DEIVATHIN KURAL #176 (Vol #4) Dated 14 Apr 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL #176 (Vol #4) Dated 14 Apr 2011

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of the last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. Today we are proceeding from the middle of page number 988 of Vol 4 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)
147. Let us now look at the word meaning of the fourth sloka of the Shatpadi. In the phrase ‘ud-druta-naga’, ‘naga’ means non-moving or static. As the mountain remains immobile without any wavering, it is called, ‘achalam’, ‘agam’ or ‘nagam’. Parvata Raja Kumari is called Girija as she is the daughter of the King of Mountains. So also she has names such as, ‘agaja’ and ‘nagaja’. The sloka on Ganesha starts off with, ‘agajaanana padmaarkam gajaananam aharnisam’! You do not have to know much of Sanskrit to know that ‘agajaanana’ is the opposite of ‘gajaanana’! But this ‘gajaanana’ with a face of an elephant {gaja = elephant + aanana = faced} is the ‘arka’ (sun) who causes the lotus face of ‘agaja’, daughter of the king of hills, Parvathy’s face ‘aanana’ of a lotus to bloom!
148. So, ‘ud-druta-naga’ means ‘one who has lifted the mountain’. He is the ‘Giri Dhara Gopala’ about whom Mira Bai kept singing always. There are two main occasions when Maha Vishnu had lifted the mountains and held them high. First occasion was when they churned the Ksheera Saagara The Ocean of Milk, using the Mandara mountain as the churning block and snake Vasuki as the entwining rope; when they brought out many great things including the Aalahaala Poison which Siva was condescending enough to drink to save others from destruction thereby getting the name of ‘Neela Kanta’ or Blue Necked. At that time Vishnu was upholding the Mandara Mountain in proper position by assuming the Kurma Avatara as the Tortoise! The next time He upheld a mountain was when Krishna lifted the whole Govardhana Mountain to protect the Yadava community from being wiped out by the torrential rains caused by Indra’s anger. Our load of Karma is like the Govardhana Mountain, which Bhagawan Sri Krishna could bear with his little finger of one hand! He is capable of bearing such heavy burdens, ‘ud-druta naga’.
149. The next phrase is “nagabhidanuja”, which is ‘nagabid + anuja’. The word ‘nagabid’ means ‘the one who had cut the mountains’ and ‘anuja’ means ‘younger sibling’. The earlier born elder is ‘poorvaja’ and the later born younger brother is ‘anuja’. If it was a younger sister, the word is ‘anuja’! Raama’s younger brother is ‘Ramaanuja’. Rama’s younger brothers are Bharatha, Lakshmana and Shatrugna. But Lakshmana is more noticeable for having maintained a ‘Vrata’ of abnegation of not sleeping and maintaining celibacy for the entire period of their stay in the forest till they all returned to Ayodhya! Lakshmana is the Avatara of Adisesha. Vaishnava’s Guru RamanujachaaryaaL is also said to be Adisesha Avatara and he was also Lakshmana, as named by his parents!
150. When did Vishnu become Indra’s younger brother? That happened during Vamana Avatara. Starting from Indra all the Devas were children of Kashyapa Maharishi and his wife Atiti. When Vishnu assumed the Vamana Avatara, he was born to the same parents, namely Kashyapa Maharishi and Atiti. So Vishnu as Vamana was Indra’s younger brother. So, he had a name ‘Upendra’ too. So when he lifted Govardhana Giri to subdue Indra’s haughtiness, He was ‘ud-druta-naga’ in the later Avatara as Krishna. Earlier in the Vamana Avatara, as a younger brother of Indra, He was ‘nagabidanuja’. God does not play cheap tricks of popularity and favouritism, keeping some as ardent fans and some kept at arm’s length! If you are a sincere devotee simply being disciplined and duty conscious; He will make your way problem-free! If you are over complacent, brimming with unnecessary head weight, he may clip your wings, so to say. AachaaryaaL has brought out these two contrasting and varying attributes by these two phrases, ‘ud-druta-naga’ and ‘naga-bid-anuja’.
