Yadhavaabhyadhaya is the story of Krishnaavathaara
retold by VedantaDesika with a beautiful poetic flavour steeped in
bhakthi. Desika has written devotional hymns on all the
archaavathaaras the deities of all the vaishnavite shrines but none
of the forms of Lord Narayana seems to be so dear to him as His
incarnation as Krishna. Gopalavimsati, twenty verses in praise of
Krishna is the most exquisite work exuding charm and beauty.
Yadhavaabhyudhaya is an epic which seems to be an elongated version
of Gopalavimsati as it elaborates on the subtle references to the
exploits of Krishna therein but it is rich in poetic skill and
intellectual excellence. The most significant fact which points out
to the link between the two works is that the opening verse of both
the works is the same. The greatness of Yadhavaabhyudhaya can be
understood by the fact that the commentator of the work is none other
than Appayya Dikshitha, the well known exponent of Advaita Vedanta.
In this page an endeavour will be made to present this great work in
such a way that all can enjoy its richness and beauty, which has
been made known only to Sanskrit scholars so far.
Vedantadesika starts his epic with the mangalasloka `vande
brindavanacharam vallaveejanavallabham; jayanteesambhavam dhaama
vyjayantheevibhooshanam.' This verse is rich in meaning and brings
out fully the glory of Krishna. It means, `Salutations to Him, who
was born on Krishnaashtami, who used to inhabit the Brindavan,
adorned with the garland of forest flowers, self effulgent and loved
by gopis. The four adjectives given to the Lord, namely,
brindavanacharam, the one who roams around in Brindavan,
vallveejanavallabham, the beloved of the gopis, jayantheesambhavam,
born on the day of His avatar, vyjayantheevibhooshanam, adorned by
the forest flowers are rich in meaning as they denote His vathsaltya,
souseelya,soulbhya and svamithva.
His Vaathsalya, love towards His dependents is indicated by
Brindhaavanacharam , which is like that of a cow towards its calf.
Brindha denotes His devotees, for whose protection, avanaaya, He
moves about, charathi. This dispels the fear in the heart of His
punishment for the wrong deeds one has committed, svaaparaadha bhaya
nivarthakam. Appayya dikshitha, in his commentary says that He, who
was dhandakaaranyachara, walked in the dhandaka forest for the
protection of the rshis became brindhaavanachara, for the protection
of the cows, in Krishnaavathaara true to His promise
later, `parithraanaaya saadhoonaam vinaasaaya cha dushkrthaam,
dharma samsthaapanaarthaaya samhavaami yuge yuge', I manifest Myself
in each epoch in order to protect the good and to punish the
wicked.' The cows represent the good who resort to the Lord for their
welfare. Sentiment, rasa, exhibited by this epithet is adbhutha,
wonder that the lord assumes the form of a cowherd and showers His
love to one and all, man, bird and beast. The same vathsalya as He
has shown towards Prahladha so that Hiranya kasipyu could not harm
even a hair on his body, towards Jatayu in Ramaavathaara and towards
all His dependents in Krishnaavathaara which made Him even to wash
and feed the horses during the Mahabhaaratha war.
Valavee jana vallabham, the beloved of the gopis, is the
epithet chosen for the purpose of indicating His Souseelyam,
benevolence. Souseelyam is defined as `mahathah mandhaihi saha
neerandhra samslesha svabhaavah, the close friendship shown by the
great towards the humble folk. This quality of the Lord dispels the
fear that He is beyond comprehension. Appayya dikshitha says that
the fact that He who enjoys the uninterrupted union with Mahakakshmi
was also able to enjoy the company of the simple cowherd girls is the
proof of His souseelya. The term Vallavijana is used to denote their
nomad existence as valla means movement. The sentiment expressed here
is sringara.
