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.