Monthly Archives: August 2014

srI:
srImathE satakOpAya nama:
srImathE rAmAnujAya nama:
srImadh varavaramunayE nama:

In the previous post we saw the birth of krishNa and the wonderful celebrations at gOkula. periyAzhvAr describes even more celebrations at gOkula and how every person in gOkula comes and enjoys the wonderful, beautiful baby krishNa, the love of all. In periyAzhvAr’s words:

muththum maNiyum vayiramum nan ponnum
thaththip padhitthu thalaip peithArpOl engum
paththu viralum maNivaNNan pAthangaL
oththittirunthavaa kANIrE oNNudhalIr vandhu kANIrE

முத்தும் மணியும் வயிரமும் நன்பொன்னும்
தத்திப் பதித்துத் தலைப்பெய்தாற் போல்எங்கும்
பத்து விரலும் மணிவண்ணன் பாதங்கள்
ஒத்திட்டிருந்தவா காணீரே ஒண்ணுதலீர் வந்து காணீரே.

periyAzhvAr thirumozhi – 1.2.3

periyAzhvAr is inviting everyone to come see the soft and beautiful krishna, whose 9 toes denotes the 9 different gems, also called navarathnams, and then 10th toe is coated with gold. periyAzhvAr is comparing the toes of krishNa to the marudhANi (henna/mehendi designs) that people use to decorate hands and feet and is saying that krIshNa is perfect in every way, inviting everyone to enjoy him, in his beautiful cradle.

krIshNa was not only celebrated by people in gOkula, but also blessed by the many different Gods, as described in the mANikkam katti padhigam, sung by periyAzhvAr.

While krIshNa was celebrated in gOkula, kamsa was still very frightened for himself and decided to end the life of all the children born in the past 2 weeks, around the time krIshNa was born. kamsa started to gather his evil forces and sent them in all directions. One such evil force was pUthana. pUthana was a female asura who would turn herself into a beautiful damsel and try to feed krishNa with poisoned milk, smeared on her breasts. Make the puzzle below to see how beautiful pUthana was when she tried to attract the kids to herself.

This beautiful pUthana, took away krIshNa and started feeding him milk. krishNa, the all knowing sarvEshwaran not only sucked the milk from pUthana, but also her life, mainly because pUthana came all the way to gOkula, just to give krishNa something. krishNa has the power of knowing what was in pUthana’s heart and therefore, took everything that pUthana could offer – that is her life! Make the puzzle below to see the final form of pUthana and how she was taken by krishNa.

pUthana is one of the most popular asuras, that have been sung by our AzhvAr’s. Every AzhvAr has reference pUthana, mainly because she shows us that if you want to give something for krIshNa, krishNa will take everything that we have and make us his. One of the phrases describing the pUthana episode in periya thirumozhi is –

uyirai vaRRa vAngi uNda vAyAn vadari vaNangudhumE – periya thirumozhi 1.3.1

உயிரை வற்ற வாங்கியுண்ட வாயான் வதரிவணங்குதுமே

Meaning, krishNa completely sucked out pUthana’s life, without a second thought or giving her an opportunity to escape.

Even though kamsa knew that nandhagOpa’s son krishNa was causing some mischief and had killed pUthana, kamsa kept sending more asuras, hoping that one of the asurAs could overpower this mere kid. The next in line was chakatAsura. chakatAsura came over to gOkula, changed himself into a wheel and hid near krishNa’s cradle. chakatAsura’s plan was to topple over krishNa’s cradle and crush him with his own wheel form. However, all krishNa did was to kick chakatAsura to end him. Make the puzzle below to see how krishNa kicked chakatAsura and won over him.

chakatAsura vadham (the killing of chakatAsura) is again a very popular story quoted by AzhvArs, specially praising the lotus feet of little krishNa that AndAL pirAtti celebrates in tiruppAvai:

pondrachchakatam udaiththAi pugazh pORRi – thiruppAvai 24

பொன்றச் சகடம் உதைத்தாய் புகழ்போற்றி

AndAL pirAtti praises the greatness of krishNa’s lotus feet in this pAsuram and quotes chakatAsura vadham, saying, the greatness of krishNa’s feet is such that, the mere touch, a small kick of the kid krishNa resulted in the mOksham of chakatAsura!

We will continue enjoying krishNa’s childhood in the upcoming posts.

Full series can be viewed at http://pillai.koyil.org/?p=593

srI:
srImathE satakOpAya nama:
srImathE rAmAnujAya nama:
srImadh varavaramunayE nama:

• Part 1 – krishNa’s birth 
• Part 2 – krishNa in gOkula
• Part 3 – krishNa in gOkula 2

Author: mayUravalli rAmAnuja dAsi

srI:
srImathE satakOpAya nama:
srImathE rAmAnujAya nama:
srImadh varavaramunayE nama:

krishNa, one of the pUrNa avatArAs of sriman nArayaNa, took the form of a human to show one of HIS greatest qualities – saulabhyam, the ability to mingle with everyone as an equal and being most easily approachable. As krishNa janmAshtami is being celebrated in the northern parts of bhAratha dhEsam, let us enjoy the story of the birth of krishNa.

