SrI:
PaarTiva Samvathsaram
, Kanyaa Maasam ,
KanyA KrishNa
PraTamai , MaaLaya Paksha Aarambham
Dear BhakthAs of Sri (Senchu)
Lakshmi Narasimhan :
Today is
the last day of ChAthurmAsyam for SanyAsis .
Srimath Azhagiya Singar will
be commencing His sanchAram
tomorrow for stops at
Mangalore , Udippi , Melkote , Bangalore
before arriving at SelayUr
Matam (East Tambaram) by the third week
of October , 2005 .
Please particpate in the planning of His 79th birthday
celebrations on DEc 10 at
Bangalore thru your support .
adiyEn will seek Srimath
Azhagiya Singar's blessings to release the
audio
recording of
Purusha Sooktham from 4 Vedams and individual
branches
( KrishNa and Sukla Yajur
Vedams , three Saama SaakhAs and particularly
in RaaNAyinee SaakhA of Saama
vedam ) .
Today , we will study the 2nd
slOkam of Sri Sthuthi.
The Second slOkam
of Sri Sthuthi is recited for the abundant flow of
dhivya Vaak blessed by
VaaNi , the
beloved Devi of Lord HayagrIvan :
Sri Sthuthi
SlOkam 2
***************************
AavirbhAva: Kalasa-jaladhou
adhvarE vaapi YasyA
sTAnam YasyA: sarasijavanam
VishNuvaksha: sTalam vaa
bhUmA YasyA: bhuvanamakhilam
Devi dhivyam padham vaa
sthOka-praj~nai: anavadhi
guNAsthUyasE Saa kaTam ThvAm ?
(Meaning) : Oh Mother
Perum Devi ! The places of Your avathAram
are the Milky
Ocean and the Yaaga SaalA of Janaka Rishi .
Your
places of residences are
the lotus ponds and Your Lord's chest
.
All the worlds (both
Nithya VibhUthi and LeelA VibhUthi) are Your wealth
.
It is impossible
therefore to assess the greatness of Your vast wealth ;
when it is so , how can
men of limited intellect attempt to praise Your glories
adequately . It is
ofcourse impossible .
Extended Observations on
the passages of this SlOkam
***********************************************************************
(1) The key statement in this slOkam is : " anavadhi guNA Saa Thvam
sthOka
praJ~nai: kaTam sthUyasE ? " . This bewilderment is an echo of Swamy
AlavanthAr's statement in the first slOkam of his ChathusslOki : "
Bhagavathy !
BhrUma: kaTam ThvAm vayam ? ". PurushOtthaman is Your Consort . The
king of
serpents is Your bed . Garudan , whose body is constituted by all the
Vedams is
Your transport and throne. Prakruthy , which bewitches the world is serving
as
a screen for You. Brahma , Rudhran and the assembly of the DEvathAs are
Your
servants(DaasAs) and their wives are Your dAsees . On top of it all ,
Your name is
SrI . How can we attempt to describe adequately Your limitless glories
? ".
Swamy AlavanmthAr indicates our incapabiliites here . Swamy Desikan engages
in such a declaration of unfitness ( sva yOgya kaTanam deficencies ) .
Swamy
Desikan implies that Her glories are beyond our power to eulogize
.
(2) Swamy Desikan's line of
logic is : " Oh Perum Devi ! I engage in praising You .
Is it proper for me to
evaluate Your vaibhavams ? How lofty is Your place of birth
?
How lofty is Your chosen
places of residence ? How immense is the magnitude of
Your wealth ? How great are
Your auspicious GuNams ? How can adiyEn think of
coming to terms with them all
and venture to sing in praise of Your unlimited
Vaibhavam ? (BhUmA) You took
Your avathAram first in the Milky Ocean and
then appeared
(aavirbhAvam) in
the Yaaga Saalai of King Janaka at MiTilA nagaram .
In
both these
manifestations , You were self-manifest and did not have to
endure
garbha Vaasam like Your
husband in Raama-KrishNa avathArams . One place of
Your residence , the Lotus
pond , is known for its natural fragrance and purity
.
The other place of residence
of Yours is the sacred chest of Your Lord . There is
no one who can claim to have
those lofty sTAnams ( places of residence ) .
All the wealths of this
world ( LeelA VibhUthi) and the Supreme abode ( Nithya
VibhUthi / SrI Vaikuntam )
are under Your rulership . Your anantha KalyANa guNams
are beyond anyone's grasp .
Each of these many guNams is difficult to comprehend
and describe . Thus in every
aspect , Your matchless glories defy eulogizing .
How can adiyEn of limited
intellect attempt to praise adequately Your Vaibhavam
rooted in
Your anavadhi
guNams ( limitless auspicious attributes ) ?
(3) Swamy Desikan identifies
himself as a sthOka Praj~nan " or a person of
limited intellect . SthOka
means little or small . Praj~nA means intutive wisdom
or gnosis. It is
customary for poets to acknowledge their disqualifications
when they engage in sthuthis
about BhagavAn and His Devi , MahA Lakshmi .
Sri KurEsar's hesitancy to
praise Sri Devi because of his self-percieved limitations
are housed in his Sri Sthavam
, a great devotional hymn of 11 verses . He acknowledges
his deficencies and prays to
SrI Devi to bless him with the intellect to engage in
such a task . He approaches
SrI Devi gingerly and seeks the boon of composing
a sthuthi befitting Her glory
.
