yadhavabhyudhaya-chapter4-Brindhavanasam ncharee

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BrindhavanasanchAree

 

Desika says that Krishna made the woods fertile by mere will.There is nothing to be surprised with this, says Desika , because he is the one who created the moon, the lord of all the herbs, who delights the whole universe with his will at the beginning of creation.Now he has become like a moon to the cowherds, gODHanavamsachandhrah, whose wealth are the cows and made brindavanam a fertile land for the sake of the cows. He is sathAm gOptha., protector of the good and by his glances which were like rising waves of the sea made the Brindavanam look like the youth of the earth, abounding in fruits flowers and grass.The grass was sweet and the ground was soft with them devoid of stones or thorns and the trees outdid the kalpaka vrksha by their bounty of fruits and flowers.The gopas were thrilled to find such a place of habitation.NammAzvar says in his thiruvaimozi 'dhivatthilum pasu nirai mEyppu uvatthi,' the Lord left the vaikunta and came to Gokula and relished the caring for the cattle more than residing in Vaikunta.

 

Desika mentions the killing of ThrnAvartha and BakAsura very briefly and proceeds to describe the pavai nonbu of the cowherd girls and stealing their clothes by Krishna.Bhagavtha mentions this vratha as the worship of Devi Kathyayani in the month of margasira (hEmanthE praTHamE mAsi) by the young gopis wishing the union with Krishna, reciting the following sloka: sloka

'kArthyAyaani mahAmAyE mahAyOginyaDheesvari nandhgOpasutham dhEvi pathim mE kuru thEnamah.'

 

Desika describes the gopivashtrApaharaNa thus:

 

niSAthyayE snAna samudhyathAnAm

nikshiptham AbheerakumArikANAm

koolAdhupAdhAya dhukoolajAlam

kundhADHirooDO mumudhE mukundhah

 

When the young cowherd girls went to the river yamuna in the early morning to take bath and left their garments made of white silk on the bank, Krishna took them from there and climbed the kundha tree with delight.

 

Utthamur swami comments on this sloka saying that first it was koola dhukoola sangamam the garments, dhukoola, had the contact with the bank and then there was kundhamukundha sangamam, the contact with the branch of the kundha tree and with Mukundha.The kooladhukoola sangamam denotes leaving the old vasanas and bathe in Krishnanubhava and the kundhamukundhasangamam implies mukthi as the word Mukundha means the one who gives mukthi,mukthim dhadhAthi ithi mukundhah, Kum, sin, dhyathi, destroys ithi kundhah. So kundha -mukundha sangamam means that the Lord destroys all the sin and gives moksha.

 

When they requested him to give back their garments he made them come out and pray to him with folded hands This was to make them cast off their dhEhAthmabuddhi only when they become qualified for mukthi. The Lord has already willed to give them mukthi after their present life and only wanted to create the desire in them.He says in Gita 'vAsAmsi jeerNAni yaTHA vihAya ---thaTHA sarirANI vihAya jeerNAni anYANi samyAthi navAni dhEhee,just as one casts off the old clothes and put on new ones the soul casts off the old body and takes a new one.' But until there is total surrender this changing of bodies will go on. When the soul surrenders the Lord gives a new awareness under the pretext of giving back their garments which have undergone change on account of kundhamukundha sambandha.This is the significance behind the episode of gopivasthrApahaharaNam.

 

Krishna became the capilal of Anandhasamrajya for gopis.His vilAsas , actions, were like the army protecting the kingdom.His lustre ,kAnthi was the protecting wall, his sport was like a preventive measure for the non-entry of others. This means that the premebhakthi was the exclusive area of the gopis and could not be penetrated by others due to their lack of understanding.

 

When Krishna returned from the forest after tending the cattle the young girls of Gokula felt as though they were attacked by a fourfold army of cupid.The chathurangasena of a king,namely. ratha,gaja,thuraga padhAthi, in this case was the sound of the flute, the dust on his body,the sunlight playing on his body at sunset and the garland of forest flowers he was wearing. Each one of them stole the heart of the gopis and they felt as though being attacked by the God of love.

 

Krishna resembled a tree by his peacock feathers looking like green branches and the cows took shelter in him as in the shadow of a tree.

