Sri KrishNa BhakthAs /NaadhOpAsakAs : Part II

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Dear Sri KrishNa BhakthAs :

 

In this posting , adiyEn would cover the life

and contributions of Sri NarAyaNa Theertha considered

as an aparAvathAram (reincarnation ) of Sri JayadEva Kavi.

He is the author of the most beautiful Sri KrishNa LilA

TarangiNi ( the river of the LilAs of Sri KrishNA ).

He is also the author of another Naatakam known as

" PaarijAthApaharaNam ". This deals with the story of

Sri KrishNA stealing the PaarijAthA tree from Indra"s

nandhavanam to please His dear Consort, SatyabhAmA .

SriNaaraayaNa Theethar's sishya paramparai includes

Sonti Venkata Subbiah and Sonti Venakata RamaNayyA ,

the Guru of Saint ThyagarAjA (1767-1847 A.D).

 

Sri NaarAyana Theerthar lived in the early part of

the 17th century .He hailed from a family of Smaartha

Telegu Brahmins of Tanjore District, who had migrated

during the time of Muslim invasions of Deccaan . They

settled down in the villages of Cauveri delta and were

grat Vedic Scholars . ShyAmA Saastrigal is a member of

one such telegu family and Saint ThyagarAjA hails from

another such family .

 

Theethar was proficient in Sanskrit already at an early stage in

his life and was also an expert in Karnatic Music and Bharatha-

Naatyam . He was a keen student of Srimadh Bhaagavatham

as well .He was a grahasthaa , who had to take aapath sanyAsam,

when he thought that the floods of the river Cauveri were

going to put an end to his life prematurely .

 

Once he swam across Cauveri to reach his father-in-law's

house , where his wife was staying . A swift current

and a whirl pool knocked him off his feet and

dragged him down as he was in the middle of the river .

He was a man of high spiritual disposition and he feared

that he would lose his life and impulsively , he took

Aapath sanyAsam using the procedures known to him .

These procedures required him to throw away his sacred

thread , pluck a hair off his head in lieu of complete

shaving of his head and utter the PrEksha manthram .

Soon after this , the swift current pushed him towards

the bank and he held onto some bush and stumbled out safe .

 

As he walked towards his father-in-law's home to have

a reunion with his wife , he was overcome by many emotions .

He was deeply in love with his young wife and at the same time ,

the thought of having taken sanyAsam bothered him .He

convinced himself that nobody knew about his entering

the TuriyAsramam thru the Aapath sanyAsam route and hence ,

he can get back to his normal , erstwhile life .

 

He entered his father-in-law's house and was greeted by

his wife, who was startled to find that her husband

had acquired a divya tEjas as a mahA purushan . She

prostrated before him and was confused about the changes

in her husband's countenance . She went inside and

consulted with her parents. They came out and could

not see any changes in their son-in-law. Only to his dear

wife's eyes , Sri NaarayaNA appeared like an unapproachable

MahA purushar with a divya tEjas. The wife was frightened .

The parents pressed the son-in-law for any recent happenings

and the son-in-law confided in them about his taking

SanyAsam under duress . NaarAyaNA recognized the greatness

of his wife, who could sense that transformation in him .

The situation was awkward and he had no choice except

to leave his home and follow his yathi dharmam .He became

a wandering ministrel and spent some time at Challapalle,

KrishNa district. Here , he composed many krithis in

praise of VedAdri Narasimhan , the presiding deity of

this sthalam . He moved onto Thiruppathi .On the way ,

he was overcome by severe stomach pain and prayed to

Sri VenkatEsa BhagavAn for relief .

 

In his dream ,Sri VenkatachalAdhipathi commanded him

to go to a village near ThiruvayyAru , where an amsam of

His had established Himself , to get relief form his pain .

Next morning , Sri NaarAyaNa Theethar started his trek

south and arrived at the banks of Cauveri few days

later . During his sleep that night in a PiLLayAr koil ,

he had another dream in which the Lord told him

to follow two wild boars that would appear

next morning after his morning prayers

at the village of NadukkAvEri .

 

The Sun rose . After anushtAnam in front of VinAyakA ,

the sanyAsi saw the trunk of VinAyakA pointing

west ward and he saw the two wild boars in front

of the temple to lead him to the temple of VenakatesvarA

in the village of VarahUr . NaarAyana Theerthar followed

the fast moving boars , which stopped at VarahUr temple front

and then disappeared . Once the saint entered the temple and

had the darsanam of the Lord, his stomach pain vanished .

>From then on , he did not move away from the temple

and completed the epic dance drama , Sri KrishNa LilA

TarangiNi ,the essence of Dasama skandham of Srimadh

BhAgavatham there . He danced in front of the Lord while

singing the krithis that he had just composed .The AnjanEyar

archA serving Sri VenkatEsA kept time with His cymbals .

When AnjanEyar failed to keep time , the saint recognized

that those krithis were not acceptable to the lord and

cast them aside .As a result of this selective process,

the Sri krishNa LilA TarangiNi is fragmentary in covering

the story line followed by Srimadh BhAgavatham. At the conclusion

of the composition of the Sri KrishNa LilA TarangiNi ,

the saint had the divya darsanam of Sri KrishNA in

ThirukkalyANa Kolam and he then decided not to

go on with any further compositions .He taught

the TarangiNi to his students and conducted Sri KrishNa

Jayanthi every year .Even today , this tradition is continued

in VarahUr and the TarangiNi is enacted during the Jayanthi

for our Lord KrishNA .

 

The KrishNa TarangiNi has 12 cantos just like the 12

sargAs of Sri JayadEvA's Gita Govindham .These are:

 

1. Sri KrishNa PrAdhurbhAva Varnanam ,

MangaLaacharaNam : Birth of the Lord in

His uncle KamsA's prison .

 

2. Bala LilA VarNanam : PutanA samhAram,

YamaLArjuna Bhanjanam , Visvaroopa darsanam

for YasOdhA , the Mother , when she asked her

child to open its mouth to test whether He had

eaten mud .

 

3. Govatsa Paalana VarNanam : Slaying of AghAsura,

BrahmA's stealing of the cows , The chastised

Brahma Devan's praise of the Lord .

 

4. GopAlana VarNanam : protection of the cows as

the divine cowherd , KaaLiya Mardhanam .

 

5. Gopi VasthrApaharaNam and GovardhanOddhAraNam

 

6. Gopi SamAgamana VarNanam : Spiritual communion of

the Gopis at BrindhAvanam .

 

7. Raasa KrIdA varNanam : The ankle bells of the Lord

were heard from inside the garbhagraham , when

the Saint Composed the krithis of this sargam .

 

8. RadhA KrishNa samvAdham : VislEsham and samslEsham .

 

9. MadhurA PravEsa VarNanam : AkrurA's Misison

and the Lord's entry in to the City of MadhurA .

 

10.Kamsa Nirharnam

 

11.DvArApathi PravEsa varNanam : UddhavA's mission ,

Gopi's sororws , defeat of JarAsandhA , Blessing of

MuchukundhA and the Lord's entry of DwArakai .

 

12.Sri KrishNa-RukmiNi KalyANa MahOthsavam at DwArakai.

 

The saint was blessed with the vision of the ThirukkalyANam

and after witnessing this scene , he entered Jeva samAdhi

at Thiruppanthrutthi under a Mango Tree , whose branches

are thick in a direction over the samAdhi of the saint

so that the Sun's hot rays do not fall on his samAdhi.

 

many miracles are happening even today at this site

(BrindhAvanam for the saint ).

 

Sri KrishNAya Thubhyam nama :

Daasan , Oppiliappan koil Varadachari SadagOpan