yadhvabhyudhaya of Desika

[Guest guest]

The dance of Krishna desiring butter is described by Leelasuka also

thus:

 

Vadhane navaneethagandDHavaaham vachane thaskarachaathuree DHureeNam

nayanaakuhanaasru asrayetTHaah charaNam komalathaandavam kumaaram

 

Seek the foot of the boy who is dancing gracefully,with His mouth

smelling of butter,His speech showing Him to be the foremost of

cheats, His eyes ( on being told off) full of false tears.

 

The devotees imagine that the reason the Lord left the milky ocean

and came to gokula is because being milky ocean He can get only milk

there and not butter.

 

Perhaps this scene was in the mind of Oothukkadu venkatakavi when he

sang 'AdAdhu asangAdhu vAA kannA.' which is a beautiful song and

should be dealt with separately to bring out its beauty.

 

Krishna the butter thief

 

thrasyan mukundho navaneethachouryAth

nirbhugna gAthrO nibhrtham sayAnah

nijAni nissabdhadhaSAm yayAche

baddhAnjalim bAlavibhooshaNAni

 

Krishna stole butter and was hiding with his body contracted out of

fear from the gopis. Desika calls him Mukundha, the one who gives

Moksha,as well as bhoga, here enacting fear. His limbs were trembling

with fear and he was afraid of being found out by the sound of his

ornaments and hence begged them not to make noise! To think about

this fearful posture of Krishna will remove all our fears.

 

Once Krishna wished for the forest fruits and approached the hunter

girl who was selling them with handful of grains. Desika says , the

one who gives Aranyakaphala wanted Aranyakaphala. The part of veda

taught in the forest is called Aranyaka , that is, upanishads and the

Lord is the giver of the fruit of that knowledge, namely moksha and

here he himself desired aranyakaphala, the forest fruits. There is

pun on the word aranyakla.

 

He carried a handful of grains to buy the fruits as is the custom in

those days and being a child, all the grains were falling off from

his hands when he ran towards the vendor.There were only few grains

and what the hunter girl saw was his hand marked with the sign of

conch and disc (sujAtharEkhAthmaka sankachakram) She thought that she

should give herself to those hands, which is of course more desirable

to the Lord than the fruits as He expects only the heart of the

devotee more than the other offerings. Then she filled his hands with

fruits and her basket was immediately filled with precious

gems.Desika refers to him as kreedAsisu, one who appeared as a child

by his leela.The gems were not in any way inferior to

Kousthubha,'rathnaisthadhA kousthubha nirvisEshaih.'

 

Krishna was frequently engaged in some mischief or other like

stealing butter, freeing the calves even when it was not milking

time, and other such deeds and once his long suffering mother wanted

to tie him to the mortar to keep him out of mischief. Desika says

that the mortar has done some punya to acquire that good fortune

that Yasodha wanted to tie Krishna to it. 'ulookhalE kuthrachith

AtthapuNyE.' Desika uses a pun on the word banDHu by saying that she

wished to tie him banDHum iyEsha who is the relative of the good,

sathAm banDHuh. The punyaphala of the mortar was to have the contact

of the body of tne Lord and also serving the purpose of his further

deed , namely the freeing of the sons of Kubera from their curse.

 

Then comes the description of the difficulty Yasodha was experiencing

in tying him to the mortar. Bhagavatha says that whatever rope she

tried it was found two inches short, dhvayangulOnam.

 

Aneetham agrE nija banDHanArTHam

dhAmAkhilam samhitham apyapoorNam

nireekshya nirviNNa DHiyOjananyAh

sankOcha shakthyA sa babhoova vanDHyah

 

On seeing that all the ropes even when joined together were not

enough due to his maya his mother became desperate. Then krishna took

pity on her and made himself small enough to be tied while he made

the ropes short earlier.

 

The sight of Krishna bound to the mortar was enjoyed by the devotees

variously.

 

Leelasuka says,

 

varamimam upadhEsam AdhriyaDHvam

nigamavanEshu nithAntha chAra khinnAh

vichinutha bhavnEshu vallaveenAm

upanishadharTHam ulookhalE nibaddham

 

Listen to this best advice, you who are fatgued in wandering in the

forest of vedas! The Brahman of the upanishads whom you try to find,

is bound to the mortar here in the house of the milkmaids.

 

Desika himself refers to Krishna as Brahmakishora, Brahman in form of

a child in Gopalavimsathi.

 

Those who think of the Lord in this state of being bound to the

mortar will be freed from the bondage of karma without any effort on

their part.Desika further says ,'thapasvinee thathkrathuneethirAdhya

savreedam AraNya kaTHAsu thasTHou. The rule called thatthkrathu in

vedanta is that whatever one thinks on so he becomes. In the case of

Krishna, whatever leela of Bhagavn one thinks of, the result is just

the opposite.This is illustrated by Desika saying, those who think of

Krishna as being bound they get freedom from their bondage. And he

says that with a poetic expression. The thathkrathu nyaya went and

hid itself in the stories of the forest out of shame on its failure.

Aranyakas are the upanishads which contain this nyaya and hence the

word Aranyaka is used as a pun to denote forest.

 

The eyes of Krishna were full of tears and that amused the onlookers

because he looked like an elephant bound to its post. Desika

describes this in Gopalavimsathi thus. Yasodha is grasping Krishna in

her hand and threatens him and Krishna is seen crying and smudging

the eyeliner applied to his eyes with his hand. What a delightful

picture of the leela of the Lord! Desika calls him miThyAgOpa, the

pseudo cowherd in Gopalavimsathi because being visvagoptha, the

protector of the whole universe, he is now pretending to be a cowherd

boy feigning fear

 

..Then Desika describes very briefly the release of the sons of Kubera

from their curse.Krishna dragged the mortar playfully and it was

stopped by the two twin trees and when dragged further by him it

uprooted the trees. The two sons of Kubera, Nalakoobara and

Manigreeva who were cursed by the sage Narada to become trees got

back their original form.Bhagavatha says that Krishna thought that

the sage Narada is dear to him and the time has come to fulfil his

promise to the yakshas and hence he enacted this scene.The two

yakshas bowed down to Krishna and went their way.

devarshirme priyathamah yadhimou dhanaddhaathmajou

thatthathaa saadhayishyaami yadhgeetham thanmahaathmanaa (Bh.10-10-25)

" the devarshi Narada is dear to me and these are the sons of Kubera

(who is also a devotee) and hence I will fulfill what has been

promised by Narada. "

 

 

As he took the form of a lion-man to prove the words of Prahlada and

the boon of Brahma, both of whom were His devotees, now he allowed

HImself to be bound to the mortar in order to free the twins and to

prove the words of Narada . That is the karunaa of the Lord.

 

 

 

 

Almost immmediately Desika switches to the migration of the residents

of Gokula to Brindvan.