Posted:
Note: This is based off a scene in RS' Shri Krishna and as far as I know does not exist in the actual epics. Also, the ingenious idea was Loladi's (MagadhSundari), so please redirect the praises for the concept. :D AND, we decided on the name long before the serial started. They copied it off us. :P
The deafening streak of thunder rolled across the stretch of horizon. The beauteous scenery hid behind the fearsome display of nature's wrath. Angry gusts of wind enveloped the gilded chariot as dark clouds closed in on them.
Murkha Kansa!
The woman you take so lovingly to her new home, shall be the very cause of your Death! The eighth son born of Devak-nandini shall be thy death, O Kansa!
Vasudev shuddered, as the memories of the fateful day gushed back to his mind.
He had fallen at the feet of his brother-in-law, begging for mercy. His wife was his responsibility. Saving her life then was his foremost duty. King Ugrasena had not let her go for this!
But what did he give for his wife?
His sons!
The very sons born in that dark room where they were imprisoned for so long! His own blood ran in their veins! The blood that was now to be- he couldn't bring himself to think ahead.
"His eyes are as deep as yours." Devaki had said, before he had reminded her of his oath and wrenched away the baby. Her pleas for mercy still rang in his ears.
---
Placing the baby boy, his first-born, in the arms of Kansa, he shut his eyes and looked away anticipating the swish of the murderous sword.
However, it did not come. Instead, a mild clicking noise made Vasudev open his eyes and look at the scarred face of Kansa. Surprised, he stared at his brother-in-law as the latter smiled, first at him and then the boy.
"What did you name him?" he asked.
Pondering a while on the reason for the sudden delay of the inevitable he replied, his eyes still focused on the tawny eyes of the infant, "Keertimaan."
"Woah! Keertimaan! Yes, of course. Like father like son; the glorious one."
Vasudev gratefully took back the baby as Kans turned his back on him. "This is your first boy. I'm endangered by the eighth, not this one. Go! Leave before I change my mind." He smiled.
No one in the world that day was happier than Vasudeva when, with tears of joy trickling down his cheeks, he returned the child to his mother.
---
Only a couple of days later, when Kansa stormed into their quarters and snatching the boy from Devaki's arms and smashed him against the wall, Vasudev was not really shocked.
He was numb; robbed of words, but not shocked. His intuition had always doubted Kansa's change of mind.
He felt utterly helpless as he clutched his wife close to his heart. It was as if his wisdom and honestly had all gone to waste. Though he knew this was necessary, for it diminished the time before the Lord's descent onto this earth, he felt as though he had failed. Never in life had he failed anyone! No one, but his own blood. He had failed in his duty as a father. He had failed to protect his son from the vile shadow of Kansa.
---
As he carried his second son so lovingly to his doom, he suddenly stopped in his track. He sank back against a pillar and said to the boy, "O the second piece of my broken heart, you will never know what it is to pester your father for gifts and neither will I know what it is to fulfill the wistful wishes of one's children. I shall not know what it is to bask in the reflected glory of my children. I have nothing to seek from you except for your forgiveness. Oh, what can I do for you? I am bound by the manacles of my oath. I have nothing to give you; no means such as to fulfill your heart's desire. The only thing I can give you is a name, an identity. It shall remain with you as a mark of your arrival in my house, and with me, to remind me unceasingly of my short-living good fortune!"
Vasudev walked into Kansa's chamber with dry eyes and his head held high.
"Sushena." he uttered in his mind as he handed over the child to the murderer King.
---
"Bhadrasena."
---
"Riju."
---
"Sammardana."
---
"Bhadra."
He shuddered once more as Kansa ended the life of Devaki's sixth son.
---
After Yogmaaya devi, Yashodarani's little girl revealed her true form as ashtabhuja devi Durga, Kansa apologized profusely to the two of them and set them free.
As they made their way towards their modest mansion by the banks of Yamuna, Devaki suddenly asked the charioteer to stop. Vasudev looked at him with a question in his eyes.
"Swami, I want to offer some flowers to mother Yamuna for the shaanti of the departed souls of our seven children. We never realy performed the- the rites."
Vasudev nodded and helped her down the chariot.
---
Devaki held a beautiful lotus in her hand. Vasudev touched her arm and beckoned her to place on the welcoming waves of Yamuna. "Here, for Keertimaan."
A tear trickled down her cheek. Vasudev wiped it off and urged her to pick up the next one, "For Sushena."
She looked at him with questioning eyes. "Yes, I gave all of them their names, much less than what they deserved, true. But the names were all I had!" Vasudev croaked. Another drop escaped her tired eyelids. Devaki did not let Vasudev wipe it off this time.
"For Bhadrasena."
"For Riju."
"For Sammardana."
"For Bhadra."
Devaki's hands trembled as the seventh flower dropped into the river. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she lamented, "All those whiles, I've wondered how I remember which. All the whiles I wished I knew and all the whiles you did not say."
She wept into Vasudeva's arms till the sun, unable to bear the scorch of a mother's lament collapsed into the horizon as the empathetic deluge of darkness drenched the unfortunates deprived so cruelly of parenthood.
Tum Se Tum Tak
Sampoorna
Jhanak
Shiv Shakti
