yadhavabhyudhaya-chapter10 continued

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Krishna meets his parents

 

After destroying the Kamsa and others Krishna and Balarama went to their parents, Vasudeva and Devaki, who were moved to tears on seeing them. Vasudeva endowed with insight due to the grace of the Lord started praising Krishna knowing Him as the Supreme Being.

 

Gesika reers to Krishna as sAthvathAm pathi. Sathvatham means pancharathram, called vaishnava thanthram whcihw was told by the Lord Himself. So the word means that Krishna is none other than Narayana Himself.

 

Desika goes into ecstasy in relating the praise of the Lord by Vasudeva and the glory of Krishna in Mathura.

 

Vasudeva said:

 

"You are the Lord Vishnu, the unoriginated, who is the only subject of the vedas,from whose navel, which sports the lotus, Brahma originated and the sages learn from the veda that You are ananyAdhAram, self supporting yet supports everything , AdhAram, the Lord of all but has no one superior, anayESvaram isvaram and the Master of all but no one rules over Him, ananyADhipathim pathim."

 

"You are the lamp of which Your grace is the wick and Your mercy is the ghee by which it burns bright showing everything clearly, that is, induces clear perception destroying darkness( ignorance)"

 

dEvakee dhanujasThooNA dhivuyam DHAma vrajAngaNam

ramA rADHAdhayScha ithi rASibhEdhairna bhidhyasE

 

"You are the same,( na bhidhyasE-do not differ) even when Your place of manifestation differ such as, Devaki or the pillar in the house of Hiranyakasipu, or the courtyard of the mansion of Nanda or when Yoe are in Vaikunta. Your consorts differ, Lakshmi in Vaikunta, Radha or Neela in gokula etc."

 

This reflects the idea set out in the Nammazvar Pasuram, 'palappalavE AbharaNam pErum palppalavE.' Desika hmself has said in the first chapter, 'natavath bhoomikabhEdhaih nAtha dheevyan prthagviDhaih,' (1.49), "Oh lord You shine with different costumes like an actor on the stage." Here it is shown that the settings and co-actors differ in each play of His but He is the same.

 

The next sloka is also the reflection of the sloka 49 of the first chapter, 'namyasya namathah kshudhrAn---puthraih pithrumathAm kreedA,' Vasudeva says,

 

niyanthA sarvabhoothAnAm niyanthavyairniyamyasE

pithAmahamukhAih puthree mamaputhrOasi mAyayA

 

"Though You are the controller of all You allow Yourself to be controlled by them. From Brahma downwards all are Your chiildren and You appear as my son by Your Maya.

 

mahathA thvadpadhEnaiva mAruthinyAyam ASrithAh

nistharanthi achirAth santhah dhustharam bhavasAgaram

 

"The great men cross the ocean of samsara , which is difficult to cross over, by the power of your feet following the way of Hanuman."

 

The implication here is that Hanuman was able to cross the ocean by resorting to the power of the feet of Rama.So too the wise cross the ocean of samsara with the power of His feet.Appayya Dikshitha explains thavatpadhena ( the power of) Your feet by taking it to mean the anguleeyaka of Rama which Hanuman carried with devotion and faith and that is described here as the power of His feet.

 

But Utthamur swami says that the anguleeyaka was only to instill cofdence in the mind of Seetha in the words of Hanuman and not the cause of srossing the ocean.He explains the word thvatpadha as Vishnupadha, that is Akasa, called as such because the Lord in His Thrivikramavathara covered the sky with His foot.But it is common blief that hanuman av cquered the power to cross the ocean because he was carrying the anguleeyaka of Rama while returning the choodamani of Seetha gave him the power.

 

Thus extolling the glory of the Lord, Vasudeva beseeched Him that he, vasudeva should not rivert back into the illsusion if considering Krishna as an ordinary human being which even the yogis who know the real identity of the Lord could not escape. (The episodes of Brahma hiding the cattle and the gopas and Indra gettin angry at the worship of Govardhana are the examples of this fact.) He further said that to kill Kamsa and others was not a great achievement for Krishna who is capable of detroying the wicked by the tip of His fingernails.Hence, he said all the praise he had uttered so far were like one who is praising the invaluable gem without knowing its merit.. That is, the praise of only the person who knows the value is to be esteemed and not by an ignorant man who does not know its real worth.

