Please be kind and allow Your feet to decorate My head.” ( smara-garala-khandanam mama sirasi mandanam dehi pada-pallavam udaram)

 Kendubilva is a small village near to  LORD  Jagannatha Kshetram Puri , and 25 kms to Bhuvaneshwar .    This is the holy place  where the great devotee  Jayadevar appeared .

                   The village became  more prominent and famous by the presence of  the great devotee Jayadevar  for his devotion to the Supreme  Lord .

          Jayadevar learnt all the Vedic scriptures at an young age .  He was   complete into devotional services .Always immersed in Lord’s divine leela , he ignored  material wealth or associations.  When he came of marriageable age, his parents were searching for a bride  so as to bring him into family fold .

                             Jayadeva’s was  not keen in entering family life  . He  remained all  alone, always in  thoughts of the great  Lord Jagganatha  divine pastimes and avoided family commitments .

His parents pleaded him to get married  as they were getting old  . Jayadevar did not agree  as he felt that it  would hinder his dedication to Lord Jagganatha Days rolled by.     Jayadevar continued his devotional services  going places , His parents were getting old and  passed away.

Jayadevar was now all alone. He moved away and resided near to the temple  and was performing  srimad bhagavath  parayanam.  He  lived on Unchavrutti accepting what Lord Jaggantha sends him through his devotees  He was with niyama  performing his karmanustams and was steadfast in his activities.But  Lord Jagganatha  had other ideas.

Near to the village ,  there was another  devotee  by name Devasharma. Devasharma prayed Lord  that if he  had a son he would offer him to Lord  to perform  devotional  services  in the temple of  Lord Jagannatha at Puri..

  Lord , however  graced  him a  with girl child. The bubbly  child was named Padmavathi.  She was trained in all household chores and devotional service from her childhood.      Padmavathi came of marriageable age.He proceeded to  Sri Jagannathar temple  and prayed LORD  as to what he could do to fulfill the promise he made as he had a daughter who will not be allowed inside the temple for HIS service  .

He  prayed Lord !!!  I dont know the way, how will you take this girl, he asked with tearful eyes. Being tired he slept that night near the temple.

  Lord  appeared in his dream and said, “Oh Devasharma ..We  appreciate your bhakthi,  and  will  definitely take your daughter for our  services  and will tell you the way how. Me and my  devotee  are no different. As you only wanted to perform the service  , well………., you can do the same to my  devotee  for a long long time.

 Our adorable devotee  is Jayadevar who is living very near to  you . Please approach him and accept him as your bridegroom. Give Padmavathi in marriage to Jayadevar”. Having heard this  Devasharma was quite pleased that his prayers are  fulfilled. He returned to his village. Looking at his daughter he said   …. my dear child .. padma … LORD  has given his blessings and mentioned the name of her husband.  He proceeded  to the ashram of Jayadevar  and introduced himself  . He requested Jayadevar to accept his daughter as his wife .

 Jayadevar  a  sincere devotee   did not argue or answer him .  He  just left looking walking  towards temple . Devasharma however did not feel bad  as he had faith in LORD’s   instructions . He went home  called Padmavathi and told  My dear  child “Padma……Please come with me now …. He went towards Jayadevar’s ashram and showed the ashram of  Jayadevar and said …Look there ,  the effulgent face with divine look  who is walking towards the temple ....Yes  he is your husband henceforth . Its Lord Jagganthar’s sankalpam that you be married to him  for a divine cause . Serve him as you are serving the LORD himself . Its my final wish  my child …

Padmavathi obeyed her father’s instructions implicitly. Normally Jayadevar would rise early everyday, have his  bath  from the nearby stream . He would  perform japa  and walk back to his Ashram . Padma  would come  to his ashram  sweep the surroundings , water the plants , pluck flowers, clean the pooja vessels , clean the altar and leave the ashram before Jayadevar returns 

Jayadevar after finishing his japa would return  and see everything in the ashram transformed . Very much surprised , he believed some devotee is serving Lord . The services continued  and a month passed by.  Jayadevar  liked  his ashram being  kept clean and neat and  being a brahmachari he appreciated this very much.

He felt the need to inquire and find out all about this and once identified who it was he wanted to do something in return for the favor and if  she had any  desires  he wanted to bless her with that. Thinking thus one day he arrived a bit early to his ashram and saw Padmavathi

Jayadevar hardly had looked at her   He now inquired about her name and where she was from and what she wanted and the reason why she was serving this ashram. His questions were without any preamble just like Dasaratha had asked Vishwamitra. Padmavathi replied that she always wanted to do some service   to  Lord Jaggantahar  for a long long time and serving his devotee will make her LORD more  happy.

He then understood why such a question had been asked by him and why such an answer was received as probably the bhagawan‘s wish. He understood the divine motive of the Supreme Lord .  Jayadevar  went to Padmavathi’s father and requested his daughter to be given in marriage to him. Jayadevar’s coming was known to the brahmanan as he was sure that it was bhagawan’s sankalpam and it will definitely happen one day. Marriage happened between Padmavathi and Jayadevar. They both performed LORD JAGGANATHA service ( Krishna seva)  together. The ashram now became a Griham.

Sadhu seva, Bhagavath kainkaryam was being done as this is the main activity of a Grihasta.Jayadevar started to understand what Bhakthi fully was. Now as the Bhakthi became  more like a rasam, Jayadevar started to like it very much and he started to appreciate Padmavathis kainkaryam, he also started to like the various rasams described by padmavathi and his bhakthi started to blossom tenfold.