Desika uses the epithet Jayanthee sambhavam to denote the
soulabhya of the Lord, in taking birth in the yadhavakula, which
removes the fear that the Lord is unapproachable. Soulabhyam is
labhdhum susakathvam, easy accessibility. The significance of the
word jayanthee sambhava instead of Devakisambhava implies that the
Lord manifested Himself as Krishna and was not born, according to His
words `sambhavaami yuge yuge' and `yadha yadha hi dharmasya
glaanirbhavathi -------thadhaathmaanam srjamyaham.' Jayanthi also
means jayam thanothi, victorious in the vinaasa of dushkrtha,
indicative of virarasa. It is interesting to observe here that the
words jayanthi and janmaashtami are used only to mark
Krishnajayanthi, janmaashtami avathaara dhinasya jayantheethi
vyavahaarah and all the others are mentioned as Ramanavami ,
Nrsimhajayanthi and so on.
Dhaamavyjayantheevibhooshanam relates to the svaamithva,
overlordship.. Dhaama means the self effulgent nature and
vyjayayanthi which normally means garland of forest flowers also
implies bhoothathanmaathra adhishtaana devatha the divinity behind
the elements. The vanamaala here is the maya of the Lord which He
wears like a garland in His manifestations This indicates that
Krishna is the Parabrahman who is the cause of this universe created
out of His own Maya. The Paravasudeva is referred to by this epithet.
For a literary work there are four aspects that have to be
specified at the outset. First is the grantha the mention of the work
itself. Secondly the subject matter, vishaya, third is he adhikaari ,
to whom the work is intended and lastly the phala or prayojana, the
benefit that will accrue by the study of the grantha. Here by the
four adjectives given to the Lord in the sloka refer to the above
mentined four requisites of a kavya.
The grantha is Yadhavaabhyudhaya, the glory of Yadhava,
Krishna. This is indicated by brindhaavanacharam, the inhabitant of
brindhaavan, Krishna. The vishaya is the story of Krishna denoted by
jayantheesambhavam, born on Janmaashtami. Adhikaari is the one who
has love for the Lord. This is shown by the word vallavee jana
vallabham. Lastly the phala, fruit of hearing the story of the Lord
is Mokha, salvation which is implied by dhaama vyjayanthee
vibhooshanam. Knowing Him as Dhaama the Parabhrahman manifest in the
garb of a cowherd through His maya, vyjayanthee vibhooshanam, one
gets emancipated.
The glory of the Lord is such that even the Vedas, which are
the primary source of knowledge about Him, are not able to do full
justice to His description. Desika portrays the Vedas as the bards
trying to sing about His merits and he says that when they start
extolling even one of His infinite auspicious attributes, they
become tired. ` Ekaika gunapraanthe sranthaah nigamavandhinah.' Then
Desika expresses his humility by saying that under such circumstances
what can those with limited intellect expect to accomplish, meaning
himself. He goes on to reassure himself that the subject is
sourikatha, story of Krishna, which is like nectar that will be
relished even if it is told by a dull witted person. He reaffirms his
position by claiming that there could be nothing wrong in following
the footsteps of the great poets like Valmiki and Vyasa.
Then Desika extols the kavithva saying that a kavi , poet,
whose creation is full of merits such as rasa, bhaava and alamkara is
akin to the creator, Brahma, in whom Sarasvathi revels. Rasa is the
nine kinds of sentiment , srngara etc. bhaava here means the
accompanying moods that go with each sentiment , called vibhaava,
anubhaava and sanchaaribhaava and alamkara is the figure of speech.
Such a poetry is like goddess Sarasvathi expressive beautiful and
well adorned with ornaments. The poet who is endowed with all these
skills is like Brahma associated with Sarasvathi.
But should perfection be a essential characteristic in
composing poetry? No, says Desika. If a talented dancer makes a slip
in her performance a connoisseur will ignore it and will appreciate
only the overall effect . Similarly considering the vishayagourava,
the merit of the subject matter which is Bhagavatvishaya, story of
the Lord, even if there may be any fault, it can be excused.
So, says Desika, "I will now speak of the story of Krishna,
which is the nectar emerging out of the ocean of Vyasaveda, the
Mahabharatha, without any hesitancy." What is implied here is that
the most enjoyable part of Mahabharatha is the story of Krishna.
