You are here: SriPedia - Oppiliappan - Archives - Feb 2006

Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00053 Feb 2006

 
Feb 2006 Indexes ( Date | Thread | Author )
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]


              Yadhavaabhyadhaya  is the story of Krishnaavathaara 
retold by VedantaDesika with a beautiful poetic flavour steeped in 
bhakthi. Desika has written devotional hymns on all the 
archaavathaaras the deities of all the vaishnavite shrines but none 
of the forms of Lord Narayana  seems to be so dear to him as His 
incarnation as Krishna. Gopalavimsati,  twenty verses in praise of 
Krishna is the most exquisite work exuding charm and beauty. 
Yadhavaabhyudhaya  is an epic which seems to be an elongated  version 
of Gopalavimsati as it elaborates on the subtle references to the 
exploits of Krishna therein but it is rich in poetic skill and 
intellectual excellence. The most significant fact which points out  
to the  link between the two works is that the opening verse of both 
the works is the same. The greatness of  Yadhavaabhyudhaya  can be 
understood by the fact that the commentator of the work is none other 
than Appayya Dikshitha, the well known exponent of Advaita Vedanta. 
In this page an endeavour will be made to present this great work  in 
such a  way that all can enjoy its richness and beauty, which has 
been made known only to Sanskrit scholars so far.

        Vedantadesika starts his epic with the mangalasloka `vande 
brindavanacharam vallaveejanavallabham; jayanteesambhavam dhaama 
vyjayantheevibhooshanam.'  This  verse is rich in meaning and brings 
out fully the glory of Krishna. It means, `Salutations to Him, who 
was born on Krishnaashtami, who used to inhabit the Brindavan, 
adorned with the garland of forest flowers, self effulgent and loved 
by gopis. The four adjectives given to the Lord, namely, 
brindavanacharam,  the one who roams around in Brindavan, 
vallveejanavallabham, the beloved of the gopis, jayantheesambhavam, 
born on the day of His avatar, vyjayantheevibhooshanam, adorned by 
the forest flowers are rich in meaning as they denote His vathsaltya, 
souseelya,soulbhya and svamithva.

        His Vaathsalya, love towards His dependents is indicated by 
Brindhaavanacharam , which is like that of a cow towards its calf.  
Brindha denotes  His devotees, for whose protection, avanaaya,  He 
moves about, charathi. This dispels the fear in the heart of His 
punishment for the wrong deeds one has committed,  svaaparaadha bhaya 
nivarthakam. Appayya dikshitha, in  his commentary says that He,  who 
was dhandakaaranyachara, walked in the dhandaka forest for the 
protection of the rshis  became brindhaavanachara, for the protection 
of the cows, in Krishnaavathaara true to His  promise 
later, `parithraanaaya saadhoonaam  vinaasaaya cha dushkrthaam, 
dharma samsthaapanaarthaaya samhavaami yuge yuge', I manifest  Myself 
in  each epoch in order to protect the good and to punish the 
wicked.' The cows represent the good who resort to the Lord for their 
welfare. Sentiment, rasa, exhibited by this epithet is adbhutha, 
wonder  that the lord assumes  the form of a cowherd and showers His 
love to one and all, man, bird and beast. The same vathsalya  as He 
has shown towards Prahladha so that  Hiranya kasipyu could not harm 
even a hair  on his body, towards Jatayu in Ramaavathaara and towards 
all His dependents in Krishnaavathaara which made Him  even to wash 
and feed the horses during the Mahabhaaratha war.

        Valavee jana vallabham, the beloved of the gopis, is the 
epithet chosen for the purpose of indicating His Souseelyam, 
benevolence. Souseelyam is defined as `mahathah mandhaihi saha 
neerandhra samslesha svabhaavah, the close friendship shown by the 
great towards the humble folk. This quality of the Lord dispels the 
fear that He is beyond comprehension. Appayya dikshitha says that  
the fact that He who enjoys  the uninterrupted union with Mahakakshmi 
was also able to enjoy the company of the simple cowherd girls is the 
proof of His souseelya.  The term Vallavijana is used to denote their 
nomad existence as valla means movement. The sentiment expressed here 
is sringara.

