AnandasAgarastavaH

[Guest guest]

AUM shrImAtre namaH

 

I thank svAmi vishvarUpAnandaji for starting the series on

AnandasAgarastavaH. Author of the text shrI nIlakaNTha

dIkshita is a great scholar, poet, and an adminstrator. And

it is needless to say that he is a staunch devotee of

ambaaL. He lived in 17th century and is a grandson of

brother of shrI appayya dIkshita. He is also well known for

his sense of humor which we will witness in some of the

verses in this text.

 

In this regard, I am grateful to Dr. M. Giridhar of IISc

Bangalore for making me aware of such a work. Like this

another important work which is not well known among ambaaL

devotees is mUka panchashatI. Fortunately, like the

translation for AnandasAgarastavaH, kAnchi maTha has

published a translation for this work as well. Unfortunately

even this translation is out of print.

 

 

In a sense, I was selfish in asking svAmiji to start this

series, I had a special interest in getting this work on to

the electronic media. I thank sincerely for accepting my

request.

 

 

Thank you.

 

Truly,

Ravi

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

namaste.

 

At 08:27 PM 6/17/99 -0500, you wrote:

>Like this

>another important work which is not well known among ambaaL

>devotees is mUka panchashatI. Fortunately, like the

 

I am not sure whether Ravi or someone else has posted

the incident behind the composition of muuka panchashati.

If it has already been posted, please excuse this repeat and

sorry for the long email.

 

There was a devotee who was staying in Kanchi

Kamakshi temple and praying to Her sincerely.

Pleased with the devotion, She appeared as a maiden

to the devotee. But the devotee ignored Her thinking that

She was an ordinary woman.

 

Nearby there was another person who was mute but

a great devotee (unknown to others) of Her. To show the

world the strength of this poor mute man's devotion, She

made Him talk and be a poet. Instanteously, he composed

five hundred stanzas on Her. Later, he was the head

of the Kanchi math for 34 years and was widely known

as muka shankara.

 

There are slight variations to this incident, and

I can post little more details, if required.

>translation for AnandasAgarastavaH, kAnchi maTha has

>published a translation for this work as well. Unfortunately

>even this translation is out of print.

 

Don't know about the translation published by Kanchi matha.

But there is a tamil translation of the sanskrit work published

by Vigneshwara Venkateswara Trust (Madras) in 1987. Around 250 p.

afaik, it contains both sanskrit and Tamil. This book is

definitely available in University of California library. You should

search for author 'mukasankara' or 'mukashankara'.

 

You can get it thro' someone who studies in UC or by interlibrary loan.

>In a sense, I was selfish in asking svAmiji to start this

>series, I had a special interest in getting this work on to

 

Well, your selfishness is our gain :-) I have not seen

many devotees like swami vishvarupanandaji and hence

it is most appropriate.

 

***

Another work of great repute is Uma sahasram.

This was composed by Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni,

who 'named' a brahmana swami called Venkataramanan

as Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi.

A great exponent of mantra, tantra, he was so

adept in Sanskrit that He could compose hundreds of

verses extempore. One day, He decided to compose

1000 verses and announced to his devotees

in various parts of the country that this poem would be

dedicated on a certain Friday in the Shrine of Sri UMA in

the great Temple of Sri Arunachaleswara.

 

At about 8 p.m. on the evening before the dedication day,

after supper, Sri Kavyakanta told Bhagavan that he had

composed only 700 verses. Sri Maharshi sat silent and in

deep meditation like the silent Lord Dakshinamurthy. The

eager disciples watched in tense admiration the sweet flow

of divine music in Sanskrit verse as it came from the lips

of the great and magnetic personality of Sri Kavyakanta. He

stood there delivering the verses in an unbroken stream

while disciples eagerly gathered the words and wrote them

down.

 

The 'Sahasram' was finished in several metres - Madalekha,

Pramanika, Upajati, Aryagiti, etc. Then Sri Bhagavan Ramana

Maharshi opened His eyes and

asked, "Nayana, has all I said been taken down?'' From

Sri Ganapati Muni came the ready reply and grateful

response: "Bhagavan, all that Bhagavan inspired in me

has been taken down!''

 

It is noteworthy that whereas Sri Kavyakanta

revised the first 700 verses of this monumental work some

six times; he did not revise any of the last 300. This being

Sri Bhagavan's own utterance, there was no need to

polish them.'These 300 verses are to be considered

as Sri Bhagavan's unique contribution to Sanskrit poetry

on the Divine Mother.

 

The 'Uma Sahasram' is different from other compositions

in that it is pasyanti vak, i.e., revealed by the Divine

Mother in Her own words.

 

The Sanskrit bhashya by Kapali Sastri is available.

So is the english translation of certain verses by

M.P.Pandit and published by Ganesh publishers,

Madras in 1983.

 

I am not well versed to recognize the thirty metres used

in the Sanskrit composition, neither am I good enough

to understand the commentaries available on the work.

The only hope I have is that Mother will not ignore a

dumb devotee like me, because, as Shankara points out

there can be bad sons but not a Mother who will ignore

Her child.

 

 

 

 

 

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