Chapter 42
He cures Curses
The
King, who was listening to the
thrilling
narrative of the
gratitude of Krishna towards His
Guru, suddenly
opened his eyes, and seeing the
Sage before
him, he said, "Ah, the Leelas of Krishna!
His wonder-filled
acts exceed each other in miracle
and mystery.
God is prepared to assume any burden,
in order
to correct and improve the World; by this
means,
He proclaims His
genuine Majesty and Might. But,
the dark smoke of
Maya settles hard on the eye of
Man and renders him
incapable of recognizing Divinity. Therefore, he misses
the inner significance of
these
"Leelas."
Suka understood the
working of the King's mind.
He replied, "King!
The confusing influence of Maya
is the consequence
of the accumulated activities in
previous lives. One
can escape Maya through good
consequence; one
succumbs to it if the consequence
is deleterious. If
good activity has marked previous
lives, any sinful
tendency will be overwhelmed by
virtuous tendencies
in this life and one will have
faith in Divinity;
one will attach himself to the
Divine
and spend his life,
on the basis of the Divine.
On the other hand,
those who have committed
horrible crimes in
past lives have the dreadful darkened vision, which
prevents one from seeing the Divine. Such a one never
reminds himself of God and His handiwork, never yearns
for his own 'good' and the
good of others; he
sees things in false perspective;
he revels in
wickedness, and engages in vicious
acts.
Faith in God is the
harvest of the seeds planted in
previous lives. It
cannot be grown and harvested,
on the spur of the
moment."
Hearing these words,
the King grew anxious to
know more about the
Punya
(merit acquired by
means of good
activity), and Papa
(demerit acquired
by means of evil
activity) and their impact on the
lives of men; so,
he prayed the Sage Suka to tell
him one
more incident from the career of Krishna,
which
deals with a curse
and its cure, illustrating the principle of
destiny.
Suka laughed at this
request! "King! Countless
are the cures which
Krishna effected on those affected by curses! The
Rakshasas
whom He killed while
He was yet a child,
and later, as a boy, as I have
told you, were all
cursed to be born so, as a punishment for some evil deed
and when they met with
death at His hands,
they were liberated from the
curse. The King put
in a suggestion, at this stage. "I
have heard that the
'uprooting of the tree' was an
amazing incident of
outstanding importance; if you
elaborate on that,
I can derive deep joy there from."
On this, Suka who
was ever ready to oblige him,
began
the
story:
"King! Though there was
no paucity of servants,
it was Yasoda the
mistress of the house who, according to traditional
custom, did all the chores of the
household. Boiling
the milk, curdling it, churning it and preparing butter -
all these activities were personally done by her. One
day, she woke up as usual,
at the beginning of
the Brahmamuhurtham (4.30
A.M.); she took her
bath and went through the early
morning duties, and
later, placing the milk pot before
her she started
churning the contents, vigorously
pulling the ropes
which kept the churn-rod steady
in the liquid - all
the while singing sweet hymns
on God.
Meanwhile,
Gopala (Krishna) came forward with
slow but steady
steps to the place where the
mother
was churning and
singing and gave a sudden sharp
pull at the end of
her sari; Yasoda was startled at
this unexpected
pull; she turned round and was
most pleasantly
surprised, when she found it was the mischievous child,
Krishna! [See also Srimad
Bhagavatam, Canto 10, Chapter
9])
Putting stop to the
churning, she took Krishna into her arms and fondled
Him, "Dear
Son!" 'It is not dawn yet! Why have you got
up from
bed so soon? Go, my darling! Sleep again for
a few
minutes!" But, the Divine Child lisped most entrancingly
that It was hungry, and began
sobbing
pathetically, to
confirm its yearning for being
fed. The
mother's heart melted; she placed the
churning
rod on one side and
covered the pot with a lid; then,
she took Krishna on
her lap, sitting just where she
was; while she was
feeding Him at her breast, she
stroked His head,
gently and softly. Just then, she
heard the noise of
a pot rolling down from the oven
in the kitchen
inside; she suspected it was the mischief of the cat; she
lifted the Child from her lap and
placed it on the
floor, for, she had to run in, to examine what had
happened! When Yasoda disappeared
into the next room,
Krishna was incensed at her behaviour, dropping Him in
the middle of His Feed.
He saw the pot, before
His eyes, and turned all His
anger towards it.
He gave it a hard blow with the
churning rod, and
when the curds flowed along the
floor, He collected
the butter and stuffed it into His
Mouth, and hastened
out of the room, lest He be admonished. When Yasoda came
into the room, she
saw the pot broken,
the curds on the floor, the butter
gone! And, Krishna
had made Himself scarce! Knowing this to be the handiwork
of Gopala, she searched
for Him, in every
nook and corner.
