SrI Jayanthi -an insight into KaNNan's dhivya chEshtithams- Part 2

[Guest guest]

SrI:

SrImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya namah:

 

Dearest Srivaishnavas,

 

Let us continue to query and seek answers/

clarifcations.

 

Question 3: Ok. Everyone and everything is His

sareeram; When such is the case, why did KaNNan choose

only those Gopasthrees specially; and in particular?

Why did He bless them with such enjoyment? If He does

not have humanly desires, anger and hatred as He is

the Lord, why did He have to hug the Gopa sthrees?

Gopikas also- why did they fall in love with Him? Even

if KaNNan- being the Lord- does not have any dhOsham,

and is not affected by paapam, punyam and he is not

affected by Karma- still the poor Gopikas get these

dhoshams as they desired for another Purushan [other

than their own husbands].. How can KaNNan be a party

to such paapams committed by Gopikas?

 

Answer: Once, the Apsarasthrees [dancing damsels] in

deva loka, by hearing about the most beautiful –

dhivya sowndharyam of the Lord Sriya: Pathi Sriman

Narayanan and prayed to Him continuously like penance

for blessing them with his dhivya sowndharya roopam

for them to enjoy. Bhagawaan appeared before them and

said, “Do not worry. I am pleased by your prayers. I

will fulfill your desires. I will appear as KaNNan in

Gokulam during Krishna avathAram and you all appear as

Gopa sthrees. Your prayers will be fulfilled. “ Thus

He blessed them with His divine body and its charm.

They were born as these Gopa sthrees. This purANA

explains. Thus due to their puNya phalam, their past

prayers, they are blessed with this Anandham and it is

Bhagawaan’s organizing things to fulfill His devotees’

prayers. None gets any dhOsham due to these acts.

Punya paapams also vary for humans and Devas.

Devasthrees thus do not get any dhosham due to these

acts and their past prayers only get answered. Also it

is told that rishis in Rama avathAram wanted to enjoy

His dhivya sowndharya ThirumEni when they enjoyed

seeing His ThirumEni; Rama let them be born as Gopa

sthrees probably for their prayers to be fulfilled as

well. All his avathArams had to meet very many

conditions and fulfill all these inter related

incidents.

 

This is mentioned by swami Desikan as

aChapilasparSanamAthraleelA.. In the next sloka he

says.. thatthadhabhIShtadhAthu:

 

Question 4: Still, one thing is not understood. Deva

sthrees could have simply got married to KaNNan and

enjoyed Him as His spouses. They could have got their

prayers fulfilled; instead, why should they be born as

Gopa sthrees, leave their husbands, in-laws, children

and run to KaNNan? Why should KaNNan allow this? How

can this be establishment of Dharma? This act is

against the manushya dharma.

 

Answer: Firstly there are two issues that need to be

understood. The husband-wife, father-son relations are

all not permanent- everyone knows. These all come due

to this sareera sambandham (due to the association

with this body); For this body, these relations come.

They are present as long as this body exists. After

that these relations vanish. In next birth different

parents, children, spouse etc.. Thus the relations are

only temporary and are for this birth; Being a wife,

husband is due to the body taken by this Jeevathma and

these roles will change next birth.

 

But the relation between Paramathma and Jeevan is

always permanent. He is Swami; We are dAsars. This is

always so. It is natural for all jeevaathmas. It is no

way associated with the body of jeevathma and does not

change when bodies change for various births. Whatever

number of births we take; this relation will never

ever change. unthannOdu uRavEl namakku ingu ozhikka

ozhiyaadhu, Govinda – says GodhA PiraaTTi. Hence

desiring for the Lord, devoted to Him, performing

service to Him are all to be sought after. They are

normal for jeevathma and are perfectly in accordance

with dharma, saasthrAs. This is to be actually the

welcome one and should necessarily be sought after by

every jeevan for redemption. To achieve that and in

course of achieving the same, if there is a choice

between this versus the bodily relation, one can

choose the relation (eternal) with the Lord. There is

absolutely nothing wrong with that. Kaikeyi wanted to

coronate Bharathan and let him separate from the Lord

Rama. But Bharatha, who wanted to serve the Lord,

brushed aside even the bodily relation of Kaikeyi as

his mother as she was the stumbling block for that

service. He hated her for such thoughts and preventing

him from performing kaimkaryam for Rama. For us, the

Bhagavad, BhAgawatha anubhavam alone is prime and

important. It is in line with our nature. If the

relations are in line with this want of ours and they

work towards, support the same for us, then they can

be with us; if they work against this and do not

support our Bhagavad BhAgawatha anubhavam, they can be

brushed aside like Bharathan. Nothing wrong. The

cowherd women did that. It is no way termed as

incorrect; in fact, it is most appropriate for

jeevaathma by its nature.

 

This is very clear in Srimad Bhagawatham. When KaNNan

sees them devotedly running towards Him leaving the

elders, husbands, children, and others- and asks:

“what do you want me to do for You all? Go back

quickly and serve your husbands. Do not leav the

dharma meant for women and ladies, wives and mothers?

This not correct. Do not come here. If you want, you

do keerthanam, sing my name, utter my name and think

of me from your hoems. Go home.”.

