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| Uddhav meeting the cowherd girls |
After freeing Mathura from the clutches of the tyrant Kamsa, Krishna installed Ugrasena – Kamsa’s father, as the King of Mathura.
Krishna was still a small boy at that time. He might be around 7-year-old. In those days, it was customary for boys of his age to join some residential school and undertake studies. Accordingly, Krishna too, along with Balarama, joined the school run by a well-known teacher called Sandipani at a place called Avanti. Avanti is a place in central India. If you ever visit India, the local tourist guides would show you a place which they claim was once the school where Krishna studied.
Krishna was a Kshatriya boy. Kshatriyas are supposed to be warriors whose responsibility is to protect helpless people. Though Krishna was never going to be the King, he too like all Kshatriya children of his age, studied various subjects in the school. He studied the Vedas, various sciences, martial arts, as well as 64 different crafts as part of his curriculum. Krishna was quite bright and he mastered all the subjects in a matter of no time.
Unlike these days, the schools in those days did not charge any fee to the students. The education was completely free. Often these schools were supported by generous kings and so the teachers never depended on any salary unlike the teachers these days ;-) But if a student was capable, the teacher had an option to demand his fees from the student, only after he completed his studies.
Accordingly, Sandipani wanted Krishna and Balarama to restore his son who was long lost. That was the fee. People feared that his son was drowned in the sea. So, Krishna went to the sea and demanded the God of sea to bring back his teacher’s son. But that boy was long dead and had reached the world of the dead.
Krishna was determined to keep his promise to his teacher Sandipani. So, he did not give up. He even went to the world of the dead looking for him. He restored the dead boy and delivered him to Sandipani. In this way, Krishna paid back his debt to his teacher.
Having competed his studies, Krishna returned to Mathura. Though he was not really the King, he had to act on behalf of King Ugrasena who was quite old. Krishna sent Akrura to Hastinapur to enquire about the wellbeing of his relatives there. In a way Krishna was preparing the stage for the future drama he was going to play.
Hastinapur – a Kingdom near the current Indian capital New Delhi, was ruled by Kings of the Kuru dynasty. This dynasty was in a complete disarray. The eldest of the dynasty namely Bhishma, who should have been the King, refused to become the King due to a promise he had made to his step mother Satyavati.
His step brothers born to Satyavati died too young. Sons of his step brother, namely Dhritarastra and Pandu had their own reasons why they could not become Kings. The elder brother Dhritarastra was born blind and so, he could not ascend the throne. The younger brother Pandu, though took over the Kingship, did not survive long.
According to the tradition in India in those days, the eldest son of King Pandu should have been made the King after the death of Pandu. But Dhritarastra was so obsessed with his own son Duryodhana, that he wanted his son to ascend the throne instead. So, he was making every attempt to suppress the sons of Pandu who could become obstacles in the way of his son becoming the King.
This in itself is a long story which is the story of Mahabharata – the great Indian Epic. I will not go into these details here at the moment. I will comeback to relevant parts of that story as and when need arises.
But why did Krishna send Akrura to these people? What was the connection?
The wife of King Pandu namely, Kunti was Krishna’s aunt. That is, she was the cousin sister of Vasudeva – Krishna’s father. So, Krishna was concerned about his aunt and her children who were not treated well by Dhritarastra and his wicked sons. Actually, it was not just them that Krishna was concerned. Krishna knew that Dhritarastra’s children posed a potential danger to the society because of their evil ways. We will know more of that later on.
Krishna also sent his close associate Uddhava to Vrindavan to enquire about the welfare of his foster parents and his erstwhile companions. More so about the cowherd girls who were so attached to him. Krishna knew that they were very grief stricken due his separation from them. Krishna sent Uddhava with a special message for them. He asked them not to be too attached to the physical person called Krishna, but rather view him as the God incarnate who was always with them since he is omnipresent.
Uddhava reached Vrindavan. He met Nandagopa and Yashoda, Krishna’s foster parents and enquired them about their wellbeing. He also met the cowherd girls and tried to convince them how it was futile to cling on to a physical form when the person behind that form is actually formless or Nirguna and all pervading. He tried to explain to them that they should look upon Krishna as the God incarnate who has no specific form.
The cowherd girls refused to even look at Uddhava. They ridiculed Uddhava’s idea of God being formless. They were insisting on seeing God with a form since the concept of formlessness is beyond their comprehension. All attempts of Uddhava were futile and he had to return to Mathura unable to convince the cowherd girls.
This debate on whether the God is with form or without form is a long drawn one and still goes on all over the religious world both within and outside India. The Abrahamic religions, especially Islam, insist that God is formless, though their idea of formlessness falls short of the definition of formlessness talked about by the Upanishads.
Vyasa probably wants to use this incident of Uddhava meeting the cowherd girls to convey the fact that God can be both with form and without form. Afterall he is God! He can take whatever form or no form as he wishes. This idea is rendered beautifully by the by one of India’s greatest poet saints namely Jnyaneshwar. This is a Bhajan in Marati language. The gist of this song is as follows
“Oh God, how do I describe you? - One with form or one without form?
The Upanishads only describe you by the words “Not this not this – Neti Neti”!
But I am sure you are both with and without form. Yes, you ARE formless as well as with form!”
What you heard in the background is this song rendered beautifully by popular singer Sudhit Padke*
Let us get back to our Krishna story.
In Mathura, new problems were brewing up.
Kamsa, however wicked he was, had his own circle of admirers and friends. His own father-in-law Jarasandha who ruled over the Magadha empire was quite furious about the way his son-in-law was killed by Krishna. He was waiting for an opportunity to avenge the death of Kamsa. He wanted to annihilate the entire Yadu dynasty to which Krishna belonged. So, he started amassing a huge army with the help of his friends like Shishupala, Dantavakra, and so on, each one of them more wicked than the other!
What happened next? Did Jarasandha really attack Krishna and his people? We will see that in the next episode.
Credits:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9FdmCLJV
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