STORY OF THE UNBORN - Birth of the Unborn - Nitin's Blogs

This entry is part 1 of 16 in the series STORY OF THE UNBORN

PREFACE

Recently I chanced upon a book called ‘कृष्ण लीला का चिंतन’ published by The Geeta Press, Gorakhpur. The author’s name is not mentioned; however, it leaves me in no doubt about this book having been written by a leading Vaishnava saint of his time. The depth, tone, the subtlety of the musings that probably inspired this book and the use of exceptionally chaste Hindi are awe-inspiring and are the reasons I chose to translate this book into English. This is but only a loose translation of the aforementioned book, as I have taken the liberty to sprinkle the text with my own musings as well. I had to purchase a couple of Hindi dictionaries to help me understand its contents, and the more I read, the more I long to present its contents to a wider audience. This blog series titled ‘Story of the Unborn’ is not an attempt to teach others. Its pedagogic style in some places can mislead one to think otherwise, but the author acknowledges the fact that books written by stalwarts of the Hindu religion like Swami Vivekananda, Swami Chinmayananda, et al. have already done a great job in teaching us about spirituality, and more may not be needed.

There is no need for me to fill page after page with the same knowledge, but I have longed for something to satisfy one of my own ‘vasanas’ and hence this effort. The world is rife with books of all kinds, yet people put pen to paper and express themselves because they are overwhelmed by their desire to write. Tulasidas has written the great epic ‘Ramcharitmanas’ for his own pleasure. He says ‘स्वंता सुखाये तुलसी रघुनाथ गाथा’.

The word ‘vasana’ has no corresponding representation in the English language, possibly because the concept itself is missing from the West. Vasnana is a very pregnant word that carries within itself the mystery that bondage and salvation are all about.

“Vasanas create the mind; where the mind is, there revels the ego. To the extent the vasanas have been reduced, to that extent the mind has become non-existent. Where the mind has ended, there the reflection of the Consciousness called the ‘ego’ has also ended.“

– Chinmayananda, Swami. The Holy Geeta (p. 313). Central Chinmaya Mission Trust. Kindle Edition.

In other words, ‘vasanas’ are the mind impressions that lead to fresh desires and fresh actions, giving rise to a new cycle of action and reaction(cause and suffering). Thus it’s easy to conclude that God-realization is contingent upon us being able to purge our vasanas, leading to a tranquil mind. A tranquil mind is a non-existent mind. Once the mind attains perfect tranquility, we can see the Lord in our hearts shining in all its glory, inundating us in his benign radiance. In a way, a tranquil mind is a straw that dips into this infinite ocean of bliss (always existing within us) called God and allows us to slurp in immeasurable quantities, making us rise above the petty ideas of me and mine and attain to an everlasting state beyond misery.

The word ‘yoga’, which means union with God, also stands for methods leading to the purgation of the vasanas, ‘Karma yoga’ being the first step towards the goal as advised by Krsna in Geeta. Why should ‘Karma Yoga’ or ‘selfless work’ be our first steps? It’s because the other paths require a relatively purified mind and heart. ‘Raja Yoga’ additionally requires a young and fit body. ‘Gyan Yoga’ requires a razor-sharp intellect devoid of any dust from useless thoughts. ‘Bhakti Yoga’, though seemingly easy, needs a very purified and unselfish heart that has learned to live and act without pettiness and in a mode of service to others, thus becoming a fit urn into which can be poured the nectar of God’s love. Work we must, for we are embodied beings. How we work, though, is for our choosing, and the yoga of selfless work leads to a reduction in the pressure of ‘vasanas’, and the mind becomes a fit vehicle for undertaking the other yogas, for no yoga fructifies for a selfish man.

Birth of the Unborn

Illustrated by Ritu

How can the unborn be born? Why is he even born? How can the ever-perfect, forever beyond the clutches of Maya, be forced to accept a womb and take birth like mortals? When a ‘jeevatma’(embodied soul) continuously harassed by maya, through spiritual practices, attains to Brahman, never to be born again, then how can God (Brahman) be born? The Bhagwad Geeta (Geeta) and Srimad Bhagwatam( Bhag), and other such scriptures provide us with answers. The Lord says,

“Though I am unborn and am of imperishable nature, and though I am the Lord of all beings, yet, ruling over My own Nature, I take birth by My own MAYA.”
– Geeta Ch4, Verse 6.

So, his birth, like everything else he does, is his leela(pastime). He’s not born out of the same mold as we are, shaped by nature, ruled over by nature till our dying day, only to be forced again into a different mold, as dictated by our karmas. The Lord is born of his own will. He does the leela of being born for many reasons, all of which pertain to the welfare of the fallen man, but to my mind, the foremost reason of them all is to charm the ‘jeevatma’ through his incredibly fantastic life and turn him back towards himself. He takes on a human form, for he wants us to have an easy way out of his maya (illusory potency). The ways taught by the Vedas are not for everyone. Whilst leading to the same goal, they are fit for only a few. Why? Because, as the Lord says,

“Greater is the difficulty for those whose mind is set on the realization of the unmanifest (Nirguna Brahman), because the unmanifested is reached with difficulty by embodied beings.”
– Geeta Ch 12, Verse 5.

What about those who cannot follow the ways of the unmanifest? For them, the way is to be enchanted by the leela of the unborn. Let them re-enact the ways of the folks who existed and interacted with him as he roamed on earth. The Lord has no greater reason to be born and to live amongst us other than to give us an easier way out of the thraldom of material existence, and if the form he takes is as enchanting as Krsna, then our task becomes so much easier. Let us be another gopika, another Yashoda, another Nanda, or another Sudama and taste the nectar of his love through personal interactions with the one who is impersonal and unmanifest.

