas are,

 

nayAnayAnayAnaya nayAnayAnayAnaya

nayAnayAnayAnaya nayAnayAnayAnaya (6-97)

 

prathilOma of the same,

 

yAnayAnayAnayAna yAnayAnayAnayAna

yAnayAnayAnayAna yAnayAnayAnayAna (6-98)

 

The last type is called sarvathO badhram which goes like this;

 

mAyAbhAsA sAbhAyAma yAsoothAya yathAsooya

bhAthAyAyA yAythAbhA sA yayage gEyAyaAsA (6-99)

 

In the end of the chithrasarga Desika says,

 

aklishtachithram idham athra manAg iva uktham

chithrAyuthAni suvachAni punasthaTHApi

krthyam vibhoh nigamaneeyam ananyabhakthaih

ArADhyathAm harirasou prthiveedhrAthmA (6-108)

 

There are so many wonders (chithram) in this mountain.Only a little has been said and there are more than ten thousand yet to be seen.But the main purpose is to do the worship of Lord Hari in the form of the mountain with unswerving devotion, giving up all other thoughts.

 

By this sloka Desika hints that he is capable of writing much more chithraslokas than what is given here but since the main purpose of the work is to describe the glory of the Lord Hari he has mentioned only a few.

 

At this moment the aged gopas saw a male form in the mountain which looked like the Lord Himself, a split image of Krishna, and Nandha too seeing it thought that all their prayers were answered.