Sri HayagrIva BhagavAn & Swami Desikan's sthothram : Part 1

[Guest guest]

Dear BhakthAs :

 

Sri HayagrIvan is the VidhyA Moorthy , whom we

worship for being blessed withSadh VidhyA and

Ajn~Ana nivrutthi .

 

He took the form of Haya Siras and Manushya Tanu

( Man-Horse form with the horse's head and man's trunk)

and descended into the abysmal depth of rasAtalam

( one of the seven lower worlds )to seek out Madhu and

KaitabhA ,the two dhaityAs , who had stolen the VedAs from

BrahmA . Sri Hayagrivan destroyed the two asurAs

and brought back the Sruthis and taught them to Brahma

to help him to continue with his assigned duties of creation .

 

Srimadh BhAgavatham describes this valorous deed of

BhagavAn HayagrIvA this way :

 

VedAnyugAnthE tamasA thiraskruthAn

RasaatalAdhyO Nruturanga Vigraha:

prathyAdhadhE vai kavayEabhiyAchathE

tasmai namasthEavidhadEhidhAyinE

---Srimadh BhAgavatham : 5.18.6

 

My salutations to You , Nru-Turanga ( Haya vadhana )

mUrthy ! At the end of the kalpam , you rushed to

RasAtalam to recover the stolen VedAs from the asurAs

and brought it back and instructed Brahma Devan on them .

 

The usage of the Naamam ," Nru-turangan " for the subAsraya

Vigraham of BhagavAn Hayagrivan is a beautiful one . It

evokes memories of Nru-simhan , the Lion-faced avathAram

of Sriman Lakshmi NaarAyaNan . Both are indeed MaalOlans

and are known as Lakshmi HayagrIvan and Lakshmi Nrusimhan .

 

The abode of Lakshmi HayagrIvan is in one of the kantams (sections)

of the nine dhveepams : Jambhu dhveepam . The nine sections of

Jambhu dhveepam surrounded by the salty oceans are:(1)ILaavrutham

(2)BadhrAsvam (3) Harivarsham (4) Kethumaalam (5)Ramyakam

(6) HiraNmayam (7)Uttsarakuru (8) Kimpurusham and (9)Bhaaratham .

>From Mount Meru descends the river Jambhu .At the southern

foothills of Meru and on the southern banks of Jambhu river is

iLAvrutham section of Jambhu dhveepam . Lord SankarshaNan is

the presiding deity here . East of ILAvrutham is the section of

Jambhu dhveepam known as BadhrAsvam with the name of asvam (horse)

embedded in it. Here Bhadravasus worship HayagrIva BhagavAn for

His valorous deed of bringing back the VedAs lost during the end

of the yugam( kalpAntha gUDa nigamOddhAraNa praveeNan ) .He is

a dharma svarUpan and Brahma VidhyA anugraha mUrthy . He is

the essence of the meaning of PraNavam . He removes our

avidhyAs through meditation of Him . Srimadh Bhagavatham

salutes Him as follows :

 

(praNavam ) namO BhagavathE dharmAyaathmavisOdhanAya nama ithi

 

His sthothram by Bhadravasus in Srimadh BhAgavatham is:

 

ahO vichithram bhagavdh vichEshtitham

gnantham janOyam hi mishannapasyathi

dhyAyannasadhyarhi vikarma sEvithum

nihruthya puthram puthram jijeevishu:

 

(meaning): Our Lord's maayai is mysterious .

On the same day a man experiencing the death of his father

and son performs cremations for them and thereafter looks forward

to enjoying the wealth left behind by them . He accumulates sins

and does not comprehend that the body is perishable .

This is entirely due to Bhagavaan's wonderous MaayAi.

To banish this Maayai and to remove ignorance and

viparItha Jn~Anam , one should meditate on

BhagavAn HayagrIvan , who will confer the boons of

SadaachAram ,SadaachArya sambhandham , Brahma Jn~Anam

and BramAnandham of nithya kaimkaryam in Sri Vaikuntam .

 

Sri VaadhirAja TheerthA , one of the famous MadhvAchAryas

and a great HayagrIva UpaasakA summed up the mangaLams

attained by HayagrIva Manthra dhyAnam in three short

slOkams in his " HayagrIva SampadhAsthothram ".

