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RaamaBhakthi List Archive: Message 00012 Oct 2003

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Dear KrishNa BhakthAs:

On the eve of Naraka Chathurthi and the festival of DhIpAwaLIi ,
let us reflect on BhUmi DEvi's salutations to Her Lord after 
NarakAsura Vadham .

At the beginning of the Dasama Skandham's Chapter 59 ,
King Parikshith asks Sukha Brahmam to tell him about 
the prowes of Lord KrishNa :

YaTA hathO BhagavathA BhoumO yEna cha taa: sthriya:
niruddhA yEthadhAchakshva vikramam Saarngadhanvana: 

(Meaning): Oh Maharishi! Please instruct us on the valour of
BhagavAn KrishNa , the wielder of the mighty bow of Saarngam ,
which was demonstrated by Him during the killing of NarakAsuran ,
the son of BhUmi Devi and in rescuing the women that the asuran
held in prison.

Sukha Brahmam starts tellling the story of IndhrA's humilation 
by NarakAsuran through the forcible usurpation of IndhrA's
royal umbrella, the taking away of his mother Aditi's ear rings
and other atrocities. Indhra begged Lord KrishNa to control
the power of NarakAsuran by restoring him to his lost kingdom.
He also prayed to the Lord to recover the ear rings of 
his Mother.

Our Lord responded to IndhrA's request and proceeded on
the back of Garudan with His devi, SathyabhAma to NarakAsuran's
capital of PrAgjyOthisham . Our Lord destroyed the mighty 
fortifications of the City and destroyed first MurAsuran with arrows and 
Sudarsana chakram. Next our Lord took on the seven sons of 
MurAsuran and dispatched them to YamA's abode one by one .
When NarakAsuran saw his army destroyed, he flew in to a mighty
rage and came to batlte with the Lord. Garuda assisted his Lord 
in that mighty battle that ensued.

Narakan lost many of his weapons and finally took a trident to
attack the Lord and the angry Lord cut off NarakAsuran's head 
with His powerful disc , Sudarsanam :

Soolam BhoumOchyutham hanthumAdhadhE vithaTOdhyama:
tadhvisargAth poorvamEva Narakasya sirO Hari:
apAharadh gajasTasya chakrENa kshuranEminA 

--SrImad BhAgavatham: 10.59.21

(meaning): The son of Bhumi DEvi, NarakAsuran grabbed a trident
to kill Achyuthan . His attempt was thwarted by KrishNa , who
nullified that attack by cutting off the head of the asuran with 
His sharp edged Sudarsana chakram.

The relatives of NarakAsuran wailed over His destruction ,
while the sages and dEvAs rained flowers on Lord KrishNa 
and eulogized Him. 

Now , BhUmi Devi , the mother of the Asuran approached 
Her Lord with flowers in hand and other presents(gems) and 
offered Her salutations to the Lord in the form of a beautiful
Sthuthi ( BhAgavatham: 10.59.25-31) . She recited the many
names of the Lord and begged Her Lord to spare the son of
NarakAsuran ( Bhagadattan) and requested Her Lord to place
His auspicious palm over the head of their grandson .Our most
merciful Lord acceded to the prayerful request of His Devi 
and spared the son of NarakAsuran.He also acceded to 
His Devi's request for people to remember the Lord's valor
in the fight against adharmam by celebrating Naraka Chathurhti 
as a day of light and joy , when all the darkness of ajn~Anam
is banished due to the Lord's grace.

On this auspicious occasion of DhIpAwaLi ceelbrating Lord
KrishNA's display of His prowess over NarakAsuran , let us 
study the Sthuthi of BhUmi Devi , which is beautiful to reflect :

NamastE Deva-dEvEsa Sankha-chakra GadhAdhara 
BhakthEcchOpaatha-roopAya ParamAthman namOsthu tE 

--BhAgavatham: X.59.25

(Obesiance to Thee , the Lord of DevAs adorning the Conch, 
Chakram and the Mace ! Salutations to Thee , Supreme Being,
who incarnates in different roopams to fulfill the longings of 
Your bhaktha janams! ) 

nama: PankajanAbhAya nama: PankajamAlinE ! 
nama: PankajanEthrAya namstE PannkajAngrayE ! 

