darbha

[Subrahmanian, Sundararaman V [IT]]

The following is paraphrased excerpt from a Tamil book called "kurai onrum
illai" by Sri Mukkoor Lakshmi NarasimhaachaaryaH.  He is a revered vaiShNava
teacher in TamilNadu.

darbha is an important ingredient in many rituals.  darbha is considered a
purifier in rituals.  The following is a story that explains the origin of
darbha's function as a purifying agent on par with water.

[No mention about which puraaNam this story occurs] Indra once hurled his
vajraayudha at vR^traasura.  But the weapon had no impact on him.  Sri
Brahma saw this and took the weapon and dipped it in his kamaNdalu and gave
it to Indra and asked him to use it after that.  When Indra used the weapon
against vR^traasura this time, the weapon was very powerful and wounded him
in several ways and was cutting his various limbs and organs of the body.
Seeing that his end was near, he wanted to take his revenge before his
death.

He thought that the pure water in which Sri Brahma had dipped the weapon was
the real power behind the weapon.  So he decided to pollute all the waters
in the entire world.  So he ran to all the waters sources and dipped his
bleeding body in them and thus defiling them to ensure that there was no
pure water anywhere.  Sri Brahma saw this and in order to prevent him from
defiling all water sources, he transformed the remaining pure water bodies
into darbha grass.

This is the reason for the darbha grass being treated on par with water as a
purifying agent.  There are situations where water cannot be used for
purifying.  Under such circumstances darbha is used instead of water.  Ex:
When performing homa or yajna, the ghee that is to be offered is to be
purified.  Obviously ghee cannot be washed with water.  Instead, two darbha
grasses are taken and passed through the ghee and this purifies the ghee as
much as water would purify.  Another example: during eclipse we are supposed
to not cook and whatever is in the home should be washed.  Items like
furniture, floor and bed can be washed with water.  But long term food items
like pickles,
ghee, sugar, salt etc cannot be washed by water.  Hence is the practice of
putting two pieces of darbha grass in all the food stuffs and here again,
darbha is believed to act as a purifier.  pavitram [the adornment of the
ring finger during rituals] that is prepared from darbha grass is considered
important for completing the samkalpa without hindrance.

Thus water and darbha are considered equal in their function in rituals.

Incidentally, the edge of the darbha grass is often compared the razor sharp
intellect needed to understand vedaanta.  Among the varieties of darbha,
there is one kind called vishvaamitra darbha that is considered the
sharpest.  [It is easy to see that the name fits the attribute].

Regards,
SVS

>From  Tue Oct  8 16:28:50 2002
Message-Id: <TUE.8.OCT.2002.162850.0700.>
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 2002 16:28:50 -0700
Reply-To: braos at yahoo.com
To: List for advaita vedanta as taught by Shri Shankara
        <ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG>
From: KRISHNA RAO <braos at YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Radha - consort of Krishna
In-Reply-To: <159.158cdeaf.2ad446ab at aol.com>
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The main purpose of the relationship of Sri Krishna and the gopis for that matter Radha and the  Rasa Leela was not to display any sensual relationship
It was to illustrate the merging of the Jivatma[each one of the Gopis] with the Paramatma [the Lord himself]...
- Krishna

 "Venkataramani K." wrote:In a message dated 10/8/02 12:53:56 AM US Eastern Standard Time, Rajesh_Sarin at RIL.COM writes:

Can anybody share his/her knowledge about Radha - the consort of Lord Krishna. I am interested to know, which book can give me complete life story of Radha. Moreover, please share knowledge about - who was Radha, where was she born, who were her parents,

There is hardly any mention of Radha in Vishnu Purana or Bhagavata Purana, though Bhagavata Purana does mention about many exalted gopis in canto X and it is accepted that Radha is one of them, though she is never mentioned by name. The first book that mentions Radha by name is Brahma Vaivarta PurAnA. This describes in detail the passion between Radha and Krishna and the rAsa lIlA [sensuous pastimes] between them. It has been a while since I read that, so I am not sure if it talks of who her parents were.

WHY COULD SHE NOT GET OFFICIALLY MARRIED TO LORD KRISHNA ? etc.

I can only take guess for an answer. Different books portray her relationship with Krishna differently. Once again, my memory is rusty, but I think Jayadeva [Gita Govindam??] portrays Radha as Krishna's aunt [uncle's wife]. Perhaps, that is the reason, she was never married to Krishna. Traditionally, the worship of Radha has been confined to Bengal and Vrindavan and a few other pockets where the 6 Gosvamis had been teaching. Since, the above 2 books I mentioned are dated around the 10th century to 11th century CE, it is my guess that the worship of Radha started around that time. I haven't come across any mention of Radha in the devotional outpourings of the 12 AzhwArs in Tamil. They all lived before the 10th century CE. Incidentally, the worship of Lakshmi NArAyanA [and not Radha Krishna] is most prevalent in the south.

