Dwarakanatha - 7

Monday, January 17, 2011

Dwarakanatha - 7 
         Once a sage did penance in Dwaraka in order to enjoy Bhagavan as a child. He wanted to pet Him, play with Him, and enjoy Him as his own child. Controlling all his senses and mind with full concentration chanted Krishna nama continuously.
Kulasekhara Alwar gives the greatness of the nama very clearly in the following sloka in Mukunda mala –
   “Shathru chedaika manthram sakala upanishad vakya sampujya manthram
    Samsaarothara manthram samupachitha thama sangha niryana manthram
    Sarvaisvaryaika manthram vyasanabhujaga sandashta santhaana manthram
    Jihve sree Krishna manthram japa japa sathatham janma saaphalya manthram!”
 
           No puranas or ithihasas have given such definition for the greatness of bhagavannaama as Sri Kulasekhara Alwar. This manthra is capable of defeating all our enemies such as kama, krodha, madha and mathsarya!  Just the chanting of the nama is enough to shatter  our enemies.  All Upanishads praise Krishna manthra as the ultimate manthra. With the help of this manthra it is very easy to cross the ocean of samsara because it removes the darkness of agyaana from us. It gives us all sorts of riches because it is capable of making us cross all our difficulties easily. So hey tongue ! Chant the manthra again and again so that your birth attains its purpose !
            The yogi sitting in Dwaraka, doing puja for his Salagrama murthy, chanted the nama with great sincerity. Bhagavan became tied by the sincere namajapam of the sage and appeared before him as a 2 year old child. Seeing the charming plump child, dark skinned, with lotus like feet, hands, eyes and coral lips, the sage was very much impressed and attracted towards it.   With his anklets tinkling, the peacock feather on his hair swaying,  he came rushing towards the sage. The sage could not take his eyes away from the child. He asked the child who he was. The child stared at him for some time.  Then brushing the amritha trickiling out of the corner of His mouth, He smiled and told the sage that He had no parents or anyone.  Seeing His actions the sage was losing his heart to the child. The child said He liked the sage very much and would like to stay with him. The sage felt immensely happy at this and readily welcomed the child to stay with him. The child now put on a condition that the sage should never get angry with Him. The sage couldn’t help smile at the innocent condition of the child and promised Him that he would not get angry with Him at any cost. All his senses were attracted towards the child and he completely lost his heart to Him.
“Thath kaisoram thath cha vakthraaravindam,
That kaarunyam they cha leela kataksha!
That saundaryam saa cha mandasmitha shree
Sathyam sathyam durlabham daivatheshu”
 says, Leelasukar in Krishna Karnamritham.  Absolute truth only! Bhagavan’s beauty, the enchanting smile, are indeed irresistable!  No wonder the sage fell for Him! Now the child re assured that the sage would keep his promise of not getting angry with Him whatever he did.  The way the child asked pointing  his finger at the sage in a threatening manner was so enticing that the stage immediately assured Him that he would never get angry with Him. He couldn’t control himself any more and hugged the child with both his hands. The child sat on the sage’s lap ready to be fondled. The sage’s happiness knew no bounds. It was in explicable. Anyone with sincere bhakthi and namajapam can experience all these. Only the mind is needed for it.  Didn’t Periyaazhwar and Swami Ramanuja experience it in this same Kaliyuga? Everyone should take efforts for the experience. That is the purpose of human life! The sage gave Him a tight kiss on the cheeks. The cheeks reddened with the force. The child complained that it hurt Him and told the sage not to do like this again.  The sage was in heavens living with the divine child. At night the child would lie on his lap and insist him to tell some stories.  The sage would tell about a blue little boy, with lotus like feet, lotus like arms, coral red lips, lotus like eyes, wearing a pitambaram, with tinkling anklets on his feet, and a fluttering peacock on his hair. Inquisitive the child would ask who was that boy. The sage would immeidately reply with a laugh it was none other than the child. The child seemed to be pleased with that. The sage did not realise that it was the same Bhagavan, to attain whom he was doing penance for long years.  Morning the child would wake up and would again gladden the sage’s heart with fresh pranks of His. The sage would sit for meditating the Lord while the Lord Himself was playing in front of him. The child would hug him from his back and the sage would feel that a softest thing in the world has brushed him. If he turned to see who it was the child would try to hide Himself behind a tree and or shake Head negatively as if to say “not me! not me!”  Sometimes when the stage was meditating it would jump on to his lap, pull his tied hair down and pretend He was riding a horse! These actions were very much pleasing for the sage. Sometimes the sage would do nivedyam or offering food to the Lord. He would close his eyes and mentally offer the food to the Lord with all sincerity. He would be startled to hear the sound of the bell near his ear, done by the naughty boy, requesting him to hurry up the process as He was really hungry ! Sometimes as the sage closed his eyes before offering the nivedyam the boy would silently slip in and finish off with the food by Himself ! ! Sometimes when the sage was immersed deep in meditation the boy would pinch his thigh and wake him up. As he opened his eyes He would say ‘an ant bit him’ ! Oh the great devotee Radhika knows the pleasure of being pinched by Krishna. At times when the sage sits with closed eyes for meditation the child would cover both his eyes with His lotus like soft hands and ask him who was covering his eyes !  Sometimes while the sage was drenched inside in Bhagavath dhyaana, the child would drench him outside too with the water in his kamandaloo !  The sage enjoyed all these pranks very much. He never got tired of His pranks. So ultimately Bhagavan was slowly being defeated by the devotee. Bhagavan decided to irritate him some how. So one day while the sage was doing puja for his Salagrama murthy, the child took the murthy in His hands and put it inside His mouth. 
            Due to divine sankalpa the sage got furious with the child for playing with the Salagrama murthy which was his object of worship for the past few years.  In a fit of anger he pushed the child away with his left hand. Immediately He became insulted and His eyes became redder and began to run away from him. Now the sage was in a fix. He could not stand the child going away and tried to run behind to call him back.  The child did not pay heed to his calls and kept running.  Thoroughly defeated the sage  surrendered to Bhagavan and resorted to namajapam. Now he hated Dwaraka and began wandering from that place chanting and asking everybody on the way about the child. He was crying aloud and was holding on to his life with the sweet memories of the child’s pranks. He wandered a long way and at last he reached a place where he saw the child sitting inside the cavity of an old iluppa tree. Delighted he ran towards the tree when the tree fell down with a loud noise and he saw Bhagavan lying as Padmanabha stretching over a few miles.  He was lying with His head in  Mathsya thirtham,  feet in sankha theertham, and both his hands in dharma theertham and adharma theertham in a huge form, with a lotus in His naval.  It was only Dwarakanatha who came here as Pathmanabha !
       The sage Divakara muni was scared at the sight itself. He pleaded with Bhagavan to shrink this huge size so that he can see Him properly and also do pradakshina.  Bhagavan complied to the prayers of this devotee and condensed His form to three times of the stick or dhantu in the sage’s hands. This leela is depicted in Syanandurapura varnanam by garbhasriman maharajah Swathi Thirunal. So the residents of Ananthapuram need not go to Dwaraka to see Dwarakanath for He Himself has come down from there for the people of Ananthapuram.  

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