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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00032 May 2007

 
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Krishna meets his parents

After destroying the Kamsa and others Krishna and Balarama went to 
their parents, Vasudeva and Devaki, who were moved to tears on seeing 
them. Vasudeva endowed with insight due to the grace of the Lord 
started praising Krishna knowing Him as the Supreme Being.

Gesika reers to Krishna as sAthvathAm pathi. Sathvatham means 
pancharathram, called vaishnava thanthram  whcihw was told by the 
Lord Himself. So the word means that Krishna is none other than 
Narayana Himself.           

Desika goes into ecstasy in relating the praise of the Lord by 
Vasudeva and the glory of Krishna in Mathura.

Vasudeva said:

"You are the Lord Vishnu, the unoriginated, who is the only subject  
of  the vedas,from whose navel, which sports the lotus, Brahma 
originated and the sages learn from the veda that You are 
ananyAdhAram, self supporting yet supports everything , AdhAram,  the 
Lord of all but has no one superior, anayESvaram isvaram and  the 
Master of all but no one rules over Him, ananyADhipathim pathim."

"You are the lamp of which Your grace is the wick and Your mercy is 
the ghee by which it burns bright  showing  everything clearly, that 
is, induces clear perception destroying darkness( ignorance)"

dEvakee dhanujasThooNA dhivuyam DHAma vrajAngaNam
ramA rADHAdhayScha ithi rASibhEdhairna bhidhyasE

"You are the same,( na bhidhyasE-do not differ) even when Your place 
of manifestation differ such as, Devaki or the pillar in the house of 
Hiranyakasipu, or the courtyard of the mansion of Nanda or when Yoe 
are in Vaikunta. Your consorts differ, Lakshmi in Vaikunta, Radha or 
Neela  in gokula etc." 

This reflects the idea set out in the Nammazvar Pasuram, 'palappalavE 
AbharaNam pErum palppalavE.' Desika hmself has said in the first 
chapter, 'natavath bhoomikabhEdhaih nAtha dheevyan prthagviDhaih,' 
(1.49), "Oh lord You shine with different costumes like an actor on 
the stage." Here it is shown that the settings and co-actors differ 
in each play of His but He is the same.

The next sloka is also the reflection of the sloka 49 of the first 
chapter, 'namyasya namathah kshudhrAn---puthraih pithrumathAm 
kreedA,' Vasudeva says,

niyanthA sarvabhoothAnAm niyanthavyairniyamyasE
pithAmahamukhAih puthree mamaputhrOasi mAyayA

"Though You are the controller of all You allow Yourself to be 
controlled by them. From Brahma downwards all are Your chiildren and 
You appear as my son by Your Maya.

mahathA thvadpadhEnaiva mAruthinyAyam ASrithAh
nistharanthi achirAth santhah dhustharam bhavasAgaram

"The great men cross the ocean of samsara , which is difficult to 
cross over, by the power of your feet following the way of Hanuman."

The implication here is that Hanuman was able to cross the ocean by 
resorting to the power of the feet of Rama.So too the wise cross the 
ocean of samsara with the power of His feet.Appayya Dikshitha 
explains thavatpadhena  ( the power of) Your feet  by taking it to 
mean the anguleeyaka of Rama which Hanuman carried with devotion and 
faith and that is described here as the power of His feet. 

But Utthamur swami says that the anguleeyaka was only to instill 
cofdence in the mind of Seetha in the words of Hanuman and not the 
cause of srossing the ocean.He explains the word thvatpadha as 
Vishnupadha,  that is Akasa, called as such because the Lord in His 
Thrivikramavathara covered the sky with His foot.But it is common 
blief that hanuman av cquered the power to cross the ocean because he 
was carrying the anguleeyaka of Rama while returning the choodamani 
of Seetha gave him the power.

Thus extolling the glory of the Lord, Vasudeva beseeched Him that he, 
vasudeva should not rivert back into the illsusion if considering 
Krishna as  an ordinary human being which even the yogis who know the 
real  identity of the Lord could not escape. (The episodes of Brahma 
hiding the cattle and the gopas and Indra gettin angry at the worship 
of Govardhana are the examples of this fact.) He further said that to 
kill Kamsa and others was not a great achievement for Krishna who is 
capable of detroying the wicked by the tip of His fingernails.Hence, 
he said all the praise he had uttered so far were like one who is 
praising the invaluable gem without knowing its merit.. That is, the 
praise of only the person who knows the  value is to be esteemed and 
not by an ignorant man who does not know its real worth.

