When Vidura asked Uddhava about the exploits of Krishna, even remembering his form as a small child, his mind was completely absorbed in it. He said that when he watched Krishna play, he would forget himself so much that he would not even heed to his mother’s call to have breakfast.
When he was lost in meditation, Vidura realised that Uddhava had attained the very purpose of his birth. When Uddhava arose, he said that as the sun called Krishna had set on the world, the homes of people have been consumed by the python called time.
While it was a very unfortunate situation for the world, it is a greater loss for the clan of Yadus in which Krishna was born as they did not even recognise his greatness and glory during their lifetime. Though they had brilliant powers such as reading the mind of others they were not able to know who Krishna really was.
Sounding a note of warning, he said, the minds of those who were devoted to Krishna would not be disturbed by the slander of people such as the Yadus or by the animosity of people like Sishupala. Krishna was magnanimous to have shown his divine form to even those who did no austerities and now he has completely absorbed it into himself. His form created out of the cosmic delusion called Yoga Maya was an amazing sight to watch for people around him.
Seeing Krishna at the Rajasuya Yagna of Yudhishtira, all the gods thought that Brahma, the creator, exhausted all his faculties and talents in creating that form. His personality was so filled with fun, laughter, jokes and pranks that the women of Vraja, the gopikas, left all their house-work half-done and followed Krishna. His older brother, Balarama, is also a form of Krishna. He came to destroy evil in the world and is just as fire is hidden and unmanifest in wood.
By the mere play of his beautifully arched eyebrows, representing the god of death, he removed the sorrows of the world. Vidura, you have yourself witnessed how Sishupala, the king of Chedis, was absorbed into Krishna just by virtue of his sheer hatred of Krishna. Such a union was impossible even for the great Yogis. Arjuna vanquished all warriors in the battle of the Mahabharata, sending his fiery arrows, even as his eyes were quenching itself to the brim with the nectar of consciousness that flowed from the lotus-eyed Krishna.
Uddhava with deep longing and intense feeling of separation was narrating the tales and exploits of Krishna to Vidura. The purpose of his incarnation in the world as the son of Devaki and Vasudeva was to relieve the earth of its burdens. He sported on the banks of the Yamuna skirted by lush trees and singing birds, playing with the boys and herding the cows.
There was many a demon and beast that he tamed and in the process granted them liberation. When an angry Indra forced torrential showers on the land of the Vrajas, he lifted up Mount Govardhan with the little finger of his left hand, as if it were a toy and protected his people.
The writer is Sevak, Chinmaya Mission, Coimbatore; email: brni.sharanyachaitanya@gmail.com; www.chinmayamission.com