krishNa leelAs and their essence – 16 – Tending cows and calves

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Cows and Krishna | Save the Cow

In his young age, one of the favourite acts of krishNa was to tend cows. nammAzhwAr in his thiruvAimozhi says “thivaththilum pasu nirai mEyppuvaththi” (More than being in paramapadham, tending cows is pleasing to krishNa), thirumangai AzhwAr too in thirunedundhANdagam says “kanRu mEyththu inidhugandha kALAy” (The youthful krishNa who tended the cows and became very blissful).

periyAzhwAr in his periyAzhwAr thirumozhi enjoys krishNa tending cows in three decads viz “anjana vaNNanai“, “seelaik kudhambai” and “thazhaigaLum“, in the mood of mother yaSOdhA and gOpikAs. First he spoke in the mood of yaSOdhA feeling sad for the young krishNa going to tend the cows in the forest. Then he spoke in the mood of yaSOdhA feeling joyful in seeing krishNa returning from the forest after tending the cows. Then he spoke in the mood of gOpikAs showing great love towards krishNa while he is returning behind the herds of cows.

ANdAL nAchchiyAr too in thiruppAvai says “aRivonRum illAdha Aykkulaththu undhannaip piRavi peRumthanaip puNNiyam yAmudaiyOm” (We are very fortunate to have you born in our ignorant cowherd clan). She calls out krishNa’s name “gOvindha” indicating his great love for cows and calves in the three pAsurams viz “kUdArai“, “kaRavai” and “siRRam“.

nammAzhwAr too in thiruvAimozhi “malligai kamazh thenRal” decad, enjoys krishNa returning from the forest after tending the cows, in the mood of gOpikAs.

In this manner, AzhwArs have enjoyed krishNa’s leelA of tending cows in many ways.

Essence in this incident:

  • While bhagavAn comes to help us, if we don’t stop him, he will protect us. We can observe this in the case of cows and calves. Though they don’t understand bhagavAn to be their protector and do not pray to him to do so, when he came to help them, they did not stop him. Hence they were protected by him.
  • In general, cows and calves are in sathva guNam (Peaceful mood). Those who are in sathva guNam will be certainly protected by bhagavAn.

Source – https://granthams.koyil.org/2023/09/21/krishna-leela-16-tamil/

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