--BhAgavatham: X.59.26

( Salutations to Thee , who is lotus-navelled as PadmanAbhan !
Salutations to Thee with Your lotus garlands ! Salutations to
Thee as SenthAmarai KaNNan ! Salutations to Thee , who has
lotus soft feet !)

namO BhagavathE Thubhyam VaasudEvAya VishNavE 
PurushAya AadhiBheejAya PoorNaBhOdhAya tE nama:

---BhAgavatham : 10.59.27

Elaborate comments can be written about the Bhagavaan's
Tatthvams that BhUmi DEvi refers to in this slOkam . 

Our Lord is eulogized here as VaasudEvan, the aadharam (Support for 
the Universe and its beings), as VishNu the pervader of every thing 
inside and outside ( anthar-bahisccha tath Sarvam vyApya NaarAyaNa:
sTitha:), as the AadhiBheejam ( the seed and source of every
thing , Jagath KaaraNan ) , as Purushan visualized by Pursha
Sooktham and as PoorNaBhOdhan( Omniscient ChidhAnandha
Svaroopan.

ajAya janayithrEasya BrahmaNE-anantha-sakthayE
ParAvarAthman BhUthAthman ParamAthman namOasthu tE

---Bhaagavatham: X.59.28

Salutations are offered by BhUmi PirAtti to Her Lord
as the birthless One and yet manifests both as the cause
and effect(ajAyamAnO BhaudhA vijAyathE) . He is saluted with 
three choice nAmAs of " ParAvarAthman, BhUthAthman 
and ParamAthman ". These three nAmAs have profound 
meanings celebrated in the three rahasyams , AchArya 
SrI Sookthis and AzhwAr Paasurams. 

Next , He is adored as Anantha SakthimAn ( the possessor of
infinite power and valour) ; He is invoked as "Brahma Sabdham "
of the Upanishads , which is commented upon by Sage VyAsa
in Brahma Soothrams.

Salutations are made to the ever present Lord without
beginning or end as the Supreme Spirit, infinite power 
and as the greatest being .

BhUmi Devi now alludes to Her Lord doing His duties of
Creation, protection and dissolution of the Universe and
being the eternal light for all times to come :

Thvam vai sishrushoo raja uthkaDam PrabhO 
tamO nirOdhAya vibharshyasamvrutha:
sTAnAya satthvam jagathO JagathpathE
kAla: pradhAnam PurushO BhavAn Para:

--SrImath BhAgavatham: X.59.29

The meaning of the profound slOkam filled with VedAnthic
doctrine is : O Lord of the Worlds (JagathpathE ) ! 
O Parama PurushA ! It is indeed Yourself , who takes on
the power of rajO guNam for the creation of the universe ,
tamO guNam for its dissolution and satthva guNam for 
the protection of the universe that You created ( sishrushoo
TamaO , tamo nirOdhAya , sTAnAya satthvam). You 
transcend Kaalam (Time) and Your Moola Prakruthi 
(PradhAnam , the material for creation and evolution ).
Your unique and limitless power is not obstructed by 
any entity or force. 

In the concluding verse of the BhU Sthuthi of Lord KrishNa
following the NarakAsura Vadham , BhUmi dientifies Heeself
as PruTvee Svaroopi among pancha bhUthams and touches on
other VedAnthic doctrines on Tathva Thrayam (ChEthanam , 
achEthanam and Iswaran):

aham payO jyOthiraTAnilO nabhO 
mAthrANi dEvA mana indhriyANi
karthA mahAnithyakhilam charAcharam 
ThvayyadhvitheeyE Bhagavannayam brahama:

---SrImath BhAgavatham : X.59.30

BhUmi PirAtti refers to the ChEthanAchEthana maya Jagath
and its relationship to the Lord , its creator :

I (Earth/PruTvee) , water (aapa:) , Fire (Agni/tEjas) , air (Vaayu) ,
and sky (aakAsam) as Pancha bhUthams , the five objects like 
Sound , Touch et al and the deities prsiding over them , the mind (manas ),
sense organs (IndhriyAs) , ahankAram providing the sense of agentship (KarthA),
Mahaatatthvam and Buddhi --all these hierarchies and categories of 
evolution odf chEthanams and achEthanams are , O Lord have no comparison 
( One without a second/adhvitheeyam) , merely phenomenal in You.

