Desikasthothramala-Gopalavimsathi

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Harthum kumbhe vinihithakarah svaadhu hyangaveenam

dhrshtvaa dhaamagrahaNa chatulaam maatharam jaatharoshaam

paayath eeshathprachalithapadhah nApagacchan na thishtan

mithyaa gopah sapadhi nayane meelayan visvagopthaa.(Gopalavimsathi-5)

 

May the saviour of the world, the pseudo cowherd,

who put His hand in the pot of fresh

clarified butter and seeing His mother agitated and angry with a rope on

hand, closed His eyes at once ( as though afraid ), and took a step as if to go but neither moved nor stood,

protect us.

 

Hyangaveenam is fresh ghee prepared from milk taken the

day before.

 

Krishna wished to eat the ghee prepared from the

butter taken from the curd made out of the milk milked the day before when he

saw his mother, angry and agitated at his mischief, approaching him with a rope in hand to tie

him up. Then he pretended as though he is angry and took a step as if to go but did not stir from the place with

one step forward and one step backward.

 

This

scene is described in Bhagavatha thus:

 

krthaagamamtham prarudhantham akshiNee

kashanthmajjanmashiNee

svapAinaa

udhveekshamaaNam bayavihvlekshaNam

hasthe grheethvaa bhishaynthyavaagurath

 

Yasodha is grasping Krishna in her hand and

threatens him and Krishna is seen crying and

smudging the eyeliner applied to his eyes with his hand. What a delightful

picture of the leela of the Lord!

 

 

Desika calls

him mithyaagopah , because being

visvagoptha, the protector of the whole universe he is now pretending to be a

cowherd boy feigning fear. This is the

scene precedent to Krishna getting bound in

the mortor. The next verse serves as an elucidation of the word mithyagopah.

 

 

vrajyoshidhapaangaveDHaneeyam madhuraabhaagyam ananyabhogyameede

vasudevavadhoosthanandhayam thath kimapi brahma kishorabhaava

dhrsyam-(Gopalavimsati-6)

 

I worship that Brahman, who appears as a child of

Vasudeva and Devaki , who is pierced by

the glances of the gopis ( like arrows)

and who is the fortune of the kingdom of Madhura and is the delight of His

ardent devotees.

 

Desika here shows the true identity of the

mithyagopa before he starts describing another leela of the Lord ,namely, the

yamalaarjuna bhanga, uprooting of the twin trees to free the sons of Kubera. He

also indicates in this sloka the later episode of venugana and raasakrida by

the epithet vrajayoshidhapaangavedhaneeyam,the glances , apaanga

of gopis, vrajyoshid , pierce him like arrows through their love .

 

He is the bhaagya, blessing of madhura

meaning that He is considered to be the

greatest good fortune by all in Madhura. To the devotee the Lord is the best

bhagya that could happen because once He is with us all the world and its

wealth and enjoyment therein becomes trivial. Desika himself said this in his

vairagyapanchakam when riches were

offered to him., ' asthi me hasthisailaagre vasthu pairthaamahamadhanam, I have

at the top of the hasthigiri, (meaning Varadaraja of kanchi) the wealth of my

forefathers, '

Desika wonders at the scene where the parabrahma, the SupremeSelf appearing as a boy in the gokula , brhmakishorabhaavadhrsyamThe

word kimapi used as an adjective to brahmakishora denotes the wonder.

Kimapi is translated as indescribable or extraordinary in this context.

 

Madhusudhana sarasvathi, a great exponent of advaita

philosophy, who at the same time a devotee of krishna says,

yenaabhyaasena vaseekrthena mansaa yannirguNama

nishkriyam

jyothih kimchana yoginahyadhi param pasyanthi

pasyanthu the

asmaakam thu thadheva lochanachamathkaaraaya

bhooyaath chiram

kaalindhee pulineshu kimapi yanneelam maho

dhaavathi

 

Let those yogis see that supreme light, (Brahman) which is actionless

and attributeless, with their mind controlled through practice. As far as we

are concerned the same Brahman, as a blue light, is running here on the banks of Yamuna to the delight of our

eyes.

 

..

 

 

the next scene describes Krishna

being bound in a mortar in order to free the sons of Kubera from their curse.

 

 

Parivarthitha kandharam bhayena

smithaphullaadharapallavam smaraami

vitapithvaniraasakam kayoschith

vipulolookalakarshakam kumaaram

( Gopalavimsathi-7)

 

I recall the memory of the young boy, who is pulling

the large mortar along with him with smiling sproutlike lips turning his head

(asthough) in fear , who thus freed those (two sons of kubera) from their

treehood.

