Gowlai pancha Rathnam : Part 4 --Fourth CharaNam

[Guest guest]

Dear BhakthAs Of Sri RamachandrA :

 

In the spirit of NammAzhwAr 's naicchAnusnadhAnam

expressed in his Thiruvaimozhi ( nORRa nOnbilEn ,

nuNNaRivilEn ) , saint Thyagaraja depreceated himself

in the third charaNam . He also referred to wasting his

time with vithandA vivAthams and not spending his time

in naama japam and sankeerthanam .

 

In the fourth charaNam , he states that he has been

avaracious about accumulating wealth and running

after other people's riches . He condemns himself for

insulting others through hot words in the struggle to get

other people's wealth and hurting their feelings in

the process . He concludes that no one except the dorai

mahan , Sri Ramachandra as DasarathAthmajan , could

come to his rescue and save him from his calamities

 

The CharaNa vaakhyams are as follows :

 

para dhanamula koraku nOrula madhini

karaka baliki kaDupu nimpa dhirighi natti

( DuDuku gala )

 

Elsewhere in hi Ahiri raaga krithi , " Yetula

kaapAtuthuvO " , Our Sadhguru has explained

how he had lowered himself before others by

praising the lowly for the sole purpose of gaining

access to their wealth and debasing himself

this way :

 

anu dhinamu taara tanaya varghAdhulu paalanamu sEyuda

koRaku dhanamula kalikina manujula pokaDi yaarjinjina

paikamula joosi dhanaku sarilEdhini bhiguvuna

thirigana nannE ( Yetula kApAtuthuvO )

 

Here , the Saint states that he was engaged in praising

the welathy for the sake of supporting his wife and children

and running around thinking that there is no one equal

to him in smartness and hurting other's feelings with his

aggressive manners . He says that he saw the futility of

his ways finally and performed SaraNAgathi at the Lord's feet

( nimnE charaNu jOcchithigAni ) and requested protection .

In the same spirit of regret over lowering himself by serving

the wealthy for his livelihood and wasting his life's days

by not engaging in Iswara BhajanAmrutha paanam ,

he asks for forgivance and begs for protection .

 

This prayer and longing for the rescue by the Lord has

been expressed many times by our Saint with all of us in

mind , because , he did not have all these defects .

In the punnagavarALi uthsava sampradhAya krithi ,

he addresses KalyANa Sundara Raaman in a similar

spirit : " dina dinamu taaramu korakai Raama dhanikula

kaasithi nee varagu, paahi KalyANa Sundara Raama

maam " . In this saraNAgathi also , he refers to his

running hither and thither chasing the wealthy to earn

his livelihood daily and debasing himself by praising

them falsely for excellence that they did not have , all

for the sake of acquisition of material comforts .

 

This sentiment is just the opposite of the mood he was

in , when he questioned about the comfort guaranteed

by material wealth in comparison to the great aanandham

acquired by offering selfless service to the Lord . In that

KalyANi krithi , he asked , " Nidhi chAla sukhamA ?

Ramuni sannidhi sEva sukhamA ? " . He rejected the

wealth offered by the maharAjA of Tanjore with parama

vairAghyam followig the lead established by Swami Desikan ,

when he rejected the offer of the minister of Vijaya Nagaram

king .

 

He addressed the Lord , who showered him the wealth of

Bhagavadh anubhavam as " Srikara " in his ranjani krithi

and declared that the Lord is his entire wealth , crops

and sarva sampath ( Dhana dhAnya Dhaivamu neevaiuntaka).

He expressed this way his artha kaama karshaNa chinhtanA ,

just as Swami Desikan stated earlier that all of his wealth

is standing on top of the Hasthigiri and that he needed

nothing beyond that wealth .

 

In his yamunA kalyANi krithi starting with the pallavi,

" NaarAyaNa Hari NaarAyaNa Hari " , he records his

ananya bhakthi for Sri RaamA and his vairAghyam

once again this way :

 

nasvaramulaina dhanAsvamulanu nE

visvasincha bhUthEsvara Hari Hari

kOti sulagani saadi lEni balku

pOti osaki mummadiki vEtanu

( NaarayaNa Hari )

 

Here , he firmly announces to Sri RaamA that he has

discarded the perishable wealth and other accoutrements

of power such as vaahanams ( horses , elephants , carriages )

as useless for paragathi and has also vowed not to use his

speech for praising the kOteesvarAs for gaining wealth .

 

Thus , our Saint ThyagarAjA , who discarded the material

wealth and service to the rich as useless things , spoke

in the spirit of the fourth charaNam of Gowlai krithi at

many krithis . This , he did with the thought of us , who

are engaged in adapting ourselves to the undeserving

ones and choosing that path over the devotion to

the SarvEsvaran and chasing after wealth in a

vainglorious manner .

 

Fifth CharaNam

******************

 

dhanamadhini bhuvini sowkhyamu jeevanamE yanuchu

sahdA dhinamulu gaDipE ( DuDuku Gala )

 

Saint ThyagarAjA started the first three charaNams of

this Gowlai pancharathnam with the Rishabha svara

yeduppu . In the fourth charaNam , he shifted to Panchama

yeduppu . In this fifth charaNam , He gave prominence

to the NishAdha svara yeduppu . Nishadham of Gowlai

is uniquely endowed to convey the mood of helplessness

and plea for help by the helpless ( aakinchanyam & KaarpaNyam ) .

This fifth charaNam starts off with the svara combination ,

" Ni pa Ma pa ni " .

 

His plea for help in a state of hopelessness is very similar

to AzhwAr's cry to the Lord to rescue him quickly :

 

aavi dihaikka iyvar kumaikkum siRRinbham

paaviyEnaippala nee kAtti paduppAyO ?

thAvi vaiyamm konda tatanthAmaraikatkE

koovikkoLLum kaalam innam kuruhAthO ?

 

NammAzhwar asks here : " O my Master ! You created

a predisposition in me towards the perishable sukhams and

made me immersed in the alpa sukham of enjoying

those evanascent sukhams . You made me confused

by making me wonder whether these perishable sukhams

might be the lasting ones afterall ! You have turned my

head away with this delusion and made it difficult for me

to be engaged in your naama sankeerthanam , aarAdahnai

and kaimkaryam . O Lord , who pervades the universe to

illustrate Your soverignity ! Please remove this delusion

that You have caused and let me perform SaraNAgathi at

Your sacred feet and shorten the time on this earth so that

I can reach those paadhAravindhams without any further delay .

 

In this spirit , Saint ThyagarAjA states in

the fifth charaNam that he spent his time

under the delusion that the sensory pleasures are

the lasting ones and wasting the days of his life away .

He states in the spirit of Swami Desikan ( nimnE

vimOha jaladhou nipathAmi bhUya : ) that he mixes up the

alpa sukhams associated with sensory pleasures with

those which are lasting ( nithya kaimkaryam to the Lord )

and has fallen into the bottomless waters of nescience .

Saint ThyagarAja begs the Lord to take pity on him and

come to his rescue promptly .

 

AzhwAr AchAryAL ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam

Sri Ramachandra ParabrahmanE Nama:

Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SadagOpan