After listening to the moving sthOthram of Him , the Lord as Protector of
all, who sought His refuge blesses Bhagadattan and then enters the prosperous
city of his father . There , He saw more than 16,000 young women languishing 
in the prisons of NarakAsuran .They were brought by force by NarakAsuran 
when he defeated the kings in battle. These young women were blessed to see 
Lord KrishNa and chose Him in their minds as their husband . Lord KrishNa 
responded to their wishes and sent them to His city of DhwAraka and later 
married every one of them and established them in individual houses and 
took 16,000 plus roopams of Himself to stay with them and enjoy their
company as the Master of their houses. 

Immediately after NarakAsura Vadham , our Lord went with His divine consort 
SathyabhAma to Indhra lOkam and returned the ear rings stolen by Narakan
to Aditi , the mothe rof Indhra. At IndhrA's garden , SathyabhAma saw the 
heavenly
tree of PaarijAtham and responding to His wife's request had the tree pulled up
by its roots and sent it to DhwArakA to be planted in SathyabhAma's garden . 
Garuda transported the tree on his back to DhwArakA . Indhran , who had just 
fell at the feet for saving him from the terrors of Narakan now began to fight 
with the Lord for removing the PaarijAtha tree from his garden .LOrd KrishNa ,
the Master of Indhra and his deva gaNams defeated Indhran in the fight between
them and taught Indhra a lesson and then returned to DhwArakai.

Sukha Brahmam summarizes the ingratitude of Indhran through a beautiful verse:

yayAcha aanamya kirIDakODibhi: paadhou sprusann Achyutham arTasaadhanam
sidhdArTa yEthEna vigruhyatE mahAnahO surANAm cha tamO dhigADyathAm 

---SrImath BhAgavatham: X.59.41

First , Indhran was expressing his gratefulness by falling at the feet of 
the Lord , who came to his rescue and granted him back his isvaryam.
Next , when the PaarijAtha tree from his kingdom was desired by 
the Lord to please His dear consort , the same Indhran fought with the Lord 
for protecting "his wealth". Bhagavan was arTa Saadhanam for Indhran.
He gained his wealth (SidhArTan) with the Lord's assistance . After gaining
his wish , he went on to fight with his Lord . Sukha Brahmam is filled with
disgust over the ungratefulness of Indharan and states : " Fie (Shame) on
the stupidity of the DevAs and their king , Indhran! Fie on the wealth ,
which begets stupidity ! "

PaarijAtha tree apaharaNam from Svarga lOkam and the marriage of 
the Lord with the 16,000 plus young women at DhwArakai by
DhwArakAdhIsan are the celebrated topics of great UpanyAsakAs 
based on AzhwAr's SrI Sookthis celebrating these topics .These 
HarikathA KaalakshEpams are important for KrishNanusamaraNam
particularly on this DhIpAwaLi day linked with Lord KrishNA's Vaibhavam.

adiyEn will conclude this DhIpAwaLi SamarpaNam to the Lord with 
rememberance of a great slOkam from the Dasama Skandham ( X .87.23):

" Through rememberance , Thy antagonists attained to the same spiritual
goal as the sages, who had established complete control over their vital
forces , mind and senses, and meditated on Thee , we (the Sruthi dEvathAs) ,
who look upon Thee as equally present everywhere and ever commune with
Thy lotus feet , and the women ( The GopikAs of BrundhAvanam) who longed
for the embrace of Thy arms , powerful and handsome like AdhisEshA , 
are of equal worth. WHATEVER THE NATURE OF THE PASSION THAT
MOVES THE DEVOTEE , IF IT MAKES him INTENSELY THINK OF THEE ,
THY GRACE FALLS ON him ". 

NamO VaasudEvAya , NamO Naraka nAsanAya, NamO BhUmi VallabhAya !
NamO JyOthi SvaroopAyA ! NamO Devaki NandanAya ! 

SrImath Azhagiya Singar Thiruvadi , Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri Sadagopan
SubhAnu Samavathsaram , KrishNa Chaturdasi , Hastha Nakshathram 











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