Krishna meets his parents
After destroying the Kamsa and others Krishna and Balarama went to
their parents, Vasudeva and Devaki, who were moved to tears on seeing
them. Vasudeva endowed with insight due to the grace of the Lord
started praising Krishna knowing Him as the Supreme Being.
Gesika reers to Krishna as sAthvathAm pathi. Sathvatham means
pancharathram, called vaishnava thanthram whcihw was told by the
Lord Himself. So the word means that Krishna is none other than
Narayana Himself.
Desika goes into ecstasy in relating the praise of the Lord by
Vasudeva and the glory of Krishna in Mathura.
Vasudeva said:
"You are the Lord Vishnu, the unoriginated, who is the only subject
of the vedas,from whose navel, which sports the lotus, Brahma
originated and the sages learn from the veda that You are
ananyAdhAram, self supporting yet supports everything , AdhAram, the
Lord of all but has no one superior, anayESvaram isvaram and the
Master of all but no one rules over Him, ananyADhipathim pathim."
"You are the lamp of which Your grace is the wick and Your mercy is
the ghee by which it burns bright showing everything clearly, that
is, induces clear perception destroying darkness( ignorance)"
dEvakee dhanujasThooNA dhivuyam DHAma vrajAngaNam
ramA rADHAdhayScha ithi rASibhEdhairna bhidhyasE
"You are the same,( na bhidhyasE-do not differ) even when Your place
of manifestation differ such as, Devaki or the pillar in the house of
Hiranyakasipu, or the courtyard of the mansion of Nanda or when Yoe
are in Vaikunta. Your consorts differ, Lakshmi in Vaikunta, Radha or
Neela in gokula etc."
This reflects the idea set out in the Nammazvar Pasuram, 'palappalavE
AbharaNam pErum palppalavE.' Desika hmself has said in the first
chapter, 'natavath bhoomikabhEdhaih nAtha dheevyan prthagviDhaih,'
(1.49), "Oh lord You shine with different costumes like an actor on
the stage." Here it is shown that the settings and co-actors differ
in each play of His but He is the same.
The next sloka is also the reflection of the sloka 49 of the first
chapter, 'namyasya namathah kshudhrAn---puthraih pithrumathAm
kreedA,' Vasudeva says,
niyanthA sarvabhoothAnAm niyanthavyairniyamyasE
pithAmahamukhAih puthree mamaputhrOasi mAyayA
"Though You are the controller of all You allow Yourself to be
controlled by them. From Brahma downwards all are Your chiildren and
You appear as my son by Your Maya.
mahathA thvadpadhEnaiva mAruthinyAyam ASrithAh
nistharanthi achirAth santhah dhustharam bhavasAgaram
"The great men cross the ocean of samsara , which is difficult to
cross over, by the power of your feet following the way of Hanuman."
The implication here is that Hanuman was able to cross the ocean by
resorting to the power of the feet of Rama.So too the wise cross the
ocean of samsara with the power of His feet.Appayya Dikshitha
explains thavatpadhena ( the power of) Your feet by taking it to
mean the anguleeyaka of Rama which Hanuman carried with devotion and
faith and that is described here as the power of His feet.
But Utthamur swami says that the anguleeyaka was only to instill
cofdence in the mind of Seetha in the words of Hanuman and not the
cause of srossing the ocean.He explains the word thvatpadha as
Vishnupadha, that is Akasa, called as such because the Lord in His
Thrivikramavathara covered the sky with His foot.But it is common
blief that hanuman av cquered the power to cross the ocean because he
was carrying the anguleeyaka of Rama while returning the choodamani
of Seetha gave him the power.
Thus extolling the glory of the Lord, Vasudeva beseeched Him that he,
vasudeva should not rivert back into the illsusion if considering
Krishna as an ordinary human being which even the yogis who know the
real identity of the Lord could not escape. (The episodes of Brahma
hiding the cattle and the gopas and Indra gettin angry at the worship
of Govardhana are the examples of this fact.) He further said that to
kill Kamsa and others was not a great achievement for Krishna who is
capable of detroying the wicked by the tip of His fingernails.Hence,
he said all the praise he had uttered so far were like one who is
praising the invaluable gem without knowing its merit.. That is, the
praise of only the person who knows the value is to be esteemed and
not by an ignorant man who does not know its real worth.
