Goda Parinaya champu - goda's childhood

[Guest guest]

Goda's childhood

The beautiful little Goda was the apple of everyone's eye in

Shrivilliputtur. She resembled Shrimanarayanan's beloved Mahalakshmi

in every way – in her beauty, soft speech, and play.

She built sand castles in the yards of houses, decorated dolls and

performed their weddings; she loved parrots, raised them as her pets

and taught them to speak; peacocks danced to her tune; she played ball

with her friends and sometimes the girls played `blindman's buff'!

Goda laughed mischievously when the girls with blindfolds got the

names of their friends wrong!

Swans thought that she was one of them, since she walked like them.

The Saaarasa birds were attracted by the tinkling of the gold belt at

her waist and followed her, thinking that she was one of them. The

female chakora birds thought that she was one of them, by seeing the

beauty of her eyes! Her dark long tresses attracted bees since they

thought her hair was a swarm of bees! Dark cuckoos (kuyil) mistook her

for one of them just by hearing her sweet voice. All the peacocks

followed her thinking that she was one of them because of her long,

thick hair. All these beautiful creatures followed Goda as she played,

spoke, and sang, in Vishnuchittar's beautiful gardens.

Goda grew up to become a charming and delightful young maiden. And

she wore gorgeous jewels to accentuate her beauty. Talks of finding a

suitable groom started among the elders of Shrivilliputtur. But the

divine maiden wished to wed only Shrimanarayanan.

Goda loved to dress up everyday. She liked to wear different jewels

and decked herself with dazzling jewels. When her father was not at

home, she would wear the garland he had strung for Vatpathrashayee and

admired her own reflection in the well in her mansion. Then she would

put the garland back in the basket and continue to help her father.

Everyday Vishnuchittar was offering the garland that Goda had worn to

Sriman Narayana with out knowing that she had worn it first. But, one

day Vishnuchittar saw a strand of hair in the garland. He discarded

it, made another one and took it to the temple. That night,

Vatapathrasayee appeared in his dream and told him that he yearned

only for the garland that was worn by his daughter, since it had the

same fragrance as her hair; and that from there afterwards he should

offer the garlands that had been worn by her.

Vishnuchittar was surprised and happy. Unbeknownst to her, he

watched her adorn herself with the garland meant for Vatapathrasayee

and admire her own reflection! At the same time he started worrying

about her daughter's choice of a groom - will this ever happen?

Meanwhile, Goda started yearning for Shriman Naraayana, but was

unable to express her yearning to her father or to her friends. She

decided to observe the viratams that were observed by the Gopis along

with her friends.

to be continued..........

shreemthe naaraayaNaaya namaha

shubha and Venky