What Can We Offer Him?

Vidura couldn’t believe his eyes! His joy knew no bounds! 

Krishna, the Lord Himself, had come to Vidura’s hut! 

After finishing His task as ‘Pandava-doota’ – the messenger from the Pandavas, seeking to avert war, Krishna had rejected the invitations of everyone right from the young Duryodhana to the grandsire Bheeshma. He had chosen to come to his, Vidura’s humble abode!

Ushering in Krishna, Vidura ran to ready the asana for the Lord to sit. Krishna looked on in amusement as Vidura kept on critically examining the seat, blocking Him from actually sitting down.

“You seem to be searching for something, Vidura?” He smiled.

“Yes, my Lord! After having served under Dhritarashtra and Duryodhana for all these years, I’m worried that their habits may have rubbed off on me. Who knows if I may have placed a pin or a needle in this chair to hurt you?” sighed Vidura as he shamefully remembered how just a few hours ago, Duryodhana’s plans to capture Krishna had been foiled by the Omniscient Lord.

Finally, Vidura let the Lord sit down. Kneeling in front of Krishna, he picked up a banana from the fruit bowl on the side table, to offer it to the Lord. Lost in this magical moment of being in the Lord’s presence and having the rare opportunity of serving Him, Vidura began peeling the fruit to offer to the Lord.

The Lord too happily accepted and ate what Vidura offered Him, a sweet smile playing on His lips all the time.

“What are you doing?” came the shocked voice of Vidura’s wife, jarring him out of his happy contemplation of Krishna’s divine face.

“Why, I’m offering fruits to the Lord,” he turned to say to his wife, wondering why she was asking such a foolish question.

“Just look at what you have offered Him,” she whispered.

Image courtesy:Chinnajeeyar.org

Lying in a pile on the floor were all the fruits Vidura had discarded even as he had lovingly offered the banana peels to the Lord!

Vidura was aghast! “Oh, what a sin I have committed! How did I come to err like this? O Lord, please forgive me. I don’t know what came over me to commit such a sacrilege,” cried Vidura.

Now he picked up the next banana carefully, peeled it and made sure he was handing over the fruit and not the peel to the Lord.

“Enough, Vidura! I can’t eat any more. I’m full,” exclaimed Krishna.

“But I only gave You the peels,” cried Vidura, ashamed of his crime.

“How innocent you are Vidura!” declared the Lord. “I’m the One who ate the entire universe at the time of pralaya (the great deluge). Do you think you can appease my hunger by giving me fruits or their peels? Nay – it’s your bhakti, your sincere heartfelt devotion that has filled my hungry stomach!”

In the Bhagavad Geeta (9.26), the Lord says

“पत्रं पुष्पं फलं तोयं यो मे भक्त्या प्रयच्छति |
तदहं भक्त्युपहृतमश्नामि प्रयतात्मन: ||”

patraṁ puṣhpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayachchhati
tadahaṁ bhaktyupahṛitam aśhnāmi prayatātmanaḥ

"If one offers to Me with devotion a leaf, a flower, 

a fruit, or even water, 

I delightfully partake of that item 

offered with love 

by My devotee in pure consciousness."

The Lord is the Prabhu – the master and owner of all in the Universe. Is there anything He doesn’t have? 

Nothing! 

Except perhaps one thing – the ability to offer bhakti to Himself!

That, then, is probably the only edge we have – we can offer Him our whole-hearted, single-minded devotion. 

And that is exactly why the Lord cherished the banana peels offered by the devout Vidura.

Can we start working to develop the devotion of Vidura?

His Bondage and Our Liberation

It was time for Lord Ranganathar’s thirumanjanam or holy bath. The curtains were firmly closed as the temple priest went about the ritual. Suddenly, he noticed a movement near one end of the drapes. The most respected acharyar of the Srivaishnavas, Sri Nanjeeyar, was peering at the Lord’s unclothed form with undisguised curiosity!

Shocked, the priest questioned this irreverent behaviour.

Pat came Sri Nanjeeyar’s reply, “I’m searching for the mark of the rope with which Mother Yashoda tied baby Krishna to the grinding stone, which gave Him the name of ‘Damodara’!”

The priest was perplexed. Mother Yashoda had tied up the naughty baby Krishna to the grinding stone in Dwaparayuga. How could the acharyar hope to find it on the holy form of Lord Ranganatha in this Kaliyuga? Probably Sri Nanjeeyar was so steeped in devotion that he got the two mixed up?

“But why are you seeking that rope-mark with such desperation? How does it matter whether you find it or not?”