Krishna , hearing this, treated the speech of vasudeva only as the
praise of the son by the father and never showed His real identity.
He replied fittingly to put the mind of Vasudeva at rest.
Desika describes Krishna in Mathura thus.
Krishna appeared with four arms as he was when he manifested first in
prison.But the common people did not understood his true identity
and thought that he was an extraordinary human with four arms.
Perhaps in the puranic age it was common because Ravana and
Krthaveerya were described with more than two arms etc.
Krishna was behaving as an obedient younger brother to Balarama and
Desika says that when he bowed down to Balarama the latter shone as
the crown of Krishna and hence retained his state as Sesha. With the
pun on the word Sesha, the kireeta is the sesha of the wearer, being
an ornament(sesha means one belonging to someone else who is the
seshi) and also Balarama is sesha in reality(Adhisesha)
Then Desika describes that the ornaments on Krishna which were
beautified by his body, the royal umbrella held over him was like the
lotus from his navel. his face like lotus flanked on both sides with
the chamaras looked like the reflection of himself as hamsavathara.
Krishna made the clan of yadhavas rise in glory like the moon makes
the lilies rise up.The brahmins who resorted him were like Brahma
himself who has left off his work of creation and came to him.His
speeches were pleasing and true and gave joy to his dependents.
Krishna,though requested by the elders to become the king, put only
Ugrasena on the throne but accepted the status of crowned
prince.Krishna with his prowess and glory made Mathura equivalent to
his divine abode, vaikunta.He cast off all his previous adornments
like peacock feathers but was wearing only the crown brought to him
by Garuda while in Brindavan.(vide-chapter -4-Krishna the cowherd.)
Desika continues the thread about the transformation of all that was
his while being a cowherd into his royal signalia by saying that the
four vedas which served him earlier in the form of cows, became his
four royal horses, named, sainya, sugreeva, meghapushpa and valahaka.
Not only that but they took the form of his foot rest and supported
his feet which were like lotuses comparble only with those held by
Lakshmi.His flute attained its original form of conch and enjoyed the
contact with his lips.
Desika refers to the episode of bringing back the dead son of his
guru Sandheepani very briefly denoting the gurukula vasa of Krishna.
The royal hall called sudharma was given to Krishna by Indra and
Krishna made Ugrasena the head of the counsel, because he was the
king.Ugrasena with the help of Krishna reigned the kingdom well
accoring to dharmasasthra. All the supporters of Kamsa were thrown
out and filled the court with good and wise.Krishna by conquering all
the kings made Ugrasena the sovereign of the land.
Desika, proving himself as the kavithArkika kesari, describes the
counsel of Ugrasena thus:
mAnasamrakshakah thasya manthrah tharka iva Anayah
angapanchakasampatthyA vipakshE dhandathAm yayou
It was like tharka. Tharka here means only anumana, one of the valid
means of cognition, though the name tharka sasthra is given to the
whole science of ascertaining a truth by perception, inference,
comparison and verbal testimony.
Anumana has five limbs and so was the counsel of Ugrasena , says
Desika.The five limbs of the counsel are, l karmaNAm ArambhOpAyah,
the plan of action,purushadhravyasampatthih,human and material
resources,dhESa kAla vibhAgah, apportioning of proper time and place,
vinipAthapratheekArah,removal of obstacles and kAryasiddhi, success.
Manthra or counsel done in this manner will be vipakshadhanda,
punishment to the enemy.
This is compared to tharka which also has five limbs. Here the valid
means of cognition, namely,anumana, inference is referred to. To
arrive at anumana that causes vipalsha dhanda, refutation of the
opponent there must be five steps of argument. First is vyathi, that
is invariable concomitance. When one wants to infer from smoke coming
out of a mountain that the mountain has fire,the vyapti or the
invariable connection between fire and smoke has to be established
such as 'wherever there is smoke there is fire.' Secondly a sapaksha
or a similar instance must be quoted such as. 'as in the case of a
kitchen.' Thirdly it is argued that 'this is so'.Next the absence of
vyapthi when the sadhya, major term (the object of inference, that
is, fire,) absent must be shown sucha s where there is no fire there
is no smoke as in a lake. This is the fourth limb.This is vipaksha.
Finally the conclusion that the mountain has fire.
Thus Krishna upheld the yadhuvamsa once again which suffered due to
the tyranny of Kamsa.
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