Musings on Sri Raghuveera Gadhyam- Part 5 (Bala Khandam )

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7. KOSALASUTHAA KUMARA BHAVA

KANCHUKITA KAARANAAKAARA !

 

Hail to thee who hid his avathara rahasyam

through your birth as the child of queen Kousalai !

 

O Lord ! The entire Universe emanates from You

and therefore you are the root cause for every thing

on this universe created , sustained and destroyed by

You out of your mere Sankalpa(ideation ) could have destroyed

Rabvana and removed the worries of the Devas . You the supreme l

being hid all of Your glories and did garbha Vaasam in

queen Kousali's womb as a mere mortal child . As a continuation

of that play , you were born on this earth, breast fed at Your mother's

breast, cried when you were hungry and played on the sands of Sarayu

like an ordinary child.The people of Ayodhya and the world were unable

to understand your divinty and supreme status as Sriman Narayana

as a result of the deeds that you performed as a mere human child .

You thus hid your avathara KaaraNam and Rahasyam. .

 

The Great Rama Bhaktha Kulasekhara saluted this "human child "

and hastened in the same breath to salute the Sarvesvaratvam of the

Lord of ThirukkaNNapuram in his lullabies addressed to Him . Some

representative passages are :

 

MANNU PUKAZH KOUSALAI TAN MANI VAIYRU VAAITTHAVANEH

TENNILANGAIKKOHN MUDIGAL CHINTHUVITTHAAI

( O Lord who chose to honor the blessed womb of

queen Kousalai WITH UNDIMINISHING FAME,

lullaby to you ! -- O Lord who shed

the ten heads of the king of southern kingdom of

Lanka on the earth in the battle field! lullaby to you )

 

KONGUMALI KARUM KUZHALAAl kOUSALAI TAN KULA MADALAAI

--- DASARATHAN TAN MAAMADALAAI --DEVARAIYUM

ASURARAIYUM DISAIKALAIYUM PADAITTHAVANEH--

YEVAR VANCHILAI VALAVAA RAGHAVANEH TALELOH

 

( O Lord who redeemed the kulam of Kousalya known

for her perfumed dark tresses by your incarnation as her child !

-- O Daasarathi , the eldest son of emperor Dasaratha!--

O Lord who created the Davas, Asuras and the directions for them to

roam around ! O Lord with the Bow adorned with the powerful

arrows set to destroy the enemies of your devotees who

sought refuge at Your lotus feet-- lullaby to YOU !

 

Thus the Kousalyaa Suprajaa Raman becomes the object

of adoration for Swami Desikan in this seventh Gadhya

salutation.

 

Our Scriptures in Tamil reveal to us the Avathara Rahasyam of

the Lord . Avatharam is based on the root Avatharathi to descend .

He descends from Sri Vaikuntam out of concern for us ,

to transform us , the Nitya Samsaaris to Nitya Suris through the

act of Prapatthi thru a proper Acharya . He demonstrates his

Sowlabhyam or ease of access , while he takes the Vibhava

Avatharams like Sri Ramachandra . Nammazhwaar reveals that

the Lord took the Avatharam not for killling Ravana and other evil doers ,

but to overwhelm US with HIS charm and Kalyana Gunas .The Lord

could have easily destroyed Ravana by his Sankalpam alone . He had

however other motives to descend down as Rama .Nammazhwaar states

that he became Bhagavat PravaNan as a result of that Daya and

Grace of the Lord. Chandogya Upanishad and Bhattar's Commentary on the

Sahasra Namam "Vamanan " refer to this aspect of the Avathara

Rahasyam. Vamam means Kalyana Gunas . Since the Lord makes us

through His Grace to have most of those Kalyana Gunas , He is called

Vamanan and that Avatharam is Vamanaavatharam . Although Rama

says that he is only a mere mortal to hide His Avathara Rahasyam.

The Lord , who is Sarvasmaath Paran and Sarva Rakshakan becomes

accessible to us thru Vibhava avatharams and Archa State.

 

(to be continued )