SrI deSika stotra-s - 18. SrI mahA vIra vaibhavam - Part 2.

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SrI mahAvIra vaibhavam - Part 2.

 

vIra! (50): vIra refers to One who is heroic, brave,

mighty, powerful. The word vIra is derived from aja -

to drive, to lead. BhagavAn is a vIra since He

destroys at once those who are a source of suffering

to the pious.

 

An aspect of bhagavAn's heroism is the incident where

He found rAvaNa to be very tired and incapable of

fighting at the end of a day of intense fighting. At

that time, it would have been very easy for Lord rAma

to finish off rAvaNa. But the real quality of a true

hero was displayed by rAma at that time - He asked

rAvaNa to go home and take rest and recoup his

strength and come back and fight the next day -

viSravas tanaya viSrama viSrANana vikhyAta vikrama -

58. This is the quality of the mahA vIra whose

vaibhavam svAmi deSikan is describing here.

 

satya vratan (51): The most well-known example of

this guNa of bhagavAn is His vratam to protect those

who have unconditionally surrendered to Him, even if

they are the likes of rAvaNa. But in His rAma

incarnation as a human, He illustrates how the satya

vratam should be practiced by us in our day-to-day

lives by setting Himself as an example and fulfilling

His father's wishes. He goes through the ordeal of

life in the forest for 14 years by discarding the

comforts of the kingdom even though sages like

vasishTha, and bharata himself pleaded with Him not to

go on vana vAsam (pratij~nA avaj~nAta yauvarAjya -

21).

 

BhagavAn's Fame is such that even those who have

reason to not praise Him end up praising His Glory.

svAmi deSikan refers to the example of rAvaNa's wife

mandodari's words when she finds that He has slain

rAvaNa. svAmi deSikan points out that even though she

was crying and grieving over the demise of her

husband, her words were those that bore the

description of His svarUpam, His tirumeni, His guNa-s,

etc. just as the veda-s describe - vilapa vacana

nigama samavishaya …. (65). This was because she

was able to perceive that no ordinary human could have

killed her great and mighty husband who shook the

kailAsa mountain itself. So also was the case with

vAli's wife when vAli had been killed by Lord rAma

earlier.

 

He who fulfills His commitment: Perhaps the one short

line "nishpanna kRtya" (71) summarizes the purpose of

the rAma incarnation, and also His most Supreme guNa -

He who fulfilled His duty. He had promised the deva-s

that He will remove their fear from rAvaNa, and this

is the purpose for which He took this incarnation. He

fulfilled that. He had promised the sages that He

will protect them from the rAkshasa-s, and He

fulfilled that vow. He had promised vibhIshNa and

sugrIva when they surrendered to Him that He will make

them the kings of their respective kingdom, and He

fulfilled that. He fulfilled every commitment that He

made, and thus fulfilled the purpose of His

incarnation. In fact, after making vibhIshaNa the

king, Lord rAma was extremely happy because He had

fulfilled His promise.

 

sanAtana dharma (90): BhagavAn is the embodiment of

dharma. A detailed discussion of this attribute of

BhagavAn can be found in the SrI vishNu sahasranAma

vyAkhyAnam for nAma 404 in Slokam 43 which I had

submitted to the list as part of that series. The

term sanAtana means firm, permanent, ever-lasting,

ancient, etc. The act of dharma itself is over as

soon as we do the karma, and so it cannot give

benefits by itself. It is bhagavAn who is pleased by

the act of dharma that we perform, and He is the One

who gives the benefits without fail. Thus He is the

Embodiment of dharma which is never-failing, eternal,

permanent, sanAtana dharma.

 

4. The Greatness of bhAgavata kaimkaryam: The elderly

Sabari performed kaimkaryam to the many sages in the

ASramam where she volunteered to work to keep the

place clean etc. This devotion to the kaimkaryam of

the sages resulted in Lord rAma coming to the ASramam

to give her moksham right in front of Him. Such is

the power of the bhAgavata kaimkaryam, considered even

more important in our sampradAyam than bhagavat

kaimkaryam - SabarI moksha SAkshibhUta (41).

