DIVINE INFORMATION PART 77 Respected friends,
While goingthrough one of my external memory device, I came across some good information stored from websites. I thought ofsharing interesting ones from them as a series. In part 77, I amstarting with 284th item in this posting. Kindly note the series is a compilation. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 11-08-21 284. Rescue of cows and cowherds fromforest fire Inchapter 19 of the tenth Skandha of Srimad Bhagavatam is described how LordKrishna rescued a group of cowherd boys and their cows from a raging forestfire. Oneday, as usual, Krishna and Balarama, along with a large number of cowherd boys,led their cows to the forest for grazing. While the boys were engrossed inplay, the cows went forward in search of tender grass. As they moved on, they advanced beyond thelimits of Vrindavana which was the abode ofKrishna and entered a forest called 'Aishikam'. This forest was full of a particularvariety of grass which had the tendency to catch fire easily. The forest wasunbearably hot and the cows became totally exhausted because of hunger andthirst. The tender grass which they hoped to find was nowhere to be seen. Thecowherd boys, who were absorbed in play, did not notice for a long time thatthe cows had gone far away from them. When they did not find the cows at theplace where they had left them, they became worried and went in search of them and found them in theAishika forest. Whenthey were about to bring the cows back, a forest fire broke out. The boys foundthemselves and their cows surrounded by the fire. In desperation they cried outto Krishna for help. Krishnacame and asked them not to be afraid but to close their eyes for a few moments.They did so, and whenthey opened their eyes again they found themselves back in Vrindavana with notrace whatsoever of the fire. They were thus saved by Krishna from the fire. Thestory looks very simple, but every statement in it has profound philosophicalsignificance. The cows, which moved away from Krishna in search of tender grassrepresent human beings who forget the Lord and seek happiness in the worldoutside. As happened to the cows, the search forhappiness in the world proves futile and results only in disappointment andsuffering. The heat of the Aishika forest and theforest fire represent the sufferings of man in this transmigratory existence. Krishnaasked the boys and the cows to close their eyes for a while and immediately alltheir sufferings vanished. 'Closing the eyes' stands for withdrawal of all theorgans of sense from their objects. Avery similar expression is used in the Kathopanishad, II.i.1 which says:-- ï ï ï "TheLord made the senses outgoing. Therefore one can see only external objects andnot the inner Self. A rare discriminating individual, desiring immortality,turns his eyes away and then sees the indwelling Self". In this mantra theterm 'eyes' stands for all the organs of sense. The meaning of this mantra is:Our sense-organs have been endowed by God with the power to experience onlysense-objects in the external world. They are not capable of knowing theindwelling Self. Arare person, who has acquired total purity of mind, withdraws all hissense-organs from their objects and concentrates his mind on the Self. He thenrealises the self and becomes free from all the sufferings of this world. Theboys and the cows found that the fire which was tormenting them had disappearedwithout a trace when they closed their eyes for a moment. This episode thusbrings out allegorically the meaning of the mantra of the Kathopanishad quotedabove. 285. Slaying of Narakasura Theslaying of Narakasura is described in chapter 59 of Skandha X of SrimadBhagavatam. Narakasura, described as a son ofBhumidevi, was a very wicked Asura who terrorised the whole earth.He conqueredmany kings and carried away 16,100 young women from their families and keptthem in captivity. On coming to know ofthis, Krishna marched against him. Krishna was first opposed by Mura, an Asurawith five faces, who was an associate of Narakasura. After killing Mura, Krishna killed Narakasura also andreleased all the women. He then married all of them. Acareful study will show that the entire teachings of Vedanta are conveyedthrough this simple story. The first significant fact is the description ofNarakasura as the son of Bhumi, the Earth. Bhumi or earth is one of the fiveelements, the other four being water, fire, air and space. In Vedanta there isa figure of speech called 'upalakshana' by which, when one item of a group isspecifically mentioned, all the other items of the group are also to be takenas implied. Thus the mention of 'earth' here is to be taken as implying all thefive elements. This conclusion is further supported by the following statementsin the Bhashya of Sri Sankara on Brahmasutra. 