Vyasaveda may also mean the Vedas, the essence of which is the Lord,
as Ramanuja says in the mangala sloka of Sribhaashya, sruthi sirasi
vidheepthe brahmani Srinivaase, the Lord forms the crown of the
Vedas. So the story of Krishna is the sarabhootha, essence of Vedas
as well as Mahabharatha which is later given by Vyasa as
Bhagavathapurana like extracting the butter out of the milk of
Mahabharatha.
Desika calls the story of Krishna vibhudhajeevaathu, the
elixir for vibhudha, devas as the incarnation took place on being
entreated by the devas and the Bhoodevi. The word vibhudha also means
men of wisdom of whom the story of Krishna is the paramoushadham
greatest antidote for the ills of the samsara.
In this context it would be interesting to note the peculiar
circumstances which made Vyasa write the Bhagavatha purana. The
Dasamaskandha, tenth section of Bhagavathapurana contains the story
of Krishna , the subject matter of Yadhavaabhyudhaya. It seemed that
after Vyasa had finished Mahabharatha and other vedantic works he
became depressed for no reason. Narada came to him and told him that
his feeling of depression born out of dissatisfaction was due to the
fact that though he exhaustively wrote about dharma and Vedanta he
did not write about the exploits and the glory of Krishna and the
incarnations of the Lord which would inculcate bhakthi . Hence his
heart became dry and depressed. Then Narada told him the whole
Bhagavata as he had learnt from Brahma. This was the inducement for
Vyasa to write the Bhagavatha purana. That is why Desika calls it
vibhudhajeevaathu, the life-giving elixir.
Desika refers to the Lord as Vibhu, and Sreemaan. He is
Vibhu, all powerful, all pervading, Sreemaan associated with Sree,
Lakshmi. The significance of the two adjectives is given by the words
eko vusvamidham chithram ajeejanath. He is eka , one only. `Sadheva
soumya idham agra aaseeth, ekameva adhvitheeyam (Chandhogya Up.) Sat
alone existed in the beginning, one only without a second.' Hence
Brahman, Lord Narayana of Visistadavaita, was both the material and
instrumental cause of the Universe. Usually in creation as applied to
the worldly things like the creation of a pot the material cause, the
mud and the instrumental cause, the potter are different. But before
creation, says the Upanishad there was none else than the Brahman. So
Brahman is the upaadhaana karana, material cause and nimiththa
kaarana, instrumental cause. This is indicated by the words svayam
and svasmin.
The Lord created the world which Desika describes as
chithram, wonderful. He compares it to a painting, chithram which is
created by the Lord with the brush of His leela, playful and without
effort, and the paint He used was His krpa, infinite mercy. The
canvas was nothing but the Lord Himself, svasmin, in Himself, created
by Himself, svayam. This is in accordance with the concept of sarira-
sariri bhava of Visishtadvaita. The world consisting of sentient and
insentient beings is the body of the Lord of which He is the soul.
Before creation the world exists in Him in subtle form and after
creation it assumes the gross form.
Now what is the purpose of creation? To say that it is His
leela would make Him a sadist who has created the world full of
sorrow and misery for His sport. No, it is not so, says Desika,
because He has coloured it with His krpa. The word leela only denotes
that the creation was as effortless as a play for Him. He not only
created but also sustains the universe through His acts of mercy. The
duhkha is due to our karma but to protect us by showing the path to
emancipation is His act of mercy.
Then Desika traces the clan of yadhu in which the Lord took
the incarnation as Krishna. The first of the clan was Chandra, the
Moon.' Chandramaa manaso jaathah, the Moon was born from the mind of
the Lord.'(Purushasuktham) Desika gives the reason as to why the Moon
was born out of His mind. The Moon came out as though he is the
personification of the prasaadha, grace of the Lord,
paripaaalayithavyeshu prasaadha iva, towards the people deserve to be
protected, His devotees because the moon is jagadhaahlaadhakara,
gives happiness to all
Budha, the adhidevatha of the planet Mercury was the son of
Moon and Pururavas was the son of Budha. Pururavas, says Desika, was
the living example of the efficacy of sathaam aahitha vahneenaam
stheyathaa, the power of aahithaagni the sacrificial fire, which
represents the acts of sacrifice, yajna because it gave him the power
of visiting svarga where he fell in love with Urvasi, the celestial
damsel and married her.
