In the previous episode, we had witnessed an important and a pertinent discussion as to who controls whom? Is Bhagawan controlling us or are we controlling Him? The answer is very simple here – If we’re ardent devotees of Bhagawan, we can control Him very easily and He would dance to all our tunes. Whereas, if we’re Raakshasas and are following the path of “Adharma”, then obviously Bhagawan has no other option but to control us. This is exactly what we see in all of Bhagawan’s incarnations. The Yaadavas, Gopikas and many others during the Krishna-Avatara were ardent devotees, and hence, Bhagawan Krishna made it a point to spend ample time with all of them in whatever way they wanted to. Mahatma Vidura was yet another epitome of this point as well. When Bhagawan Krishna came as a messenger for the Paandavas to talk with King Dhirdiraashtra, it was at Vidura’s place did Bhagawan Krishna reside for that evening. Bhagawan Krishna enjoyed the time that He spent with His ardent devotee. Thus, we can see at every instance as to how Bhagawan enjoys His time and moments with His ardent devotees. So the point that we’ve to learn from here is that, we should also make ourselves into that list of ardent devotees, so that Bhagawan would voluntarily come towards us and be with us forever.
Moving on thus, we shall witness some other important points as to how Bhagawan Vishnu planned the Krishna-Avatara. Sage Paraashara explains this beautifully here thus:
“Yevam samsthooyamaanasthu bhagawan parameshwaraha!
Ujjahaara aatmanah keshav sithakrishnau mahaa mune!!”
This is a very important point that Sage Paraashara is trying to explain here. He says “Ujjahaara aatmanah keshav” – This means, Bhagawan pulls out two hair strands from His head and takes them in His hands. Sage Paraashara explains further, “sithakrishnau mahaa mune” – This means, out of the two strands of hair, one was black and the other was white in color. Bhagawan Vishnu drops both these hair strands on the floor and declares thus, “These two hair strands would take birth as two different human beings, who would be my incarnations. The incarnation emerging out of the white hair strand would be very fair in color and would be named “Balarama”, and the incarnation emerging out of the black hair strand would be black in color and would be named “Krishna”. All the Devas would take birth alongside both of us as the “Gopikas”. All the “Apsara” women would be taking birth at Gokula village as ordinary villagers. Thus, all of us are going to descend together to the “Bhoolokha”, and together we would finish Kamsa’s atrocities!”
Thus, we can see here that the Krishna-Avatara’s primary purpose was to finish off Kamsa. However, this was just a two-minute work for Bhagawan Krishna. But the ten years of His childhood days (Bala-Krishna) was the prime significance of all the “Alwars” and “Aachaaryas” as they’ve experienced Little Krishna in various beautiful ways, which if we start experiencing, would bring tears of joy and devotion to all of us as well! Sage Paraashara too on his part, is trying to bring out the significance of Bhagawan Bala-Krishna and we’re going to witness it in the upcoming episodes as well.
We might have yet another interesting question here. If we consider both these Puraana texts here – Shri Vishnu Puraana of Sage Paraashara and Shrimad Bhaagawatha Puraana of Sage Sukhaachaarya – Both of them do not talk about the Rama-Avatara in minute detail. In other words, we’ve already seen during our Bhaagawatha Puraana project previously that when it came to the Rama-Avatara, Sage Sukhaachaarya explains to King Parikshit that if he wants more details about the Rama-Avatara, he should go and refer to the Valmiki Ramayana text, wherein there are 24,000 slokas dedicated for this. This is the same narrative that Sage Paraashara is also telling Sage Maithreya. We might think here that atleast one out of these two sages should taken up Shri Rama-Avatara in detail, isn’t it? Whereas, when it comes to the Krishna-Avarara, both the sages have dedicated one full part of their Puraanas to describe it in detail. We’ve seen that Sage Sukhaachaarya had dedicated the entire “Dashama-Skandha” (Tenth Skandha) of the Shrimad Bhaagawatha Puraana for Bhagawan Krishna, and here too we’re witnessing that Sage Paraashara has dedicated the entire Fifth Amsa for Bhagawan Krishna. We might think here – Why is this partiality towards Bhagawan Rama? Why is everyone focusing on the Krishna-Avatara, more than the Rama-Avatara? Is there any significance that is lesser in the Rama-Avatara as compared to that of the Krishna-Avatara? Let’s wait for an interesting answer to these questions in the next episode! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 