SlOkam 41:
Maathraa yadhi Thvamasi dhAmani
sanniBhaddha:
Tath SrAviNAm udhitha
chAkshusha nirjarANAm
BhadhnAsi hantha hrudhayam Bhagavan
! kuthastath
sarvO hi vaSyavishayE
vivruNothi veeryam
(Meaning) :Here KurEsar poses a question
and provides an answer .
Oh Lord (Bhagavan) , You are the
ParipoorNan with Your six guNams of
Jn~Anam , Sakthi , Bhalam , Iswaryam , Veeryam and tEjas .
You permitted Yourslf to be bound by the
feeble rope constructed by
YasOdhA . Those who heard about You as
sarva-sakthan being bound to
a husking mortar( ulUkalam/ural) wept
ceaselessly over the sufferings
that You might have
undergone . Through the enactment of that incident
,
You caused the binding of the
hearts of Your bhaktha janams. How did
that effect come to be ? It is because it
isconsistent with the loka reethi ,
where the powerful one displays his valour in front of those under
his
influence (vasya vishayE veeryam vivruNothi
hi ?). By appearing to
obey Your Mother in being bound with a rope
,You bound up the hearts of
Your dear ones like Sukhar, ParAsarar ,
ParAnkusa ( Swamy NammAzhwAr) ,
Parakaala( Thirumangai Mannan) and
others with Your own heart .They were
overcome ( Bhakthi paravasam) by
their tender bhakthi for You .
(Commentary) : Swamy NammAzhwAr is said to
have fainted after reflecting on
what happened to the Lord ( being bound up by His Mother).
He stayed
in a state of unconsciousness
for few months over the thought of the Lord's
helplessness ,simplicity ( yeLivu) and submission to accept His
mother's
punishment . Our
Lord was bound by the rope
constructed by His mother
( MaathrA dhamani
sanniBhaddha:) . Those who heard
about this incident
broke down and tears poured out of their eyes ( Tath
SrAviNAm-udhitha
chAkshushu nirjarANaa:) . Their hearts became bound to
You
.
Your mother tied You up and experience
of this soulabhyam of Yours ,
made the hearts of Your devotees tied
up inextricably to You .
SlOkam 42:
kAnthAla kAnthamamalam
kamalAyathAksham
udhbhrUvilAsam
udhithasmitham unnasam cha
vakthram vahan Parama: gOpagruhEshu
kim Thvam
gOpimanAmsi
navaneethamuthAbhyamOshee:
(Meaning) : Oh Lord ! You
have beautiful curly hair on Your forehead ,
beautiful long eyes resembling the lotus
petals , perfectly
rounded brows , gentle smile displayed on
Your charming lips
and beautifully proportioned nose
. With this divine soundharyam ,
You entered the houses of Gopis .
Oh Lord ! what did you
accomplish
there ? Did you steal VeNNai there or
did You steal instead the hearts
of
the gopis with Your dhivyasoundharyam ?
Please tell me !
(Commentary ) : Here KurEsar enjoys the
enchanting beauty of the Lord's
Thirumukha MaNDalam (face) and the
samudhAya sObhai (integrated
beauty) of all the limbs there
. KurEsar enjoys the
PuNDareeka Nayanam
( lotus soft eyes /KamalAyathAksham)
and their glances filled with Dayaa ;
KurEsar enjoys next the Mahaa Purusha
lakshaNams that he finds on the face of
the Lord: the majestic uplifted brows and
nose that is on the look out for any
gopis that might surprise Him
during his act of reaching out
to the pots of
navaneetham . After success
with the stealing act ,
He adorns a gentle smile approving His
own act of ChOram
( udhbhrUvilAsam udhithasmitham unnasam
vakthram vahan). Swamy
AlavanthAr is overtaken by this mandhahAsam
adorning the Lord's
Thirumukha MaNDalam and salutes it as "
Suchismitham". The room
where He was looking for the hidden pots of
delectables was dark .
The lustre of His teeth emanating from
His smile however made the room lit
to help Him find the objects of His search
(Sva danthEndhuchayOtthEna
hlAvayan gOgaNeshu thu)
.
