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SrI:
SrImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya namah:

Dearest Srivaishnavas, 

Krishna, Rama avathArams are the most enjoyable and divine and they 
always enchant us with the wonderful
deeds of the Lord. AzhwArs and Acharyans have deeply immersed
themselves in these avathArams in particular and had seen the same
Rama, Krishna in the archA mUrthys in Dhivya Desams. Thsee special
Rama Krishna avathArams have got a spociality in them. The Sarvagnan,
SarvEshwaran, Sarva shakthan, the Supreme Lord- who is unpapalleled
and Peerless- who has none equal to or above Him? oppAril appan-
ParamAthmA- PurushOtthaman- Jagath kaarNanan; Jagath rakshakan- The
Only One who could grant mOksham [mOksha pradhan]; the Ultimate
enjoyment for NithyasUris and mukthAs at Srivaikuntam. One can go on
describing and extolling His positions, Roopam, Swaroopam, vibhuthi
(rulership) i.e. this world [leelA vibhUthi] and Paramapadham [Nithya
vibhUthi], His innumerous kalyANa guNas? In spite of such Greatest
qualities, His dayA [comnpassion] is Supreme and the most important
One; manisarkaay- padaathana pattu- For the sake of human beings- 
what
all troubles; briths (as avathArams) He undertakes. He took the
avathArams in the lowly human forms ? and stoops down so low with 
such
east accessibility to illiterate Gopas, GopikAs, pasu (cows), pakshis
(jatAyu), monkeys, boatmen- hunters (Guha), et al. His sowlabhyam
[coming down so low] and sowseelyam [easily accessible for all] is
amazingly true and present in such Greatest Parathvam?

He moved with everyone equally and attracted them all with His
sowlabhyam and sowseelyam. He is thus possessed with the most
wonderful gunAs ?namely Sowlabhya, Sowseelyams. Rama is addressed as
Gunvaan- mentioning this gunA especially.

KrishnAvathAra sowseelyam is Ultimate and there is no match for that.
aRivonRum illAdha Aykulatthu- He appeared in the group of cowherd
folks who were completely illiterate; having no saasthra jnAnam- did
not even know how to eat with right hand or left.. [idakkai, valakkai
theriyaadha].. He mixed with them as if He had been a cowherd Boy for
ages and even Devendran, Chathu mukha BrahmA were all misled. He
reared cattle; tendered calves; played with Gopa boys, shared their
food, taking a bite from their palms; played with Gopikas and danced
with them? He allowed Himself tied down to a mortar by the illiterate
Gopa lady (YasodhA) and NammAzhwAr marveled as His such a sowseelyam
and fainted for about six months it is told [etthiRam? etthiRam] .

This sowseelya gunA which can not be seen in anyone else in such
grandest proportion is the natural swabhAvam for the Lord.. It is His
one of His inherent kalyANa guNa for the sake of us- due to His 
mercy,
dayA on us. How many of us understand that? Hardly any. The Lord
Himself says in GitA- avajAnanthi maam mUDA! ?. Sa mahatma
sudhurlabha:

Ravana talks lowly about Rama coming to the forest, leaving His
coronation for His younger brother; Sisupalan talked in
un-parliamentary language (sudusol) about the deeds of KaNNan- as
cowherd Boy.

avyaktham vyakthimApannam manyanthE maam abuddhaya: |
param bhAva majaanantha: mamaavyayam anutthamam ||

I, who was born as the son of Vaudevar, am being considered as if 
born
due to the bondage with Karma; and they do not understand my supreme
sowseelya guNaa. The same holds good for all His avathArams. Without
understanding His true nature and guNAs, we (people) talk low about
His deeds performed during these avathArams. Those who do that are
foolish; and who equate Him with them as humans and evaluate His
actions in their view point as humans.

Still, it continues. Even today such talking goes on. Even sincere
devotees sometimes get doubts on His vaali vandham, Gopika dance 
etc..
The Lord Himself tells Vaali: sookshuma: paramudhuehEya: Dharmam is
very subtle; it is not easily comprehensible. KaNNan played with gopa
sthrees ? and even today many of us are not able to digest; But we,
srivaishnavites, should never get such thoughts about His such
grandest deeds. But it is essential to get our doubts cleared so that
we reinforce our devotion on Him stronger and it grows from strength.
There is no better time that talking about it now on His 
janmAshthami.
Please forgive me if I am again trespassing where fools do rush in
where angels fear to tread. This is only to clarify the foolish
arguments and thoughts in us. Swamy desikan himself most mercifully
has enlisted the Freqently Asked Questions on this incident and
answered to clarify our doubts. It is Swamy who blessed us with the
unparalleled abhaya pradhAna saaram to clarify many aspects on
Saranagathi during RamavathAram. Swamy mentions in his
yaadhavaabhyudhayam about Krishna avathAram and let us enjoy them and
get our doubts cleared. [reference: the most brilliant article 
written
by Naavalpaakam SrI U VE Dr Vasudevachariar Swamy, Trivandhrum in Sri
Hayagriva Priya and I was so lured by the article that I wished to
share with all of you- anything good in these posts is only due to 
the
wonderful original article and Swamy Desikan's excellent analysis.
Mistakes, errors, omissions are entirely mine. Sri  Vasudevachar 
Swamy
is the one who wrote the Tamil meanings for Swamy Desikan Dhivya
sahasranaamam released and as blessed by Srimad PaRavaakkOttai 
Andavan
Swami. Also, asmadhAchAryan His Holiness Srimad PaRavaakkOttai 
ANdavan
Sri Gopala Desika Mahadesikan Swami had delivered a two hours
upanyasam on this subject few years ago on a sravaNam day -
wonderfully quoting the very reference which is in this article. It 
is
Acharya anugraham that I am able to find the same reference in this
article and we share here now]