3.1.2:--"Water consists ofthree components, according to the Upanishadic text about the elements becomingtripartite (Ch. Up. VI. iii).So when water is admitted as the constituent, the other two elements must alsobe admitted. Moreover,the body is the product of the three elements since all three, fire, water andearth, are seen to be its constituents". Only three elements are mentionedhere because the discussion is about a statement in the Chandogya Upanishadwhich mentions only the triplication of these three elements. When quintuplicationof the five elements is considered, it follows that all the five elementsshould be considered as represented by the term 'earth'. Narakasura is said to be the son of theearth, which means allegorically that he is the product of the five elements. Vedantasays that the body (both physical and subtle) is made up of, or is the productof, the five elements. That is to say, Narakasura stands for the body. All livingbeings are kept in bondage by the body. This is what is implied by thestatement that Narakasura had kept the women in captivity. The women arethe jivas who are imprisoned in the body. The name 'Narakasura' is alsosignificant. Being aslave to the body is itself Naraka or hell. Liberation is freedomfrom the bondage or limitation of the body. By slaying Narakasura the Lord, inHis infinite compassion for His devotees, liberated them from bondage. Thestory also brings out the fact that God's grace is essential for gettingliberation. Thereis another very significant point in this story. Mura, the associate ofNarakasura, is said to have five faces. These five faces stand for the fiveorgans of sense which have first to be conquered and this is what the Lord did.The name 'Mura' is itself significant. Theverb 'mura' means 'envelope'. (mura samveshtane-- Panini's Dhatupatha, No.1287). Mura therefore stands for ignorance or 'nescience' which envelopes thejiva. Onattaining liberation the jiva becomes one with Brahman. This is the real importof the statement that the Lord married all the women who were released. 'Marriage' means becoming one withthe Lord. 286. Redemption of Sudarsana TheUpanishads declare that every living being will continue to be born again andagain until liberation from the state of transmigration is attained by therealisation of the Self. Thisrealisation is possible only in a human birth. In MundakopanishadI.ii.10 it is said that even a human being who has performed meritorious deedsand earned a sojourn in heaven will not necessarily be born as a human beingwhen he has to leave heaven on the exhaustion of the merit which took himthere. He may be born as ananimal or a bird or any other creature, or even as a plant, depending upon thenature of his residual karma. TheKathopanishad says (II.ii.7):--One will be reborn from a womb (i.e. as a humanbeing or as any other creature born from a womb) or even as a plant, accordingto his actions and the nature and extent of the knowledge acquired by him inthe present birth. Thereis a short story in chapter 34 of Skandha X of Srimad Bhagavatam whichbeautifully illustrates the declarations of the Upanishads mentioned above. Itis the story of a Vidyadhara(a semi-divine being) who became a python due to the curse of some sagesand was subsequently restored to a form even more resplendent than his originalone by the touch of Sri Krishna's foot. This story has a wealth of Vedanticimplications. Ona certain day the cowherds of Gokula went, along with Krishna, to a place knownas 'Ambikavanam'. Havingbathed in the river Saraswati there, they worshipped Lord Siva and Hisconsort Goddess Ambika. They spent that night on the bank of the river, inprayer and fasting. Suddenlya huge python appeared and began to devour Nandagopa. Hearing Nandagopa's criesthe cowherds rushed to his rescue and belaboured the python with firebrands. In spite of severe beating thepython did not release Nandagopa from its hold. Krishna then went there and touched the python withhis foot. At once the python disappeared and there stood in itsplace a most resplendent Vidyadhara. When asked by Krishna who he was, he said, I am a Vidyadhara named Sudarsana. Iwas endowed with great wealth and beauty and used to fly in my aerial car allover the world. Being very proud of my exceptional beauty, I was very haughty. Oneday I ridiculed some sages of the Angirasa family for their ugly looks. For this sin those sages made metake this birth. The curse that those compassionate souls pronounced onme has become a blessing to me; because of it I have been blessed with thetouch of the foot of the Lord of the universe, and have been cleansed of mysin". So saying, he prostrated before Krishna and ascended to heaven. Whatare the lessons that this story has for us? In the first place, what are calledcurses in the Puranas are really blessings when they come from great sages whoare full of compassion and do not even wish ill of anyone, let alone inflictingpunishment. They are beyond praise and ridicule and are not in the leastinfluenced or affected by them. Episodes in Srimad-Bhagavatam **AVedantic Interpretation **By S. N. Sastri* I will continue in next posting -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/51045866.953201.1628649268968%40mail.yahoo.com.