Saguna and Saakar Brahman (God with form and attributes) is personal in nature and can be approached easily by ordinary souls who do not possess the quintessential attributes to mediate or contemplate on the formless Brahman. Appreciating and meditating upon his form and his leelas is much simpler than invoking our intellects to seize the nature of the formless and attributeless self through focused contemplation – an impossible task for most human beings. Krsna is fantastic, and so is everything he does. He’s not bound by the laws of nature, and he displays this abundantly throughout his life, which leaves us in no doubt that he is indeed the supreme soul, the Brahman, the Bhagwaan.

A small bit of history first for the uninitiated. Not very long ago, a celestial voice had foretold that the eighth child of Devaki and Vasudev would kill Kamsa. Kamsa being evil, cruel, and very powerful, incarcerated both Devaki and Vasudev and killed their first six children as soon as they were born. The seventh child was transferred by yogmaya(Lord’s personal energy) to the womb of Rohini (Vasudev’s other wife) in Gokul, where Balaram, the Supreme Lord’s elder brother and an incarnation of Lord ‘Sesha’ took birth.

The Supreme Lord was the eighth child whose birth was much-awaited by Vasudev, Devaki, even Kamsa, and all the Rishis and the Munis who had retained their mortal frames for so long to partake of the wonderful and divine leela that would soon unfold.

Krsna chose to be born from Devaki’s womb as a fulfillment of a boon granted to her in a previous birth, but he also had a leela to perform in Braj. He was taken by Vasudev to Nanda’s home in Gokul for his protection. Laughable as the situation was, the protector of the three worlds was doing the leela of a hapless child in dire need of protection. No one was aware that his ‘yogmaya’ was also born along with him through Yashoda’s womb and, in preparation for the Lord’s arrival, had put everyone in Yashoda’s bed-chamber to sleep.

Amidst heavy downpours, as the moon lay hidden behind dark clouds and the entire Gokul slept, Vasudev entered Yashoda’s bed-chamber and made a swap of the children. Vasudev left, and the Lord immediately wailed as newborn babies do. Devi Rohini, who was supervising the birthing ceremony, was the first to be woken up. She went into an ecstatic, motionless state as she laid her eyes upon the baby with the complexion of a dark rainy cloud. Unblinking, she stared at the child, whose beauty was ethereal and beyond description. He was of a godly appearance; nay, even gods couldn’t match his beauty. The reddish hue of his tiny soles, the small tuft of curly hair upon his head, his eyes like black pearls embedded in fresh white butter. She felt a rush of overwhelming maternal love inundating her person, and an unexplained rapture suddenly rushed through her entire body. She hadn’t felt this upon seeing her own son for the first time. The wailing child, having woken up the right person, was now smiling his world-bewitching smile. He was reveling at the thought of the most fantastic pastimes he would unleash on the world soon.

It took some time for Devi Rohini to regain her senses, and as soon as she could think again, she shook up the maids and pointed at the newborn child. The maids felt the same rush of maternal love in their bosoms as they focused their attention on the dark-hued baby. The first glimpse of the child left them transfixed as a wave of divine bliss swept over them. They couldn’t understand it, but they didn’t care and chose to swoon and be drowned in that ecstasy never felt before. Devi Rohini was yelling for someone to inform Nanda. One of the maids, having regained her senses, ran towards the cow shed and informed Nanda of the birth of his son. Having performed her task, she slumped onto the floor and slipped back into the reverie of that divinely beautiful child. Nanda himself was transfixed for some time as he recalled a recent past about his performing a yajna for begetting a child. Though he and his wife, having reached an advanced age, had lost hope, he decided to do it at the recommendation of the family priest. He recalled that on completion of the yajna, an extremely beautiful dark-hued baby’s image had flashed in his mind. He later confessed to Yashoda, who had a similar vision. He wondered if his newborn was the same child. He ran towards the bed-chamber. The place was overrun with maids, midwives, and women folk from nearby homes. All of them were standing motionless, crowding around the baby, blocking his view. Nanda waited impatiently for a glimpse when suddenly a gopika moved aside as if pushed by an unseen hand. He is the one! Exclaimed Nanda.

Satisfied and feeling extremely joyous, he ran out and ordered the palace guards to get the priest. The birth rites of the child had to be done immediately. The child cannot be fed by the mother until then. He gets busy arranging for grains, honey, butter, milk, etc. Tonight, he wanted to give it all away, and he practically did. He distributed gold, silver, precious jewels, grains, honey, and ghee with a free hand. The supreme lord had taken birth in his home, and the lord’s consort, Goddess Laxmi, had permanently seated herself in his treasury. The more he gave, the fuller became his treasury and his granary.

Devi Yashoda sat staring at her child. She was craving to feed him. How difficult was that wait for the priest to arrive when a storm of motherly affection raged inside her? The child, now sleeping peacefully on her lap, was waiting for the priest to do the needful. He had taken birth to perform some divinely fantastic deeds, but today, he was supposed to act for Yashoda’s benefit, and as soon as the priest was done, he wailed at the top of his lungs. Yashoda lunged forward, picked up the baby, and pushed her breast into his gaping mouth. The Supreme Lord, who creates and destroys countless universes by his mere will, started suckling at his mother’s breast.

The unborn had taken birth for his devotees, and he would perform deeds never heard of before, but right now, he was being an ordinary child, making loud noises as he satiated himself. Yashoda’s happiness couldn’t be described but was conveyed through her tears. She was blessed with a son at an advanced age, and he was the most beautiful child in the world.

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STORY OF THE UNBORN – Birth of the Unborn

PREFACE

Birth of the Unborn

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