DEIVATHIN KURAL # 10 (Vol #4) Dated 14 May 2010.

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 10 (Vol #4) Dated 14 May 2010.

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of the last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. Today we are proceeding from page 61 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers are reminded that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too, mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com constantly updated.
42. Not only Jambawan, all the sages in DandakaraNya, who were all ascetics beyond any flimsy desires of the flesh, when they saw Sri Rama for the first time, were so attracted by that noble form, that they wanted to hug him in a total embrace! As deserving matured souls, they put up their this wish directly to Sri Rama. His reply was that in his incarnation as Rama, only Sita was entitled to embrace his 'sareera', that is his body. In his next incarnation as Sri KrishNa he will fulfil their desires, he promised. So it seems that, all those Rishis were born as Gopika-s, the women of Brindavan!
43. That being the case of the Rishis and their wish, what is to be done with the wish of the bear who had been rendered immortal! How will he be ever able to fulfil his desire of embracing that divine noble body of Rama, even if he gets to know that KrishNa is none other than Rama! He was likely to hide his desire to himself, especially as it was unthinkable to embrace the flower like body of Rama / KrishNa, with that hirsute blanket like body of his own! So it was the secret plan of God to enable him to catch hold of him and role any this way and that, to his hearts content, in the pretext of fighting! Within the 'this worldly drama', there are so many divine plays known as, 'Bhagawan ki leela' ! Exactly similarly Siva as the 'Ishta devata', that is preferred deity of Arjuna, gave an opportunity to his devotee to get in to fisticuff with himself, when he came as a hunter and instigated his devotee in to a fight!
44. Days rolled in to weeks as KrishNa and Jambawan kept up their combat! The Yadava-s who were waiting outside, were fidgety! There was no sign of KrishNa. They were away from their own families, going hungry in the forest. It can be quite dangerous and lonely in the forest at night! In ones and twos they all returned to Dwaraka after a day or two or may be three! They did not want to get into any more trouble than what they were already in, however much they might have been beholden to Prasenan or Satrajit!
45. The fight / combat went on for 21 days! Though totally tired and worn-out physically, Jambawan was getting some thrill out of that physical touch of KrishNa's body! That is how he somehow continued to survive. By the end of the third week however, Jambawan could not continue anymore. He knew that it was the power of 'Sri Rama' that had sustained him for so long. Chanting aloud the name of 'Sri Rama' he was beating the next Avatara of Rama only! Jambawan started wondering as to who this man could be, who could withstand his strength combined with that of power of Rama Nama? "Evidently he can just not be a normal person! Who can this man be? And most importantly, why is his physical contact giving me so much of pleasure and thrill?", he thought! The answer just occurred to him in a flash.
46. KrishNa also thought, "How long do I have to go on playing this game? I have so many more commitments, after all!" So we should take it that Krishna caused Jambawan to realize! Jambawan thought, "Oh! God! How more bearishly foolish can I ever become! My very Ishta Devata has come calling on me in this forest after all these years and I am fighting with him!" He felt thoroughly ashamed at his lack of sensitivity. He fell at the feet of Bhagawan and begged his pardon! There is a colloquial phrase in Tamil, 'poosai koduppadu' which would mean literally to give a thorough thrashing, while sounding as though to worship! May be that phrase evolved after this incident, when Jambawan beat up the very favourite God that he wanted to worship! KrishNa picked him up and consoled Jambawan lovingly.
47. Jambawan pleaded and prayed, "I am myself your slave only! There is nothing of mine which is not yours. I offer back to you, your Syamantaka MaNi. With that, I offer to you this Kanya MaNi (gem of a girl), my daughter Jambavathy also. Please be kind enough to agree!" (Women are addressed and referred as, 'peNmaNi and nareemaNi', as per customs and traditions of this country, as a 'gem of a girl and or gem of a woman'!) Jambavathy’s love was also fulfilled when KrishNa accepted her along with the gem Syamantaka MaNi!
48. KrishNa returned to Dwaraka with the newly wedded wife and the gem Syamantaka MaNi. First thing he did was to restore the gem to the original owner Satrajit. Satrajit had given it to Prasenan from whom the lion had got it. Jambawan took it from the animal. KrishNa had got it from Jambawan after a fight. So legally, KrishNa could have claimed the gem as his! But having proved that he was not a criminal, with a liberal heart he gave it to the one who had got the gem after much worshipful Tapasya to the Sun!
49. Now, this MaNi did not give any great satisfaction to Satrajit, but was only a reminder of his fallacies, that was more of an irritant! He felt bad about having subjected innocent KrishNa to false accusations! He wanted to make amends. The best method he thought was to offer his daughter Satyabhama, in marriage to Sri KrishNa! That he did. Satyabhama was the only child of Satrajit. She was the Avatara of Bhu Devi. RukmaNi was Sri devi. So finally it came about that, the Syamantaka MaNi caused KrishNa to face trumped up charges of accusation initially, ending in his acquisition in marriage of Jambavathy and Satyabhama! That was not a bad bargain!
50. Like Jambawan, Satrajit also offered the Syamantaka MaNi along with the Kanya Daanam of Satyabhama. But KrishNa, having accepted the hand of Satyabhama, refused to accept the gem Syamantaka MaNi. He told him that, it was in the rightness of things that it should be with Satrajit, as a gift from the Sun God! Anyhow, Satrajit thought that, as she was his only daughter, all his wealth and property would anyhow accrue to her and KrishNa. So he did not press the point further.
51. After this in a few days, there was news about PaNdava-s, that they were all burnt off when their palace made of 'Arakku', a type of cieling wax, was reduced to ashes in a conflagration caused by deceit at the behest of Dhuryodana. That is a different story of Maha Bharatha, which we are not going into now! We are concerned only to the extent that KrishNa went to Hastinapura to convey his condolences for the tragedy. The fact that the Pandava-s had escaped by an under ground passage from the palace, was not known to the world. Krishna's absence from Dwaraka, led to great grievances to Satyabhama.
52. There was one Satadhanva, a very rough and tough character amongst the Yadava clan. There were two other people of the Yadava clan, involved in this ensuing drama, Krutavarma and Akrura, who were much closer to KrishNa. Actually this Akrura was a devotee of Krishna. He was the one who took KrishNa and Balarama, from Brindavan to Mathura, before Kamsa was sorted out! The common factor between these three personages is the fact that they were all in love with Satyabhama, whom in one stroke, KrishNa had wedded and taken away! Some time or the other, all three of them had asked for the hand of Satyabhama in marriage and Satrajit's answer to each one of them was positive but indecisive. Syamantaka MaNi further complicated the scenario and KrishNa had got wedded to Satyabhama.
53. We are yet to come to how KrishNa worshipped Vigneshwara that is, PiLLaiyar. We have to wait a little more for that scene! In the meantime, Satadhanva, Krutavarma and Akrura, all three of them had their genuine hate and complaint against Satrajit! He had given away not only the girl whom they loved, but also given away the Syamantaka MaNi to KrishNa. Though KrishNa had returned the gem to Satrajit, the three came together on a common platform of hate and frustration! Passion and pride for women and wealth, leading to hate and frustration; can even annul one's devotion to God and noble causes', is the warning that we should all draw from this story!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.