        Desika uses the epithet Jayanthee sambhavam to denote the 
soulabhya of the Lord, in taking birth in the yadhavakula, which 
removes the fear that the Lord is unapproachable. Soulabhyam is 
labhdhum susakathvam, easy accessibility. The significance of the 
word jayanthee sambhava  instead of  Devakisambhava  implies that the 
Lord manifested Himself as Krishna and was not born, according to His 
words `sambhavaami yuge yuge' and `yadha yadha hi dharmasya 
glaanirbhavathi -------thadhaathmaanam srjamyaham.' Jayanthi also 
means jayam thanothi, victorious in the vinaasa of dushkrtha, 
indicative of virarasa. It is interesting to observe here that the 
words jayanthi and janmaashtami are used only to mark  
Krishnajayanthi, janmaashtami avathaara dhinasya jayantheethi 
vyavahaarah  and  all  the others  are mentioned as  Ramanavami , 
Nrsimhajayanthi and so on.

        Dhaamavyjayantheevibhooshanam relates to the svaamithva, 
overlordship.. Dhaama means the  self effulgent nature and 
vyjayayanthi which normally means garland of forest flowers also 
implies bhoothathanmaathra adhishtaana devatha the divinity behind 
the elements. The vanamaala here is the maya  of the Lord which He 
wears like a garland in His manifestations This indicates that 
Krishna is the Parabrahman who is the cause of this universe created 
out of His own Maya. The Paravasudeva is referred to by this epithet.

        For a literary work there are four aspects that have to be 
specified at the outset. First is the grantha the mention of the work 
itself. Secondly the subject matter, vishaya, third is he adhikaari , 
to whom the work is intended and lastly the phala or prayojana,  the 
benefit that will accrue by the study of the grantha. Here by the 
four adjectives given to the Lord in the sloka  refer to the above 
mentined four requisites of a kavya.

        The grantha is Yadhavaabhyudhaya, the glory of Yadhava, 
Krishna. This is indicated by brindhaavanacharam, the inhabitant of 
brindhaavan, Krishna.  The vishaya is the story of Krishna denoted by 
jayantheesambhavam, born on Janmaashtami. Adhikaari  is the one who 
has love for the Lord. This is shown by the word vallavee jana 
vallabham. Lastly the phala, fruit  of hearing the story of the Lord 
is Mokha, salvation which is implied by dhaama vyjayanthee 
vibhooshanam. Knowing Him as Dhaama the Parabhrahman  manifest in the 
garb of a cowherd through His maya, vyjayanthee vibhooshanam,  one 
gets emancipated.

        The glory of the Lord is such that even the Vedas, which are 
the primary source of knowledge about Him, are not able to do full 
justice to His description. Desika  portrays the Vedas as the bards 
trying to sing about His merits and he says that when they start 
extolling even one of His  infinite auspicious attributes, they 
become tired. ` Ekaika gunapraanthe sranthaah nigamavandhinah.'  Then 
Desika expresses his humility by saying that under such circumstances 
what can those with limited intellect expect to accomplish, meaning 
himself. He goes on to reassure himself that the subject is  
sourikatha, story of Krishna, which is like nectar that will be 
relished even if it is told by a dull witted person. He reaffirms his 
position by claiming that there could be nothing wrong in following 
the footsteps of the great poets like Valmiki  and Vyasa.  
 
        Then Desika  extols the kavithva saying that a kavi , poet, 
whose creation is full of merits such as rasa, bhaava and alamkara is 
akin to the creator, Brahma, in  whom Sarasvathi  revels. Rasa is the 
nine kinds of sentiment , srngara etc. bhaava here means the 
accompanying  moods that go with each sentiment , called vibhaava, 
anubhaava and sanchaaribhaava and alamkara is the figure of speech. 
Such a poetry is like goddess Sarasvathi  expressive beautiful and 
well adorned with ornaments. The poet who is endowed with all these 
skills is like Brahma associated with Sarasvathi.

        But should perfection be a essential characteristic in 
composing poetry? No, says Desika. If a talented dancer makes a slip 
in her performance a connoisseur will ignore it and will appreciate 
only the overall effect . Similarly considering the vishayagourava, 
the merit of the subject matter which is Bhagavatvishaya, story of 
the Lord, even if there may be any fault, it can be excused. 

        So, says Desika, "I will now speak of the story of Krishna, 
which is the nectar emerging out of the ocean of Vyasaveda, the 
Mahabharatha, without any hesitancy." What is implied here is that 
the most enjoyable part of Mahabharatha  is the story of Krishna. 
Vyasaveda may  also mean the Vedas, the essence of which is the Lord, 
as Ramanuja says in the mangala sloka of Sribhaashya, sruthi sirasi 
vidheepthe brahmani Srinivaase, the Lord forms the crown of the 
Vedas. So the story of Krishna is the sarabhootha, essence of Vedas 
as well as Mahabharatha  which is later given by Vyasa as 
Bhagavathapurana like extracting the butter out of the milk of 
Mahabharatha. 