Krishna , hearing this, treated the speech of vasudeva only as the 
praise of the son by the father and never showed His real identity.  
He replied fittingly to put the mind of Vasudeva at rest.

Desika describes Krishna in Mathura thus.

Krishna appeared with four arms as he was when he manifested first in 
prison.But  the common people did not understood his true identity 
and thought that he was an extraordinary human with four arms. 
Perhaps in the puranic age  it was common because Ravana and 
Krthaveerya were described with more than two arms etc.

Krishna was behaving as an obedient younger brother to Balarama and 
Desika says that when he bowed down to Balarama the latter shone as 
the crown of Krishna and hence retained his state as Sesha. With the 
pun on the word Sesha, the kireeta is the sesha of the wearer, being 
an ornament(sesha means one belonging to someone else who is the 
seshi) and also Balarama is sesha in reality(Adhisesha)

Then Desika describes that the ornaments on Krishna which were 
beautified by his body, the royal umbrella held over him was like the 
lotus from his navel. his face like lotus flanked on both sides with 
the chamaras  looked like the reflection of himself as hamsavathara. 

Krishna made the clan of yadhavas rise in glory like the moon makes 
the lilies rise up.The brahmins who resorted him were like Brahma 
himself who has left off his work of creation and came to him.His 
speeches were pleasing and true and gave joy to his dependents. 

Krishna,though requested by the elders to become the king, put only 
Ugrasena on the throne but accepted the status of crowned 
prince.Krishna with his prowess and glory made Mathura equivalent to 
his divine abode, vaikunta.He cast off all his previous adornments 
like peacock feathers  but was wearing only the crown brought to him 
by Garuda while in Brindavan.(vide-chapter -4-Krishna the cowherd.)

Desika continues the thread about the transformation of all that was 
his while being a cowherd into his royal signalia by saying that the  
four vedas which served him earlier in the form of cows, became his 
four royal horses, named, sainya, sugreeva, meghapushpa and valahaka. 
Not only that but they took the form of his foot rest and supported 
his feet which were like lotuses comparble only with those held by 
Lakshmi.His flute attained its original form of conch and enjoyed the 
contact with his lips.

Desika refers to the episode of bringing back the dead son of his 
guru Sandheepani very briefly denoting the gurukula vasa of Krishna.

The royal hall called sudharma was given to Krishna by Indra and 
Krishna made Ugrasena the head of the counsel, because he was the 
king.Ugrasena with the help of Krishna reigned the kingdom well 
accoring to dharmasasthra. All the supporters of Kamsa were thrown 
out and filled the court with good and wise.Krishna by conquering all 
the kings made Ugrasena the sovereign of the land.

Desika, proving himself as the kavithArkika kesari, describes the 
counsel of Ugrasena thus:

mAnasamrakshakah thasya manthrah tharka iva Anayah
angapanchakasampatthyA vipakshE dhandathAm yayou

It was like tharka. Tharka here means only anumana, one of the valid 
means of cognition, though the name tharka sasthra is given to the 
whole science of ascertaining a truth by perception, inference, 
comparison and verbal testimony. 

Anumana has five limbs and so was the counsel of Ugrasena , says 
Desika.The five limbs of the counsel are, l karmaNAm ArambhOpAyah, 
the plan of action,purushadhravyasampatthih,human and material  
resources,dhESa kAla vibhAgah, apportioning of proper time and place, 
vinipAthapratheekArah,removal of obstacles and kAryasiddhi, success. 
Manthra or counsel done in this manner  will  be  vipakshadhanda, 
punishment to the enemy.

This is compared to tharka which also has five limbs. Here the valid 
means of cognition, namely,anumana, inference is referred to. To 
arrive at anumana that causes vipalsha dhanda, refutation of the 
opponent there must be five steps of argument. First is vyathi, that 
is invariable concomitance. When one wants to infer from smoke coming 
out of a mountain that the mountain has fire,the vyapti or the 
invariable connection between fire and smoke has to be established 
such as 'wherever there is smoke there is fire.' Secondly a sapaksha 
or a similar instance must be quoted such as. 'as in the case of a 
kitchen.' Thirdly it is argued that 'this is so'.Next the absence of 
vyapthi when the sadhya, major term (the object of inference, that 
is, fire,) absent must be shown sucha s where there is no fire there 
is no smoke as in a lake. This is the fourth limb.This is vipaksha. 
Finally the conclusion that the mountain has fire.

Thus Krishna upheld the yadhuvamsa once again which suffered due to 
the tyranny of Kamsa.











 









 
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