Naama Mahimai --Part 3 : Gowlai pancharathnam

[Guest guest]

Dear members of the Bhakthi group :

 

In the last posting , mention was made of the

mental state of self-depreciation of Saint Thyagaraja

and that it was a state similar to that experienced

by Swami Desikan and AlavandhAr.

 

Great bhakthAs of the Lord express their own inadequacies

and worry about their state of preparedness . They are

very critical of themselves , when they do not have

dhruva smruthi or the unceasing rememberance

of the Lord's kalyANa guNAs or His thirumEni .

They chastise themselves over the lapses as a

way to pull themselves together . Actually , these

great achAryAs and parama bhakthAs have nothing

to worry , but they think of us and undergo these

experiences to help us . They cry out loud also because

they have zero tolerance with themselves on their

lapses in their sAdhanAs .

 

Such statements of theirs are worth pondering .

Their humility and doubts about their inadequacies

are very illuminative . For instance , we can learn a

lot from the statements of Swami Desikan . Let us

reflect on few of these statements of Swami Desikan .

 

At one time , Swami Desikan declared :

 

jAnAn AnAdhi vihithAn aparAdha varghAn I

Swamin bhayAth kimapi vakthum aham na saktha: II

 

( Meaning ) : SarvEsvarA ! I have no heart even to praise

You in my state bent over backward with the weight of

the bundle of sins that I have collectd from eons .

The fear about my own pitiable status makes my

tongue tied .

 

Elsewhere , Swami described his dangerous state

this way :

 

samthanyamAnam aparAdha gaNam vichinthya

trasyAmi hantha bhavatheem cha vibhAvayAmi

 

( extended meaning ) : I am fearful about my future ,

when I reflect on the continued piling up of my sins .

At the same time , I am meditating on You too !

How Peculiar is this state !

 

Swami goes on to describe this peculiar state . He says :

This weird state of mine is like the one who holds

a poisonous snake in his hand and is playing with it

( aasi visha grahaNa kELinAmiva ) . I have

now got the title of Aparadha Chakravarthi because of

the piling up of these sins . You should protect me from

this dangerous state like the mother , who takes the

crying infant in her hand and breast feeds it :

 

Achyutha vishaYAkrAntham bhavArNava vartha

brami nimajjantham I

Jananee sthanandhayamiva maam

uddrudhya sEvasva pathyam II

 

In the above passage , Swami also describes

the danger which he was facing as equal to

the swimmer , who was going to be plunged into

the whirlpool present in the ocean of SamsAric

anithya sukhams .

 

He counts himself as one , who chased the worldly

(evanescent ) pleasures and forgot to think about

the Lord and introduces himself as " adharma

pravaNAnAm agra skandha pravruttham , agatamAna

vipratheesAram maam ) . He described himself as

the one occupying the front row of unrighteous ones,

who chases after the trivial pleasures and forgets

that the human birth is a rarity and that he missed out on

serving the Lord . He describes himself further as the

one , who had no compassion and patience for

the other creatures of the Lord , who cohabit His

universe .

 

This type of self-condemnation and recognition

of the Lord at the same time as the embodiment

of all the kalyANa guNams is the expression of

the sanchAri bhAvam known as Athma GarhaNam

and naicchAnusandhAnam .

 

Saint Thyagaraja was in such a mental state , when

he composed the Gowlai raaga pancharathnam

starting with the pallavi of " dhuDukku gala nannE

dhora koDuku brOchurA yenthO "

 

The pallavi begins with the lower Rishabham to reflect

the agitated state of the Saint's mind . With utter despair ,

the Saint asks " Which chakravathy thirumahan is going

to protect me , the emperor of all trespasses ? ". He hints

that Sri Ramachandra , the precious son of Emperor

DasarathA alone can save him and no other Gods or

demi-Gods are empowered to undertake this

onerous and impossible task .

 

The words " Dhora koDuku " means dhorai mahan or

the son of the emperor or high personage . Saint Thyagaraja

has Sri Ramachandra Murthy in mind with this address .

His moving appeal reminds one of Sri Kulasekhara AzhwAr's

Mukundha Maalai slOkam :

 

sathvam praseedha Bhagavan KurumayyanAthE

VishNO ! krupAm parama kAruNika: kila tvam I

samsAra sAgara nimagnamanantha dheenam

uddharthumarhasi HarE ! PurushOtthamOsi II

 

( anvayam ) :hEh Bhagavn ! VishNO ! sathvam anAthE mayi

krupaam kuru , praseedha ! hEh HarE ! anantha tvam parama

kAruNika: kila? samsAra nimagnam dheenam

uddharthum arhasi , PurushOtthama: asi .

 

(Meaning ) : O Lord ! You are VishNU , who pervades

every where as declared by the VedAs . You should

look at me , the helpless one , the orphan with

compassion and concern and protect me.

I am sinking slowly in the deep waters of SamsArA

and do not know how to save myself . You , the most

meciful one should take pity on me and give Your hand and

lift me out of my misery .You are the one , who can not

be defined by time, place and vasthu nirNayam as

Your name Hari suggests. You are the supreme

one as understood from Your name , PurushOtthaman.

Hence , please banish my sorrows and save me .

 

The above prayer and appeal is based on

aathma garhaNam and has the two elements

of SaraNAgathi built into it . These two angAs

of saraNAgathi are KaarpaNyam and

Gopthruva VaraNam .

 

Saint ThyagarAjA wailed here out of fear not

knowing which powerful son of the king

( dhora koDuku ) would come to his rescue .

His sufferings caused by the afflictions of

samsAram made him cry out for protcection

to Sri Ramachandra Murthy .

 

In the next posting , I will cover the anupallavi

vAkhyam : " kaDu dhurvishayAkrushtai-gaDiya

gaDiyaku ninDAru (dhuDuku gala ) "

 

vadhathu vadhathu VaaNI RamaramEthi nithyam

japathu japathu chitham Raama pAdhAravindham I

namathu namathu dEham santhatham Ramachandram

na bhavathu mama pApam janma janmAntharEshu II

 

Oppiliappan Koil Varadachari Sadagopan