        Desika calls the story of Krishna vibhudhajeevaathu, the 
elixir for vibhudha, devas as the incarnation  took place on being 
entreated by the devas and the Bhoodevi. The word vibhudha also means 
men of wisdom of whom the story of Krishna is the paramoushadham  
greatest antidote for the ills of the samsara.


        In this context  it would be interesting to note the peculiar 
circumstances which made Vyasa write the Bhagavatha purana.  The 
Dasamaskandha, tenth section of Bhagavathapurana contains the story 
of Krishna , the subject matter of  Yadhavaabhyudhaya. It seemed that 
after Vyasa had finished  Mahabharatha and other vedantic works he 
became depressed for no reason. Narada came to him and told him that 
his feeling of depression  born out of dissatisfaction was due to the 
fact that though he exhaustively wrote about dharma and Vedanta he 
did not write about the exploits and the glory  of Krishna and the 
incarnations of the Lord which would inculcate bhakthi . Hence his 
heart became dry and depressed. Then Narada told him  the whole 
Bhagavata as  he had learnt from Brahma. This was the inducement for 
Vyasa to write the Bhagavatha purana. That is why Desika calls it 
vibhudhajeevaathu, the life-giving elixir.

        Desika  refers to the Lord as Vibhu,  and Sreemaan. He is 
Vibhu, all powerful, all pervading, Sreemaan associated with Sree, 
Lakshmi. The significance of the two adjectives is given by the words 
eko vusvamidham chithram ajeejanath. He is eka , one only. `Sadheva 
soumya idham agra aaseeth, ekameva adhvitheeyam  (Chandhogya Up.) Sat 
alone existed in the beginning, one only without a second.' Hence 
Brahman, Lord Narayana of Visistadavaita, was both the material and 
instrumental cause of the Universe. Usually in creation as applied to 
the worldly things like the creation of a pot the material cause, the 
mud and the instrumental cause, the potter are different. But  before 
creation, says the Upanishad there was none else than the Brahman. So 
Brahman is the upaadhaana karana, material cause and  nimiththa 
kaarana, instrumental cause. This is indicated by the words svayam 
and svasmin.

        The Lord created the world  which Desika describes as 
chithram, wonderful. He compares it to a painting, chithram which is 
created by the Lord with the brush of His leela, playful and without 
effort, and the paint He used was His krpa, infinite mercy. The 
canvas was nothing but the Lord Himself, svasmin, in Himself, created 
by Himself, svayam. This is in accordance with the concept of sarira-
sariri bhava of Visishtadvaita. The world consisting of sentient and 
insentient beings is the body of the Lord of which He is the soul. 
Before creation the world exists in Him in subtle form and after 
creation it assumes the gross form. 

        Now what is the purpose of creation? To say that it is His 
leela  would make Him a sadist who has created the world full of 
sorrow and misery for His sport. No, it is not so, says Desika, 
because He has coloured it with His krpa. The word leela only denotes 
that the creation was as effortless as a play for Him. He not only 
created but also sustains the universe through His acts of mercy. The 
duhkha  is due to our karma but to protect us by showing the path to 
emancipation is His act of mercy.

        Then Desika traces the clan of yadhu in which the Lord took 
the incarnation as Krishna. The first of the clan was Chandra, the 
Moon.' Chandramaa manaso jaathah, the Moon was born from the mind of 
the Lord.'(Purushasuktham) Desika gives the reason as to why the Moon 
was born out of His mind. The Moon came out as though he is the 
personification of the prasaadha, grace of the Lord, 
paripaaalayithavyeshu prasaadha iva, towards the people deserve to be 
protected, His devotees because the  moon is jagadhaahlaadhakara, 
gives happiness to all

        Budha, the adhidevatha of the planet Mercury was the son of 
Moon and Pururavas was the son of Budha. Pururavas, says Desika, was 
the living example of the efficacy of sathaam aahitha vahneenaam 
stheyathaa, the power of aahithaagni  the sacrificial fire, which 
represents the acts of sacrifice, yajna because it gave him the power 
of visiting svarga where he fell in love with Urvasi, the celestial 
damsel and married her.
        
