Hinduism - Who Is Uddhava In The Hindu Pantheon?

 


One of the deity Krishna's acquaintances and companions in Hindu mythology.

Uddhava is best renowned in devotional (bhakti) literature for the mes sage he bears back from Krishna to the gopis, the cowherd ladies of Braj (a northern Indian district on the Yamuna River south of the current city of Delhi) who are Krishna's followers (bhakta) and adore him more than life.

Uddhava urges the gopis not to worry about Krishna's bodily absence since, as the highest deity, Krishna is always with them, even if he isn't visible.

The gopis respond that such language is wonderful for intellectuals like Uddhava, but that such abstractions are pointless for ordinary ladies like themselves who have had the pleasure of interacting with Krishna in person.

Uddhava and the gopis represent two sorts of religious life: one that is calm and abstract, focusing on a transcendent god, and the other that is based on intense devotion for a specific deity.

Depending on the authors' preferences, several versions of this tale have different ends.

The narrative ends in a standoff in some of the accounts, including the oldest version in the Bhagavata Purana, with each side failing to convince the other.

Uddhava, on the other hand, is transformed to the gopis' point of view in at least one of the tales.

R. S. McGregor (ed. and trans. ), Nanddas, 1973, for more information.

~Kiran Atma


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