Bhagavan's tears -2

12/2/08

Now we will look at the situation when Sri Krishna Bhagavan cried. This story of tears is not mentioned in Bhagavatham, but it is mentioned in a beautiful poem by a great devotee. So it may be the poet's beautiful imagination or bhaavana. It is possible that different Bhakthas see different aspects of Bhagavan and differnt scenes in His life. May be Vyasa Bhagavan did not see a few tears rolling down His eyes and our poet Raamapuratthu Varier actually saw this.

 

We all know the story of Sudama or kuchela. He and Krishna were classmates in Sandeepani Maharshi's ashramam. After education, Krishna became the Yadava King and poor Sudama reamained poor or became poorer because now he had to feed his wife and children. But the only big wealth or sampath he had was His intense devotion to God. 

 

One day, as per his wife's request he decided to go and see Krishna and reluctantly agreed to let Krishna know about their extreme poverty. He took a gift of some rice flakes (avil or poha) tied in a dirty piece of cloth and started off his journey. He walked and walked and all the time he was dreaming about seeing Lord Krishna after a long time. No other thought came to his mind and he did not even feel the heat of the sun or he did not feel thirsty or hungry. After several hours, he started seeing the palace roof and he was very excited. 

 

Krishna was sitting with Ruukmini Devi and suddenly he saw a thin figure in a dirty dhothi holding a palm leaf umbrella, walking towards the palace. In a second's time He recognized who it was and He jumped from the balcony to the front yard and started running towards this person. Lord came to Sudama before he came to the Lord. As soon as He saw Sudama He held his hands and hugged him several times. Sudama was sweating profusely  and nothing bothered Krishna. He told Sudama:

 "Sudama, what a pleasant surprise! I was thinking about you. We have not seen each other for a long time. I am thrilled to see you." 

When Lord finished saying that, His eyes were filled with tears and it fell on Sudama's shoulders. Krishna did not let the tears fall on earth becasue he did not want another Bindu saras there. Also those tears were meant  to wash off Sudama's pain and sufferings!

 

Ramapuratthu Varier's poem Kuchelavruttham is very touching and these are the lines of the poem in Malayalam describing His tears:

 

അന്തണനെ കണ്ടിട്ടു സന്തോഷം കൊണ്ടോ തസ്യ ദൈന്യം
ചിന്തിച്ചിട്ടുള്ളിലുണ്ടായ സന്താപം കൊണ്ടോ
എന്തുകൊണ്ടോ ശൌരി കണ്ണുനീരണിഞ്ഞു, ധീരനായ
ചെന്താമര കണ്ണനുണ്ടോ കരഞ്ഞിട്ടുള്ളൂ 

 

I am sure Lord Krishna would have cried on several other occassions for the sake of all of us with out our knowledge. He would have washed off a lot of our sufferings too. As said in Puranjanopaakhyaanam " We have a freind whose names and actions are unknown to us and others". 

When we start realizing His presence in us and in everybody else we can see His Bhaavam or emotion behind his smile and tears. Let Him make this possible for all of us!