        The lineage of Pururavas flourished in all directions of the 
earth by the fame of his discendents like  Ayus and Nahusha, who 
attained the status of Indra through his merit. When Indra  incurred 
brahmahaththi dosha, the sin of killing a Brahmin by his slaying 
Vrthraasura, who was the son of Thvashta, a Brahmin , he had to leave 
the svarga and do penance.  Then the devas  put Nahusha in the place 
of Indra since he has performed hundred asvamedha yagas, which makes 
him qualified for the post of Indra but he incurred the displeasure 
of Agasthya and was cursed by him to become a snake.

         Yayathi was the son of Nahusha and had three sons  and one 
of them was Yadhu, who was a vadhaanya, very generous and austere and 
just. Vasudeva , the father of Krishna was born in the clan of Yadhu. 
Vasudeva was Kasyapa prajaapathi in his previous birth  and was the 
father of both devas and. asuras. His wives Surabhi and Adhithi were 
born as Rohini and Devaki in next birth and married Vasudeva. When 
Vasudeva was born the divine musical instruments, aanaka and 
dhundhubhi sounded and hence he acquired the name AAnakadhundhubhi.

        Vasudeva was the refuge of the good as Lord Vishnu is for the 
world, the Sun is for light and the sea is for gems.  This implies 
that he was the sole resort of the good as the earth was burdened  
with unrighteous kings  for whose destruction the Lord descended in 
the form of Krishna. Even though born of the royal family Vasudeva 
was intent on attaining mukthi and was not interested in the worldly 
possessions and became content with whatever came to him of its own 
accord. 

        Vasudeva  got married to Devaki, the cousin sister of Kamsa 
whom he loved very much  but hearing the aerial declaration that the 
eighth son of Devaki will be his killer Kamsa  put them both in 
prison.

        In the meanwhile the devas  were approached by Bhoodevi  who 
entreated them to relieve her of he burden of adharma  perpetuated by 
the unrighteous kings who oppressed her like giant mountains. Then 
they all approached the Lord Narayana  along with Brahma with 
Bhoodevi in front and started praying to Him.
        The devas  praised the Lord thus.
        
         He is thrivedimadhya dheeptha, shines on the three vedas 
because He is vedavedya, known through the Vedas. Here it would be 
interesting to compare the words of Thyagaraja in his 
kriti `saamajavaragamana' on Krishna. He calls Him ` vedasiromaathrja 
sapthaswara naadhaachaladheepa,' He shines as the light  on the 
mountain of naadha, made up of the seven notes, sapthasvara which 
were born out of the head of vedas, that is pranava.
        
        He is thridhaama, having three abodes, namely, Vaikunta which 
is His paramapadha, supreme abode, the milky ocean and the surya 
mandala, disc of the Sun, He is described in the upanishat as 
Suryamandalamadhya varthi.

        He has five weapons , panchahethayah, shankha, charka 
gadha ,sharnga and khadga, the Conch, Disc, Mace, Bow and Sword 
respectively.

        He is baahyaanthara havirbhuja, takes the external  offering  
in the yajna and also internal in the form of the self which is 
offered in devotion and He as varadha, bestows His grace.

        His power is independent ananyaadheenamahima and unlimited 
whereas that of other gods are in His control paraadheenavaibhava and 
hence limited. Devas beseech Him to protect them as He is 
dhayaadheenavihara  overwhelmed with mercy as shown by His acts like 
killing Ravana. In this sloka the poetic skill is shown in the choice 
of the epithets  ananyaadheena svaadheena and dhayadheena.

        The Lord is the ocean of mercy, dhayaambhudhi in which His 
gunas, jnana bala aisvarya ,,shakthi , tejas and virya are the 
ratnas, gems and the waves are His vyuhas and vibhavas. The six 
attributes,  knowledge, might, sovereignty, power, glory and valiance 
are called bhagas and hence the name bhagavan. The vyuhas are His 
manifestations as Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradhyumna and Anirudhdha 
and the vibhavas are His incarnations. These are metaphorically 
described as the waves while the gunas are the precious gems which 
are said to be in the ocean.

         The glory of the Lord cannot be ascertained from the Vedas 
even because they are His creation and they are compared to the 
travellers who even after travelling from morning till evening  are 
unable to reach the destination ,namely to describe Him as such.

