- Tiruppavai 25
Transliteration of Tamil Song
Oruththi maganaai-p-pirandhu or iravil
Oruththi maganaai oliththu valara
Tharikkilaanaagi-th-thaan theengu ninaindha
Karuththai pizhai-p-piththu kanjan vayittril
Neruppenna ninra nedumaley! unnai
Aruththuthu vandhom parai tharudhi yaagil
Thiruththakka selvamum sevakamum yaampaadi
Varuththamum theerndhu magizhndhu-el or empaavaai
Translation
Born to a divine woman in one night
Travelled to another mother in hiding
Overcoming all the attacks of demon,
Planned to harm you many ways, You
Instilled killing fire of fear in Kamsa’s mind
O Supreme Self, We all wantonly came to
Seeking your unlimited grace to serve you,
relieve from all pains, sing your glory, Krishna.
Sri Krishnavatharam is a comprehensive phase of Vishnu. It is not like descending on earth to perform just one transaction of securing a devotee like elephant caught by crocodile. Sri Krishna had varieties of purposes to serve. While Rama had time till he became young to fight the demons, Krishna’s battle with demons began from the birth itself. Though born with super natural powers i.e., four hands and Sankha and Chakra, he has to hide all that and move secretly out of prison. Krishna blessed divine mother with His birth, but had to move next minute to another blessed mother far from city. They fear to speak out the birth of a boy, name of mother, as they fear Kamsa, who has already commanded his evil forces to kill the infants of a few weeks age. Gopikas and Goda were so immersed that they fear as if Kamsa is still threatening the life of Krishna, during their vratam. Devaki and Vasudeva could not enjoy the bliss of having Vishnu as their son, but worried how to hide him from Kamsa. She gave away just born son to be shifted and father has to do that.
Yashoda is equally blessed personality, to have Vishnu as a child with her. But attacks on Krishna within days made her frightened. Poothana, Sakataasura and several other such demons are attacking in sequence. Yet Krishna is not worried, He is giving tense situations to Kamsa and his gang.
Goda’s team of devotees are pleading with Krishna saying: “You need not descend for us. We do not generate any necessity to come to a particular place to save us. We, on our own reached you. We have no demands or needs at all. It is enough if we can have your darshan. We want you, and nothing else”
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Sri Krishna responded: “ You claim that you do not want anything, but asking for Parai?”
Gopikas & Goda: “You said that You could give parai, If you give, we will take. If we say no, You may think that we are independently deciding. We desire to sing your glory. You are so rich that even Mahalakshmi could ask for some wealth from You. We are relieved of pain caused by separation from you. We could not even take your name, fearing Kamsa. Now we donot have that fear. We happily sing your name and fame. That is enough for us”.
Vishnu is ‘antaryami’, invisibly protects us. If he comes out and appears before, we may not identify him. We may even argue that he is not the God. This is one of the Bhakti Sutra, which Goda explained in this 25th Pashuram.
To explain the virtue of Devaki and Yashoda, Jeeyar Swamy, Sri Bhashyam Appalacharya explained that, when Angels and Asuras churned the ocean of the Milk, the nectar emerged. But Dasaratha got such nectar from the sacrifice called Putra Kameshthi and got four great sons. Here Devaki, Vasudeva, Nanda and Yashoda performed penance for long to have a wonderful kid –Sri Krishna. Devaki has the fruit of penance of four devotees as her child in the womb. Yet she could not enjoy the childhood of fantastic Balakrishna. Yashoda has that fortune, which is unimaginable and immeasurable. We cannot find any parallel personality equal to Devaki or Yashoda anywhere, anytime. One who gave birth to Krishna, or one who could regulate a parabrahman who controls 14 Universes.
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We all know Ugrasen as a very pious and generous king. How could he give birth to Kamsa like demon? One Asura called Vimaludu took the form of Ugrasena and cheated his wife, a crime of rape. Thus, Kamsa was born out of rape. He becomes the demon and warned by divine voice that he would be killed by the eighth son of Devaki and Vasudeva.
Godamma and her team sings the glory of Krishna, who was born to one mother (Devaki), but had to be hidden and brought up as the son of another mother (Yashoda), the demon Kamsa who is waiting to kill the infants to protect himself from eighth son of Devaki. But Krishna created a terror in his mind and made caused fire in his stomach. Goda says “We are here to sing about your Glory and if you bestow grace on us and fulfill our wishes we will rejoice and be rid of all our sorrows and be happy ever.
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After He wakes up, Goda sings five songs glorifying the virtues of Krishna. This is the second of those five verses. In all these five verses she is invoking the great qualities of the Krishna with appropriate episodes of his life. They hesitate to tell the desire till the end of vrata. But they ask for bestowing the grace and fulfill the desires.
