SrI: SrImathE satakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama: SrI vAnAchala mahAmunayE nama:
AzhwArs, who were divinely blessed with knowledge matured into devotion, and ANdAL nAchchiyAr, who is an incarnation of SrI bhUmip pirAtti, greatly celebrate krishNAvathAram as in “AtkoLLath thOnRiya Ayar tham kOvinai” (One who incarnated as the king of cowherds to accept us), “piRandhavARum” (His amazing birth), “maNNin bAram nIkkudhaRkE vadamadhuraip piRandhAn” (krishNa was born in northern mathurA to remove the burden of the earth) and “oruththi maganAyp piRandhu” (Born as the son of the great dhEvakip pirAtti).
We have already seen that bhagavAn’s births/incarnations are occurring based on his mercy. Just as a mother will jump into the well herself when her child falls in there, bhagavAn himself incarnates in this samsAra to free the AthmAs who are suffering in here. While doing so, he performs amazing activities to capture the hearts of the people here and make them exist for him. The greatness of his incarnations and activities are:
- If we realise that such bhagavAn is born in this world, we will not have any more births in this world.
- If we realise that having born here, he drank milk from a mother, we will not have to be born here to drink milk from a mother.
- If we realise that he stole butter, became tied to the mortar due to that, got beaten as a punishment and cried, we will not be tied down in this samsAram.
Towards the end of dhvApara yugam, due to the rise of evil people like kamsan, jarAsandhan et al in this world, dhEvathAs starting with brahmA et al went to the kshIrAbdhi (milk ocean) which is the abode of sarvESvaran, SrIman nArAyaNan, and prayed to him “You highness should incarnate in this world, protect the noble people, destroy the evil people and establish dharma”. emperumAn consoled them saying “I will incarnate at the apt time and do the needful” and sent them away.
In one of their previous births, dhEvaki and SrI vasudhEvar had prayed to bhagavAn and got a boon that bhagavAn himself will become their son. Hence bhagavAn decided that he will take birth as their son. dhEvaki, who is a sister of kamsan and SrI vasudhEvar got married in a grand manner and kamsan brought the newly weds in his chariot around the town. At that time, a great voice was heard from the sky, which announced “Oh kamsa! The eighth child from dhEvaki’s womb will be the cause for your death”. kamsan became very disturbed hearing that and was angrily going to kill both of them with his sword. At that time, SrI vasudhEvar prayed “Oh kamsa! We will not cause any suffering to you. We will hand over all our children to you”. Accepting that proposal, kamsan left them alone.
Subsequently, kamsan jailed them both. As she gave birth to her children one by one, he was killing them. As the seventh child, balarAman who is an amSAvathAram (partial incarnation) of bhagavAn and direct incarnation of AdhiSEshan, entered into dhEvaki’s womb. But by bhagavAn’s decision he was transferred to SrI vasudhEva’s another wife, rOhiNi’s womb. At that time, rOhiNi was living in gOkulam which was the town of SrI nandhagOpar who is very close to SrI vasudhEvar. She gave birth to balarAman there itself.
As the eighth child, bhagavAn entered dhEvaki’s womb, as krishNa. On AvaNi month, rOhiNi nakshathram, ashtami thithi, krishNa was born in [northern] mathurA, in the midnight. He appeared in his original vishNu form, with four hands, carrying Sankham (Conch), chakram (Disc) etc. Seeing that, dhEvaki and vasudhEvar became amazed and blissful. At the same time, they also became frightened for krishNa’s safety. They prayed to bhagavAn to hide the divine form and manifest in a human form, and he obliged. Subsequently, vasudhEvar’s shackles broke; the prison guards fainted; the gates opened on their own, by his grace. He told vasudhEvar “Carry me to gOkulam which is on the other bank of yamunA and place me with yaSOdhA and nandhagOpar; bring the girl child who was given birth to, by yaSOdhA, here“. He followed those words and carried krishNa in a basket on his head, and reached the bank of yamunA. He observed a great rain and flood in yamunA and became stunned. By bhagavAn’s grace, a path appeared in the middle of yamunA; AdhiSEshan stood as an umbrella for krishNa; he crossed over to the other side and reached the palace of nandhagOpar. At that time, yaSOdhA had given birth to yOga mAyA (dhurgA). vasudhEvar placed krishNa and took the girl child and quickly returned to the prison. As soon as he entered there, everything went back to previous state and both dhEvaki and vasudhEvar forgot everything and the child started crying. The guards went and informed kamsan about the birth of eighth child. kamsan came there at once, grabbed the child and said “I will kill this child and be free from danger”. The child flew to sky, regained the dhurgA form and said “The one, who has born to kill you, is living safely. He will kill you at the apt time” and disappeared. kamsan became angry and ordered his guards to search for newly born babies everywhere.
Now, in gOkulam, all the men and women of the cowherd clan heard about yaSOdhA giving birth to a beautiful boy, became blissful and celebrated his birth joyously.
Source – https://granthams.koyil.org/2023/08/22/krishna-leela-1-tamil/
adiyen sarathy ramanuja dasan
archived in https://acharyas.koyil.org
pramEyam (goal) – https://koyil.org
pramANam (scriptures) – https://granthams.koyil.org
pramAthA (preceptors) – https://acharyas.koyil.org
srIvaishNava Education/Kids Portal – https://pillai.koyil.org