A MOTHER NAMED PUTANA

Having seen the Goddess Durga professing his end, Kans lost his sleep and appetite. Day and night he pondered ceaselessly over how to assassinate the newly born Lord Vishnu.

Driven by the anxiety he sent a number of wily demons to kill all the newly born babies in nearby areas. Lord Srikrishn destroyed all of them playfully.

Putana a ferocious demoness capable of assuming any appearance at will, seemed to plotting Kans a right choice to terminate his arch enemy. He asked her to enter the palace of Nand and feed the little baby with her deadly venom anointed breasts.

She gladly agreed to do this.

Behind every human act is a cause concealed in the past.

In her previous birth Putana was the sister of demon king Bali who was oath bound to never turn away any beggar for anything. Taking advantage of this oath Lord Vishnu took to the form of a dwarf mendicant and begged the demon to donate just land measuring his three steps. Although guru Shukracharya sensed the ploy of Lord Vishnu and asked Bali not to yield to the wish of the dwarf, Bali refused to go back on his oath and asked the Vaman (dwarf mendicant who was actually Lord Vishnu) to measure the land.

Appearance of charming Vaman beguiled the sister of Bali named Ratnamala. A wish to breast feed Vaman as a son sprouted in her heart.  When Vaman began to measure land, he suddenly grew in size so huge that in first step he measured the sky, in second entire earth and then asked Bali - "where should I put my third step?" Unperturbed Bali offered him his head in veneration. Bali thus lost his entire empire and sank to Sutalaloka, a nether world. On seeing that Vaman had tricked his brother to banish him from his kingdom Ratnamala got furious and wished to kill Vaman out of revenge.

The demon king Bali prayed to Lord Vaman to allow him to visit his kingdom once a year so that he could see his people. He gracious Lord Vaman blessed him. Till now king Bali is believed to come to see his people during the festival of Onam celebrated with great gusto all over Kerala in India.

Thus Ratnamala, now Putana had two unfulfilled wishes towards Lord Vishnu. When Kans asked her to kill baby Lord Srikrishn through breast-feeding him she spontaneously felt great and happily took the form of a celestially beautiful lady and entered the palace of Nand. Holding lotus flower in her hand she appeared to gopis as Goddess Lakshmi incarnate, looking for her husband Lord Vishnu in delight.

No one could doubt her intention nor sense her identity. She found the baby Lord Srikrishn lying in the cradle. Her eyes failed to wink as they imbued the beauty of master charmer sporting in the cradle as an infant. Delighted and exalted she lifted him up and disappeared from the palace. Hypnotized by her, no lady could say anything or stop her from doing so. Putana cuddled the baby and offered him her breast. Her joy knew no bounds as her mission had been accomplished. Little did she realize that the sporty Lord is fond of giving a final chance to rejoice to the erring creatures before usurping their life? Amused Putana saw the infant sucking her innocently. Soon he began to as if, suck the life out of her. She strove hard to wean him away but the infant knows never to let his target go away. Pining and panting, nearly dying, she rushed out of the palace and tried to flee up but the infant seemed to had glued to her bossom. She lost her mind and wiles. Her mammoth form of a demoness appeared and she fell down, tired, sucked and dead. The village folk then, followed the foul play and ran after her to snatch the infant from her clutches who by then had richly rewarded Putana by sending to Golok as a revered mother. All they spotted was a huge corpse over which frolicked little Lord Srikrishn. Astonished by the act of infant, all wondered and prayed to God for having saved the baby so miraculously.

The Impudent Sons of Kuber

One morning toddler Lord Srikrishn, saw his mother churning curd.  Trembling bosoms of the mother while churning the curd, tempted him. He crawled to her. The mother looked at him with affection. Drawn by his cherubic looks and tender figure, the mother kissed his cheeks and lapped him up. A hungry son began to suck her. Meanwhile, on seeing the milk boiling and spilling up on the nearby hearth, she hurriedly put him down and rushed off. It took her sometime to complete the chores. Her act of abruptly putting him aside to attend the domestic work hurt the demanding son so much that in ire, he smashed the earthen pots containing curd. His anger did not curb even after this. Containers of butter hung up safely by the mother to keep away from the monkeys became his target. Lord Srikrishn hurled away a big pestle, stood upon it and threw butter around for the battalion of hungry monkeys.

When Yashoda spotted him busy, creating a catastrophe in the courtyard, she got enraged. The annoyed mother decided to punish her unruly son. She ran to catch hold of him. Naughty son laughed to see her following him. He rejoiced in making her run around. The mother, after a while, got exasperated. The son relented and stopped to let her grab him. Infuriated, she decided to tether him and began to tie the rope around his waist but every time as she tried it, she found the rope falling short by just two fingers. She went on adding pieces of ropes to tie him and every time the same thing happened that baffled her so much that she closed her eyes and prayed to god. Seeing her praying so, he ultimately melted. Smiling mysteriously for having settled his score, he allowed himself to be tied to a large wooden pestle.

The mother had done so to restrict him from indulging in rowdiness but the master mischief monger, failing her, furtively crawled out, seeing the mother occupied with her domestic chore. Left all alone, he spotted two gigantic trees of Yamala and Arjun zooming out in the open courtyard.

