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
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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