GITA 4.25

GITA 4.25

Nand Bhavan

ambaramE thaNNeerE sORE aRam seyyum

emberumaan nandhagOpaalaa ezhundhiraay

kombanaarkku ellaam kozhundhE kula viLakkE

emberumaatti yasOdhaay aRivuRaay

ambaram ooda aRuththu Ongi ulagu aLandha

umbar kOmaanE uRangaadhu ezhundhiraay

sem poR kazhaladi chelvaa baladhEvaa

umbiyum neeyun uRangElOr embaavaay.

In Her Tiruppavai 17th verse, Sri Andal wakes up Nandagopa, Yasoda, SriKrishna and Sri Balarama sleeping in the palace of Nandagopa. Today's [17th October 2007] lecture is from Nanda Bhavan in Nandgaon. After migrating from Gokulam, Nandagopa built his house here and around this place lots of spots are there where Sri Krishna played. We are at a spot calle ddhadhi manthana sthal, where Yasoda used to churn curd daily.

Dadhi Manthan Stal

 Sri Krishna liked curd only and so He would prevent His mother churning curd to take out butter and dilute it to make buttermilk.Thirumangai Alwar says, she would churn the curd and preserve the butter collected in a hanger vessel so that Sri Krishna could not take the butter, and after ensuring He is asleep, would go out to see other works. But Sri Krishna would get up immediately after His mother had gone out, and take out the butter and swallow them. He would also roll down the vessels containing buttermilk. From here, we can view Akrura marg.

Biew of Akrura marg from Nand Bhavan

 Akrura was sent by Kamsa to fetch Sri Krishna and Sri Balarama to Mathura. Akrura accompanied them in this marg or street only. Gopikas would weep the moment they saw this street as Sri Krishna took leave of them for the last time here.

 In Mathura on the western banks of Yamuna, Sri Krishna was born, and just crossing the river we come to Gokulam. From here they migrated to Nandgaon, 40 miles away. In between we can see Govardan giri. Unlike Gokulam on the Eastern banks, Mathura, Govardanam and Nandgaon are all on the Western side. Some 7 KM away from Nandgaon, at a place called Barsana, Radha was brought up, though She was born in Radhan. On another side in the border of Rajasthan, there is a place Kamyavanam, where Sri Krishna played. 

Now the 23rd sloka:

gata-sangasya muktasya
jnanavasthita-cetasah
yajnayacaratah karma
samagram praviliyate

The work of a man who is unattached to the modes of material nature and who is fully situated in transcendental knowledge merges entirely into transcendence.

"The work of a man who is unattached to the modes of material nature and who is fully situated in transcendental knowledge destroys entirely papa."

Karma = all our sins, samagram = in toto, praviliyate = are destroyed. In what way? Gata = relinquishing, sangasya = attachments, muktasya = he who has been relieved from this earthly or samsara bondage, cetasa = mind of, jnanavasthita = fully engrossed in Atman. He is engrossed in Atman and so he has no passion or attachments and so is relieved of the shackles that bind him to samsaram. A millionaire will not care to do a job costing two rupees, while a person earning five rupees only may be interested. We are all attached to these worldly pleasures because, either we have not seen pleasures better than what we experience or we do not know the others' better comforts and happiness. A person engrossed in Atman knows the value of the happiness and so he has no care for the worldly pleasures. Yajnaya = for the sake of yagna only, acarata = he does any karma. Such a person's sins are all destroyed in toto. Layam means an object becomes its initial stage. Pralayam means all the created objects attain their initial stage. So the papa also reach their initial stage means they are completely nullified. Here, we should note that the karma or action is not nullified, but the papa which are incurred while doing any action get nullified. To achieve this we should not aspire for inferior rewards, but do all with dedication to the Lord. Atman is different from the body it is residing, and so the karmas the body performs do not attach to the Atman. This basic knowledge should be the undercurrent in every action of ours, and then no sins can be incurred. We have to analyze our actions dispassionately and we can find the root, and avoid conflicts. If others accuse us, instead of getting angry and thinking that the other person was responsible, we should realize that our papa was responsible for that conflict. Conflicts happen because something happens against our expectations. Sri Krishna thus advises to see karma in Gyana and gyana in Karma.

                                                                                            (continued)