The trees were the sons of God of wealth Kuber in their previous life. Once when intoxicated with passion and pride, they frolicked in a river with a nymph, Sage Nard passed by. Even when the holy sage reached near, they remained naked, without bothering to clad themselves or to greet him. Seeing their impertinence Nard cursed them, -"Fools! You are brazenly shameless. You are behaving like inert trees. Go and become trees." Nalkuber and Manigreev then realized their grave lapse. They fell down on his feet to seek apology. Nard shed anger and assured them that  Lord Lord Srikrishn would liberate them from the life of trees.

Lord Srikrishn had to fulfil his beloved Nard's promise. He therefore, passed through the twin trees but the huge pestle got stuck between the trees. As he pulled the rope hard, the trees fell down.  Two divine men issued from the trees and prayed to little Lord Srikrishn with folded hands. Lord Srikrishn blessed them and sent them to their loka. When mother and others found the infant having felled down the gigantic trees, they were aghast. Such amazing were the actions of naughty son of Nand.

GANDHARVAS BECAME Demons

Lord Srikrishn accompanied by brother and friends used to take his thousands of cows to forest for grazing.  They enjoyed thoroughly there while eating and playing around merrily.

Once, the entire flock reached Srivan. They rested, ate meals and then took the cows to Madhuvan. The boys drank water and saw a huge gigantic kingfisher at the riverbank. With his mouth open ajar, he swallowed up all of them. Even the deities in the heaven got scared and began to lament. Indra threw his vajra; God Chandrama his neehar; Yam his yamadanda; Varun his stones; Agni his aagneyastra astra; Kuber his crescent; Lord Shiv his trident to kill the demon. Lord Srikrishn however, turned the demon into ashes in an instant and brought out all safely as if nothing had happened. This giant kingfisher was a demon named Bakasur.

After this they all moved ahead to another forest. A gigantic demon named Pralambasura, disguised as a bull, lifted Lord Srikrishn up on his horns and revolved him in circles. Seeing him being so churned around, the terrified boys began to cry. Lord Srikrishn lost no time and holding him hard by his horns, threw him down. The demon died and boys began to dance in jubilation.

Lord Srikrishn then took his cattle to Bhandeervan where lived a cannibal demon called Keshi, disguised as a horse. Seeing Lord Srikrishn entering there, he galloped towards his village and seeing him, terrified cowherds took to their heels, crying for help.  Lord Srikrishn motioned all to be fearless, pounced upon the horse swiftly and boxed him. Keshi looked jubilant, showing off his sharp teeth and piercing eyes.

 Lord Srikrishn chose to have a dual with him. Keshi zoomed around, uprooting trees sportily, foaming the rider with the froth dripping from his ferocious mouth while toppling him. The notorious demon then lifted his fore legs and stumped upon the chest of  Lord Srikrishn, wounding his arm. The rider thrust his arm down the mouth of the demon, extending so much that blood oozed out of his mouth, eyes bulged out and Keshi heaved his last, entering into an eternal sleep. The onlookers heaved a sigh of relief, eulogizing Lord Srikrishn. Killing of Keshi gave him a name Keshav.

A beautiful vimaan appeared in which set three glorious paarshads who bowed before Lord Srikrishn and flew to Golok.

The three demons, who turned into paarshads, had a bright past. The emperor Gandhavaha of Gandharvas once lived on mount Gandhamadan  along with his four sons,- Vasudev, Suhotra, Sudarshan and Suparshv. All were staunch devotees of Lord Srikrishn who worshipped him daily by offering lotus flowers. After performing tapasya at Pushkar, the eldest one learnt yog from sage Durvasa and became a siddha. He renounced his body to be a paarshad of Lord Srikrishn.  Once, the rest of three brothers while searching for lotus flowers reached mount Kailash and spotted a lake filled with lotus flowers. After plucking flowers for Lord Lord Srikrishn, as they turned back, servants of Lord Lord Shiv nabbed them and took them before Lord Shiv.

The brothers prostrated before Lord Shiv. Lord Lord Shiv blessed them and said, -"Who are you that have plucked flowers from the pond of Parvati? Parvati daily offers one thousand lotuses to Srihari to enrich her nuptial bliss".

The vaishnavas clasped hands and reverentially said, -"O, Lord! We are the sons of Gandhavaha and taste water only after offering lotus flowers to Srihari. We did not know that this pond belongs to goddess Parvati. Please accept all these lotuses.  We will take water without the offering. Having offered you these lotuses, there is no need for us to fast as you are ever one with Lord Srikrishn. The difference, being merely in forms. Inwardly you both are one. Accept our offerings and bless us with your vision of Lord Srikrishn which is the most enchanting, being youthful, draped in Pitamber, bedecked with golden ornaments, a crown of peacock feathers with a flute on the lips." On hearing the description of Lord Srikrishn's beauty, Lord Shiv got enthralled. Tears welled in his serene eyes.  "I have learnt that you are the great vaishnavas whose very touch purifies the earth. I am always eager to meet Lord Srikrishn's devotees. But whatever I have vowed in the past cannot be belied. I had vowed that whoever would pluck lotus from Parvati's pond during her anushthan (religious ceremony) would turn into a demon. This cannot be undone. You would surely become demons but would enjoy liberation from the hands of Lord Srikrishn and attain Golok. " Lord Shiv said in his grave voice. The Gandharvas bowed before Lord Shiv and accepted the new roles. They became three demons named Bakasur, Pralambasura and Keshi.

Such is the saga of oneness of Lord Srikrishn with his yogi devotees.