Krishna’s Raasa Leela- 2

Question 2: What are the avathArams for? DharmasamsThApanArThAya- to establish and protect dharma. Sri Rama being the Eka pathni vrathan, followed strict codes of saasthrAs and set an example for us. KaNNan hugged these Gopikas; played with them; and Vedas and saasthrAs may roar saying He is Parathvam and is unaffected; But is that approapriate for KaNNan to do that? hugging other women? Can that be termed as establishing Dharma? How can we say that He followed saasthrAs and established, protected Dharma in His KrishnA avathAram as avathaarams?

Answer: Same question was raised by Parvathi to Rudra: Rudra replied promptly” swaSareeraparishvangAth rathi naasthi varaananE.. – We, jeevathmAs are in each body. We are always united with our bodies. There is absolutely no dhosham for that. There is no enjoyment also with that unity; There is no ApAsam also in that. Only when we hug the body which does not belong to us – it is different and hence a paapam- dhOsham etc.. Then only does the problem arise. Iswaran – vibhu; He manifests everywhere; antharbahischathas sarva vyApya nArAyaNasthitha: – Narayanan manifests and pervades everywhere inside and outside of everything and everyone; We are all His sareeram; He houses Himself in us and He houses us all as well; He hugs His own body- can it have dhosham? was Rudra’s quip.. This aspect is mentioned by swamy desikan in the above sloka- as vibhO… He manifests and pervades everywhere. Even for that matter, vaayu, air spreads everywhere and hugs all. Is it his paapam? Is it dhosham? When Vaayu himself doe not do anything worng, what can we mention about the SarvEshwaran? We are all his sareeram and when He hugs us- there is no dhosham thus. Even Chathu mukha Brahma and others longed for being born in Gopa kulam to be hugged by KaNNan; Vishnu purANa also mentions this: vyApi vaaayuriva sthiTha:

Generally- among humans- there are kaamukhars (those who are mad after sensual pleasures and carnal desires); There also few virakhthars (those who detach themselves from getting such thoughts and are vairAgis) They even spurn thinking of women and hate them as mere one collection of flesh, bones, blood. OOnidai chuvar vaitthu enbu thooN naatti- says Thirumangai AzhwAr- This body is with the lowly hair, the wall of skins, flesh; bone as pillars and
reinforcing members to support. Thus these two kinds of people exist in the world; Sri Krishna did not have mOham (desire) for these Gopikas and their bodies; Not dwEsham (dislike or hatred); They are His body after all. Not due to his karma, but by His own very nature
as Their Lord. How can there be desire or hatred?
Swamy Desikan says this in Yadavabhyudhayam:

na khalvamushya pramadhAmadhAnDhyam na kuthsanam tatthadhabhIshtadhAthu: |
na DharmasamsThApana vADhaganDha SuddhAnuChinthayA hi Subhasya leelA ||

Thus, KaNNan, hugging His own bodies namely Gopikas, there is nothing against dharma; In fact, the hunsbands of these Gopikas should have got angry at these acts; Never did they get angry. Because KaNNan was in their hearts and they too belong to Him; Bhagwaan entered into their hearts as well, lured them with His divine charning form and united with their jeevans… thaan otti vandhu, thani nenjai vanjitthu, oonotti vandhu uyirinil kalandhu… [says  NammAzhwAr in Thirumaynozhi]. These people had the same experience and enjoyment. Thus for the, there was nothing wrong seen in KaNNan’s acts and they could not talk ill about KaNNan. It is one of KaNNan’s leelAs. Sage Sukha mentioned in Srimad Bhagawatham:

gOpInAm tathpathInAm Cha sarvEShAmEva dhEhinAm |
yO(S)nthasvarathi sO(S)Dhyaksha: kreedanEnEha dhEhabhAk||

Sri Vishnu purANa refers to this. Swamy desikan thus touches upon of all of them as vibhO: to assert these truths.

Question 3:  Ok. Everyone and everything is His sareeram; When such is the case, why did KaNNan choose only those Gopasthrees specially; and in particular? Why did He bless them with such enjoyment? If He does not have humanly desires, anger and hatred as He is the Lord, why did He have to hug the Gopa sthrees? Gopikas also- why did they fall in love with Him? Even if KaNNan- being the Lord- does not have any dhOsham, and is not affected by paapam, punyam and he is not affected by Karma- still the poor Gopikas get these dhoshams as they desired for another Purushan [other than their own husbands].. How can KaNNan be a party to such paapams committed by Gopikas?

Answer: Once, the Apsarasthrees [dancing damsels] in deva loka, by hearing about the most beautiful – dhivya sowndharyam of the Lord Sriya: Pathi Sriman Narayanan and prayed to Him continuously like penance for blessing them with his dhivya sowndharya roopam for them to enjoy. Bhagawaan appeared before them and said, “Do not worry. I am pleased by your prayers. I will fulfill your desires. I will appear as KaNNan in Gokulam during Krishna avathAram and you all appear as Gopa sthrees. Your prayers will be fulfilled. “ Thus He blessed them with His divine body and its charm. They were born as these Gopa sthrees. This purANA explains. Thus due to their puNya phalam, their past prayers, they are blessed with this Anandham and it is Bhagawaan’s organizing things to fulfill His devotees’prayers. None gets any dhOsham due to these acts.

Punya paapams also vary for humans and Devas. Devasthrees thus do not get any dhosham due to these acts and their past prayers only get answered. Also it is told that rishis in Rama avathAram wanted to enjoy His dhivya sowndharya ThirumEni when they enjoyed seeing His ThirumEni; Rama let them be born as Gopa sthrees probably for their prayers to be fulfilled as well. All his avathArams had to meet very many conditions and fulfill all these inter related
incidents.

This is mentioned by swami Desikan as aChapilasparSanamAthraleelA.. In the next sloka he says.. thatthadhabhIShtadhAthu:

Question 4: Still, one thing is not understood. Deva sthrees could have simply got married to KaNNan and enjoyed Him as His spouses. They could have got their prayers fulfilled; instead, why should they be born as Gopa sthrees, leave their husbands, in-laws, children and run to KaNNan? Why should KaNNan allow this? How can this be establishment of Dharma? This act is against the manushya dharma.
[Good question… Let us see  in the next series]

Anything found good in these posts is only due to the wonderful original article written by
Sri U Ve Dr Vasudevachar Swami from Swamy Desikan’s excellent analysis. Mistakes, errors, omissions are entirely mine

Writeup By : Sri Madhavakkannan