SlOkam 43 :
sarvam guNAya guNinAm ithi sathyam
yEthath
yath khalvihEtarajanE
malinathvahEthu:
yath gOpavEsha vinivEshaNam utthamam
tE
gOpAlanam cha
gaNayanthy guNam guNEshu
(Meaning) : It is common for the worldly
folk to think highly of those born
in high kulam , living in lofty mansions
and adorning rich jewelery and clothes .
Oh my Lord ! You were born in the
lowly kulam of cowherds grazing cattle
and living in forests . By birth
and occupation , You were identified as
One belonging to a lower rung of
society by Your enemies such as Kamsan ,
SiSupAlan and yet this gOpa
vEsahm became the object of high adoration for
Your bhaktha janams like the AzhwArs .Those
bhaktha janams consider Your
simple dress , adornment of
the flowers of the forest and moving with
the cowherd
folks as the
demonstration of Your Souseelya guNam
and enjoyed You in all of Your
simplicity : " kOvalanAi VeNNai
uNDa
vaayan , yenn uLLam
kavathAnai".
( Commentary) : The adoption of the garb of
a cowherd is adored by
Swamy
Desikan in his GopAla
Vimsathy slOkam :" chithrAkalpa: Sravasi kalayan ,
laangalee karNapooram , BharhOtthamsa-sphuritha chikurO Bhandhujeevam
dhadhAna: ,
gunjaa-BhaddhAmurasi lalithAm dhArayan
haarayashtim " ( He shines radiant wearing
the coconut flowers over His ears, peacock
feather on His tresses and wears
a garland of red hibiscus flowers around
His neck as well as another necklace
made of kunRumaNi beads) .The simplicity of
birth amidst the lowly cowherd clan
could not hide the divinity of the Lord
.
SlOkam 44:
GopAlapOthakatayaa nibhrutham
Dharithreem
aavasthu kaama iva
sannapi BhaalyaloulyAth
Indhram nihathya maham adhrimaTO
dhadhAna:
kim tasTithEshu
suragaNAya savAsavAya
( Meaning) : Oh Lord ! You incarnated as
the jewel of the race of
simple cowherds in this world as if You
wanted to hide Your divinity .
Inspite of this intention of
Yours , You were driven by the spirit of
youthful mischief to persuade
the GopAs to desist from conducting
the annual festival of homage to Indhran .
Once that happened , the mighty
Indhran , the god of rains , flew into
rage and pelted the home of the gOpAs
and gOpis with
violent hail stroms and vicious
thunder . Immediately ,
You lifted the hill of Govardhanam and held
it as an umbrella to protect
every one in Gokulam including the cowherd
folks and the cattle. At that
time, Indhran and the dEvAs ralized
Your Parathvam ( supermacy ) as
SarvEswaran and fell at Your sacred feet .
If this is not a demonstration of
Your
athimAnusha ChEshtitham ,
what else is ? Please explain this to us
.
SlOkma 45 :
vENukvaNa praNayini Thvayi lOkanATa
BhrundhAvanam charaNa
sancharaNai: punAnE
bhAvastadhA vanabhuva: kila
keedhrusastE
Thvadh geethasiktha
sikathAsu vasundharAsu
( Meaning): Here the greatness of the Lord
playing on His divine
flute is enjoyed by KurEsar. Oh Lord ! when
You desired to play on
Your flute , You walked over the thorny
land of BrundhAvanam and
through the sanctity of
Your divine feet converted those lands
into lush
green forest full of TuLasi
plants .That land became useful now to both
the gopAs and their cattle for grazing
. You started playing on Your flute
to invite the Gopis to join with You . Now
KurEsar asks a question in
wonderment : Oh Lord ! when You
generated that divine music from
Your flute , what became of the flora
and fauna of that forest in
BrundhAvanam ? How ddid they
respond to Your divine music ?
