Date uploaded in London – – 29 FEBRUARY 2024
Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com
Pictures are taken from various sources for spreading knowledge.
this is a non- commercial blog. Thanks for your great pictures.
tamilandvedas.com, swamiindology.blogspot.com
https://www.pustaka.co.in/home/author/london-swaminathan
xxxx
In the first part posted yesterday I gave details of two Hindu Bee Goddess temples in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.
Meerabai was a princess in Rajasthan. She lived 500 years ago and sang in praise of Lord Krishna. Her kirtans are widely used in Bhajans and concerts. She considered herself a Bee tasting the Divine lips of Lord Krishna.
Here are a few songs of Meerabai:
“Mira the Bee
O my friends
What can you tell me of Love,
Whose pathways are filled with strangeness?
When you offer the Great One your love,
At the first step you body is crushed.
Next be ready to offer your head as his seat.
Be ready to orbit his lamp like a moth
giving in to the light,
To live in the deer as she runs toward
the hunter’s call,
In the partridge that swallows hot coals
for love of the moon,
In the fish that, kept from the sea, happily dies.
Like a bee trapped for life in the closing
of the sweet flower.”
xxxx
“Mira has offered herself to her Lord.
She says, the single Lotus will swallow you whole.
If you want to offer love
Be prepared to cut off your head
And sit on it.
Be like the moth,
Which circles the lamp and offers its body.
Be like the deer, which, on hearing the horn,
Offers its head to the hunter.
Be like the partridge,
Which swallows burning coals
In love of the moon.
Be like the fish
Which yields up its life
When separated from the sea.
Be like the bee,
Entrapped in the closing petals of the lotus.
Mira’s lord is the courtly Giridhara.
She says: Offer your mind
To those lotus feet.” – Mirabhai
xxxxx
“I am true to my Lord,
O my companions, there is nothing to be ashamed of now
Since I have been seen dancing openly.
In the day I have no hunger
At night I am restless and cannot sleep.
Leaving these troubles behind, I go to the other side;
A hidden knowledge has taken hold of me.
My relations surround me like bees.
But Mira is the servant of her beloved Giridhar,
And she cares nothing that people mock her.
– Mirabai
xxxx
Radha’s Divine Love towards Lord Krishna
Gopi- Krishna episode of Krishna hiding the saris of Gopis is in 2000 year old Sangam poets. Krishna’s Bull Fighting is also found in detail in Sangam poems. Krishna’s lady love Radha rani also sang about Bees.
Like Sangam Tamil poets she used the bee as a messenger to send her Divine Love to Krishna.
“Bumblebee, you are accustomed to drinking honey from the flowers, therefore you have preferred to be a messenger of Krishna, who is the same nature of you! I have seen on your moustaches the red powder kumkum, which was smeared on the Krishna’s flower garland while He was pressing the breast of some other competitor. You felt proud touching that flower and your mustaches have become reddish. Now you come carrying a message for me and anxious to touch your feet. But My dear Bumblebee, let me warn you; don’t touch Me. I don’t want any message from your unreliable master and you are an unreliable servant.”
“Your master Krishna is exactly of your quality. You sit on a flower, taking a little honey, then you immediately fly away and sit on another flower to taste honey there….He gave us a chance to taste His lips and then left altogether. We are more intelligent and not going to be cheated anymore by Krishna or His messengers…..You foolish bumblebee, you are trying to satisfy me by singing his glories.
xxxx
Famous poet Narayana Theertha prays to god to make him a bee at his lotus feet in his famous song
Kshemam kuru Gopala
Pallavi
Kshemam kuru Gopala , SAnthatham mama
Anupallavi
Kamam thava paada, kamala brahmari bhavathu,
SRiman , mama Maaanasa, Madhu Sudhana
Meaning :
Always ensure my well-being, O Krishna !
To a great extent (let) my mind be (at) your lotus-feet,
Like a honeybee, O auspicious one, slayer of Madhu !
Madhu is the name of a demon as well as Honey. It is a word with double entendre.
It is a common scene in India to see honey bees buzzing around lotus flowers.
Xxxx
Manmata’s (God of Love) Bow and String
“O Daughter of the snow-capped Himalaya Mountain!
Manmatha, the God of love, has only a bow of flowers, whose bowstring is comprised of a cluster of honeybees; he has only five arrows and these are made of flowers. . . Yet with such frail equipment, bodiless and alone though he be, Manmatha, having obtained some grace through Thy benign side-glance, subjugates the entire universe and emerges victorious”
Saundaryalahari, by Adi Shankara
xxxx
Messenger Poems
India is one nation with same values is proved by Messenger Poems found in Kalidasa and Tamil Sangam Poems. Kalidasa who lived in first century BCE did the great Duta Kavya Megha duta. Sangam poets also used all in the Natures as Dutas/Messengers.
Like Radharani’s poem above, Tamil poets also criticised men looking for various flowers/women to taste like bees.
xxxx
When the bee hums over the Kaantal flower bud and tries to penetrate into it, the bud slowly yields to it and blossoms with fragrance like the dutiful and grateful men welcoming with delight the noble gentlemen with whom they are acquainted- Kuruntokai poem 265 .
XXXX
Kalidasa Kavyas on Stamps
Bees and Music
Beetles making holes in bamboos and making them as Nature’s flute is in Kalidasa and Sangam Tamil literature.
Elephant’s rut attracting bees and their buzz is compared to music from the lute is also in Kalidasa and Sangam Tamil literature.
Hindus from Kanyakumari to Kashmir thing in the same way.
The sound of the west wind passing through the holes made by the beetles in bamboos is compared to the sweet tune of the shepherd’s flute- Akam 225
The flow of rut in elephants attracts bees and their humming sound is musical enough to attract the mythical animal called Acunam which listens which listens to it and mistakes it for the tune of Yaaz/ lyre – Akam 88
To be continued………………………..
Tags- Bees, Meerabai, Radharani, Narayana Theertha, Brahmari, Lotus, Kalidasa
Tamil and Vedas 