 

Gopikas could not control their tears; Their throats

choked; their eyes welled. Their hearts broken; Their

words did not come out of their mouths, tongues

refused to co-operate due to the emotions and sorrows.

Mouths quivered. Our KaNNan- our Lord- KaNNan- is he

saying this? Our only Master, Swami- to Him we belong

to- does He ask us not to come to Him any more and ask

us to go back? They started appealing to Him.

 

yathpathyapathyasuhadhAmanuvrtthiranga sthreeNAm

swaDharma ithi DharmavidhA tvayOktham |

asthvEvamEthadhupadESapadham tvayeeSE preeShtO

bhavAmsthanumruthAm kila bandhurAthmA ||

 

kurvanthi hitvayi rathim kuSalA: sva Athman

nithyapriyE pathisuthAdhibhiraarthidhai: kim |

thanna: praseedha paramEswara maasma ChinDhyA ASAm

bruthAm tvayi ChirAth aravindha nEthra ||

 

Husband, children- serve them- You are advising us.

Let that be there. You are the permanent relation for

all jeevans. You are darling bandhu too for us. You

are the AtmA for us as well. Due to our puNya,

paapams, the karma phalam, there is only dukkham

(sorrows) due to these relations and association with

them. What is the use of that? You are Priyaml darling

for us. The buddhimaans (intellect) realizing this

eternal relationship with You and Your darling form,

ParamAthmic nature, would get eternal enjoyment from

You only. ParamEswaraa! PankajaakshA! Lotus eyed lord-

most merciful One! Please bless us; do not break the

love that we have for You from time immemorial and for

long time.

 

This is what is Parama hitham for Jeevathma. Most

pleasing to the Lord as well.One should have longing

for Bhagavad vishayam,. Interest and longing for other

matters- one should attempt to get rid of. For that

one should wlawys contemplate on : God alone is

eternal relation for us; All others are only

temporary; Due to karma, these relations exist. Thes

sukhams, dhukkhams are due to Karma. This is what is

insctruced bt Sage Yaagnyavalkya to MaithrEyi and is

in BrahadhAraNyaka Upanishad.

 

Gopikas realized this from their experience; and

enjoyed His relationship with them. KaNNan also [as is

His nature as the most merciful Lord who runs to

devotees to be with them] blessed them with such

experience. This greatest ultimate of all saasthrAs is

established to us in this Gopika charithram. KaNNan

also, in order to establish this wonderful Bhaagawatha

saasthra dharmam, made this act as His leelA; and

blessed them especially. He wanted His avathAram to

glorify this jeevathmA’s longing for association and

relationship with Him for ever and desire for

enjoyment of His swaroopa, roopa sowndharyam. That was

one of His yet another special [visEsha] Dharma

sthApanam. Thus, it lays down the path for the highest

Vaishnava, prapannan quality and way of life and

establishes the most wonderful way of VaidIka life.

Gopikas are the highest form of devotees and

prapannans the world has ever seen. This is the

greatest of Upanishad DharmA; the pinnacle of

saasthrAs; The jeevathmAs’ nithya niroopAhika

ananhaarya sEshathvam is well established in Gopika

Charithram.

 

The Paramabhakthi [intense devotion] of Gopa sthrees!

What a great devotion! What a mind set of Them ! what

a manO bhAvam! All deeds completely in accordance with

saaathrAs- [not disliked or hated by even their

spouses!] These marvelous dhiva chShtithams of KaNNan

as leelAs should always be contemplated, enjoyed and

read, listened to by us; if one does that, the desire

for lowkika kaamam would vanish; the desire for

sensual pleasures would disappear slowly and

KaNNanukkE Avathu kaamam (desire for KaNNan alone)

would linger and grow in us. Swamy desikan says: This

charithram on Gopikas is the best medicine for the

diseases [like Kaama, krodham] in our minds; This is

the one praised and prayed by Rishis and Saints.

 

raagAdhirOga prathikAra bhUtham rasAyanam sarvadhaSAnu

bhAvyam |

AsIdhanuDhyEyathamam muneenaam dhivyasya pumsO

dhayithOpavhOga: || [4.101]

 

Srimad BhAgawatham also mentions bhakthi parAm

prathilabhya kAmam hadhrOgam ASvapahinOthi aChirENa

DhIra: - based on which swamy Desikan composed the

above sloka. Here, the sains follow this charithram

and and declare and enjoy as the Grandest One- says

Swamy. He refers to Sri NammAzhwAr “kuravai

aacchiyarOdu kOttathum” and then “en appan than

maayangaLE ninaikkum nenjudaiyEn.. [i am blessed with

the mind that contemplates only on my Father’s leelAs

and dhivya chEsthithams].

 

Thus we enjoyed the Gopika charithams. We need to

touch upon one of last slokas of Yadhavaabhyudhayam

before completing this series for completion’s sake.

That tells us how one should enjoy the

KrishnAvathAram.

 

Too long..hence tomorrow – we will continue..

Anything found good in these posts is only due to the

wonderful original article written by Sri U Ve Dr

Vasudevachar Swami from Swamy Desikan’s excellent

analysis. Mistakes, errors, omissions are entirely

mine

 

Sarvam SrI KrishNArpaNamasthu

AchAryan ThiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

Regards

Namo Narayana

dAsan madhavakkannan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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