(Commentary) : The extraordinary power of
the divine music made
the animals drop every thing they were
doing and reach a state of
equipoise . For instance , the deer which
was chewing the grass stopped
abruptly and stayed motionless. The tiger
that was chasing its food (antelope)
stopped on its tracks . The chaser and
the chased remained motionless.
The branches of the trees moved in the
direction of the music and lowered
themselves to the ground. The sages were
dumbfounded and awakened out
of their deep meditation .In the
PeriyAzhwAr Thirumozhi ( 3.7) , AzhwAr
devotes a wole decad to describe the effect
of the divine VeNu ghAnam
on the trees , animals and the other
residents of the forest
.
SlOkam 46 :
dhanyai: Srutham tadhiha thAvaka
raasakAlE
geethEna yEna hi Silaa
salilAm Bhabhuvu:
panchApi kimcha parivruttha guNAni
bhUthAni
UrveekruSAnu
marudhamBhara SamBharANi
(Meaning): Here KurEsar laments about his
misfortune of
not being on this earth , when the
Lord performed raasa
kreedaa dance with the gopis . KurEsar
says: On this earth ,
when You and those gopis dear to You
engaged in raasakrredai
on the banks of the Yamunaa river , You
played the flute . That
divine music emanating from Your flute
melted the stones .
The pancha bhUthams ( Earth, Fire , Air ,
sky and water )
lost their svaroopam and attained a state
different than their
own. Fortunate were those , who were there
to experience
the divine music that arose from
Your flute . Alas ! adiyEn
could not be there at that time
.
(Commentary) : There are many kinds of
dances that KrishNa
performed . One was Raasa Kreedai , when He
locked hands with
each of the assembled gopis thru His
multiple forms and danced
with each of them in a circle , while
standing outside that circle and
playing the flute to accompany the dance .
Each of the Gopis
believed that there was only one Krishna
that was dancing
with her alone . Our Lord is the Master of
all dances .
As Thrivikraman , He engaged in performing
Urdhva thANDavam.
He danced Navaneetha thANDavam , when he
beggd for VeNNai.
He entertained His friends with pot dance (
Kuda Kootthu) at
the intersection of the streets ( Santhis)
.He performed Saari
Nruthyam on the head of the serpent ,
KaaLiyan . Here, He planted
firmly one foot on the head of KaaLiyan and
moved it around ,
while the other foot stayed in the air all
the time. KaNNan also
performed the dance
of Halleesakam and GhOshti dance .
In Halleesakam , He was at the center of a
ring and the Gopis
danced around Him . GhOshti dance was
performed , when
KrishNan destroyed RishtAsuran .
Raasakreedaa dance has been
the dance of celebration chosen for
elaboration by many poets.
SlOkam 47:
tEbhya: kruthee na khila
kaschidhihAsthi yE vai
rAsOthsavOth sukadhiyastava
kAnAnthE
vENusvana srutharasougha
paripluthAnthE
svE srukvaNee rasanayaa
lilihu: bhujngA:
(Meaning): There is no one more fortunate
than those serpents
whose mouths were made moist from
listening to the delectable
sound of the flute music of the Lord at
BrundhAvanam. They
moved their tongue from side to side of
their jaws to taste
the nectar flowing out of their
mouths , when our Lord played
His flute to accompany the Raasa Kreedaa. (
That animals , infants and
the snakes relate intimately to music is
the thought behind this
slOkam : " Pasur-vEthi , SiSur-vEtthi ,
vEtthi ghAna rasam PhaNee" .
(Commentary): Our Lord's music made even
the most poisonous
snakes to exude nectar from their poison
hoods in their mouth .
In Raghu Vamsam , Mahaa kavi KaaLidAsan
refers to this transformation
of poison into nectar and vice versa thru
the sankalpam of Iswaran
this way : " Vishamapi amrutham
kvachidh bhavEth , amrutham vaa
visham Iswara Icchayaa".
