SrI: SrImathE satakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama: SrI vAnAchala mahAmunayE nama:
Among krishNa’s leelAs, stealing the clothes of the gOpikAs is an important one. Let us see this leelA along with its essence.
krishNa had great love towards the cowherd girls. They too had great love towards him. Still, he would tease them often by pulling their hair, pulling their clothes etc. Being unable to tolerate his mischiefs, they will go and complain to mother yaSOdhA. They will also show their anger towards him.
Once all the cowherd girls went to a pond to take bath, without krishNa knowing. But, krishNa followed them without their knowledge. Since they were little girls, they undressed and placed their clothes on the banks of the pond and entered the pond. As soon as they entered the pond, he stole those clothes and climbed on a nearby kurundha (kadamba) tree and sat on a branch there. After taking bath, the girls came out and found out that their clothes were missing. They thought that some gods or some unknown forces might have taken those away. At that time, krishNa called them from the tree and told them “If you need your clothes back, lift your hands up, join the palms and pray to me”. While they first refused to do so due to shyness, subsequently due to their devotion towards krishNa, instead of covering their bodies with their hands, they lifted their hands up, joined the palms and worshipped him. krishNa became pleased and returned their clothes,
periyAzhwAr in his periyAzhwAr thirumozhi enjoys this incident saying “vaNdamar pUnguzhalAr thugil kaikkoNdu viNdOy maraththAn” (He took the clothes of the girls who have beautiful hair and climbed the tall tree). ANdAL in nAchchiyAr thirumozhi enjoyed this incident in the whole decad of “kOzhiyazhaippadhan munnam“. thirumangai AzhwAr in his periya thirumozhi enjoys saying “thuLaiyAr karumen kuzhal Aychchiyar tham thugil vAriyum” (Gathering the clothes of the cowherd girls who dark, soft hair).
Essence in this incident:
- While surrendering to bhagavAn, one should announce that one has nothing in his / her hands, one has no other refuge and should give up all shyness and accept that bhagavAn’s divine feet are the only refuge. Though the gOpikAs had great love towards krishNa, they did not understand that krishNa is their complete refuge. To make them realise that, krishNa did this leelA.
- Some people explain this incident in a perverted way. That is they would say krishNa did a shameful act. But the girls are very little here. Just as krishNa was about six or seven years old, they too were of the same age. Hence there is no scope for any perverted view here.
Source – https://granthams.koyil.org/2023/09/23/krishna-leela-18-tamil/
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