GITA 7.24

GITA 7.24

Today's [9th April 2008] lecture is from the kannadi arai [room of mirrors] in the inner corridor [prakaram] of the temple. Here, the 32 forms in which the Lord gave darshan to the sages Gopila and Gopralaya, are painted for us to see. In the 19th sloka, Sri Krishna told that a devotee is Mahatma, who views everything as Sri Vasudeva. Everything means whatever experience one could have in this Universe. Even if a single experience, one does not find in Sri Vasudeva, then one would leave Him and seek someone else. To show that He presents Himself as everything, without exception, the Lord is portrayed here. These are the forms in which He appeared long ago, to the sages. Later many kings and others have built the temple. We can see the images of Vijayaraghava Naik, Achutappa Naik and Shenbagavalli. These persons were responsible for constructing the temple. We will now see all the 32 scenes portrayed here:

1. First He appeared as Sri Para Vasudeva, as He appears as Moolavar in the garbha gruha. We can also see Narada administering mantra, sages' meditation and the sages blessed with the grand view of the Lord. The Lord appears with Sri Rukmini and Sri Satyabhama.
2. Sri Krishna as a Child kills the demon Poothana, who came in the guise of His mother and wanted to poison and kill the Child. Sri Krishna sucks away her life.
3. Yasoda, getting the pleasure of feeding the Infant Sri Krishna.
   
   
   
4. To show He is the Supreme God, He opened His mouth for Yasoda to see everything in this Universe. Yasoda fainted in seeing all the Fourteen worlds. We can infer that He is everything and we do not have to go anywhere else.
5. Scene of the Lord as an Infant crawling on His knees.
6. For the sake of a hand full of butter, the Lord dances before Yasoda -Sri Navaneetha Krishna. When all the other gods dance before Him, He dances to get a morsel of butter from a woman. After eating the butter, it seems, the Lord as a Child, would break the empty pot. Significance is that the Lord takes the butter - soul - into Him, and destroys the pot - body- which contained the butter.
7. The Lord derived great pleasure in taking the cows for grazing. With a small whip in one hand and other arm resting on a cow, this scene was seen by the sages.
8. Sri Krishna waits for Yasoda to churn curd to collect butter in a pot. When she goes out, the naughty Sri Krishna enters the kitchen and devours all the butter. Similarly, Sri Krishna implants Bhakti in us, without our knowledge.
   
   
   
9. Sri Krishna, as a little Boy, steals the dresses of gopikas and hides them in a tree. Only when they come out throwing off their shyness and pray, He gave back their dresses. We also should shrug off our shyness and pray.
10. Sri Krishna is playing the flute, to the delight of Brahma, Shiva and all the gods, gopis and gopikas.
11. When all in Gokulam, complained to Yasoda about Sri Krishna stealing butter in their houses, Yasoda reprimands the Child by tying Him to a pounder base.
12. As Sri Venugopala, He enthralls beasts, birds and trees.
13. Like a well spread Lotus flower all the cowherd friends would encircle Sri Krishna. He distributes tasty 'dhadhyonna' or curd rice.
14. As Sri Gopala, He milks the cows. He likes raw milk and immediately drinks th milk.
    
15. He kills the demons Vatsasura and Kapisthasura, who came in the guise of a calf and wood apple [Tamil = விளாம்பழம் ]. He killed Dhenukasura, who came as a donkey.
16. Kalinga narthanam. To save all from the poison of the serpent Kalinga, Sri Krishna jumped into the river Yamuna and danced on the hoods of the snake.
17. Seated with all gopikas on the same throne, He graced.
18. Sri Madana Gopala, captivates everyone's mind.
19. Rasakreeta. With each gopika one Sri Krishna and with each Sri Krishna, one Gopika, all danced in the forests of Brindavan.
20. Once when all gopikas were chasing Sri Krishna, He sought asylum in Dhadhipanda, a sage, who hid Him in a large pot and told gopikas that Sri Krishna never came to him. When Sri Krishna wanted to get released from the pot, Dhadhipanda, demanded that he should be graced with many forms of the Lord and the Lord appeared in all the Dasa avatara.
    
    
    
21. Sri Krishna gives eatables to all gopis and gopikas and enjoys. Similarly, He will give us all we need, once we approach Him.
22. For seven days, the Lord kept the hill Govardhanam aloft and protected all the people from the fury of Indra, who showered excessive rains for seven days. We can conclude that He is our Protector from all ills.
23. Brahma in a moment of ego tried to embarrass Sri Krishna by hiding all calves and His friends, but in the process, he was humbled and sought apology.
24. In the company of all gopis and gopikas, Sri Krishna is singing and dancing to the delight of all.
25. Sri Krishna posing with Sri Rukmini and Sri Satyabhama.
    
    
    
26. When Sri Satyabhama's ego slightly surfaced, with the help of Narada, Sri Krishna showed that a bhakti dedicated Tulasi leaf was much superior to all the wealth.
27. Sri Yadava Raja -King , graces the Royal assembly, after killing the deadly elephant Kuvalayapeetam
28. As a King, Sri Krishna is enjoying music and dance in the Royal Assembly.
29. Sri Krishna performed as an emissary of Pandavas and tried to persuade Dhridharashtra and others from a war.
30. In the great Mahabharata war, Sri Krishna appears as Sri Gitacharya and preaches to Arjuna.
31. A scene from Haridhra nadhi in Champakaranya Kshetram. Sri Krishna is running away with the thodu of a gopika so that she does not win the competition.
32. Sri Srividya Rajagopalan. With a single cloth as dhoti and turban, the Lord as He graces in this Kshetram.
    

From all these episodes, we can realise that everything is Sri Vasudeva.
                                                                                                                  (continued)