[Advaita-l] Temple Worship by all

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Dear Jaldharji,
 
May I add two little noticed facts about Lord Krishna'a leela with the gopies. The Lord was only 8 years old at that time and the bodies of the gopies were remaining  in their beds and beside their sleeping husbands'. The whole leela was at the level of their sukshma sareera.
 
Regards,
 
Sunil K. Bhattacharjya

--- On Sun, 6/6/10, Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com> wrote:


From: Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Temple Worship by all
To: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Date: Sunday, June 6, 2010, 9:55 PM


On Thu, 3 Jun 2010, V Subrahmanian wrote:

> 
> There is a verse in the Bhagavatam (which I forget, someone pl. provide it)
> where Shuka is asked by someone if the extremely odd behaviour of Shiva
> drinking the Halahala poison or Krishna indulging in Rasa with the women of
> the cowherds are all right.  Shuka cautions that it is fine if these great
> personalities did that but if anyone else did that by way of imitation, it
> would be a great sin.
> 

This is part of a conversation towards the end of the rAsapa~nchAdhyAyI (bhAgavat 10.33.27-36.)  After hearing about Bhagavans lila with the gopis, King Parikshita asks Shukadevaji:

rAjovAcha |

"The king said"

saMsthApanAya dharmasya prashamAyetarasya cha |
avatIrNo hi bhagavAnaMshena jagadIshvaraH || 27 ||

"To establish dharma and to destroy its opposite, Bhagavan the lord of the world descended[1] a fraction of Himself.[2]"

[1] avatar is one who descends.  Bhagavan says in the gItA (4.8b) dharmasaMsthApanArthAya sambhavAmi yuge yuge | "To establish dharma I am born in every age."

[2] An avatar is a fraction of the power and glory of Bhagavan.  This is the Smarta understanding and this is what Shankaracharya says in the introduction to his gItAbhAShya. nArAyaNAkhyo viShNuH bhaumasya brahmaNo brAhmaNatvasya rakShaNArthaM devakyAM vasudevAdaMshena kR^iShNaH kila saMbabhuva. "Vishnu known as Narayana, to protect the Brahmanahood of the earthly Brahmanas, caused a fraction of Himself to be born as Krishna the son of Devaki and Vasudeva."  The TikAkAra Anandagiri further elucidates "caused a fraction of Himself to be born" to mean "took an illusionary form by His own will."

The North Indian Vaishnavas interpret these words to mean "Bhagavan and a fraction of Himself descended"  They say the fraction refers to Balarama and Krishna is not just a manifestation of Vishnu but Bhagavan in His totality Himself.

sa kathaM dharmasetUnAM vaktA kartta.abhirakShita |
pratIpamApanAya dharmasya paradArAbhimarshanam || 28 ||

"Then how is it that that the speaker, doer, and protector of the canons of Dharma acted so contrarily in associating with the wives of others?"