SlOkam 48:
ambhOdha neelam
aravindhadhalAyathAksham
pinchAvatamsam
Ureekrutha VeNupAnim
ThvAm gOpavEsha parikarmitha kaaya
kAnthim
dhanyA: tadhaa
dhadhadrusunmaTithAnya bhAvaaa:
(Meaning): When You were engaged in Raasa
Kreedaa, a fortunate
few ParamaikAnthis ( those who desire
nothing except You) were
able to see You in Your Gopa Vesham with
the hue of the dark
clouds of the rainy season holding the melodious flute in Your hands
and casting Your dayaa laden glances from
Your beautiful lotus like
eyes while adorning the feather of the
forest peacock on Your tresses .
(Commentary): The inspiration for this
slOkam has been identified to be
the PeriyAzhAr Thirumozhi Paasuram
3.4.7 : " kOla senthAmarai kaNN milirak-
kuzhalUdhi isai paadik-kuninthu AayarOdu ,
Aalitthu varuhinRa AayappiLLai,
azhagu kaNDu yenn mahaL ayarkkinRathE " .
PeriyAzhwAr includes His
daughter in the ghOshti of ParamikAnthis ,
who were fortunate to listen
to the Lord's VeNu ghAnam
.
SlOkam 49 :
GovardhanO girivarO Yamunaa nadhee
saa
BhrundhAvanam cha
MaTurA cha purr purANee
adhyApi hantha ! sulabhA: kruthinAm
janAnAm
yEthE bhavaccharaNa chArajushu:
pradEsaa:
(Meaning): The most revered Govardhana
Giri, the sacred waters of
Yamunaa river , the forest known as
Brundhaavanam and the ancient
city of Mathuraa had the sambhandham
(association) with Your sacred
Thiruvadi . They stay even today as the
places of easy access to those
fortunate ones seeking the Phalan for being
born as chEtanams .
(Commentary ) : In this slOkam , KurEsar
comforts those who were not
born during the time of the Lord's
incarnation as KrishNan . Our Lord was
born in Mathurai , roamed around in
BrundhAvanam and lifted the Govardhana
hill to protect the cowherds from the wrath
of Indhran .These places have
the Thiruvadi sambhandham of the Lord
during His vibhava avathAram .
For those who were not born during the
Lord's stay , these places associated
with His sacred feet still exist to fulfil
their wishes to reach Sathgathy .
AndaL in Her NaacchiyAr Thirmozhi
longs for being at these places
to cure Her viraha taapam and begs Her
friends to bring Her to
Mathurai , AaypAdi and the banks of
the river Yamunaa : " Mathurai
puratten uytthidumin , AaypAdikkE yennai
uytthidumin , Yamunai
KaraikkE yennai uytthidumin , Poyhai
karaikkE yennai Uytthidumin ,
Govardhanatthennai uytthudumin " are
the pleas of Andal in Her
Thirumozhi
. These places are easy to
access even today ( adhyApi
sulabhaa: ) for us to uplift
ourselves.
SlOkam 50:
BhrundhAvanE sTira-charAthmaka keeDa
dhUrvaa-
paryantha janthu
nichayE Bhatha yE tadhAneem
naivAlabhAmahi janim hathakAsTa
yEthE
pApA: padham
Tava kadhaa punarASrayAma:
(Meaning): Oh Lord! We the great
sinners were not blessed to be born ,
when You incarnated among the chEtanams and
achEtanms
( trees , Plants , grass, worms ,
birds , animals , the gOpAs and
the gOpis ) of BrundhAvanam
.When will we as the miserable
ones
reach Your sacred feet at Srivaikuntam
to perform nithya kaimkaryam
for You ?
(Commentary) : All chEtanams and achEtanams
of AaypAdi , BrundhAvanam
and Mathurai reached sathgathy thru the
Thriuvadi sambhandham of the Lord.
If we had the good fortune of being
born at the time of Your avathAra kaalam ,
we would also have been blessed with Parama
purushArTam of Moksham .Alas!
we lost that opportunity due to our sins.
KurEsar regrets over our misfortunes
and laments as to what we can do
now.KurEsar indicates here the power of
Bhagavath KshEthra
vaasam .
(To be concluded in the next Posting
)
Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil
V.Sadagopan
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