She could not find Him
anywhere. She went into
the neighbouring
houses and inquired whether He
was found by anyone
there. Everyone declared that
they had not come
across the Child; they did not
know where He was.
Yasoda was really frightened.
"He must have run
away dreading punishment for
having broken the
pot and let flow its contents!
Poor Child!
It has run out into the darkness!", she
thought.
She searched house
after house, in the street. At
last,
she caught Him in
the act of taking down a pot of
butter, from a
sling, where the mistress of the
house
had kept a series
of pots full of milk, curds and butter. Krishna was
standing on an upturned mortar
so that He could
lift the butter pot and bring it
down safe,
to be shared with His comrades!
Seeing Him, Yasoda
shouted, "You thief! Are you
behaving like this,
in every house? When the poor
Gopis complained to
me about your thefts, I used to blame them without
verifying their charge, and send
them away. I have
now seen it with my own eyes! Yet, I can scarce believe
my eyes! 0, how mistaken
I was all these
days! I cannot let you escape hereafter. No. If I let you
off, on the plea that you are
a child, later, it
will lead you on to calamitous
crime.
I must punish you
effectively now, and not pardon
you at all. When
the child of a great family turns
thief, it is a
disgrace to the entire clan. The
ill-fame
cannot easily be
wiped off. The reputation of our
family will
suffer." Her agony was beyond expression. She had not
suffered so much humiliation before. She yielded to a
great rush of anger. She
brought a long
thick rope, and went near Him with
intent to tie Him
fast to the heavy mortar.
Gopala, knowing her
intention slipped in and
out of every door,
and dodged her attempts to catch
Him. The Mother ran
behind Him, through every
lane and street.
She was well on the side of the
fat; she
had never before run so fast. So, she was soon exhausted;
Her gait was slowed down soon; she
started
gasping for breath.
Men, women, and children began
laughing at her
vain pursuit of the little child.
They enjoyed
the fun, and derived all the more
merriment
from the prank of
Krishna, and the foiled attempt of
His mother to bind
Him.
Gopala is omniscient,
nothing is hidden from
Him. So, he
realized that the mother was too
tired
to move forward,
and He allowed Himself to be
caught. Yasoda
could not lift her hand to beat
Him! She
caught Him firmly by the hand and
saying,
"Come home, you
thief! It won't be nice, if I beat
you in
the bazar. I shall teach you a lesson, at home," she drew
Him home. There, she dragged Him to the
side of
a huge stone mortar, so that He could be bound
to it,
by means of a strong rope.
The rope she
brought
was found too
short; so, she went in and brought another, for being
knotted onto the first. She had to
do this,
again and again, for, however long the
rope,
Krishna seemed to
grow so big that it would not
reach
round Him. Just a
bit more length was always wanted to admit His being
tied! The mother wondered
at this amazing
development. To what was this miracle to be ascribed? She
did not know. At last, she
could somehow tie a
knot, leaving Him bound to the
mortar; Yasoda went
into the house and engaged
herself in regular
household duties.
Meanwhile, He drew the
mortar along, went into
the garden, with
the mortar rolling behind him.
There, a tree grew
with twin trunks side by side,
very near each
other. The mortar was caught between the twin trunks, and
when the Divine Child
gave a slight pull
to overcome the obstacle, the tree
was uprooted! It
fell with a great resounding
noise.
The noise attracted
every one to the house of Yasoda
where the tree
fell, though there was no rain or
storm! Yasoda
hurried to see what had happened;
she was
astounded at what she saw! She saw Gopala
in the
midst of the fallen foliage, between the
enmeshed
branches. She
groaned aloud and went near the
Child. Unloosening
the rope, she carried away the
Child and felt
quite relieved that He had escaped
another terrible
calamity.
"My child! Did you get
a fright? 0, how wicked
I was!", the mother
wailed aloud. But, while she was
lamenting thus, two
Divine Forms, both male, emerged from the tree! They fell
at the Feet of Gopala.
They stood with
folded palms, and said, "0 Lord!
We are the sons of
Kubera, we are twin brothers,
Nalakubura and
Manigriva. Through the curse of
Sage Narada, we
were turned into this tree and existed as such. This day
has seen the end of that curse,
through your Grace.
If you permit us, we shall go
back to our own
place." Thus saying, the two
Divine
Forms disappeared.
