Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum – 3

(Continuation of this story)

Among the Gopabaalakas, Shri Krishna was the Uttama. His baalya-kreedas were not acts of mischief but great mahopadeshams. Gopikas, who were under the influence of Vishnu-maaya, thought that Shri Krishna was a baalaka and did not realize that He was aadi-madhya-anta rahita, the Parabrahma. One of the Gopikas, who was fed-up with the mischief of Baalakrishna, complained to Yashoda like this:

“O Maata! Yashoda! Your Son came to our house and realized that there was not enough ksheeram (milk) for him. With great anger, pushing away small babies in the house, he came out. The babies cried a lot. O! Yashoda! you are also a mother. Cant you understand our pain”?

Let us see what Jagadguru Shri Krishna wanted to teach us through this story:

Through this Story, Shri Krishna Paramaatma taught us about an important Gruhastha-dharmam. Gruhasthas must not only do poshana (look after) of their santhaanam and kutumbam (children and family) but also satisfy the needs of who come to their Gruham (house). Especially they must be in a position to satisfy basic needs of baalakas (kids), Vruddhas (the aged), atithis (guests) and arthis (the needy) who come to their house. If not done, it will lead to Vamsha-naashanam. The Gruhastha in the story took care about the needs of his kids but did not have enough milk to give to kids, who are considered to be Bhagavat-svaroopams, coming to his house. Hence Baalakrishna punished them as told in the story (and thus saved them).

For exactly the same reason, our elders advise us never to have important things like dhaanyam (rice/wheat), haridraa-chuurnam&kumkuma (turmeric and kumkum), dadhi-ksheeram (curd-milk) etc. empty in the house. Infact, in Bhaarateeya bhaashas, we never say these things are “empty”. We always say they “need to be filled”. Their intention was that such basic utilities should never be empty. In olden days, people used to always leave little food and never empty the food vessels by consuming everything, so that any needy can be fed if required. Thus the upadesham of Jagadguru Shri Krishna is that we must always keep the needy who come to us in mind and have the basic utilities enough for them also.