Many A Slip...

[Guest guest]

Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

 

 

Many A Slip..

 

 

People say that Fortune smiles upon us at times. Whenever it does, we are

favoured with good things, be it winning a lottery, getting a seat in college,

landing a rich and good-looking bride or something else equally desirable. Thus

when the usually stern father is in a mellow mood on the day the dull boy's

report card arrives, when the usually argumentative wife agrees to the husband's

proposal without demur, when the habitually terrible cook refrains from burning

the breakfast again-all these are occasions when Fortune wears a benign smile,

instead of the usual slings and arrows it reserves for us. However, this smile

never lasts long, and we end-up losing in a jiffy whatever gain we notched up

earlier. The next month's report card finds the stern father in his usually foul

mood and the punishment is all the more severe: the wife resumes wordy duels

with a vengeance and the kitchen-help picks up where she left off in

overexposing food to fire. We thus see that most of fate's apparent blessings

are but flashes in the pan, transitory as the lightning and fail to enthuse us

for long.

 

 

 

We wish therefore for a continued run of good luck, or the preservation

and continuation of the blessings showered upon us occasionally in this

otherwise humdrum and pedestrian existence. It is thus as important to us to

have strokes of good luck as to have them with us on a firmer footing.

 

While defining " YOgakshEmam " (in the Gita sloka)-

 

" ananyA: chintayantO mAm yE janA: paryupAsatE

 

tEshAm nitya abhiyuktAnAm yOgakshEmam vahAmyaham "

 

 

 

Sri Ramanuja takes Yoga to mean unprecedented good fortune and KshEma to connote

the continued enjoyment of that slice of good luck. What is the use of Lady Luck

smiling upon us, if it were to last just a fleeting second? How desirable would

it be to have Fortune smile upon one always, akin to the fixed and phoney smile

politicians habitually wear on their faces!

 

 

 

The TaittirIya Upanishad says, " annavAn annAdO bhavati " , blessing the fortunate

one with sumptuous food that never diminishes with time or consumption. But what

is the use of plentiful food, if one is unable to partake of it? We often come

across the ironical spectacle of the extremely affluent, with a breakfast of

mouth-watering delicacies spread out in front of them, but unable to eat even a

morsel of the tempting fare, due to crippling complaints like Diabetes, Ulcer et

al. Is it not a case of " Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink! " The

true blessing therefore is not only to have one's heart's desire, but to enjoy

it too. This is why the Upanishad showers a blessing not only for possession of

plentiful food, but also the requisite health and connoisseurship to enjoy its

consumption- " annAdO bhavati " .

 

 

 

History is replete with instances of slips between the cup and the lip, of

people favoured with a beaming smile from Fortune, only to have it disappear in

a trice, leaving them in a condition worse than before. One such instance

Azhwars have waxed eloquent about concerns the lament of Devaki, faithfully

rendered in verse by Sri Kulasekhara Perumal.

 

 

 

It is common knowledge as to how Sri Krishna was born to Devaki and Vasudeva in

Kamsa's prison, on that stormy night. However, after favouring His parents with

a sight to gladden their hearts, He departed the same night to the safer haven

of Nandagokulam, situated across the Yamuna. To Devaki, from whom seven earlier

children had been snatched away by a merciless Kamsa, the departure of Sri

Krishna was the final blow and she could hardly reconcile herself to the loss of

the beloved child, whose arrival the entire world had awaited with bated

breath. She too had looked forward so much to this child, and when He did

arrive, She was wonderstruck at His beauty and magnificence-His lovable lotus

eyes, His radiant face resembling a thousand Suns shining simultaneously, the

tiny red lips resembling a ripe red fruit, the cute little feet which were the

refuge of the whole world and the deep navel from which the entire Creation had

blossomed forth. Who would willingly part with such a magnificent and bewitching

specimen of childhood? But part with she did, in the sole interests of the

enchanting infant, who would meet with instant end, if Kamsa came to know of His

birth.

 

 

 

Thus, though blessed with a child beyond any mother's wildest imagination,

Devaki did not have the good fortune to keep Him, to subject Him to the

smothering love and care of a doting mother, to watch Him take His first

unsteady steps, to witness His innumerable acts of mischief and misdemeanour

which endeared Him so much to the Gopis, to feed Him with a breast full of milk

which bore the distilled essence of maternal love and affection, to sing Him to

sleep with the sweetest of lullabies, to watch over His docile, sleeping form

with pride tinged with worry of the evil eye befalling Him and doing a hundred

other things that provide unending enjoyment to mothers.

