LORD KRISHNA’S BHOJAN THALI ( WHEN THE ROCK MELTED INTO A PLATE )

The Supreme Personality of Godhead , out of HIS causeless mercy appeared as Sri Krishna in Vraj bhoomi during Dwapara yugam to protect the good and destroy the evil.  Sri Krishnavataaram is considered as the poornavataram amongst the innumerable avatarams taken by Mahavishnu.

Lord Krishna appeared as the eighth son to Devaki and Vasudevar but as per HIS instructions, Vasudevar carried the just born little child across Yamuna river and exchanged HIM with a just born girl child who was Yogamaya.

 Sri Krishna was very affectionately brought up by HIS foster parents-Nand Maharaja and Mother Yashodha in Gokulam for the first few years  and then later shifted to Vrindavan where the Lord lived with the gopis till the age of 10.  Gokulam is known as AAyarpaadi.

 Mother Yashoda is the most blessed devotee in the whole world as she had the opportunity to see all the pastimes of little Krishna.  Kulasekhara Azhwar who is known for Rama bhakti, has dedicated 10 pasurams to Sri Krishna avataram in his devotional  outpourings in  “Perumal Thirumozhi”. Assuming the role of Devaki, he has lamented that he missed all those sweet pastimes of Krishna saying that Mother Yasodha and Nand bhabha were really fortunate.

 Innumerable devotees like Vallabhacharyar, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, shat goswamis, Soordas, Pundalikan, Sakkubai, Namdev,Tukaram,Jayadev,Meerabai, Nammazhwar, Andal,Periazhwar,Kulasekhara azhwar , acharyars like Nathamuni, Nampillai, Prabhupad,Oothukudi — the list is endless-—  have experienced the sweet pastimes of little Krishna who is bound only by unconditional love.

As mentioned earlier, Krishna lived in Gokulam,Nandgaon and Vrindavan upto HIS 10th age and later moved to Mathura and then to Dwaraka.  In Vrindavan, Krishna used to go out with HIS friends to gaze calves and return in the evening.  Azhwars and many devotees have beautifully described about these pastimes in their works.

 Krishna playfully killed many demons sent by Kamsa like Putana , Sakatasuran, Dhenukasuran, Bakasuran, Agasuran,Vatasuran, Prahlambusuran, Vyomasuran etc.

Krishna chased Vyomasuran upto our present Rajasthan border  around 40 to 50 kms from Barsaana  near Vrindavan  and finally killed him there.  After killing Vyomasuran, Krishna and HIS friends were feeling were hungry and decided to have food packed by their mothers there itself.

The small hillock on which Krishna sat, transformed a part of it into a hollow round shape so that it could be used as thaali( plate ) by Krishna for having food.   There are two such natural formations in the rock which were used by Krishna Balarama for partaking food.  A local lady shared with us an incident regarding this which is shared below.

At the end of Treta Yuga, a king named Koblaas(not very sure about the name) who ruled Ayodhya was blessed with a daughter named Krishnavati whom he got her married and continued to keep his son-in-law with him.  

As he was greedy in expanding his kingdom, he along with son-inlaw attacked the neighbouring kingdom known as Bhadravati and finally in the war , both the king and the son-inlaw lost their lives.  Krishnavati started ruling the kingdom .

She was very detached and had no interest in material pursuits and was always engaged in meditation and used to strictly observe Ekadasi vrutham.  On one such Ekadasi, when she was observing Ekadasi vratham on the banks of Sarayu, Lord Vishnu pleased with her prayers appeared before her and granted her a boon.  She remembered her ancestor, Srirama redeeming Ahalya from her curse.  Ahalya who was cursed to turn into a stone was redeemed by Sri Rama’s paada sparsham.

Krishnavati recollected this and opted to become a stone so that the same blessing would be conferred upon her by the Lord. Lord granted the boon but said that HE would fulfill it in HIS next avataram as Krishna. In this case, it was not a curse but a boon which she opted for.

Krishnavati appeared as Indrasena parvath, a small hillock in Kamyavan (presently in Rajasthan) and was waiting for the Lord . Inspired by Goverdhana giri’s fortune to have Krishna’s association, she continued to pray to the Lord to place HIS lotus feet on her and bless her.

Krishna, in order to answer her prayers, rested on this hillock after killing Vyomasuran.  Krishna’s friends noticed that though they had brought all the bhog, they didn’t have a plate to offer it to Krishna.

 A part of the stone transformed into two round hollow plates and Krishna partook the offerings made to HIM.  Thus, her desire was fulfilled.

 It is a normal practice for devotees to donate plates(thaalis) at this place and it is mentioned on the wall that donating gold and silver at this place is equal to performing ashwamedha sacrifice.

The lady pointed out to another stone mentioning another incident. AFter having food, Krishna and HIS friends played for a long time here.  There is a stone ridge nearby.  When a Kamadhenu(cow) wanted to serve Krishna with milk, Krishna left HIS friends and started sucking out milk from its udders.

When HIS friends came in search of HIM, Krishna had not swallowed the milk.  The friends punched both HIS cheeks and the milk fell over the place.  This is known as Ksheer sagar.  There may be other versions to this but this was mentioned by that Brajbasi.

The lady shared other pastimes like Brahma mohana leela and Indra’s fury on Brajvasis .how the Lord protected them etc.  adding that Krishna was very furious with Brahma than with Indra because Brahma attempted to separate Brajvasis from Krishna which Indra didn’t attempt to do.

 Because of Indra’s act, all the gopis,cows etc. were together in Krishna’s presence.

The offerings which we had cooked were placed on the thalis and contemplating on the divine pastimes of  Lord Krishna, we partook the prasadam after distributing to the assembled devotees.

All glories to brajwasis

Adiyen Ramanuja dasan