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
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