151. Now we have, “danuja – kulaamitra”; ‘danuja’ or ‘Dhanavas’ are Asuras, their name deriving from being the sons of ‘Dhanu’ who was also Kashyap’s wife. Kashyapa is the father of all Devas as well as Asuras through different Mothers. Kashyapa had another wife by the name of ‘Diti’, whose children were also Asuras, called ‘Dhaityas’. In ‘nagabidanuja’, to correctly break the phrase in to component words, ‘nagabi – danuja’ would be wrong and to say, ‘nagabid – anuja’ would be correct. This would mean the younger brother of the one who cut asunder the wings of the mountains who often used to fly off and sit down wherever they felt like, creating untold miseries for the common folk! Not only that, it suited the subsequent ‘andaadi’ ‘aNi’ for the next word ‘danuja kulaamitra’ to rhyme!
152. We see this sort of word play in many slokas. In the earlier quoted ‘agajaanana padmaarkkam’ sloka too we see, “aneka dantam bhaktaanaam eka dantam upaasmahe”. At the first glance it will mean as though, ‘many teethed amongst devotees the one toothed I pray too’, it looks and sounds somewhat an aberration! When you correctly do the ‘sandhi – break’, it should read as, “anekadam / tam / bhaktaanaam / eka / dantam / upaasmahe”, to mean; ‘that God with one tooth, who gives many favours to his devotees, I pray to!’ But it also sounds funny that the same person could be addressed as having ‘eka dantam and aneka dantam’! But we have seen that the first time in that line, it is not, ‘aneka dantam’ but, ‘anekadam tam’; is how we should break the ‘sandhi’ and read / understand!
153. ‘danuja kula amitra’ means the enemy of the ‘Kula’ of Dhanujas (who are Asuras, as I mentioned earlier, as the children of ‘Dhanu’, the wife of Kashyapa). As Indra’s younger brother when Bhagawan Vishnu came into this world, the ‘Dhanujas’ were also his brothers as his father’s children only. But as He did not care only for relationship but cared for righteousness, the Asuras were his ‘amitras’ that is, enemies. Lord Vishnu as Upendra, Indra’s loving younger brother, has recovered the empire from Maha Bali and given it back to Indra. But when Indra driven by ego, tried to show off his prowess by being harsh with Yadavas, He stood by in support of the Yadavas, uplifting the Govardhan Giri and vanquishing the Rain God’s might. The Asuras who were mostly ill behaved, despite being his brothers, earned Krishna’s wrath that they were called the ‘amitras’! Our AachaaryaaL as he is connecting the end of the previous word with the start of the next word; seems to also make the ideas of the meaning of the words also run into each other by punning on the words using synonyms and antonyms liberally.
154. Next are the words, “mitra sashi drushte”. Mitra means friend. Here while saying ‘mitra sashi drushte’, this word means the Sun. In Vedas, in many places the Sun has been referred to as the ‘Mitra’. In the days gone by, the Sun worship was practiced all over the world. This word ‘Mitra’ was being used as it is even in as far apart areas as Egypt and Cambodia. 1,300 years B.C., an agreement between Ramses II and the Hittites is said to have been witnessed by ‘Mitra and Varuna’! Mitra is the Sun and he is also a friend of Sashi, the Moon. Do you know the reason why the Moon has a name as Sashi? The fair Moon seems to have some smudge, which in some angles looks like a Hare, that is ‘sasam’ in the Sanskrit language. Having a Hare as a part of his body, the Moon is also known as ‘Sashank or Sashi’.
155. He is calling God as the one who has the friends Sun and Moon as His eyes when he says, ‘mitra sashi drushte’! In God’s Viraat (Macro) Swaroopa (form), the Sun is His right eye and the Moon is the left eye. Having reminded the devotees of Gods Avataras as Indra’s younger brother, Dhanuja’s enemy, lifting of Govardhana Giri to protect the Yadava’s from Indra’s wrath; as a continuation when the dwarf sized Vamana Brhmachari took the form of Trivikrama of Viraat Swaroopa of immense proportions; His eyes were seen to be the Sun and Moon. The poem reminds the devotee of all these things. In the early part of Vishnu Sahasra Naama, it says ‘bhoo: paadou .....chandra sooryous cha netre’. It is the same idea repeated here, as Vamana kept increasing his size and stature to become Trivikrama, while his feet were firmly rooted on earth, His eyes shown like the Sun and Moon of the Heavens!
156. One Vision of God’s Cosmic Form is Sufficient for Release from Bhava – Samsaara! In the next line, by repeatedly using the word ‘bhavathi’ in four slightly different meanings, AachaaryaaL has shown such fluency and facility of command over the language. He says “drushti bhavathi prabhavathi na-bhavathi kim bhava tiraskaara:”. (We will go deeper into the meaning of this line in the next e-mail.)
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.