Musings on Vega-setu stotram

[Guest guest]

srimathE lakshmi-nrsumha parabrahmaNe namaha

sri vedanta desika guravE namaha.

 

Dear bhAgavatOttamas,

 

Over the week-end I was browsing through some past postings and read the

most touching comments of Sriman Sadagopan and Srimathi Lakshmi N.Srinivasan

many weeks ago on our Lord YathOktakari while translating Swami Desikan's

"vega-setu stotram". I could not help being transported into a personal

reverie while musing on this most exquisite composition of Swami Desikan and

thought I may share it with you all as well.I am borrowing for this posting

of mine from Sriman Sadagopan his wonted title viz. "Musings" which he often

uses for his own similar efforts and I hope he will forgive my act of petty

larceny.

 

About 20 kms. east from where I live in Bahrain the land ends into a narrow

strip of the Arabian Gulf. Here across 25 kms. of shallow sea there is a

huge causeway that links Bahrain island to the great empire of Saudi Arabia.

This great bridge is a marvel indeed of modern civil architecture and was

built in 1988 and christened "King Fahd Causeway". I don't know if it is

worthy of any comparison to your own "Golden Gate" in San Francisco but all

the same this great bridge of Bahrain is an awesome sight indeed for many

tourists to the Gulf Region who come on week-ends just to witness it and

have a pleasant picnic in the surrounding gardens and boulevards.This great

bridge is a great boon for Bahrain as it turned the emirate in 1988

immediately from a small island trading-post which Bahrain was until then

into a flourishing entrepot on the eastern seaboard for the entire

pan-Arabian provinces.The island economy has prospered since mainly because

of this great causeway.

 

Everytime my family and I visit King Fahd causeway I am reminded of our Lord

YathOkthakari. I often stand alone on the great towering bridge, look out

into the vast turquoise-blue expanse of sea, with the nippy desert-breeze

stinging my face, and invariably find myself muttering in the silence the

verses from Swami Desikan's "vega-setu stotram".

 

I cannot help wondering now how universal is the appeal of Swami Desikan

that even in this day in a strange, Muslim land far away from India, some

sights and scenes immediately evoke in my mind the wonderful imagery and

phrases he used in his hymns over 700 years ago. I am amazed too that Swami

Desikan can be enjoyed not only through the vedic idiom of his days; one

can, and must indeed, enjoy him too in the "loukika" ways of our present

times, if one only makes an effort. He was no doubt a poet of many dimensions.

 

It is not just accident that Swami Desikan chose a "vega-setu" i.e. a

dam-cum-bridge-cum-causeway as his subject in the subject "stotra".He chose

it because, the wonderfully percipient poet that he was, he realized its

power as a symbol,icon and image that strikes some deep chord of response in

all human beings of all ages. The sight or image of a great magnificent

bridge somehow affects the mind of man in a very deep and psychic way,

indeed. The attraction and awe that a bridge or a dam holds for the human

mind can be said to be immemorial. Man is known to have read deeply esoteric

and spiritual meanings into the archetypal structure of a causeway because

it seemed to represent his own empyrean efforts to conquer and transcend the

formidable forces of Space and Time that constantly overshadow his existence

on earth. Somehow a bridge appears to Man as the only sure means through

which he crosses the hurdles that lie strewn all over the path that leads

from "humanity to divinity".

 

Look at it this way : One can easily become aware of the special meaning

that "bridges" have for the human mind by noticing the way it is often used

and referred to even in day-to-day life. We hear many phrases, do we not,

like the following, for instance :

 

"build bridges"- is an oft-used term in the word of interntional diplomacy

and politics ;

 

"burn my bridges" - is an expression that effectively conveys individual

commitment to a new and fresh future course of action;

 

"much water has flown under the bridge"-- is a phrase that we use to convey

that the past has passed and "let's get on with the future";

 

"bridge the gap" -- is a phrase we use often to draw attention to the need

to reconcile analomous situations in life

 

We also know that the word "bridge" is employed in titling many works of art

and literature. I can think of some great motion-pictures to come out of

even Hollywood and which I enjoyed thoroughly e.g. "The Bridge on the River

Kwai", "A Bridge Too Far" and most recently the Oscar-winning "The Bridges

of Madison County" etc.

 

In the history of human warfare, too, from the earliest known military

engagements of Man to the 1990 Gulf War, adversaries try to first destroy

bridges in each other's civilian territories. The Americans did this

devastatingly in Iraq in '90 and which crippled Saddam Hussain's armies more

than any other attack on his other military installations. This targetting

of bridges is done to cut-off communication and transport channels and to

consequently paralyse or immobilise the opponent first before slaughtering

him down like "sitting-ducks".

 

Thus one can indeed easily appreciate, from observing even the "loukika"

world around ourselves, why a great poet like Swami Desikan chose the

primordial image of a "causeway" in which to portray the Lord's "kalyana

guna" of MAGNIFICENCE in the "stotra" in praise of the "vega-setu". As a

poet par-excellence he knew which poetic symbol would remain ever vibrant

and unfaded in the minds of men who read and contemplate on his hymns and

accordingly Swami used it to telling effect. Swami Desikan was a poetic

genius indeed.

 

More of my ponderings in my next posting.

 

SrimathE srivan satagopa sri narayana yathindra mahadesikaya namaha.

 

 

sudarshan.

srimathE lakshmi-nrsumha parabrahmaNE namaha

sri vedanta desika guravE namaha