In the first
slOkam , KurEsar
prays for Her anugraham to engage in eulogizing Her :
" svasthi SrI: diSathAth
" ( May SrI Devi confer auspiciousness on me ) . In the second
slOkam , KurEsar reveals that
he has a great wish to eulogize Her , the Mother of
all the worlds (
hE SrIrdEvi! samastha lOka Jananee ! ThvAm sthOthum yeehAmahE
).
Therefore , please bless me
with appropriate words to praise You ( yukthAm
BhAratheem bhAvaya )
. Oh Sri Devi ! Please expand my intellect and combine
it
with deep devotion for You to
be successful in this effort of mine ( prEma pradhAnam
dhiyam praguNaya ) . May Thou
make this vaachaka kaimkaryam an auspicious
experience ( Bhakthim
bhandhaya) . Please accept me as one of Your own dAsans
and make me , who has sought
Your protection , happy ( aasritham imam janam
ThAvakam dAsam nandhaya ! )
.
In the third slOkam of SrI
Sthavam , KurEsar acknowledges the difficulties of even
the Lord of Learning , SrI
HayagrIvan , to expand on Her anantha KalyANa guNams
( VaachaspathinA api Sakya
rachanA kaTam ? ) . KurEsar implies that even HayagrIvan
will experience difficulties
in such an effort because His Devi's keerthi and KalyANa
guNams are like a vast ocean
( Samyak sathya guNAbhivarNanam Bhru: kaTam ? ) .
Those
guNams are
not graspable by speech and mind ( VaachAm manasA
dhurgruham).
After confessing
that Her glories can not be adequately decribed by anyone and
yet
KurEsar admits that he
has an uncontrollable urge to eulogize Her while
being
fully aware his
insufficencies . In the fifth slOkam of Sri Sthavam , KurEsar describes
his plight : Oh Devi ! I am
an ignoramus ( aham aj~na: ). Even if I am a lowly one
( KshOdheeyAn api) , even if
I have evil buddhi ( dhushta Bhuddhi api) , even if
I have no friendship for You
( nissnEha: api) , I will not hesitate to enjoy singing
about
Your fame and
glory and wont fear or be shy about such enjoyment
( tE
keertthim lihan na cha BhibhEmi , na cha jihrEmi) . That glory of Yours
will
not be diminished , spoiled
or affected by me , who has no qualifications
to speak about You
( saa keerthi: thu
thAvathA na dhushyEth) . KurEsar
compares his status to that
of a thirsty dog , which licks the waters of
the sacred GangA river to
quench its thirst without shyness or fear .
KurEsar observes that the
sacredness of GangA is not diminished
even by an iota by the act of
the dog ( BhAgeerathi SunA leeDAapi
na dhushyEth hi )
.
It is fascinatiing to study
the approaches of KurEsar and Swamy Desikan
in expressing their
naichciyam (diffidence) over the subject of their
disqualifications
to engage in the sthuthi of
SrI Devi and how they take off after their introductions .
4) Swamy Desikan chooses the
word "BhUmaa " in this slOkam :
" BhUmA yasyA bhuvanam
akhilam "
BhUma is a word with
very rich in
meaning from a VedAnthic point of view
( BhUmAdhikaraNam
and BhUma VidhyA
of ChAndhOgya Upanishad) .
ChAndhOgya Upanishad
says : " yO vai
BhmA tath sukham ....7.23.1
(meaning of this passage): "
He who has plentitude is infinite bliss .There is no
happiness in the little.
BhUmA alone or that which has the quality of plentitude
is happiness. BhUmA alone is
to be known and realized "...Dr.NSA Swamy's
translation. Here
, Upanishad BhAshyAkArar says : " BhumA means plentitude
but
not in numbers. It is the
opposite of alpa or little" . It is not about meaures or
units
( itthahayathu
,IvvaLavuLLathu) of wealth but it is about the immensity ( limitless )
auspicious ( KalyANa) guNams
: " Vaipulya GuNOthkarsha roopam na thu
parimANa roopam " Vaipulyam
means abundance . GuNOthkarsham means
celebrated auspicious
qualities . It is about the abundant kalyANa guNams
of Mother Lakshmi and Her
BhUmA . Sri Devi is the aasrayam ( abode )
for this
abundance( vaipulyam ) . She is therefore " Vaipulyaasraya dharmi
".
Such is the glory of Sri DEvi
celebrated in the 2nd slOkam of SrI Sthuthi.
( GuNOthkarsha roopam and not
PariNAma roopam) .
Srimath Azhagiya Singar
ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam ,
Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil
VaradAchAri SadagOpan
An Appeal to AaasthikAs to
support the Kaimkaryam for a Celebrated AchAryan
******************************************************************************************************
Follwing Srimath Azhagiya Singar's
niyamanam , adiyEn is cordinating this
Kaimkaryam on Sri HayagrIva Jayanthi (
Sep 14) . We have recieved so far pledges
and matching funds to the tune of
$3500 . We have some way to go !
adiyEn requests all the sishyAs
and abhimAnis of
SrI Matam to take part
in this kaimkaryam
to honor one of the
greatest YathiswarALs
to continue with His many
MalOla PaadhukA sevaka kaimkaryams as
He approaches His 79th Thirunakshathram .
Please let me know of your pledges to
the limit of your
abilities .You can send
your tax deductible checks to
Ahobila Mutt , North
America now or at a future
date but not later than the Third
week of November
2005 . The Url for address is :
At this time , adiyEn is
mostly interested
in learning about
your pledges .
Thank you
.
SrImath Azhaagiya Singar
ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam ,
Daasan ,Oppiliappan Koil
VaradAchAri Sadagopan
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