At the sight of those strange
Divine Forms, the
people of Gokul were taken aback;
they were filled
with great joy. (See also SB,
Canto 10, Chapter 10: Deliverance of the sons
of Kuvera
(Nalakuvara and Manigriva))
Though they listened to
the glorification of Gopala
as God, though they
had concrete evidence of His
Divinity, they
relapsed into Maya (Delusion) and resumed their
conversation about Gopala being
the son
of Nanda and Yasoda and felt He was their cowherd friend.
They were caught up in the coils
of illusion."
When Suka said thus,
the King interposed with
the question,
"Master! How did this Maya acquire
such overwhelming
Power? Who endowed Maya with
the capacity to
hide the Glory of Madhava (God)
Himself? What
exactly is the real nature of
Maya?
Please tell me."
Then, Suka explained, "King! This
Maya is not
anything separate, with its own
Form.
God is discernible
only with the sheath of Maya;
He is evident,
because He has worn the accoutrement of Maya. It is His
Upadhi.
That is to say, Maya obstructs the Reality. Its nature is
to hide the reality
and make it appear
as the unreal. Only he who removes It, destroys It, beats
It off, cuts across It, he
alone can have a
vision of God; he alone can attain
God. Maya makes you
feel that the non-existent
exists. It shows
water in the mirage; it makes you
see what
is imagined and desired, as Truth.
Delusion
cannot affect a
man, if he is able to give up desire
or imagining
and planning.
Or else, how could
Yasoda who has seen with her
own eyes, on many
occasions, the Divinity of
Krishna,
slide back into the
belief that He was her son? The
imagining, the
desire, that was the cause of this delusion. The body is
of the son, and of the mother;
but, the
real core the dehi, the Embodied - that has neither son
nor mother! The mother-body is related
to the
son-body but, there is no mother-dehi, no son-dehi! If
one gets this faith firm in himself there
can be
no more desire for external pleasures. Inquire
- and
investigate; you will know this Truth.
Without
that Inquiry,
delusion will grow and intellect will
be slowly
subdued."
Ah! The role that
Divinity takes upon Itself
brings about
results that are really momentous!
The Vedanta
teaches that one should penetrate
behind
the role into the
Reality; this is its inner
meaning.
Deluded by the
role, man pursues Desire!
Believing
the body that is
assumed, to be real and true, man
falls into Maya.
For those whose attention is concentrated on the Body,
the Person within will not be
visible, isn't it?
When ashes cover, the red cinders will not be visible.
When clouds gather thick, the sun
and the moon cannot
be seen! Moss floating thick
upon the waters of
a lake give the illusion that it
is hard
ground, over which there is vegetation.
When the
eye has cataract over the pupil, one cannot
see anything
at all. So too, when the notion of the
body being
the Reality is predominant, the Resident in
the Body
is not noticed at all. "Master! This day, in
truth,
the veil has fallen
off, from my mind. Your teaching
has, like a gust of
wind, shaken off the ash over the
live cinders. The
illusion that this composite of
five elements,
namely, this Body, is the Reality has
been totally
exploded, and exterminated. I am blessed,
I am
indeed blessed." With these words,
Maharaja
Parikshith fell at
the feet of the Guru, Suka.
Meanwhile, the
gathering of Rishis, sages, and
common citizens
fell into animated conversation.
When time clicks
fast towards the end, the body too
has to get ready to
drop, isn't it? The body drops
when the vital airs
stop flowing in it; but, the mind
will not leave off.
For this reason, newer and newer
bodies have to be
assumed until the mind is rendered
empty, devoid of
content, vacant of wants. "This
Day our Maharaja
has differentiated the mind from
the body! Now, he
is in such bliss that even vital
airs can't make any
impact. When the mind is merged ever in Madhava (God),
the body will be all Divinity; its humanness cannot be
identified."
The teaching conferred
by Suka today is not directed to Parikshith alone; it is
for all of us, they said;
it is for all who
are afflicted by the delusion that they are the Body in
which they are encased. This
type of delusion is
the cause of bondage; but, the
other type, the
belief that we are the Atma,
that is
the means of
Liberation. This is what the Vedas
and the
Sastras
declare. The mind which welcomes
the delusion
or which entertains the idea of the
Reality
is therefore the
instrument, for both bondage and
liberation. 'Mana
eva manushyanam karanam
bandha mokshayoh'.
This statement of the Sruthi
is the
Truth. Ruminating thus for some time, the people sat with
eyes closed, lost in prayer. When
the sun
was about to set, the sages walked towards
the bank
of the sacred Ganga, holding the water
pot (kamandalu)
and stick (danda)
in their hands, so that
they could perform
the evening rites.
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