The king of Mathura, the evil-minded Kamsa found out that Lord Krishna who had manifested in this world to destroy him was growing up in Vrindavan. He organised a Dhanur Yaga (Bow Sacrifice) and sent the saintly Akrura with an invitation to Balrama and Krishna to attend the same. Akrura started for Vrindavan and as he reached there, he was overwhelmed to see the foot-prints of Sri Krishna in Vraja. He got down from his chariot and applied the sacred dust on his forehead. When he beheld Balarama and Krishna his joy knew no bounds. He accepted the hospitality of Nanda and next day morning started for Mathura with the two young, divine boys, Balarama and Krishna. When they reached Mathura, both the brothers decided to go round the streets of Mathura.
As they were going around, they encountered Trivakra, an ugly, hunch-backed woman, who was bent or crooked at three places in her physical structure and hence the name Trivakra. She was one of Kamsa’s attendant who was in charge of preparing various types of sandal-paste for his daily use. Krishna smilingly asked her for the sandal-paste. Seeing the arresting divine beauty of Krishna, and without even thinking of the consequences of going to the king empty-handed, she lovingly and willingly offered it to the Lord. The Lord then stepped forward, placed His feet on her forefeet, and with His fingers lifted her chin up. Lo! She became straight, her crookedness was gone and her beauty came back to her! Endowed with the wealth of beauty and virtues by the mere touch of the Lord, Trivakra with sheer gratitude prostrated to the Lord and asked Him to grace her humble dwelling. The Lord promised her that He would soon come to her dwelling and accept her seva.
Spiritual Significance: Trivakra represents an individual conditioned by the three equipments – the body, mind and intellect. Kamsa is the ego (I and Mine) who is every moment catered to by our vasanas – the sandal-paste. At that point in our life, the Guru comes and asks us to completely surrender all our vasanas (karmas) to Him. Dropping the “I and Mine” – the ego, if we surrender totally unto our Guru, he connects us with the spiritual knowledge (represented by the touch of the Lord’s feet), raises our vision to something higher and noble (signified by the Lord lifting up her chin), helps us to straighten the crookedness in our life, drop our identification with our body, mind and intellect, and thereby reach the State of Total Beatitude – the State of Enlightenment!!
"Bhagavat Preeti" is the final goal of a devotee. He is ready to suffer, strive endlessly, struggle without rest and he feels himself completely rewarded if he only knows that the acts of self sacrifices from him have made his Lord graciously happy towards him. Any amount of tapas will be cheerfully undertaken, in the name of the Lord-of-the-heart, if the devotee can feel that his Beloved is happy by it. A smile from the blissful Lord-of-Smiles is ever a total reward and a complete fulfillment for any true devotee. - Swami Chinmayananda
[PS: I request all to please forward and share these value based stories rich in our culture and tradition to elders, youth and children]
naadopaasana 