Generous debtors!

Lord Krishna, in the Bhagavad Gita, says that those who seek

boons from Him are generous! This is an odd adjective to use

for a seeker. It would be understandable to describe a giver

as ‘generous.’ But how can one who asks for something be

generous?

The Lord uses the word ‘udaaraa,’ meaning generous here,

because if no one asks Him for anything, then His generosity

will not be widely known. So He labels the seeker ‘generous.’

This according to Vedanta Desika is Krishna Siddhanta,

explained Valayapet Ramachariar in a discourse.

Lord Krishna always thinks of Himself as a debtor, because

no matter how much He gives to His devotees He is still not

pleased and feels that He has not given them enough. In the

case of Draupadi, she cried out to Dwarakapurivasa — the

One who resides in Dwaraka and at once the Lord sent yards

of cloth to save her from being shamed in the Kaurava court.

But she did not stop with just that one name for the Lord. She

went on to repeat many of His names.

Lord Krishna felt that while He had sent cloth for one

name of His, what had He given her for the other names of

His that she had uttered? And so He felt He owed her more.

That is Krishna’s philosophy.

Parasara Bhattar says that if you do an anjali to Goddess

Ranganayaki of Srirangam just once, She will give you

whatever you ask for and yet, even after She has been

generous to you, She will continue to feel she hasn’t done

enough for you. That is how immeasurable Her generosity is.

The Vedas refer to Mahalakshmi as UdArA, and here Bhattar

justifies this usage, by pointing out that Her generosity is

immeasurable.