The lineage of Pururavas flourished in all directions of the
earth by the fame of his discendents like Ayus and Nahusha, who
attained the status of Indra through his merit. When Indra incurred
brahmahaththi dosha, the sin of killing a Brahmin by his slaying
Vrthraasura, who was the son of Thvashta, a Brahmin , he had to leave
the svarga and do penance. Then the devas put Nahusha in the place
of Indra since he has performed hundred asvamedha yagas, which makes
him qualified for the post of Indra but he incurred the displeasure
of Agasthya and was cursed by him to become a snake.
Yayathi was the son of Nahusha and had three sons and one
of them was Yadhu, who was a vadhaanya, very generous and austere and
just. Vasudeva , the father of Krishna was born in the clan of Yadhu.
Vasudeva was Kasyapa prajaapathi in his previous birth and was the
father of both devas and. asuras. His wives Surabhi and Adhithi were
born as Rohini and Devaki in next birth and married Vasudeva. When
Vasudeva was born the divine musical instruments, aanaka and
dhundhubhi sounded and hence he acquired the name AAnakadhundhubhi.
Vasudeva was the refuge of the good as Lord Vishnu is for the
world, the Sun is for light and the sea is for gems. This implies
that he was the sole resort of the good as the earth was burdened
with unrighteous kings for whose destruction the Lord descended in
the form of Krishna. Even though born of the royal family Vasudeva
was intent on attaining mukthi and was not interested in the worldly
possessions and became content with whatever came to him of its own
accord.
Vasudeva got married to Devaki, the cousin sister of Kamsa
whom he loved very much but hearing the aerial declaration that the
eighth son of Devaki will be his killer Kamsa put them both in
prison.
In the meanwhile the devas were approached by Bhoodevi who
entreated them to relieve her of he burden of adharma perpetuated by
the unrighteous kings who oppressed her like giant mountains. Then
they all approached the Lord Narayana along with Brahma with
Bhoodevi in front and started praying to Him.
The devas praised the Lord thus.
He is thrivedimadhya dheeptha, shines on the three vedas
because He is vedavedya, known through the Vedas. Here it would be
interesting to compare the words of Thyagaraja in his
kriti `saamajavaragamana' on Krishna. He calls Him ` vedasiromaathrja
sapthaswara naadhaachaladheepa,' He shines as the light on the
mountain of naadha, made up of the seven notes, sapthasvara which
were born out of the head of vedas, that is pranava.
He is thridhaama, having three abodes, namely, Vaikunta which
is His paramapadha, supreme abode, the milky ocean and the surya
mandala, disc of the Sun, He is described in the upanishat as
Suryamandalamadhya varthi.
He has five weapons , panchahethayah, shankha, charka
gadha ,sharnga and khadga, the Conch, Disc, Mace, Bow and Sword
respectively.
He is baahyaanthara havirbhuja, takes the external offering
in the yajna and also internal in the form of the self which is
offered in devotion and He as varadha, bestows His grace.
His power is independent ananyaadheenamahima and unlimited
whereas that of other gods are in His control paraadheenavaibhava and
hence limited. Devas beseech Him to protect them as He is
dhayaadheenavihara overwhelmed with mercy as shown by His acts like
killing Ravana. In this sloka the poetic skill is shown in the choice
of the epithets ananyaadheena svaadheena and dhayadheena.
The Lord is the ocean of mercy, dhayaambhudhi in which His
gunas, jnana bala aisvarya ,,shakthi , tejas and virya are the
ratnas, gems and the waves are His vyuhas and vibhavas. The six
attributes, knowledge, might, sovereignty, power, glory and valiance
are called bhagas and hence the name bhagavan. The vyuhas are His
manifestations as Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradhyumna and Anirudhdha
and the vibhavas are His incarnations. These are metaphorically
described as the waves while the gunas are the precious gems which
are said to be in the ocean.
The glory of the Lord cannot be ascertained from the Vedas
even because they are His creation and they are compared to the
travellers who even after travelling from morning till evening are
unable to reach the destination ,namely to describe Him as such.
