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A Saga in Stone

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sadagopan iyengar • July 28, 2002 


       Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika
Yatindra Mahadesikaya Nama:

         A Saga in Stone

“You do choose the weirdest topics! Whoever would
write about stones, of all things!” commented adiyen’s
daughter, glancing at the title. Wistfully
recollecting the good old days when children were
supposed to be seen and not heard, adiyen resolved to
prove to her that writing about stones was not
“weird”-offbeat, maybe, but definitely not “weird”.
However, even after severely racking adiyenÂ’s brains,
not a single complimentary phrase or idiom in QueenÂ’s
English came to adiyen’s mind, concerning stones. “
Heart of Stone”, “Stony stare” and other unappealing
phrases leapt to the mind but not something pleasing.
The Scriptures came to adiyenÂ’s rescue and saved
adiyen from the ignominy of my daughter being proved
right.

There are quite a few references to stones in the
Vedas. The Mantra Prasna, dealing with Veda mantras
used in various rituals, auspicious and otherwise,
refers to stones twice. During the Upanayanam
ceremony, the boy is made to stand on a stone, while
his father recites the mantra “AtishttEmam asmAnam
asmEva tvam stthirO bhava”
(“May the Gods make you as strong and unshakeable as
the stone you are standing on!”). With a minor
variation for gender difference, the same mantra is
used to bless the bride in the marriage, (popularly
known in Tamil as “ammi miditthal”) wishing her to be
stone-like in firmness. Elsewhere too, there is a
blessing to be strong as a stone-“asmA bhava, pasrasur
bhava, hiranyam astrutham bhava”. It is noteworthy
that this mantra mentions the stone ahead of gold
among objects of comparison. Similarly, the Chamaka
Prasna in the Fourth Kanda of the Yajus Samhita, which
is a prayer to bless one with all the good things on
earth, seeks to be endowed with stone too-“asmA cha
mE”.

Turning to ValmikiÂ’s great epic, a momentÂ’s unwitting
indiscretion results in Ahalya being cursed by her
husband Goutama Rishi to turn into a stone for
thousand long years.
The moment Sri Chakravartthi Tirumagan enters the
Goutama Ashrama, Ahalya is retransformed into the
beautiful lady she originally was. Here, though the
popular version has it that it was the touch of Sri
RamaÂ’s holy feet that was responsible for this
miracle, there is no mention of this in Sri Valmiki
Ramayana, and all that the Maharshi mentions is that
Ahalya regained her original splendour the moment Sri
Rama entered the Ashram. This version must indeed be
true, for Chakravarthi Tirumagan would never have
shown disrespect to a Rishipatni by touching her with
His feet, even when she was in a stony shell.

In Sri KrishnAvatAra too, the LordÂ’s association with
stones is indeed close. It couldnÂ’t be closer, for He
is tied inseparably to one.
Sri KrishnaÂ’s weakness for dairy products, His
inability to distinguish between “meum and tuum” in
this regard, and His annoying habit of leading hordes
of young cowherds on a raid of homes for milk, butter
and curds, land Him in trouble, with the
long-suffering Gopis presenting a memorandum to Yasoda
on her sonÂ’s misdemeanours. The usually placid Yasoda
is inflamed with anger (“mAtaram jAta rOshAm”), as any
mother would, whose ward has been the subject of
repeated and factual complaints (“veNNai undAn ivan
endru  Esa nindra Emperuman”) from outsiders. She
drags the protesting Krishna to the courtyard and ties
Him up to a handy grindstone, telling Him, “ Let me
see how you continue your mischief!” Little does she
know that it is no ordinary kid whom she has tied up,
and the tie-up was possible only because He willed it
(“sirutthAmbinAl kattuNNa paNNiya perumAyan”).

 Sri Nammazhwar marvels at the soulabhyam, which
prompts the Almighty to permit Himself to be tied-up
to a simple stone, by a simple housewife, with a
simple rope. He marvels too at the mock fear and
yearning for freedom exhibited by the captive
Emperuman-“et tiram uralinOdu iNaindu irundu Engia
eLivE”. It appears that every time the securely bound
Krishna whimpered, Yasoda would silence Him with a
withering look. Krishna tries to regain freedom by
looking at His mother with appealing eyes full of
fear, tears and whatnot, but His attempts are rebuffed
by His unmoved mother, who finally removes herself
from the scene, for fear of being unable to preserve
her composure any longer. She is clear that Krishna
deserves punishment, but being a doting mother, is
unable to sustain the posture of the strict
disciplinarian, in the face of KrishnaÂ’s apparently
pitiful state. Left to His own devices, the Lord is on
the roll, dragging the grindstone with him, and passes
between two trees (“PuNarA nindra maram irandin naduvE
pOna mudalvAvO”), bringing them down crashing, in the
process. The trees turn into gandharvas, now free from
the curse that turned them into trees. Yasoda and
others, who come rushing out of the house, are
confronted by the bewildering scene of the crashed
trees around the apparently frightened Krishna, still
securely bound to the grindstone. Krishna is then
untied and taken home, with Yasoda too frightened to
think of what could have happened if the trees had
come down on her beloved son.


She still doesnÂ’t realise that what she has been
blessed with is no ordinary cowherd boy (“Ayar
puttiran allan, arun deivam”).

In Sri NrsimhAvatAra too, it is a stone pillar that
the Lord chose for His dramatic entrance into
HiranyakasipuÂ’s 
Darbar. The latter is so confident that Vishnu would
not dare to come anywhere near his palace, that he
challenges his son Sri Prahlada to prove the existence
of Hari in one of the pillars of his own palace. Since
the stone pillar “gave birth” to Sri Nrsimha, who in
turn is the Creator of all divine beings, Swami
Desikan humorously calls the pillar the Grandmother of
dEvAs (“mahAsura grihastooNA pitAmahi abhoot”).

However, it is in the Kali Yuga that the stone has
acquired prominence. Almost all the Emperumans have
chosen the medium of the stone for their arcchAvatAra,
and we find the Lord in most of the divya desams (with
a few notable exceptions) inhabiting images of stone
lovingly sculpted by ardent devotees. With its divine
inhabitant, the stone miraculously comes alive, but
only for those who tend to see in it the omnipresent,
omnipotent Lord, who, in His unmatched soulabhyam, has
contracted His divya mangala vigraha to human
proportions, and makes do with the hot, humid
atmosphere of the sanctum sanctorum of temples,
forsaking His comfortable abode at SriVaikuntam.
Another form of stone the Lord patronises with His
eternal presence is the SALagrAma shilA, which is a
fossilised stone with an insect called “Vajrakeetam”
sculpting the LordÂ’s signs of chakram, shankha, flag,
etc. In this form, Emperuman resides in every
SriVaishnavite home, sharing the inconveniences of the
householder, and partaking of the latterÂ’s food, often
unworthy of the Lord. This is His simplicity, Asrita
vAtsalyam and soulabhyam at play again. Incidentally,
the Bhagavata says that it is only the immature who
are able to see the Lord in images, of stone or
otherwise: the wise see Him everywhere (“PratimAsu
aprabhuddhAnAm, sarvatra sama dharsinAm”).
 After reading this piece, AdiyenÂ’s daughter has
developed a healthy respect for stone, and gracefully
withdrawn her “weird” remark.

“Srimate Sri LakshmiNrsimha divya paduka sevaka
SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana Yatindra Mahadesikaya
nama:
dasan, sadagopan.





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