On the way to Sri Pandharpur Dham with a group of enthusiastic young devotees….
In the train, came across a mother and her small child. The child must have been around 9 to 11 months old. The mother was breastfeeding the child.
Poshana – In the Lap of Lord’s Merciful Protection
I remembered the pastime of Lord Chaitanya enacting a drama in which He played the role of mother Rukmini. As the Jagan Mata, the mother of the whole universe, Lord Chaitanya fed all the devotees with his own nectar. And interestingly, it is the Lord’s hladini potency only that nourishes the devotees.
hlādinī karāya kṛṣṇe ānandāsvādana
hlādinīra dvārā kare bhaktera poṣaṇa
That hlādinī energy gives Kṛṣṇa pleasure and nourishes His devotees. CC Adi 4.60
What kind of nectar that must have been?! Totally satisfying to the mind and the heart! Even Lord Caitanya appreciates the nourishment he obtains in the form of hearing Krishna Katha.
Lord Caitanya says to Maharaja Pratap Rudra,
prabhu bale,—ke tumi, karilā mora hita?
ācambite āsi’ piyāo kṛṣṇa-līlāmṛta?
Finally Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, ”Who are you? You have done so much for Me. All of a sudden you have come here and made Me drink the nectar of the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa.” CC Madhya 14.17
Also, the sixth canto of Shrimad Bhagavatam is named as Poshana, or protection. Lord Krishna, always maintains the consciousness of devotees, and he protects their bhakti. Ajamila’s story mentioned in the beginning of the sixth canto is a beautiful example.
Coming back to the child – The child does not earn, the child does not work, the child does not profit the mother in anyway, yet the mother leaves no stone unturned in taking care of the child. Why then won’t Krishna take care of His fully surrendered devotees? That is Krishna’s poshana.
Indriya-Tarpana – The Unconquerable Quest
Another thing I noticed. The mother was giving tiny pieces of dates after carefully rolling them and making them soft. First, she was feeding by directly putting in the child’s mouth. And then, she gave the child in his hands. The child by himself put in the mouth. I was reflecting, from where is this coming? Who gave the education to that child to eat using his hands?
One answer is Krishna gives the required intelligence to the living entity wanders in different bodies.
Another viewpoint of looking at it is – that tendency is surely coming from the previous lives. That is why many a times we see small children putting anything and everything in the mouth.
I was thinking, we are so accustomed to sense gratification of eating varieties kinds of foods that even in the next life when we are born, the first thing that we wish to do is put the hand in the mouth, and then we put all kinds of toys also in the mouth thinking them to be sense objects for our tongue.
Therefore, we must not be astonished to see the myriad of various desires arising in the core of our heart. It is all there inside from many lifetimes.
How then can we give up these nasty desires of sense gratification?
We take shelter of sense gratification because we don’t realise Lord’s protection and nourishment. If He can provide us everything – santam samipe ramanam rati pradam – and satisfy us to the best of our needs and wants – why do we need to take shelter of anything and anyone else?
Ajamila was focused on indriya-Tarpana in his life, but when he realised Lord’s poshana in form of the Holy Name when Yamadutas appeared to him, he stopped endeavouring for sense gratification.
When one becomes aware, and accepts the Lord’s merciful poshana, or protection, one doesn’t feel the need to take the support of indriya-tarpana to maintain one’s illusory existence.
Just as our desires have no beginning and end, when a devotee starts serving Krishna, the paradigm of desire changes from material to spiritual. Just as a child puts everything in the mouth thinking it to be an eatable, a devotee sees everything connected to Krishna, and wants to utilize everything in the service of Krishna.
The life of such a devotee becomes filled with the Lord’s grace, because for him or her, every place is filled with the divine existence of the Lord.
