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70) Mathsya RoopAya SrI
VenkatEsaaya nama:
Though the avataras of the Lord
are numerous, the Mathsya Avatara is considered the first and foremost.
This avatara was taken essentially
to protect the Vedas. When BrahmA, fatigued with the constant labours of
Creation, nodded off for a few moments, an asura named Somaka stole the Vedas
and made off with them, thus rendering BrahmA incapable of continuing with the process
of Creation .
The Lord took avatara as a small
fish and swam into the hands of a Rajarishi by name Satyavrata, who was an
ardent devotee of Sriman Narayana, while he was performing Sandhyavandanam in
the Vaigai river. Beseeched by the strange fish to save it from the predators
in the river, Satyavrata took it to his ahsramam and left it in his kamandalu
(water container). Overnight, the fish outgrew the kamandalu and sought bigger
quarters. Let in a water tub, the fish grew manifold and had to be transferred
to a pond. Continuing its phenomenal growth, the fish outgrew the pond too,
upon which the Rajarshi, despairing of finding a body of water large enough to
accomodate the strange creature, transferred it to the ocean, where too the
fish continued its accelerated growth. Realising that it could be no
ordinary fish, but the Lord HImself, Satyavrata beseeched HIm to let him (Satyavrata)
know the meaning of all the strange happenings.
The Lord, resplendent in the form
of the giant fish, told Satyavrata that a cosmic deluge was about to sweep all
the worlds, to escape from which the king should gather about him
specimens of all plants, trees and life forms, so that they could form the
seeds for fresh growth, after the deluge wiped everything out, and set out
with them in a special boat, tying it to the horn rising out of the fish's
snout. Satyavrata did as he was told and during the momentous journey in the
swirling waters of the Pralaya, the Lord, in his assumed form, instructed him
as to the nature of the individual soul, the Paramatma and the ways of
attaining the bliss of liberation from Samsara.
The Lord also eliminated the
Somaka asura and restored Veda raasis to the bewildered Brahmaa, thus enabling
the latter to carry on with Creation.
The glory and magnificence of the
Mathsya roopi Bhagavan are chronicled in the Bhaagavata Purana and the Maatsya
Puraana.
Swami Desikan's tribute to the
Matsya avatara is a resonant one :
"nirmagna shruti jaala
maargana dasaa datta kshanai: veekshanai:
anta: tanvad iva aravinda
gahanaani oudanvateenaam apaam
nishpratyuha taranga ringana mitha:
prathyooda paatha: chataa
dolaroha sadohalam Bhagavato
Maatsyam vapu: paatu na:"
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