How come a funeral is remembered for ages?

Do you know of a funeral that has been remembered for ages?

Yes, you are correct. People forget their forefathers, history passes, and new ideas and philosophies emerge, but no one forgets Shri Krishna and his pastimes. Due to its uniqueness, the funeral of a woman, especially one with demonic characteristics, will always be associated with Shri Krishna.

Putana, on the instructions of Kamsa, camouflaged herself as a beautiful woman, traveled through the sky and reached Vrindavan in search of Shri Krishna, who was a baby then, to kill him by feeding her poisonous breast milk.

She mesmerized everyone by exhibiting enchanting youthful exuberance with a splendid structure, firm breasts, and a slim waist. Her alluring attire integrated into her charm.

As everyone was watching unsuspectingly, Putana picked up the baby Krishna and kept him on her lap. She offered him her poisonous breast milk. As soon as she took the baby to her breast, Shri Krishna pressed it with both his hands. He began taking her life air together with her milk.

Putana began experiencing rigorous pain all over her vital life joints in her body and remained in the condition of acute pain. She could not bear the impact of pain beyond a point, and started shouting by saying, “leave me, leave me, enough of it” and then shrieked and squealed in utter helplessness. Gradually, her eyeballs thrust forward, giving a gory sight. She began fluttering her hands and legs on the ground and bellowed screaming sounds at a high pitch.

As she fell dead to the ground, assuming her demonic form, it was a wondrous sight to see, with all the trees of that area uprooting and falling with potent force, spreading to the extent of a twelve-mile radius. Her body was so gigantic that people had to cut her body to pieces to carry them to the funeral ground. They placed her on the pyre and lit it after accumulating plenty of wood.

The smoke rising from the funeral pyre, which spread everywhere, carried the fragrance of pleasant incense of agar-wood (Aquilaria Malaccensis) because the body of Putana had become pure, sans all poison, as she experienced the divine touch of Shri Krishna. Her breast milk, though poisonous, became an offering because Shri Krishna used it, resulting in cleansing all her sins from their roots.

Putana, the demon woman, was in the habit of killing children and used to drink blood. Even though she approached Shri Krishna with the intent to kill him, having offered her breast to feed him, she attained the most elevated position.

The affectionate mothers of Vrindavan always offered their breast milk to Shri Krishna with love and affection. For him, all women who fed him milk were his mothers. Putana, the demon, achieving an elevated position is nothing surprising. Though she intended to kill Shri Krishna, she wanted to reach him, while the method and path adopted by her were dubious. For Shri Krishna, there is nothing pleasurable or deplorable. There shall be no impact on him, even if he consumes poison or nectar of life, as he is beyond the concept of life and death. While Shri Krishna killed the evil thoughts of Putana, he allowed her to purify herself and reach him.

People were astonished to sense a high level of the fragrant smell emanating from the smoke of the funeral pyre. They could not believe such a fragrance could spread out from a funeral pyre, never known to them before. The funeral of Putana has been a topic of discussion since then. It will be, in the future as well.

PHOTO CREDIT : RFP