There was a time in dwApara yuga, in the city of mathurA, where the yAdhava clan was thriving and there was a prince called kamsa, who then became the king of the yAdhavas. kamsa had a cousin dhEvaki, who was married to vasudhEva, another prince in the yAdhava clan. On the day dhEvaki and vasudhEva were married, there was voice from the sky which prophesied that dhEvaki’s 8th son would be the destroyer of kamsa. On hearing this kamsa was about to kill dhEvaki. Please make the puzzle below to see how angry kamsa became!

vasudhEva pleaded with kamsa to spare dhEvaki’s life and assured kamsa that both dEvaki and vasudhEva would give away all of their children to kamsa, as soon as they were born. vasudEvA pleaded saying that dhEvaki and he are not responsible for kamsa’s death and killing a woman would result in more sins for kamsa. kamsa also imprisoned vasudEvA and dEvaki in jail, in order to monitor all their activity.

Thus, dhEvaki and vasudhEva kept having children and as soon as a child was born, kamsa would come to the prison and take the child away. As days passed, dhEvaki and vasudhEva would lament at the plight of their children, even before they were born. Unable to see their suffering, srIman nArAyaNa came in their dreams one day, before the 8th child was born and said that he would be born as the 8th child and gave them a set of instructions.

The instructions were for vasudhEva to carry the 8th child to the house of his friend, the cowherd chief nandhagOpa in gOkula right after his birth, where nandhagOpa’s wife yasOdhA would birth to a daughter, at around the same time. The baby boy and girl were supposed to be exchanged. dhEvaki and vasudhEva were anxiously waiting for the birth for srIman nArAyaNa and in the month of AvaNi, the star of rOhiNi, in the thithi of ashtami, srIman nArAyaNa incarnated as krishNa!

As soon as the baby was born, the doors of the jail magically opened to let vasudhEva through, so that he may take krishNa to gOkula, per the instructions. The river yamunA lay between the cities of mathurA and gOkula. As is the color of krishNa, there were dark rain bearing clouds when krishNa was born and as vasudhEva started to take him out, the rains became heavier, such that no one could see what was going on.

In this heavy rain, vasudhEva had to cross the majestic river yamuna in order to reach gOkula. As vasudhEva was crossing the river yamunA, the river also started to over flow with water and it is believed that yamunA flooded in order to be able to touch the feet of little krishNa, as he lay on as basked carried on vasudhEva’s head. As vasudhEva was in jail and had no other possessions, adisEshA, the bed, throne, seat and umbrella of emperumAn came and hovered over vasudhEva’s head, protecting our small krishNa from the heavy rains. Complete the puzzle below to see the greatness of adisEshA and how vasudhEva crossed the raging river yamuna.

After reaching gOkula, vasudhEva entered the home of nandhagOpan and yasOdhA and replaced the baby girl lying there with krishNa and brought back the baby girl to Mathura. As soon as vasudhEva returned to the prison, the prison doors started locking back up. When vasudhEva was tucked back in safely, the baby girl started crying, awakening the guards, who in turn let kamsa know about the birth of the 8th child.

kamsa immediately rushed to the prison and was shocked to see that the 8th child was a girl and was almost sure that a baby girl could do nothing to him. kamsa was about to kill this baby girl too, but as he was about to do that, the baby girl flew out of his hand and became – yOga mAyA, with 8 hands. She laughed at kamsa and said that kamsa would gain nothing by trying to kill her and instead the one destined to kill kamsa, dhEvaki’s 8th child is elsewhere and vanished. Complete the puzzle below to see how yOga mAyA looks and the shocked look of kamsa.

While kamsa was shocked and furious at having been fooled, in spite of locking dhEvaki and vasudhEva, the people of gOkula rejoiced the birth of krishNa!

vaNNamAdangaL sUzh thirukkOttiyUr
kaNNan kEsavan nambi piRanthinil
eNNeysuNNam ethirethir thUvidak
kaNNan muRRam kalanthu aLarAyiRRE. – periyAzhwAr thirumozhi, 1.1.1

The joyous people of gOkula went to the palace where kutti kaNNan (baby krishNa) was “born” amidst them. They sprayed scented powder and fragrant oil on each other to celebrate the arrival of their darling and were happily celebrating that krishNa was born!  

Complete the puzzle below to imagine some of the celebrations in gOkula.

In the upcoming posts, we can enjoy the childhood of krishNa and many of his pass times.

Full series can be viewed at http://pillai.koyil.org/?p=593