Engrossed in his vision of the Lord, Sri Nanjeeyar replied, “If that mark is there – it means that for all His supremacy, the Lord is certainly within our grasp! If Mother Yashoda could tie Him up, then even we can do the same!”

“What rope will you use?” asked the priest indulgently

“Rope?” laughed Sri Nanjeeyar. “Do you think Mother Yashoda tied baby Krishna with a physical rope? Why, it was her love that tied Him up! When she struggled at first for so long to get the rope to go around Him, how was it that within an instant she had Him tied to the stone? Wasn’t it His willingness to be tied that made the impossible, possible? And what was it that made Him willing? Wasn’t it the infinite love of Mother Yashoda?”

Even as the baffled priest looked on, Sri Nanjeeyar walked away with a smile, leaving us with a valuable lesson.

In this world we find that anyone who has great power is often not accessible and one who may be very accessible to us does not have any great power. 

But the Lord is an exception.

He has a unique combination of two qualities – Paratvam and Saulabhyam – Supremacy and Accessibility. He, the Supreme Lord, the One who destroys the bondages of jeevas in this samsara, allowed the love of Mother Yashoda, to bind Him to a grinding stone! 

In His bondage, then, lies the secret to our liberation!

In this world we find that people don’t like to exhibit their weaknesses. The Lord is exactly opposite – He proudly took the name “Damodara” that openly proclaims His punishment at the hands of His mother! He sports the mark of the ‘damam’ or rope around His ‘udara’ or stomach, as an abharanam, an adornment!

Let this nature of the Lord give us eternal hope like it did to Sri Nanjeeyar – if we try to bind Him with unconditional love, wanting nothing in return, won’t He release us from the bondages of samsara?




Reference: Srimad Bhagavatam (Tamil) series of Sri. U. Ve. Velukudi Krishnan Swamy, Part 374

Amazing is Her Karuna!

“Hey Monkey!” She blurted in angst.

He was shocked!

Different names had been used over the years to describe his qualities – he was Vayuputra, AnjaneyA, SankatamochanA, Dheera, DaityakulAntaka, HanumAn, the Nava-vyAkarana-Pandita, master of the 9 grammars – and here was someone he revered as his Mother, addressing him by such a lowly name!

Yet, respectful as ever, Hanuman paused to let Mother Seeta finish what She was saying.

पापानां वl शुभानां वl वधार्हाणां प्लवङ्गम
कार्यं कारुण्यं आर्येण न कश्चिन् नापराध्यति

pApAnAM vA shubhAnAM vA vadhArhANAM plava~Ngama ||
kAryaM kAruNyamAryeNa na kashchinnAparAdhyati |

Valmiki Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda, 113-46

"Hey Monkey! Whether someone is a sinner or a virtuous person or even a person who deserves death, the noble person will show mercy on them, for, there is none who never commits a wrong."

Why did Mother Seeta call Hanuman a monkey?

They were in the Ashoka vana after the Rama-Ravana yuddha was over.

Ravana had been killed, and Hanuman had come to give Her the good news. She was thrilled and wanted to reward him, but right then, had nothing to give.

Understanding Her dilemma, Hanuman said there was one thing She could grant him – permission to destroy the rakshasis who had been torturing Her day in and out for all these months.

It was in reply to this request that Mother Seeta chastised Hanuman with that pejorative term ‘monkey’, for wanting to punish the rakshasis. She went on to explain Her stance:

“The rakshasis were only obeying the instructions of their king Ravana. Now, when Vibhishana becomes king and orders them to show me respect, they will act accordingly. Why punish them for obeying orders? The truly noble person is the one who shows karuna or compassion on all – whether a virtuous person or a sinner or even someone who has acted in a manner that deserves death as punishment.”

“There is no one who has never committed a wrong!” She proclaimed.

Hanuman was intrigued. “What wrong have you committed, Mother? Or Lord Rama?” he asked.

“When I had Lord Rama with me, I desired the golden deer – that was my mistake. Then I spoke harsh and undeserving words to Lakshmana – that was also my mistake. Lord Rama should have known the golden deer was a ploy, and yet He went chasing it, giving in to my request, that was His mistake!”

“Even you Hanuman, for all your devotion, have also committed a wrong,”

Again, Hanuman was shocked. What now?

“You have stood here with me, talking about the wrongs done by all, that is your flaw!” She smiled.

Thus, with a patient firmness, Mother Seeta, the very epitome of karuna or compassion, gave the entire world an ideal to live up to.

Could we try to practice even an iota of such kindness in our lives?