        He puts on different costumes and comes down as incarnations 
like an actor and He acts according to the role He assumes. This 
amuses the wise who see Him  act like a subordinate, a supplicant and 
obedient son to His own children and dependents. He is the one who 
apportions the result of karma  to the individuals and it is all His 
leela which waters the seeds of karma so that it brings forth the 
sprouts of results , karmaphala. Desika says that this is true with 
all beings, brahmaadhisthambaparyantham, from the four-faced Brahma 
down to te blade of grass as everything is His creation only.

        He shines in the hearts of the pure     in His full splendour 
and like the Chintamani fulfils all their wishes. Chintamani is a 
precious gem which is supposed to grant all wishes of the possessor.

         To those who have become fatigued by traveling in the desert 
of samsara the devotion of the Lord serves as a welcome river, 
flowing with the nectar of His mercy, in which they plunge and enjoy 
its coolness.

        He is the boat that helps those who are caught in the 
whirlpool of sin to cross
over to the other side.   

        He is unparalleled, limitless, and the cause of the 
universe , Himself uncaused. He is denoted by Pranava, the essence of 
Vedas and the raft of rescue from the sea of samsara.  Those who seek 
refuge in Him alone depend only on Him for their redemption and do 
not adopt any other means except devotion to Him like the chathaka 
bird which live on rain drops alone . not seeking any other source of 
water.

        Like the sun who wakes up from sleep the Lord wakes up  the 
jives from the sleep of ignorance. Hence, the devas entreated Him to 
dispel their calamity  like the sun  destroys the darkness because 
Kamsa and others have risen like comets to create disturbances in the 
world.  

        Thus entreated by the devas  Bhagavan  appeared before them 
out of mercy. Desika here gives a beautiful description of the Lord.

        The devas saw Him reclined on the couch of Adisesha, like a 
rain-bearing cloud, dark in hue , on a white cloud of autumn. 
Adisesha  is supposed to be white in colour and sitting on him the 
lord presented a picture of a dark cloud on the top of a  white 
cloud, which is a rare occurrence. This simile is  an indication of 
the wonder the devas experienced on seeing the Lord before them. 

        The lord was accompanied by Sridevi with lotus in her hand 
implying His aisvarya, the mastery over the universe. The epithet 
Lakshmipathi  denotes the supreme power combined with mercy of the 
Lord.

        He was adorned with ornaments which were sukumara, slender 
and not heavy, sukhasparsa, soft of touch on His body and not rough,  
like sweet smelling flowers, suganshibhih prasoonaih iva,  and well 
suited to His gunas, the infinitely auspicious qualities.  His form 
is the garden of His gunas and the ornaments were like the flowers in 
the garden. Desika expresses his love for the Lord in imagining the 
ornaments on His body to  be tender like flowers. An ardent devotee 
treats the archa or idol of the Lord as real and cannot bear to  see 
even the stalks of the flowers hurting Him. and arranges the 
ornaments on the idol in such a way as not to hurt Him. 

        Every part of His body vying  each other in beauty excelled  
that of His ornaments and stole the hearts of  all beings. The 
ornaments  were beautified by Him and not vice versa. The weapons He 
was wielding, namely the disc , bow, mace etc. were proclaiming His 
natural qualities like valour, power and so on and seemed to forecast 
the victory of the devas. With His form created by Himself, He shone 
like a sapphire rising out of the sea of His own splendour.

        Along with the Lord came Garuda , who is the embodiment of 
Vedas, srutiroopa, and covered with the fragrance of the feet of the 
Lord, being His carrier, signifying the impending war with the  
asuras. The veda calls  Garuda `suparno asi garutman trivrth the 
sirah' meaning that Garuda with powerful wings has veda as his head.

        The Lord thus presented a picture of a Sun who never sets, a 
Moon who never wanes and an ocean of nectar which has no bounds to 
the devas. He was shining in His glory which excelled the Sun,  was 
source of joy in His cool mercy , which never diminishes  and He was 
like everlasting nectar to the devas in showering His grace. By 
seeing Him thus the eyes of the devas became fruitful and the Lord 
reassured them with His abhayahasta, showing His hand in a gesture of 
protection and by His smile that destroys evil by the mere sight of 
it. The abhayakara and the mandasmita were ressuring enough for them 
that their prayer is answered even before He began to speak.




                






        

        

        









------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 
Join modern day disciples reach the disfigured and poor with hope and healing
http://us.click.yahoo.com/lMct6A/Vp3LAA/i1hLAA/XUWolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 

 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Oppiliappan/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    Oppiliappan-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
 




[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index ] [Thread Index ] [Author Index ]
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia
oppiliappan-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To subscribe to the list