 

Krishna , hearing this, treated the speech of vasudeva only as the praise of the son by the father and never showed His real identity. He replied fittingly to put the mind of Vasudeva at rest.

 

Desika describes Krishna in Mathura thus.

 

Krishna appeared with four arms as he was when he manifested first in prison.But the common people did not understood his true identity and thought that he was an extraordinary human with four arms. Perhaps in the puranic age it was common because Ravana and Krthaveerya were described with more than two arms etc.

 

Krishna was behaving as an obedient younger brother to Balarama and Desika says that when he bowed down to Balarama the latter shone as the crown of Krishna and hence retained his state as Sesha. With the pun on the word Sesha, the kireeta is the sesha of the wearer, being an ornament(sesha means one belonging to someone else who is the seshi) and also Balarama is sesha in reality(Adhisesha)

 

Then Desika describes that the ornaments on Krishna which were beautified by his body, the royal umbrella held over him was like the lotus from his navel. his face like lotus flanked on both sides with the chamaras looked like the reflection of himself as hamsavathara.

 

Krishna made the clan of yadhavas rise in glory like the moon makes the lilies rise up.The brahmins who resorted him were like Brahma himself who has left off his work of creation and came to him.His speeches were pleasing and true and gave joy to his dependents.

 

Krishna,though requested by the elders to become the king, put only Ugrasena on the throne but accepted the status of crowned prince.Krishna with his prowess and glory made Mathura equivalent to his divine abode, vaikunta.He cast off all his previous adornments like peacock feathers but was wearing only the crown brought to him by Garuda while in Brindavan.(vide-chapter -4-Krishna the cowherd.)

 

Desika continues the thread about the transformation of all that was his while being a cowherd into his royal signalia by saying that the four vedas which served him earlier in the form of cows, became his four royal horses, named, sainya, sugreeva, meghapushpa and valahaka. Not only that but they took the form of his foot rest and supported his feet which were like lotuses comparble only with those held by Lakshmi.His flute attained its original form of conch and enjoyed the contact with his lips.

 

Desika refers to the episode of bringing back the dead son of his guru Sandheepani very briefly denoting the gurukula vasa of Krishna.

 

The royal hall called sudharma was given to Krishna by Indra and Krishna made Ugrasena the head of the counsel, because he was the king.Ugrasena with the help of Krishna reigned the kingdom well accoring to dharmasasthra. All the supporters of Kamsa were thrown out and filled the court with good and wise.Krishna by conquering all the kings made Ugrasena the sovereign of the land.

 

Desika, proving himself as the kavithArkika kesari, describes the counsel of Ugrasena thus:

 

mAnasamrakshakah thasya manthrah tharka iva Anayah

angapanchakasampatthyA vipakshE dhandathAm yayou

 

It was like tharka. Tharka here means only anumana, one of the valid means of cognition, though the name tharka sasthra is given to the whole science of ascertaining a truth by perception, inference, comparison and verbal testimony.

 

Anumana has five limbs and so was the counsel of Ugrasena , says Desika.The five limbs of the counsel are, l karmaNAm ArambhOpAyah, the plan of action,purushadhravyasampatthih,human and material resources,dhESa kAla vibhAgah, apportioning of proper time and place, vinipAthapratheekArah,removal of obstacles and kAryasiddhi, success. Manthra or counsel done in this manner will be vipakshadhanda, punishment to the enemy.

 

This is compared to tharka which also has five limbs. Here the valid means of cognition, namely,anumana, inference is referred to. To arrive at anumana that causes vipalsha dhanda, refutation of the opponent there must be five steps of argument. First is vyathi, that is invariable concomitance. When one wants to infer from smoke coming out of a mountain that the mountain has fire,the vyapti or the invariable connection between fire and smoke has to be established such as 'wherever there is smoke there is fire.' Secondly a sapaksha or a similar instance must be quoted such as. 'as in the case of a kitchen.' Thirdly it is argued that 'this is so'.Next the absence of vyapthi when the sadhya, major term (the object of inference, that is, fire,) absent must be shown sucha s where there is no fire there is no smoke as in a lake. This is the fourth limb.This is vipaksha. Finally the conclusion that the mountain has fire.

 

Thus Krishna upheld the yadhuvamsa once again which suffered due to the tyranny of Kamsa.