Desika seems to be enthralled with the peacock feathers, which is obvious even from his Gopalavimsathi and here dedicates four slokas to describe Krishna adorned with peacock feathers.

 

Krishna shone like a mountain of sapphire with the peacock feathers and they created a magical effect of love on the others ( peacock feathers are found in the hand of magicians to effect the illusion).

 

Yasodha touched the peacock feathers that adorned his crown again and again and was delighted. Desika uses two adjectives to describe Krishna, mugDHAnganA mOhanavamsika, the one who enchants the beautiful cowherd girls by his flute playing and maneeshiNAm mAngalika,one who effects auspicious happenings for those who meditate on him. That is his maya deludes those who do not have the knowledge of his real nature as the supreme self but for those who have conquered the maya and know him as he is, It fetches auspicious results. But the gopis are blessed even if they were deluded by his maya into believing that he was mortal because their desire was towards him and not on worldly things.

 

The dark hue of the peacock feathers made also the golden hued Lakshmi in his chest to appear dark.The implication here is that Lakshmi abides in the heart of the Lord in whchever form he appears. That is why when he came as Vamana he covered his chest with his upper garment(angavastra), says one commentator, because he did not want Lakshmi to look at Bali as otherwise it will not be possible to take away the possessions of Bali once he gets the Lakshmikataksham.

 

Krishna came playing his flute which seemed to reply to the message sent out by the glances of the gopis.This idea we see even in Gopalavimsathi in sloka 15.Desika says that the gopis are making sound with their bracelets keeping time to the music and it looks as though the flute is conversing with the bracelets.Krishna was also dancing while he came playing the flute, a dance called AbheeranAtyam, the dance of the cowherd.Desika says the music was something not known even to Thumburu and Narada. Desika calls Krishna, rAgAbDHi, the sea of music and he seemed to attract the whole world by his music. There is pun in the word raga meaning both attachment and tune.He created raga, attachment towards him through his raga.

 

Desika describes the state of the mind of the gopis who looked at Krishna by a beautiful sloka.

 

apathrapAsaikatham AsrithAnAm

rAgOdhaDHou krishnamukhEndhununnE

hasthAvalambO na babhoova thAsAm

uthpakshmaNAm uthkalikApluthAnAm

 

The face of Krishna was like the moon, krishnamukhEndhu, that caused the waves of desire to rise in the sea of love, rAgAbDHi. The gopis tried to ascend on the sand hill made of bashfulness., apathrapAsaikatha, due to the fear of censure, in order to escape being immersed in the sea, and looked up to get some support,uthpakshma but not finding any, hasthAvalamba,were deeply immersed in their love.

 

At this juncture Desika asserts that there was no brahmacharyabhanga to Krishna by sporting with the gopis which is proved in the incident of saving the life of Parikshith who was born charred by the apandavAsthra of Asvatthama. In Mahabharatha Krishna says 'yadhi mE brahmacharyam syAth sathyam cha mayi thishTathi avyAhatham mamaiSvaryam thEmna jeevathu bAlakah,' that if he is a true brahmachari and there is truth in him and if his mastery is untarnished this child should live.And Parikshith came back to life.

 

There is another story to illustrate this.

Once Krishna told a gopi to take food for Vyasa who was at the other side of river Yamuna. But she was not able to cross the river as Yamuna was in spate. Krishna told her to pray that if Krishna was a nithya brahmachari the river should part. Probably the gopi had her own doubts but she had explicit faith in Krishna and did as he told her and the river parted and she went to the other side and gave the food to Vyasa. But again there was flood and she could not go back . Then Vyasa told her that if he was nithya upavasi the river will part. This time the girl was really perplexed because just then he ate the whole food brought by her and termed himself a nithya upavasi. She expressed her doubt to Vyasa and also told him what Krishna said about Himself.. Vyasa explained that both of them being jeevanmukthas the function of their bodies did not touch their real Self. The real `I' which is the pure Self is neither the doer nor the enjoyer.

 

What does this mean?The Lord is the inner self of all and the experience of the body does not touch the self. The whole world is the sarira of the Lord and the experiences iof the world do not touch Him who is the self.Krishna, being the supreme self, all the experiences are for the others and not for Him. He appears to have the experience through His maya.