Various sects have taken different approach to the descriptions in the 2 books I mentioned above. Adherents to Radha worship find nothing wrong in the relationship between Radha and Krishna [though she might have been married to another man], because, any relationship with Krishna is transcendental and it is not constrained by the material laws. This is quite true as can be seen from the legend of Meera also. She was married [again, there are 2 conflicting accounts - one claiming she was a widow], yet attracted to Krishna and our society never passed a moral judgement on her. It shows that our society in general recognized devotional rAsa in its own merit and never judged that from a prudish, Victorian moral stand point.

There is another school, typified by Swami Dayananda Sarasvati [19th century CE], which considers all the purAnAs as bogus and as products of evil minds, which concocted them during the Muslim rule. This argument too is not without its sets of merits.

I should conclude that nothing is really black & white and one has to decide whether he accepts faith and tradition or not. [I just realized that except providing the names of 2 books, I have said little that answers your questions -:))]

Regards,
Venkat




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<P>The main purpose of the relationship of Sri Krishna and the gopis for that matter Radha and the  Rasa Leela was not to display any sensual relationship
<P>It was to illustrate the merging of the Jivatma[each one of the Gopis] with the Paramatma [the Lord himself]...
<P>- Krishna
<P> 
<P> <B><I>"Venkataramani K." <VENKATARAMANIK at AOL.COM></I></B>wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px"><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT face=Arial lang=0 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF">In a message dated 10/8/02 12:53:56 AM US Eastern Standard Time, Rajesh_Sarin at RIL.COM writes:<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px" TYPE="CITE">Can anybody share his/her knowledge about Radha - the consort of Lord Krishna. I am interested to know, which book can give me complete life story of Radha. Moreover, please share knowledge about - who was Radha, where was she born, who were her parents, </FONT>
<BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>There is hardly any mention of Radha in Vishnu Purana or Bhagavata Purana, though Bhagavata Purana does mention about many exalted gopis in canto X and it is accepted that Radha is one of them, though she is never mentioned by name. The first book that mentions Radha by name is Brahma Vaivarta PurAnA. This describes in detail the passion between Radha and Krishna and the rAsa lIlA [sensuous pastimes] between them. It has been a while since I read that, so I am not sure if it talks of who her parents were.<BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>WHY COULD SHE NOT GET OFFICIALLY MARRIED TO
<BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px" TYPE="CITE">LORD KRISHNA ? etc.<BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>I can only take guess for an answer. Different books portray her relationship with Krishna differently. Once again, my memory is rusty, but I think Jayadeva [Gita Govindam??] portrays Radha as Krishna's aunt [uncle's wife]. Perhaps, that is the reason, she was never married to Krishna. Traditionally, the worship of Radha has been confined to Bengal and Vrindavan and a few other pockets where the 6 Gosvamis had been teaching. Since, the above 2 books I mentioned are dated around the 10th century to 11th century CE, it is my guess that the worship of Radha started around that time. I haven't come across any mention of Radha in the devotional outpourings of the 12 AzhwArs in Tamil. They all lived before the 10th century CE. Incidentally, the worship of Lakshmi NArAyanA [and not Radha Krishna] is most prevalent in the south.<BR><BR>Various sects have taken different approach to the descriptions in the 2 books I mentioned above. Adherents to Radha worship find nothing wrong in the relationship between Radha and Krishna [though she might have been married to another man], because, any relationship with Krishna is transcendental and it is not constrained by the material laws. This is quite true as can be seen from the legend of Meera also. She was married [again, there are 2 conflicting accounts - one claiming she was a widow], yet attracted to Krishna and our society never passed a moral judgement on her. It shows that our society in general recognized devotional rAsa in its own merit and never judged that from a prudish, Victorian moral stand point.<BR><BR>There is another school, typified by Swami Dayananda Sarasvati [19th century CE], which considers all the purAnAs as bogus and as products of evil minds, which concocted them during the Muslim rule. This argument too is not without its sets of merits.<BR><BR>I should conclude that nothing is really black & white and one has to decide whether he accepts faith and tradition or not. [I just realized that except providing the names of 2 books, I have said little that answers your questions -:))]<BR><BR>Regards,<BR>Venkat<BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></FONT><p><br><hr size=1>Do you Yahoo!?<br>
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