The Almighty, accessible to His devotees

CHENNAI, JUNE 30. The scriptures reiterate that it is difficult to realise the transcendental form of the Supreme Being and that even they have failed to fathom His glory. But the same scriptural texts postulate that the Lord makes Himself accessible to His devotees because of His overwhelming compassion for them. The Puranas are replete with instances of the Almighty gracing His devotees during His incarnations. While it is true that the devotees merited Divine grace by their devotion, it has also to be noted that the accessibility they enjoyed was a singular act of His grace which even great sages did not enjoy by the performance of austerities and penance.

The Lila (divine deeds) of Lord Krishna during His childhood is a case in point. The cowherd community of Gokul in which He grew up provided the perfect setting for making Himself accessible to these simple folks whose lives revolved round their livelihood of raising cows and selling their produce. The Gopis considered butter, milk and curd as their wealth and the Lord targeted them to catch their attention. Thus the depiction of Krishna as the butter-thief becomes the leitmotif of the literature depicting devotional mysticism. The interpretations of this act of the Lord also assumes many forms according to the individual mystic's experience of the Lord. Esoterically, butter represented the devotee's total detachment from the world and only such a mind free from other preoccupations could dwell on the Supreme and realise Him, said Sri B. Sundar Kumar in his discourse.

The Narayaneeyam waxes eloquent on an instance of the Almighty's grace bestowed on Yashoda. Once, when Krishna was playing with His friends, they became angry about having been duped by Him of the fruits they were to share and so they went in a group and complained to His mother that He had eaten mud. Bhattatiri exclaims that Yashoda feared that He would fall sick by eating a little mud - He who consumes the entire manifestation during the deluge. Krishna kept insisting that He had not eaten mud and that their complaint was false. Finally, when she challenged Him to open His mouth so that she could verify for herself, He obliged her.

Naturally, she had expected to see only some mud; instead, the Lord showered His bountiful grace on her by showing the entire manifestation in its infinitude inside His tiny mouth which made her mind whirl. For a moment, the devotee in Yashoda had the supreme knowledge but the Lord's deluding power made her forget it immediately and she continued to look upon the Lord as her child.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Miscellaneous
Previous : Solution to puzzle 7094
Next     : dated June 30, 1951: Tribute to Rajendra Prasad