Musings on Vega-setu stotram

[Guest guest]

srimathE lakshmi-nrsumha parabrahmaNe namaha

sri vedanta desika guravE namaha

 

Dear bhAgavatOttamas,

 

I fear that in my last two postings on this subject I may have inadvertantly

raised suspicions in the minds of some of you that there is a suggestion or

hint of some basic contradiction between appreciation of Swami Desikan's

poetic hymns from a traditional ("sampradaya-ic') view-point as distinct

from what I have called "contemporary" stand-point. I hasten to state that

there is nothing of the sort of suggestive "opposition" between the two

approaches to a critique of Swami Desikan's works.

 

Now,I crave indulgence from all when I resort to a rather inappropriate

idiom in the English language to explain myself at this point but I am

willing to risk it if I can drive home my message. When I talk of

"contemporarizing" Swami Desikan's hymns what I mean is that the divine

"wine" of the poet is "bottled" in the rich and hoary

"Vaishnava-sampradaya-ic" literature of ours and that "bottle" needs to now

be "labelled" with the common but appealing experiences of present-day

living. It is only then can Swami Desikan become an inspiration for not only

those familiar with Sanskrit,Tamil, vedic and divya-prabhandi-c literature

but also to everyman who struggles with the burden of modern secular life.

It is only then that we can expect our own children to grow up chanting

Swami Desikan's "shlokas" and with an enduring interest and curiosity for

the tradition and history of our past moorings. We need to turn Swami

Desikan into a poet as dear, accessible and relevant to Indian child, adult

and family alike just as, say, Shakespeare or Longfellow is to the English

people or Walt Whitman, Robert Graves or Bob Dylan, even, is to the American.

 

Thus, bhAgavatOttamas must understand that what I am seeking is a change in

the "label", never the "bottle" and much less the "wine" itself !!

 

Now back to the "stotra" itself.

 

We noted that Verse #6 of the Vega-setu stotra ends with the pregnant phrase

"bhakthAnuganthuriha yasya gathAgathAni". I propose to share with you all

how this phrase is commented upon in extenso by several scholars and most

notably by my 'manaseega guru' Mukkur Swamy II.

 

The phrase "gathAgathAni", as Sriman Sadagopan pointed out a few weeks ago

in his posting, refers to the Lord's peripatetic adventure with the Alwar.

The Lord in that episode reportedly went "hither" with the Alwar and

returned "thither", from Kanchi to Or-irukkai village and then back again,

much like a batsman, in the game of cricket, has to scamper back and forth

over a 22-yard "pitch", throughout his "innings", to acquire "runs" before

he can retire gracefully to the "pavilion".

 

Now the standard commentary on this 'shloka' is that it refers to the

"going-coming" of the Lord and is associative of the esoteric reference to

"liberation" from the "birth-death-re-birth" cycle of mortals.

 

Scholars in their various "vyAkhyAnams" state that when a devotee constantly

dwells on the "hither-thither shuttle" of the Lord then he inwardly realizes

in spirit the permanent ceasing of his own "temporal shuttling" (puNaRapi

jananam, puNaRapi maRaNam) between re-birth and death. The devotee, it is

said, realizes cessation of his own "karma"-driven existence and at last,

can look forward to leaving the vast "cricketing-field" of "samsara" having

"played out" a good, long "innings" running "hither and thither", and

finally "retiring" into the "Lord's pavilion" called SriVaikuntam.(Those of

you who have played cricket, I am sure are quite familiar with the famous

Lord's ground in England!).

 

Now a question will certainly arise in the mind of any reasonable person :

How credible is it to state that merely by contemplating on the divine

"hither-thither shuttling" of the Lord the peculiar brand of "shuttling" of

mere mortals forthwith ceases ? What is so special indeed about the Lord's

"shuttling" that its very contemplation should bestow upon Man "liberation"

from his repetitive karmic visitations to this world and the One Beyond ? Is

there any basis or "praMaNam" in our ancient scripture or lores for such an

article of faith ? Does all this make any sense or is it all some

"mumbo-jumbo", as Sriman Sadagopan called it in one of his other postings ?

 

These are the sort of questions indeed that "contemporary" man, why even our

own grown-up children, will pose and from which we cannot "duck away", can

we, as a "batsman" in cricket is known to do from a fearsome "bouncer" flung

at him ? Even if we are convinced that the real answers can lie indeed only

in individual realization of the truth of such Articles of the Vaishnava

Faith, and hence cannot be rationally explained to our children, we still

are obliged to provide some preliminary answers to them in the language and

style of the present to which they belong. If we do not do so or express our

inability to do it in a way at least reasonably intelligible to them, then

Swami Desikan himself and all his hymns, and all the lovely truths and

sentiments they contain, become a total "turn-off" to them.

 

Fortunately, we have our "acharyas" and scholars, both past and presently

living amongst us in this day as well, who do provide very clear "hints" or

"cues" on which to base our responses to such questions of faith posed by

modern times in a way convincing to "contemporary" minds.

 

In my next posting on the "vega-setu stotra" I shall attempt to fashion an

answer to the tricky questions described above and associated with the

"gathAgathAni" of our Lord YathOkthakAri in Verse #6.

 

srimathE srivan satagopa sri narayana yathindra mahadesikaya namaha

 

sudarshan.

srimathE lakshmi-nrsumha parabrahmaNE namaha

sri vedanta desika guravE namaha