Deliverance of Putana

Illustrated by Ritu.

Having killed many newborns in the last few days, Putana, a she-daemon of gigantic proportions, cruel, cunning, endued with yogic powers, entered Gokul. She was confused about her amnesia regarding Nanda’s son, who was born the same night as Devaki’s daughter. Why hadn’t she thought about him sooner? She wasn’t aware that Gokul was protected by divine forces and that her entrance today was possible only because the Lord had willed it so.

 She saw the gatekeepers at the entrance to Nanda’s palace. Her first impulse was to kill them but desisted as the job had to be done quietly. She assumed, through her yogic powers, an enchantingly beautiful form of a fair maiden. The guards stood stupefied as she approached them, swaying her broad hips. Mesmerizing them with coquettish looks, she ambled through the gates of Nanda’s palace. Once inside, she located Yashoda’s chamber, where the child slept as Yashoda, and a few other gopikas sang lullabies.

 Putana announced herself as a brahmin woman from Mathura who had heard captivating tales about Yashoda’s son and had come to bless the child. She said that she blessed newborns by feeding them her breast milk. Yashoda welcomed her inside and put the baby in her arms. One look at that amazingly beautiful face, and she forgot all about her sinister plans. Something akin to motherly affection tugged at her heart. The Lord, having decided to kill her today, kept his eyes closed lest Putana would lose all sense of purpose and abort her plans altogether. Putana resisted the urge to kill the baby, but she was accountable to Kamsa, who had specifically directed her to kill Nanda’s son. She closed her eyes and pushed her breast into the sleeping child’s mouth. The child suckled from the poison-laced breasts and made cooing sounds. Gradually she felt pain radiating from her breasts. Soon enough, she was crying in pain and started thumping her hands and feet on the ground, shouting, “Leave me,” “Leave me”.

 The Lord clutched onto her breasts, the way Maya clutches the conditioned soul. She was drenched in perspiration as the child sucked out her vital breath. Shrieking loudly, she regained her fearsome form and flew away with the baby clinging to her breast. Yashoda fainted, and other gopikas, along with the palace guards, ran after Putana, who was flying away at breakneck speed. Her shrieks reverberated across the entire Braj as she rose up higher and struggled to free herself, but the baby wasn’t prepared to let go.  She kept going higher till she reached a grove of tall Mango trees owned by Kamsa. It was at this time that the Lord chose to weigh her down. She dived down, hitting the tree tops, felling them as she flew past them. Soon the orchard was razed to the ground, and she fell down with a loud thud on an open level ground far away from the hutments of the Gokul folks. The pilot of the aircraft called Putana was careful not to drop it in the middle of inhabitation.

 The gatekeepers and the gokipas reached the secluded spot and found the baby frolicking on Putana’s body. In disbelief, they stared at the scene, barely able to believe Yashoda’s luck that kept the child alive, or was it Yashoda’s endless fasts and japas that she did for her son’s wellbeing? Whatever may be the reason, it was nothing short of a miracle that the child was alive and well.

Disposing of Putana’s giant cadaver was not easy. The guards hacked it into smaller pieces and piled them up on several pyres. The wood was gathered from the same mango trees that were felled earlier. The Lord had made provisions for Putana’s last rites. There arose a divine fragrance from the burning pyres that carried as far as Mathura. Nanda, on his way back from Mathura, could see huge envelopes of smoke and could smell the aroma. He was perplexed and anxious. Did something untoward happen while he was away?

 Gokul folks, having cremated Putana’s remains, were about to leave when they saw a blinding light in the sky which got closer and closer until it hovered above the earth. It was an exceptionally grand, gleaming chariot with hundreds of wheels, covered with thousands of white drapes, embellished all over with rare gems and diamonds. Such a contraption they had never seen. They were spellbound as they witnessed Putana’s ethereal body bathed in a divine glow alighting the chariot.

        Putana was granted permanent residence in Goloka by the Lord, whom she had tried to kill. May the supreme Lord, in his unbounded mercy, grant us the same favor. Thus, endeth the divine leela of Putana’s deliverance who in her previous birth as Ratnamala, Raja Bali’s sister, had wished to attain the Lord as her son. She was overwhelmed with maternal feelings upon seeing the Vamana avatar of the Lord and wondered if she could ever be so fortunate as to feed him her breast milk.

        One may wonder why the Lord accepted her wish and why he would do this leela of suckling on her breasts. In the author’s humble opinion, it’s in the Lord’s nature to grant every pure wish of his devotees, and Putana’s wish was pure, borne out of unalloyed love for the Lord.

        The entire religious philosophy and its practical tenets are aimed at teaching mankind the secret of desires. We all have the power of desire, but we don’t know how to desire perfectly. It is due to the dirt of material desires that one’s spiritual advancement is stymied, and one is unable to experience the all-abiding, omnipresent reality. Desire to attain God leads one to become desireless, for God, who is ever perfect, and all bliss, is the culmination of all desires.