 

Yasodha had bound Krishna in a mortar and he was

pulling the mortar and went through the two twin trees in his backyard who were

thw two sons of Kubera cursed to become trees by the sage Narada because they

were bathing in the river and did not heed him when he came that way. they were

pardoned and were told that the Lord

will free them in His krishnaavathaara. So they took the form of twin

trees at the house of Nandagopa waiting for their redemption. When Krishna

passed through the trees the mortor got stuck between them and when Krishna

pulled at it the trees fee down with great noise and the two sons of Kobera

were freed from their curse and went away after bowing down to Krishna.

 

Bhagavatha describes the effort of Yasodha in

trying to bind Krishna to the mortar thus:Yasodha found that the rope withwhich

she tried to tie him up was short by two inches, dvayangulonam.She tried

it with other ropes but all were found to be short by two inches due to the

maya of the Lord.then seeing her tired and flustered Krishna got bound by

himself out of love and pity for his mother who was laughed at by other gopis

witnessing he scene.

 

The scene in which Yasodha bound Krishna

to the mortor has been eulogised by Desika in his yadhavabhyudhaya and by

Lilasuka in krishna karnaamritha.

 

Desika calls the mortar 'aattha puNya.

' That is , it has done some good deed in its purvajanma to have Krishna bound to it. He says Yasodha tried to bind Him

who is the bandhu of the good.'Bandhum sathaam bandhumiyesha maatha,

' with pun on the word bandhu.

 

Leela sukha

asks those, who try to understand the Brahman by extensive study of the

vedas and become fatigued by wandering in the forest of vedas, to stop their

effort and come to Gokula where the essence of the upanishads is found tied to

a mortor, 'upanishadhartham ulookale baddham.'

 

Desika

further says in his Yadhavabhyudhaya that those who meditate on the Lord

thus bound to the mortar will be free from all bondage against the rule that

one becomes like the object which he contemplates longingly,(

thathkrathunyaya.) One who thinks of the navaneethachourya will be free from

all deceitful thoughts and thinking of His rasaleela will free the heart from

all lust and other desires.

 

 

nikateshu nisaamayaami nithyam

nigamaantharairadhunaapi mrgyamaanam

yamalaarjuna dhrshtabaalakelim yamunaasaakshikayouvanam

kumaaram

(Gopalavimsathi-8)

Let me observe everywhere near me, Him, who is

inquired by the vedas even now and eternal, whose childhood sport is witnessed by the twin trees and

whose boyhood is witnessed by the river Yamuna.

 

Desika passes on from the childhood leelas of the

Lord to those of His boyhood on the banks of a Yamuna in the next verse and he

mentions the transition of Krishna from the

state of baala to that of kaumara in this verse.

 

The consequence of binding Krishna to the mortar is

only hinted in this verse by mentioning that the twins, the sons of Kuerea who

were in the form of twin trees were the

ebservers of the baalaleela of the Lord. Being situated in the backyard

of the house of Nanda, naturally they were witnessing all the leealas of the

baby Krishna.

 

Bhagavatham desctribes the release of the curse of

the sons of Kubera thus:

rsheh bhaagavathamukhyasya sathyam karthum vacho

harih

jagaama sanakaisthathra yathra aasthaam

yamalaarjunou ( Bh.10-10-24)

 

Krishna went towards the trees in order to prove

the words of sage Narada, who was the foremost among HIs devotees.he thought,

says Bhagavatham,

devarshirme priyathamah yadhimou dhanaddhaathmajou

thatthathaa saadhayishyaami yadhgeetham

thanmahaathmanaa (Bh.10-10-25)

"the devarshi Narada is dear to

me and these are the sons of Kubera(who is also a devotee) anf hence I will

fulfill what has been promised by Narada."

 

 

As he took the form of a lion-man to prove the

words of Prahlada and the boon of Brahma, both of whom were His devotees, now he allowed HImself to be

bound to the mortar in order to free the twins and to prove the words of Narada

.. That is the karunaa of the Lord.

 

May you be not deluded by His childish pranks,

implies Desika by saying that the one who did all this is 'nigamaanthairadhunaapi

mrgyamaana' He whom the vedas struggle to understand even now. In

yadhavaabhyudhaya Desika says that the

scriptures trying to describe the Lord

as He is, become tired even before they finish with one of HIs gunas .'yadekaiakgunapraanthe

sraanthaah nigamavandhinah' Such is

the glory of the Lord.