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RE: butter thief incident!

From the Bhakti List Archives

Madhavakkannan, Vasudevan • July 27, 1999 


Sri:

Dear Smt Viji,

Your posts have always been nice and lateral. 

This one- especially- the lovely picturisation of that blue hued, charming 
Devaki Singam, my favourite - our favourite Kutti KaNNan's getting caught
red handed stealing and eating the butter... What a narration! It melts the
heart.
The Gopika's anger slowly transforming into smile and laughter
and hugs.... that only makes us feel bad that we were not blessed to
be at Gokulam then. That our envying Gopis remind me again the Great
KulasEkara PerumAL's excellent ten pAsurams, in which the most
unfortunate Devaki cries that she is not blessed to see the little
darling of hers growing and doing all this mischief. She laments
that "If someone asks who your father is.. aiyO! KaNNan with His small
little finger shows NandhagOpan.. (VasudEvar paavam!)... 
aiyO! What for are my breasts, when it is not sucked by that little
Kutti darling of mine... Even Poothanai was blessed to have had
His drinking milk from her.. Am I worse than her? All this joy-
Bliss- The most fortunate YashOdhai- Deiva Nangai YashOdhai peRRaaLE!

adadaaa! KulasEkarAzhwAr anubhavam anubhavamthaan! The king- who had
all kinds of wealths and pleasures- enjoyed so great on our Lord...He
is the Only (??_ Please confirm) AzhwAr who sang lullaby to the DharmO
Vigrahavaan- Sri Raman, imagining Him as a baby..

This Kutti KaNNan butter thief incident also reminds me of Swami Desikan's
Gopala Vimsathy "hartthum kumbhE.." (an article that I had prepared for my
son's speech in one of NAMA events long back..)

KaNNan slowly enters into the kitchen. He looks there; and here; 
no one is around. This is the right time. YasOdhA, after getting vexed 
with the mischievous butter-stealing acts, keeps the butter in a different
container and at a different place to mislead our Kutti KaNNan. But our Lord
the sarvEshwaran- Does He not know where the "veNNai" is? Will He get
misled? No.

He tip-toes towards the big pot (which is tall as He)- He opens the lid. 
And with great effort, puts the whole hand in upto the shoulder and takes a
handful of butter; puts the whole lot into His mouth. Not enough. He dips in
again! 
Oh no! ammA has come in! She has seen everything. He is caught stealing
the butter- with His mouth full of butter, - with His hand fully dipped into
the pot. 
What will He do now? SarvEshwaran- Our Lord Kutti KaNNan is "scared" of the
 visible angry mother approaching Him. Will she hit Him? Will she scold Him?

What puishment will she give Him? He is perplexed.

Should He run away? He has taken off one foot and is ready to run. (na
apakacchan-
na thishTan..) At the same time, He is not able to run away because 
He is cornered and fully caught red handed. He is neither standing nor is He
running!
The little Lord of ours has decided to close His eyes, unable to see what is
going
to happen, thinking that He can avoid the punishment by closing His eyes! 
The Universal Lord,- who protects the whole Universe and even beyond, 
simply and effortlessly in His Yoga nitthirai (aRithuil) on AdhisEshan, with
complete awareness and knowledge of all and every thing that happens
everywhere- is having His eyes now closed to avoid seeing His mother
coming towards Him! 

Vedanta Desikan's enjoyment is beyond description in words. 

May that butter thief -Lord KrishNA bless us as He does always!

Sarvam Sri KrishNArpaNamasthu

Narayana Narayana

Narayana dAsan Madhavakkannan


Smt Viji wrote:
>>
>  But our Lord is not yet old enough to know what's plausible and what's
> not 
> ('poy sonnaalum porundha sollaNum..')..."Oh, oh", He invents quickly, "My 
> calf got lost, you see, and I thought I saw it jump into the butter-pot, I
> 
> was just trying to take it out..." At this point, of course, the poor Gopi
> 
> can't control her laughter anymore and she hugs the Beautiful Child to her
> 
> heart as she dissolves in mirth...
> 
> How Rich they were, those Gopikas of Gokulam...
> 
> (A free-form picturization of a shloka from the Srimad Bhagawatham..)
> 
> Nandakumara, navaneetha chora, RadheGovindha!
> Vrindavana Chandra
> AnaaTha naaTha Dheena-banDho, RadheGovindha!!
> 
> Sarvam Sri KrishNarpaNamastu..
> Viji Raghunathan