yaan sathiyam endreno Krishnanai POle
Below is the translation to Veda Paati's story, narrated in tamil, available in below platforms:
YOUTUBE:
SPOTIFY
APPLE PODCASTS
GOOGLE PODCASTS
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
THIRUKOLUR PEN PILLAI RAGASIYAM - 16
Was I truthful like Krishna?
Upon hearing the tales of the different Azhwars from Thirukolur Pen Pillai, EmperumanAr Ramanujar, eagerly asked the child, “Dear child, who are you going to speak about next? Which great devotee of the Lord are you going to narrate about?”. To this, the little girl of Thirukolur responded “Swami, if the Bhagavathas, the devotees are so inspiring, imagine the Lord Himself!”, and thus she began describing the enchanting Krishna!
Our ancestors have often said that the absolute truthfulness of Sri Rama and the falsehood of Sri Krishna have been our saviours. Sri Rama wanted to show the world that upholding truth is of utmost importance to lead a dharmic life. Lord Krishna, known to be the “Maya Kannan” appears to indulge in falsehood and mischief. However He performed these leelas, or pasttimes, for the overall good of the world and to protect His devotees. Children, shall we explore Krishna’s life to see examples of His Leelas?
This incident happened when Krishna was a little child in Gokul. While playing with his friends, he took some sand in his little hand and put it into his mouth playfully! His friends who were aghast, went running to Mother Yashoda, “Come Mother! See what Krishna has done!” The angry Yashoda took her stick and went running behind Him, “What have you done, Krishna! Yet again! Have you eaten sand?”. Krishna who put on a very innocent face, slyly said, “No Amma. I have not eaten anything! My friends are simply getting me into trouble. Here see”. Kannan opened his little mouth, lo and behold! My little friend, Yashoda saw the whole universe, the 14 worlds, why even herself in His mouth! Yashoda swooned in shock. Krishna owns this entirety, so what would it matter if he lied about it? After all it was only to prove who He really was to Yashoda ma and all of us, is it not?
Let us now fast forward to the time when Krishna had grown up! During the Mahabharata war between the Pandavas and Kauravas, Krishna was the charioteer for Arjuna. The great warrior Bhishma, who was on the side of the Kauravas had claimed a boon called “IcchAmruthyu”. With this boon, Bhishma could choose the time of his death, and would only die at his wish. How then to defeat this great warrior? Krishna’s trick was to get Shikandi, who was a transgender, to fight with Bhishma. The great warrior would not fight with a woman, and hence Bhishma was eliminated from the war this way.
Dhrona was a great warrior on the Kauravas side. He was skilled at using his weapons and it was difficult to outpower him. He had a weakness in that, if anything were to happen to his son Ashwathama, Dhrona would lose focus and drop his weapons. Bhima then killed an elephant whose name was also Ashwathama and made a loud announcement, “I have killed Ashwathama”. Silently he muttered “Ashwathama, the elephant”. Dhrona who did not hear the silent muttering thought his son had been killed and instantly dropped his weapons. This was when he was beheaded and eliminated from the war.
Arjunan’s son Abhimanyu was killed in the war when ten warriors from the Kauravas surrounded and overpowered him. Among these warriors, the main culprit was Jayadhrathan. Arjuna took a vow that if he did not kill Jayadrathan by the dawn of the next day, he would sacrifice himself to fire. Jayadrathan was in hiding due to fear the whole of the next day. Although it was not yet dawn, Krishna instructed His faithful discus to cover the sun so that it would become dark. When this was done, Jayadrathan came out of hiding thinking it was safe. This was when he was killed by Arjuna. Likewise, Krishna skilfully eliminated Karnan as well.
Once, Ashwathama aimed the Brahmastra arrow at Utharai who was carrying a child in her womb. The arrow caused her son to be born lifeless like a piece of wood. The heart broken Utharai then heard a mysterious voice bellowing “If one who is the epitome of truth, and one who is a true Brahmachari touches this child, he will come back to life”. Lord Krishna stepped forward, and with His divine touch the child came back to life. How could Lord Krishna be a Brahmachari, when he had 16000 wives and several kids and grand children? Well, this was because he was not mentally attached to the physical relationships with his worldly family.
Krishna did all of these tricks to save His devotees and to bless them with a righteous life. Draupadi, who was disrobed and disrespected in the Kaurava court raised her hands helplessly calling Krishna then! Lord Krishna ensured that justice was delivered to her by the destroying the Kauravas by the end of the war. He did all of this to ensue dharma and justice, and to be able to do this he used several tactics, but they only surmounted to utmost truth.
“Dear Swami, look at EmperumAn Kannan, am I so truthful like Him? Why then do I deserve to remain here”, lamented Pen Pillai.