yadhavabhyudhaya-chapter14

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Krishna marries Jambavathi and five others.

 

Desika narrates the marriage of Krishna with Jambavathi in his own inimitable style as the kavitarkika kesari as follows:

 

vanoukasAm pathyuH aheendhrashobinA

vimaThyamAnAth achalena bAhunA

nanandha labdhvA hrdhayangamAm priyAm

maNim cha dhivyam madhukaitabhAnthakaH

 

Krishna, the slayer of Madhu and Kaitabha, accepted the gem along with the girl with pleasure. Here the words used are full of pun as often it is with the poetry of Desika.

 

VanoukasAm pathuH means from Jambavan, the word vanoukasam pathi means both Jambavan the king of forest animals as well as the ocean, the residence of beings in water, because the word vana has also another meaning as `water in general'. Okas means residence.

 

Aheendhra shobinA vimaThyamanAth qualifies Jambavan, who has been hit by the arms of Krishna like the big serpent. Aheendhra also could mean Vasuki with whom the ocean was churned, vimathyamAna.

 

acalEna bAhunadenotes the arms of Krishna like mountain and also the word achala means the manthara mountain with which the ocean was churned.

labDhvA hrdhayangamAm priyam means obtaining the bride who is pleasing to his heart. The word hrdhayangama also could mean Lakshmi who took seat in the heart of the Lord.

 

Divyam maNim the divine jewel means both syamanthaka and kousthubha.

 

Hence the sloka refers to the Lord obtaining Lakshmi from the milky ocean, which was churned by Manthara mountain and Vasuki, along with the divine gem Kousthubha and implies that Krishna was as happy as He was at that time.

 

The sloka that describes the feeling of Jambavathi about Krishna describes the stages of bhakthi vividly. Desika says that she at first was filled with wonder and then became joyous and gradually forget everything else and saw nothing but Him everywhere and became one with Him.

This is the stages of bhakthi which a devotee experiences and none else could describe it better than Desika the great bhaktha!

 

Then Krishna blessed Jambavan to remain on earth as long as he wishes and then reach the supreme abode of the Lord.

Krishna returned to Dvaraka and gave the jewel to Sathrajith and erased the guilt which was imposed on him wrongly on which Sathrajith being ashamed of himself gave Krishna his daughter Sathyabhama in marriage to redress the wrong committed by him.

 

Desika says that Krishna shone with his three wives as with the three shakthis, (Sri, Bhoo and Neela) and possessing the shadgunas (jnana,bala, aisvarya,veerya, tejasand shakthi) achieved success like the governing powers of a monarch. The policy of rule depends on the three powers of prabhushakthi, power of royalty, manthrashakthi the power of counsel and uthsahashakthi the power of energy meaning the army and the six gunas denote the six means of success, namely, sandhi, peacemaking, vigraha, fight, yAna, advancing against, sThAna or halt, samSraya, seeking shelter and dvaiDha, duplicity.

 

Krishna married another five , namely, Kalindhi. Mithravindha,Sathya, Lakshmana and Badhra. They were like the five unmanifest elements and the eight wives are compared to the eight siddhis by Desika and represented the eight directions, denoting the all pervasiveness of the Lord.

 

Desika concludes the chapter by saying that narrating this episode or hearing it will fetch good results and lead one in the right path.