He puts on different costumes and comes down as incarnations
like an actor and He acts according to the role He assumes. This
amuses the wise who see Him act like a subordinate, a supplicant and
obedient son to His own children and dependents. He is the one who
apportions the result of karma to the individuals and it is all His
leela which waters the seeds of karma so that it brings forth the
sprouts of results , karmaphala. Desika says that this is true with
all beings, brahmaadhisthambaparyantham, from the four-faced Brahma
down to te blade of grass as everything is His creation only.
He shines in the hearts of the pure in His full splendour
and like the Chintamani fulfils all their wishes. Chintamani is a
precious gem which is supposed to grant all wishes of the possessor.
To those who have become fatigued by traveling in the desert
of samsara the devotion of the Lord serves as a welcome river,
flowing with the nectar of His mercy, in which they plunge and enjoy
its coolness.
He is the boat that helps those who are caught in the
whirlpool of sin to cross
over to the other side.
He is unparalleled, limitless, and the cause of the
universe , Himself uncaused. He is denoted by Pranava, the essence of
Vedas and the raft of rescue from the sea of samsara. Those who seek
refuge in Him alone depend only on Him for their redemption and do
not adopt any other means except devotion to Him like the chathaka
bird which live on rain drops alone . not seeking any other source of
water.
Like the sun who wakes up from sleep the Lord wakes up the
jives from the sleep of ignorance. Hence, the devas entreated Him to
dispel their calamity like the sun destroys the darkness because
Kamsa and others have risen like comets to create disturbances in the
world.
Thus entreated by the devas Bhagavan appeared before them
out of mercy. Desika here gives a beautiful description of the Lord.
The devas saw Him reclined on the couch of Adisesha, like a
rain-bearing cloud, dark in hue , on a white cloud of autumn.
Adisesha is supposed to be white in colour and sitting on him the
lord presented a picture of a dark cloud on the top of a white
cloud, which is a rare occurrence. This simile is an indication of
the wonder the devas experienced on seeing the Lord before them.
The lord was accompanied by Sridevi with lotus in her hand
implying His aisvarya, the mastery over the universe. The epithet
Lakshmipathi denotes the supreme power combined with mercy of the
Lord.
He was adorned with ornaments which were sukumara, slender
and not heavy, sukhasparsa, soft of touch on His body and not rough,
like sweet smelling flowers, suganshibhih prasoonaih iva, and well
suited to His gunas, the infinitely auspicious qualities. His form
is the garden of His gunas and the ornaments were like the flowers in
the garden. Desika expresses his love for the Lord in imagining the
ornaments on His body to be tender like flowers. An ardent devotee
treats the archa or idol of the Lord as real and cannot bear to see
even the stalks of the flowers hurting Him. and arranges the
ornaments on the idol in such a way as not to hurt Him.
Every part of His body vying each other in beauty excelled
that of His ornaments and stole the hearts of all beings. The
ornaments were beautified by Him and not vice versa. The weapons He
was wielding, namely the disc , bow, mace etc. were proclaiming His
natural qualities like valour, power and so on and seemed to forecast
the victory of the devas. With His form created by Himself, He shone
like a sapphire rising out of the sea of His own splendour.
Along with the Lord came Garuda , who is the embodiment of
Vedas, srutiroopa, and covered with the fragrance of the feet of the
Lord, being His carrier, signifying the impending war with the
asuras. The veda calls Garuda `suparno asi garutman trivrth the
sirah' meaning that Garuda with powerful wings has veda as his head.
The Lord thus presented a picture of a Sun who never sets, a
Moon who never wanes and an ocean of nectar which has no bounds to
the devas. He was shining in His glory which excelled the Sun, was
source of joy in His cool mercy , which never diminishes and He was
like everlasting nectar to the devas in showering His grace. By
seeing Him thus the eyes of the devas became fruitful and the Lord
reassured them with His abhayahasta, showing His hand in a gesture of
protection and by His smile that destroys evil by the mere sight of
it. The abhayakara and the mandasmita were ressuring enough for them
that their prayer is answered even before He began to speak.
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