 

HayagrIva HayagrIva HayagrIvEthi Vaadhinam

naram munchanthi paapAni dharidhramvayOshitha:

 

HayagrIva HayagrIva HayagrIvEthi yO vadhEth

Tasya nissarathE VaaNi JahnukanyA pravAhavath

 

HayagrIva HayagrIva HayagrIvEthi DHVANI:

visObhathE sa VaikuNtam KavADOdhghADanakshhama:

 

(Meaning ):The sins leave one immediately

as one recites the Naamam of HayagrIvan .

As One speaks the name of Hayagrivan , the

true knowledge (Sarasvathi ) flows from his

tongue like the torrent of holy GangA river.

The auspicious sound of Sri HayagrIva naamam

opens the door(gates) of Sri Vaikuntam .

 

Sri Vaadhiraaja Yathi , who is econd only to

Sri Anandha Theertha in the hierarchy of

Maadhva sampradhAyam should know since Sri

Hayagriva Bhagavan partook the kadali naivEdhyam

from the vessel held on the head of His bhakthan .

Sri HayagrIvan appeared before the yathi holding

the naivEdhyam over his head as a white horse and

the Lord placed His two forefeet on the shoulder

of VaadhirAjar from behind ,while He ate the offered

naivEdhyam .When the vessel became empty , Lord neighed

to indicate His satisfaction and disappeared . One can

see apicture of this event in Sri krishNa temple at Uduppi

even today .

 

In his hayagrIva sthothram , Sri Vaadhiraaja yathi

prays movingly to His Ishta Dhaivam , Sri HayagrIvan :

 

HayagrIvam ChidhAnandha Vigraham sadhanugraham

dasagrIvacchidham saapAn maNigrIva VimOchanam

 

Here the celebrated Yathi visualizes his UpAsana

mUrthy as the blissful SvarUpan , who took the

RaamAvathaaram to cut the ten heads of RaavaNan

( DasagrIvan ) and released MaNigrIvan , the Gandharvan

from his curse as Baala KrishNan , when he went between

the two YamaLArjunaa trees in YasOdhA's back yard .

 

Sri VaadhirAjar then prays to Sri hayagrIvan

for all auspiciousness( Vidhyai , VivEkam ,

tolerance and steadfast faith (ananya Bhakthi and

MahA VisvAsam ):

 

VidhyAm dEhi VivEkam dEhi sam cha sarvathra dEhi

sraddhAm dEhi tathA paahi maa hinasthi yathA parA :

 

Sri HayagrIvan and Tibetean Buddhism

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

 

Tibet until 1950 was an isolated kingdom

cut off from all. The Buddhism that arrived there

from Nepal developed its own unique Tantric modes

of worship . In the Tibetan Buddhism ,hayagrIvan is one

of the archetype dities . HayagrIvan has a fierce form

of AvalOkithEsvara, the Lord of Compassion in their tradition

He is known as Guhya Saadhana HayagrIvan . There are specific

Mandalaas in which HayagrIvan is invoked . There is a specific

chanting practise known as " VajrapANi-HayagrIvan-Garudan "

for empowerment .In art of Nepal version of Buddhism ,

HayagrIvan is a red colored , horse-headed Vedic God accompanying

AvalOkithEsvarA . Like MahA KaalA , HyagrIvA is recognized

by NepAl Buddhists a sone of the 8 great protectors

of their sacred texts and a destroyer of all obstacles to

enlightenment .

 

Although Buddhism has been rejected by Sri VaishNavite

AchAryAs as an avaidhika Matham , one can see clearly

the influence of Vedic Texts and sampradhAyam on

the Taantric texts of Buddhism . The wrathful reflex

of the peaceful AvalOkithEsvarA appears to be connected

to the anger of Lord HayagrIvan , when He angrily fought

the two asurans to retreive the VedAs . Nepaal's vision

of Lord HayagrIvan as Jn~Anandha mUrthy , who banishes

the obstacles to "enlightenment " is closer to the Upanishadic

concept . From India to Nepaal ( the birth country of

Gauthama BuddhA ) , the conception is still the same and

when TibEteans adopted Buddhism and developed it in

iolation , the visualization of Sri HayagrIvan

took a strange turn . But , one can still recognize

the original conception of HayagrIvan even in the

TibEtean version .