It may take a few posts and the article is a bit long and hence we
will cover it as a series.

suraanganaabhi: samayE Gruthaayaam swEnaiva gOpAkruthi bhUmikAyAm |
akarmavaSyasya vibhOsthadhAseeth arChAphalasparSanamaathraleelA ||
[from Yadavabhyudhayam- 8.67]

This sloka- a wonderful sloka- has answers for many questions. 

1. Question: The ultilate pinnacle of Sowlabhyam [eLimai] ? joined
hands with Gopa sthrees and enjoyed being with them, united with 
them.
Even some of them were married [to others]. They too were happy being
with Him. This is against saasthrAs. Does this deed bring a bad name
for KaNNan?

Answer: We should first of all, not think that He [Bhagwaan] and us-
as one jaathi (one group). He is Iswaran; Lord; ruler of all of us; 
It
is His sankalpam even for our very existence; breathing. He is never
touched by punya, paapams; He is akilahEya prathyaneekan (untouched 
by
imperfections; or bad guNAs); He is not bound by Karma at all; His
birth is an avathAram for the sake of us. We are all bound always by
Karma; We are tied down by our papams and punyams. He is above vidhi
nishEdha saasthrAs; SaasthrAs are for us to be on right track for
getting rid of our paapams, and accrual of punyas and to please Him 
as
SaasthrAs are His agnyA- instructions. Sage Vyasa also says clearly:
aroopavadhEva hi tathpraDhAnathvaath. Bhagawaan DOES not belong to
human race; He is in manidha jaathi at all. We can not hold Him down
with the rules laid down for us.

Also, We can not compare and equate our actions with his dhivya
chEshtithams )leelAs); Can we lift the huge Govardhana mountain with
the little finger as a Boy? Can we dance on top of many heads of
poisnous snake Kaalingan? Sage Suka takes the example of Rudra 
himself
to explain this in Srimad Bhaagawatham: Bhagawaan'e leelAs are very
many. Rudra's leelas are few; Even them, we can not do or perform.
Rudra drank the poison and did not perish [as it was Deva kaaryam and
the Lord Sriman Narayanan blessed him to undertake the task]. Can we
drink poison and survive? When such is case with Iswaran, why to talk
about SarvEswaran?

Hence, KaNNan does not belong to us ? human race. Iswaran;
Parabrahmam- is He. Veda declares Him as apahathapaapma. Swamy
EmperumAnAr Sri Ramanuja comments this as: by His nature, He is not
bounded by Karma [apahathakarmathvam,
karmavaSyathAgandharahithatattvam ithyarTTha: ]

So, if some of His acts appear to us the acts of paapam, He is
unbounded and untouched by such acts at all. Hence, will paapam never
ever affect or come to Him due to these acts- the question does not
arise at all for Him? Swamy desikan touches upon this aspect in the
above sloka with the word.. akarmavaSya.. Thus He does not belong to
jeeva jaathi; and also He is our Ruler, Lordship and Isawarn and due
to both aspects, He does not get affected by Karma and PunYa paapams
says engaLAzhwAn in the commentary on Vishnu purANa for the same
subject under IswaratvEna apahathapaapmatvaat..  Hence no dhOsham for
Him. 
Let us look at more questions in next posts...

Acharyan ThiruvaDigaLE SaraNam
Regards
Namo Narayana
dAsAnu dAsan



--- In ramanuja@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Geetha Raghavan <geetha123@xxxx> 
wrote:
> I am de-lurking to ask for help. I went into one of
> the general Indian discussion boards on a popular
> Indian search engine. One of the discussion was about
> Krishna and 16K gopikas. Some of the comments were
> insulting to Krishna, to say the least. I was very
> much upset by such comments but I did not know enough
> about the significance of the gopikas to send a reply.
> Can someone on the list explain the significance to
> me? Next time some ignorant soul passes some nasty
> commment, I will be able to explain the significance
> to them. 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Geetha
> 
> 
>               
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages!
> http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail




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