Sunday 12 January 2014

Srimadh Bagawatham - Krishnavataram Part 4





In due course a son was born to Vasudeva and Devaki. The parents felt immense sorrow and were unable to rejoice. Vasudeva took their first born to Kamsa. At times even the cruelest men surprise everyone by displaying compassion; Kamsa was satisfied that Vasudeva had kept his promise. He returned the child to Vasudeva and told him that he wanted only the 8th child.
Vasudeva returned to his home and Devaki embraced her son with joy. She felt that her brother might have had a change of heart. They named their son Kîrtimân. Vasudeva was never at ease since he knew that Kamsa was capable of changing his mind again. Thus six sons were born to Vasudeva and Devaki. They were Kîrtimân, Udgîtha, Parishvanga, Patanga, Kshudrabhrit and Ghrinî.
In the meantime Sage Narada paid a visit to Kamsa. The sage was welcomed by Kamsa. After exchanging pleasantries, Sage Narada asked Kamsa, ‘Why have you spared the sons of Devaki? I thought you believed in the prophecy!’
‘Of course I believe in the prophecy! But, I have to kill only the eighth child’
‘I had no idea that you were deluded! How do you plan to tell the children apart? They could easily switch the eighth child with the seventh or the sixth. Being just a year apart, children look alike. How can you be sure that Vishnu will take birth as the eighth child? He might have misled you and may have already been born as one of the 6 sons. Have you heard of “shifting the origin” in Mathematics? Eight from what? The prophecy did not mention if it is the eighth child counted from the first child or the eighth starting from the second and so on. Don’t you see that Narayana might have misled you and may have already been born as one of the 6 sons! Can you be absolutely sure that He will take birth as only the eighth child counted from the first? ’ questioned sage Narada.
Sage Narada knew the history of the conditioned souls who had taken birth as Devaki’s six children. In their previous birth they were sage Marici’s sons. Due to a curse they received from Brahma, they were born as the grandsons of Asura Hiranyakashipu. Their father was the Asura Kalanemi. The six grandsons of Hiranyakashipu, abandoned him and went to meditate on Brahma. Hiranyakashipu feeling betrayed by his own grandchildren, in turn cursed them that their father would kill them by crushing their skull. As a result of this curse, Kalanemi was born as Kamsa and his six sons were born as the sons of Devaki. Sage Narada in his effort to uplift all souls urged Kamsa to kill them so as to release the six persons from their curse. The sage also wanted Lord Krishna to incarnate as soon as possible.
Kamsa looked dumbstruck. ‘What should I do now?’ he enquired.
‘Kill all the six children with your own hands. Don’t leave such important task to others. You never know who might be a spy of Vasudeva. The person you assign to kill the children might let them escape and lie to you that they had been killed. Kill the children with your own hands. Do not trust anyone!’

Thus urged by the Sage, Kamsa killed Vasudevar and Devaki’s six children.
Lord Balarama incarnated as the seventh child in Devaki’s womb but Lord Vishnu instructed His maya to relocate Balarama to the womb of Vasudevar’s other wife Rohini. People thought that Devaki miscarried the seventh child. The Lord intentionally transferred balarama in order to confuse Kamsan. Kamsan wasn’t sure if he had to count this pregnancy as the seventh child or not.
‘Should the miscarriage be considered as one child or not? Will the next child be the seventh or the eighth?’ he asked them.
‘The miscarriage should be counted as ½ a child,’ said one Asura.
‘Fool!’ thundered Kamsa. ‘The next child will then be 71/2 and then the one folllowing 81/2! Counting the number of children should be a discrete value not a continuous variable!’
‘I would say that this child should not be included in the count,’ said another asura.
‘I don’t agree,’ interposed a third. ‘What if it is a ploy to confuse us and the next child is the eigth child!’
Thus Kamasa spent his time in profound confusion.
Confusing Kamsa was a leela performed by Lord Krishna.

Monday 6 January 2014

Srimadh Bagawatham - Krishnavataram Part 3






 Father of all becomes the Son

Even though He is the father of everyone since He created all of us including Lord Brhma, He selected Vasudevar as His father and called Vasudevar as “father” after incarnating as Lord Krishna. This is His third leelai.
When the Devas approached the Lord for help, it is said that the Lord placed 2 keshams one black & the other white in Devaki’s womb. He stated that the white kesham will be Balarama & the black Himself as Lord Krishna. Kesham is commonly interpreted as hair but in this context Kesham does not mean hair. The Lord is described as a youth and He doesn’t have grey hair. The word “Kam” has many meanings. It means the atma, bliss, Brhmam as well as water. If we examine the meaning of Kam as atma we know that an atma has kniowledge and is always happy. It is Gnanandamayam. The atma’s tejas (aura or radiation or effulgence) is known as Klesham. Thus the Lord placed white radiation in Devaki to become Balarama & Bluish black radiation to become Lord Krishna.

Kamsa Exposed

King Devakan was the younger brother of King Ugrasenar. Devaki Piratti was the eighth daughter of King Devakan. She married Vasudevar. Her seven sisters had also married Vasudevar. Kamsan was the son of King Ugrasenar. He offered to drive Devaki & Vasudevar’s chariot to their new home. It was during this wedding procession that Kamsa heard the celestial voice declare that Devaki’s eight child will kill Kamsa. What was the need to reveal this information to Kamsa? This was once again the Lord’s leelai to expose the evil minded Kamsa to the people, Devaki & Vasudevar.
The moment Kamsa caught hold of Devaki’s hair and was ready to kill her, Vasudevar could have abandoned her since he already had seven wives. Instead Vasudevar stood by Devaki in order to protect her as it is the duty of a husband to protect his wife. Vasudevar did not have any weapons with him and therefore he reasoned with Kamsa. Kamsan is an Asuran and he is impulsive. Yet Kamsan did not kill Devaki immediately but stood listening to the arguments made by Vasudevar. The Lord’s leela made Kamsan pay attention to Vasudevar’s words. Kamsan agreed to spare Devaki and placed the couple together in a mansion. Kamsan could have kept them under arrest at separate location as then he could have prevented the birth of children but instead he placed them together in the same place. This again is the Lord’s leela.


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