While performing abhishekam, Jayadevar would pour all of the abhishekam ingredients  at once on top of the  deity  of  Lord  Krishna . Watching this  Padmavathi would say   …Swami …..“Why dont you  offer  the milk , water  slowly as Sri Krishna would become breathless with your action.  Jayadevar would think, “Oh! Why did I not know this. He corrected himself and became more connected with deity worship…

While  performing archanas with flowers, padmavathi would tell  him not to put the flowers all over the  LORD and cover  instead   spread the fragrant  flowers  all around so that while doing the archana we could have the grace of the beauty of  our krishna and be able to see the  lotus feet  (thiruvadi )of the  Supreme Lord Thus, Jayadevar  started to like and understand the suggestions made by Padmavathi very much as he started learning the loving ways of performing kainkaryam to the bhagawan.

While adorning the dresses to the Lordships ( Vasthrams ) , Padmavathi would give some suggestions on how to tie the vastrams differently as she now said, ‘instead of the same blue black vastram, you can put the yellow one and the red one here on the top and see how nice it looks’.

Jayadevar started to think, ‘oh thats a good idea, why did I not think of that before’. He felt that Padmavathi was showing the way to him to bhakthi rasam and as Padmavathi started singing, Jayadevar, himself being a poet, his poetic instincts started to flower. Because of his poetic instincts, Krishna bhakthi and the  support from Padmavathi  his heart started to pour kavyams. This Kayvam in the form of Gita slokas started flowing and he started to teach Padmavathi how to dance. The young couple were more of Prema Bhakthas.

Jayadevar considered Padmavathi not as his better half but as a Krishna dasi. Padmavathi in turn feels herself as Jaya and Jayadevar as padma and they were like two sakhis for Sri Krishna. Both of them dancing in front of Sri Krishna, their shringaram was like Bhakthi shringaram. Not like the worldly shringaram.

In all his Krishna leelas, Brindavanam prasidha leela, Kandithaa Varnanam leela is most prominent Jayadevar thinks in his mind that Sri Krishna in order to pacify Radha rani  would request   to place  her lotus  feet on his head.

 Jayadevar  suddenly  doubts ….He  thinks this is not correct as ‘Radhai (jeevatma) keeping her feet on the head of the paramatma’ is incorrect  . Jayadevar is perplexed at this.

This poem is not Jayadevar’s, its just coming on its own  from his divine thoughts . Thus LORD  Krishna has put the seed in his thoughts Jayadevar  decides to write this,  but then he puts the pen down  confused . Thus he does many times not getting courage enough to write it.

He never thought of Radha as a separate but rather as a Bhaktha, Gopikai and thats Bhaktars anyway. For all the devotees ,  Lord Sri Krishna’s respect for their Bhakthi is also true . But Jayadevar had a little hesitation.

Jayadevar thinking so decided that in this part, ‘I need to modify with some other phrase’. Thinking thus, he went to perform his usual Thaila Snanam (oil bath). Padmavathi  who was  alone in the house ,  heard her name being called “Padma” and as she turned to see, she saw that he has already come back.

She  said …Swami you just left ..How is that you returned so quickly … Jayadevar who was looking so effulgent  said,I suddenly remembered a sentence, and hence  wanted to write in the poem  otherwise I would  forget it. That’s why i came so early.

Please bring that palm leaf’. He took the leaf and then in his beautiful handwriting started to write the  verse  he did not want to write initially.smara-garala-khandanam
mama sirasi mandanam
dehi pada-pallavam udaram roughly translated means The beautiful flower blossoms of Your feet counteract the deadly poison of amorous love. They extinguish the terrifying fire of the pain of that love, which rages within My heart. Therefore, please be kind and allow Your feet to decorate My head.”

Then returning the palm leaf to padma and asking her to keep it back, he left. Jayadevar went back  and after completing his shower and  japa  came to see that what he had not wanted to write had already been written by some one already … He was shocked and amazed to see the palm leaf which  had the verse he did not want to write …He asked Padmavathi,   my  dear   please tell me  ‘Who wrote this verse ?  She  expressed ignorance  and asked  Swami ….Why?

He replied  …dear   ……What I did not want to write, somebody has  already written that …Padmavathi asked,   Swami  ‘Did you tell your  feelings  to anyone else or me anytime’. Jayadevar said, ‘No! this should not be said, its  a divine secret . So I had kept it in my heart only.’  Padma replied,

Swami   ‘Whoever was in your heart only would have written this then’. The moment he realized what Padma was saying, tears flowed like torrent Oh Krishna …. he wept  like a child …

He saw the palm leaf repeatedly ..the  handwriting and the words written were  like pearls and he touched them with his eyes. Lord  had accepted his words for that sentence. Not only that, the entire Gita Govindam was accepted.

He then looked at Padmavathi and said, My dear  “Padmavathi,  you are blessed one! With tears he said ….Am blessed to have a devotee as my life partner … 

Your  devotion  is  flawless   and that’s the reason  LORD appeared .  Recollecting the divine incident  tears flowed down her face. LORD  blessed the coupleGita Govinda is  centered around  24 Ashtapadis (songs with 8 couplets). saturated with the flavour of the divine love of Krsna and Radha…

The Ashtapadis are about different moods  of  love between  Lord Krishna and Radha….

Some are almost  in form of hymns, listing  Lord Krishna’s achievements in his various incarnations ……..

Some are glimpses into Krishna’s and  Radha’s minds at times of separation, anger or reconciliation and   Some others are the words of messengers sent to each other, urging mercy and to swallow pride. 

ALL GLORIES TO JAYADEVAR for giving us KRISHNA BHAKTHI ..

.May my mind surrender to all the  great devotees of the Supreme LORD

 JAI JAI JAI JAGANNATHA

Adiyen Ramanuja dasan

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