Sri HayagrIva SthOthram : Part II

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Sri Hayavadana ParabrahmaNE nama:

Srimath NarAyaNa YathIndhra MahA DesikAya nama:

 

Dear BhakthAs :

 

Sri Hayagriva tattvam as understood from

Swamy Desikan's Sthuthi is so profound that

it defies description . The sookshmArthams

(subtle meanings )embedded in the sthuthi passages

are sruthi sAram ( essence of VedAs and Upanishads).

It is no wonder that Swamy Desikan is known

by the title of NigamAntha MahA Desikan or VedAntha

Desikan .

 

As BhagavAn HayagrIvan appeared before him

and blessed him , the twenty plus year old

Sri VenktanAthan from Thuppul was elevated

immediately to the noblest of AchArya Peetams .

He became Swamy Desikan . He had Isavara-SaakshthkAram

of that Veda Moorthy, Sri HayagrIvan and that led to

his choice of the Vedic metre , Anushtup with

32 syllables (8+8+8+8).This is one of the 64

slOkams that Swamy Desikan set in the anushtup

meter . It is interesting to note that the first

10 slOkams of DayA sathakam are also set in anushtup

meter as well . The entire ShOdasAyudha sthOthram

and the first slOkam of Garuda DaNdakam praising

the veda Moorthy is set also in Anushtup meter.

Garuda BhagavAn was the One , who presented

Sawmy Desikan with the archai of YogAsikaa

HayagrIvan and initiated him into HayagrIva

manthram This then is the context of the avathAram

of the first slOkam of Sri HayagrIva SthOthram :

 

Jn~Anandamayam dEvam nirmala spatikAkruthim

aadhAram sarva vidhyAnAm HayagrIvam upAsmahE

 

The key words of the first SlOkam

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

 

Jn~Anandamayam dEvam , nirmala-spatikAkruthim

and AaadhAram Sarva VidhyAnAm are the key words

that flowed over the tongue of Swamy Desikan.

 

Isvara Tattvam is captured by Swamy Desikan

exquisitely through the choice of words ,

"Jn~Anandamayam, nirmalam , AadhAram Sarva VidhyAnAm".

These words have such powerful connotations that

we will be spending a lot of time in the subsequent

postings to fully comprehend the Vedic significance of

these carefully chosen words by Swamy Desikan .

In today's posting , we will focus on Sri HayagrIvAvathAram .

 

The AvathAram of Sri HayagrIvan

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

 

Lord HayagrIvan is one of the avathArams of

Para VaasudEvan .He is AniruddhAmsam. The day

of His incarnation is AvaNi ThiruvONam ,which

falls on September 10 this year.

 

He is saluted as Sarva VaagIsvarEsvaran ,

Sarva Vedamayan ,UdhgItha PraNava Moorthy,

ChimayAnandha Roopi and VisvOtthIrNa SvarUpan

in Sri HayagrIva Upanishad .

 

In this avathAram, the face (Thirumuka MaNdalam)

alone is that of a majestic horse and the body is

like that of a human , except that it is sudhda

Satthva Mayam. He is the embodiment of PraNavam

(OmkAram). He is the First Lord of all Vidhyais.

 

During PraLayam , Moola Prakruthi reaches

the subtle state of Tamas . The Jeevans get

embedded in that Tamas and suffer very much.

VyUha VaasudEvan incarnates as Aniruddhan and

rests on the swirling torrent of PraLayam waters.

He engages in Yoga nidhrai and reflects on how

He can create the world anew and save the suffering

jeevans locked in Tamas .

 

During the Yoga Nidhrai, He creates Brahma Devan

from the Lotus arising out of His Naabhi. Next ,

He instructs Brahma Devan on the VedhAdhyayanam

and the meaning of all the Four VedAs. He also

blesses Brahma Deavan on the intricacies of

Srishti (Creation ).Before the creation of

Brahman , His sankalpam led to the existence of

two drops of water on the lotus leaf below

the lotus flower . These two drops of water

became the asurans Madhu with TamO GuNam and

Kaitabhan with rajO guNam. They entered the lotus

flower through the stem .There , BrahmA had just

concluded creating four Vedas as four beautiful

children.The two asurans grabbed the four babies

and ran off to the nether world (PaathALam).

 

BrahmA was heart broken over his inconsolable loss.

He could not continue with the creation of the world

without the help of the VedAs , which were his eyes

and guides. Brahma devan approached Aniruddha BhagavAn

and begged for help .Aniruddhan took the form of

a VeLLai parimukhan ( Human Body and a Horse's

face down to His neck ). The hue of the avathAra

moorthy was clear white like a spatikam . This

is the HayagrIva Moorthy. He proceeded to the hiding

place of the two asurans in PaathALam and raised

the UdhgItha svaram. The asurans were frightened

on hearing the sound of UdhgItham. They dropped

the Four children (Vedams)and ran towards the direction

wherefrom the udhgItham originated. At that time ,

Sri HayagrIvan recovered the children and returned

them to Brahma Devan and restarted His Yoganidhrai

as HayagrIvan. The asurans ran back to where they

stole the VedAs and found HayagrIvan engaged in

Yoga Nidhrai . The asurans made a lot of noise and

woke up the Lord. Sri Hayagrivan got up from His

bed of Adhi Seshan and fought with the asurans

and destroyed them. Afterwards , Sri HayagrIvan

reinstructed Brahma Devan on the secrets of creation

using the VedAs and returned to VyUha sthAnam.

 

Thus Sri Hayagrivan is aniruddhAmsam .We will cover

the unique aspects of Aniruddhan as one of the Four

VyUha Moorthys to understand HayagrIva tattvam in

the next posting.

 

Sri Hayavadhana ParabrahmaNE nama:

Daasan, V.SatakOpan