 

5. The Importance of observing varNa ASrama dharma-s:

 

svAmi deSikan describes BhagavAn in His Lord rAma

incarnation as "nirvartita nija varNASrama dharman"

(88) - He who has fulfilled well the dharma consistent

with His varNa (jAti) and ASrama. This was done by

Him just to set an example to the rest of mankind that

the dharma of one's varNam and ASramam must be

observed at all costs. In gItA, bhagavAn SrI kRshNa

explicitly points out that He observes all the karma-s

associated with His varNASrama, because if He Himself

did not observe them, people will use that as an

excuse for their not observing their dharma (gItA 3.23

- yadi hyayam na varteyam jAtu karmaNyatandritah |

mama vartmAnuvartante manushyAh pArtha sarvaSah ||).

 

6. Three kinds of debt:

 

There are three kinds of debt that each of us have

during our life in this world: deva RNa, muni RNa, and

pitR RNa. The debt to the sages is fulfilled by

learning veda-s; the debt to the deva-s is fulfilled

by performing yaj~na; and the debt to the pitR-s is

fulfilled by begetting sons who will observe the

naimittika-karma-s. When bhagavAn was born as the son

of daSaratha, he helped daSaratha fulfil the last of

these debts (daSaratha carama RNa vimocana).

 

7. The position of anya devatA-s compared to bhagavAn:

 

We have seen this topic addressed in several previous

stotra-s. Here we see one more example of bhagavAn's

Might relative to the anya devatA-s through the

incidence involving kAkAsura. When kAkAsura tried to

run away from Lord rAma's brahmAstra and sought refuge

with brahma, Siva, indra, etc., they were unable to

offer protection to kAkAsura for fear of Him - druhiNa

hara valamathana durAraksha Saralaksha! (27). One is

reminded of the Sruti - bhIshAsmAt vAtah pavate;

bhIshodeti sUryah; etc.

 

He is also the Only one who is worshipped through the

prayers that are offered to any other devatA-s - sarva

karma samArAdhya (89). Whatever karma or whatever

yAga etc. is undertaken by us towards the

anya-devatA-s, ultimately reaches Him because He is

the antaryAmi of these anya devatA-s. "AkASAt patitam

toyam yathA gacchati sAgaram | sarva devanamaskArah

kesavam pratigacchati ||".

 

Brahma, Siva, etc. are all the "family" of this

emperumAn. brahma originated from the navel

(nAbhI-kamalam) of emperumAn and thus is the son of

emperumAn. Siva was created by brahma and is thus the

grandson of emperumAn. vinAyaka, muruga etc. are the

great grandsons of emperumAn. This is the penultimate

Slokam in SrI mahAvIra vaibhavam - caturmkheSvara

mukhaih putra pautrAdiSAline. We also find in

nAcciyAr tirumozhi 6.3 that durgA is the sister of

emperumAn - andari SUTTak kanAk kaNDEn tOzhI nAn

(recall that Lord kRshNa was born to devaki and durgA

was born to yasodA). While we read quite a bit about

the clear position of our sampradAyam that a SrI

vaishNava should only worship nArAyaNa, what is less

well-known that dUshaNA of anya-devatA-s is strictly

forbidden in our sampradAyam as well. My recollection

is that topic was addressed in an issue of SrI nRsimha

priyA a few years back, but I am unable to locate the

copy now.

 

8. saha-dharmiNi: Just as Lord rAma showed us the

example of how a true son should be, lakshmaNa and

bharata showed us how a true younger brother should

behave towards his elder brother, etc., sItA devi

shows in rAmAyaNam how a true wife should behave.

After the victory over rAvaNa, when sItA appeared

before rAma, first rAma asks her to enter the fire to

prove her chastity while in captivity. sItA pirATTi

complies without any hesitation, reluctance or

objection. Granted that this is bhagavAn and pirATTi

playing their leelA together as it pleases them, still

in her human form sItA pirATTi demonstrates to us the

accepted role of a wife in the days of SrImad

rAmAyaNa. She is alternately separated from Him and

united with Him, all because this was His samkalpam,

and She complies with whatever His wish is -

vighaTita sughaTita sahRdaya sahadharma cAriNIka

(69).

 

9. phala Sruti - svAmi deSikan concludes this

composition by pointing out that the chanting of the

glory of perumAL with an understanding of the deep

meaning behind these stotra-s will serve as the

medicine that will relieve us from the fear of samsAra

- the cycle of birth and death. In fact, he considers

those who are capable of realizing this simple truth

as the "learned ones", those that are gifted with

good intellect (sudhiyah) - bhava bhaya bheshajam etat

paThata mahAvIra vaibhavam sudhiyah. Let us benefit

by reading the great stotra on Lord rAma and His

Glory.

 

-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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