 

 

 

Sri Kulasekhara Perumal records Devaki's dismay at her loss, in all of ten

pasurams in his Perumal Tirumozhi. Sri Andal hints at the irony of fate, at the

paradox of the surrogate mother snatching away the rightful enjoyment of the

natural one, with the lines 'orutthi maganAi pirandu, Oriravil orutthi maganAi

oLitthu vaLara " . Thus though Devaki's cup of happiness was momentarily full, it

emptied itself before it could be conveyed to her thirsting lips. Fortune, after

casting a fleeting smile at Devaki, turned stony-faced again, leaving her to her

travails in Kamsa's gaol, and turned its beaming face towards Yasodha, giving

her the full treatment. As a result, all the happiness and glory, which ought to

have accrued to Devaki and Vasudeva, by virtue of their being the Lord's

parents, is appropriated, albeit unwittingly, by Yasodha and Nandagopa. The Lord

is described variously as " Yasodai iLam singam " " Nandagopan kumaran " etc.,

identifying Him more with His foster parents, than the original ones. It is

Yasoda who attains the maximum enjoyment out of her motherhood- " tollai

inabatthin irudi kandAL " , than poor Devaki, forced to part with her beloved

within hours of His birth and before even the cut umbilical cord could properly

dry and heal.

 

 

 

Food is verily regarded as the Supreme Lord Himself, as the Upanishad vakya

testifies- " annam Brahma iti vyajAnAt " . This is the advice of Varuna to his son

Bhrigu Mahrshi, when the latter seeks clarifications on the Ultimate. If we use

this definition, of food being Brahma, in the aforesaid Shruti vAkya, " annavAn

annAdO bhavati " , substituting " Brahma " for " annam " , we arrive at the vEdic

benediction that the true knower not only attains the Lord ( " annavAn bhavati " )

but also gets to enjoy all the glorious facets of His magnificence, performing

constant kainkaryam to Him, deriving indescribable bliss in the process ( " annAdO

bhavati " ). Having realised the true nature of the Lord, the bhakta is rewarded

with pleasurable service and boundless bliss, never losing himself again in the

bewildering maze of samsara. The nectar of Bhagavat anubhavam is indeed conveyed

to the lips, without being lost in the process, without slipping in transit, as

happened in the case of Devaki.

 

 

 

Another case of the contents of the cup slipping before reaching the lips is the

asurAs' Herculean efforts to obtain immortality by imbibing Ambrosia. After all

the interminable troubles they went to in positioning the Mantara parvatam in

the Milky Ocean, harnessing the poisonous VAsuki as the churning rope,

persuading the Lord Himself to act as the bedrock, and putting in all their

efforts for churning up the ocean, when indeed Nectar did emerge, the asurAs

find themselves cheated out of it by DevAs, with the active connivance of the

Lord in His MOhini avataram. For all His professed impartiality, ( " DEvAnAm

dAnavAnAm cha sAmAnyam adhi daivatam " ), the Lord indeed tilts towards the Devas,

and with good reason too-for, the world would be a hard place to live in if free

reign is given to the evil-minded.

 

 

 

All this goes to demonstrate the truth of Sri Bhashyakara's words on Yoga and

Kshema-attaining some hard-to-get good fortune and also getting to enjoy it

fully. While some are lucky to achieve their mind's desire, it is only a few who

stand to benefit immensely from their attainment. Others only suffer double

disappointment, for the blow of not being able to enjoy the fruits of their

labour is indeed worse than not having achieved the goal itself. The Gitacharya

Himself tells us what we should do for attaining the Ultimate and also deriving

the accompanying bliss-

 

" ananyA: chintayantO mAm, yE janA: paryupAsatE

 

tEshAm nitya abhiyuktAnAm yOgakshEmam vahAmyaham "

 

 

 

For those who reserve their thoughts solely for the Lord, with nary a notion for

anything else, hold Him dear to their hearts with an overwhelming devotion and

worship Him with the unadulterated adulation He deserves, the Lord Himself takes

care of their requirements. He ensures that they are blessed with the most

wonderful of good fortunes (that of realising Emperuman in all His glory and

splendour) and of deriving boundless bliss in His company and kainkaryam.

 

It is He who puts the cup of joy in our hands and steadies it too, so that it

doesn't slip while being conveyed to the lips.

 

 

 

Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana

Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

Dasan, sadagopan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Dear srI. Sadagopaniyengar svAmi,

 

Wonderful collection of slippages and fantastic comparison of the Lord to

the food in getting Him and enjoying all his glories.

 

aDiyEn would like to add the disappointment of ayOdhyAvAsis in not getting

srI.Ramachandramurti crowned the first time, while the whole town was still

being beautifully decorated expecting the historic transition of the reign.

This, however was not a permanent slip as in the other 2 cases, as the

pAdukAs of srI.RAmA were by-virtue ruling them; and they had Him back after

14 years, atleast.

 

aDiyEn

Mukundan rAmanuja dAsan