Verse Text
yathā vā yāmunācārya-stotre –
raghuvara yad abhūs tvaṁ tādṛśo vāyasasya
praṇata iti dayālur yac ca caidyasya kṛṣṇa |
pratibhavam aparāddhur mugdha sāyujyado ’bhūr
vada kim apadam āgatas tasya te ’sti kṣamāyāḥ ||113||
Translation
Another example from Stotra-ratna of Yāmunācārya (60) – O Rāmacandra, best of the Raghu dynasty! You were so merciful to the crow which pecked Sītā’s breast, but which then offered respects to You. [Note: Jayanta, son of Indra, took the form of a crow and pecked her breast, and Rāma sent His arrows after the crow. The crow finally surrendered to Rāma, and lost only his right eye.] O Kṛṣṇa, so forgetful of others sins! You gave attractive impersonal liberation to Śiṣupāla who offended You for many lifetimes. Tell me what offense exists in him that You would not tolerate?
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
This is a second example of tolerance. There should be a conclusion after all the insults of Śiṣupāla mentioned in the previous verse, not simply tolerance, since it is difficult to tolerate loud banging sounds (and thus this verse explains that Kṛṣṇa liberated him). The reference to committing offenses for many lives (pratibhavam) indicates that Kṛṣṇa is superior to Rāma because Kṛṣṇa liberated him.
Purport (Nectar of Devotion)
Śrī Yāmunācārya praises the Lord’s power of forgiveness with the following statement: “My dear Lord Rāmacandra, You are so merciful to have excused the crow’s clawing on the nipples of Jānakī simply because of his bowing down before You.” Once Indra, the King of heaven, assumed the form of a crow and attacked Sītā (Jānakī), Lord Rāmacandra’s wife, by striking her on the breast. This was certainly an insult to the universal mother, Sītā, and Lord Rāmacandra was immediately prepared to kill the crow. But because later on the crow bowed down before the Lord, the Lord excused his offense. Śrī Yāmunācārya further says in his prayer that the forgiving power of Lord Kṛṣṇa is even greater than that of Lord Rāmacandra, because Śiśupāla was always in the habit of insulting Kṛṣṇa—not only in one lifetime, but continually throughout three lives. Still, Kṛṣṇa was so kind that He gave Śiśupāla the salvation of merging into His existence. From this we can understand that the goal of the monist to merge into the effulgence of the Supreme is not a very difficult problem. Persons like Śiśupāla who are consistently inimical to Kṛṣṇa can also get this liberation.