Fwd: Re-posting of Mukkur Swami's anecdote on govinda naama shabdham

[Guest guest]

tiruvenkatam, "Sudarshan M.K."

<sampathkumar_2000 wrote:

 

"Govinda" or "Gohinda"?

 

Mukkur Swami once visited Tirumala kshetram. Before the "suprabatha

darsanam" Swami wanted to have his ritual bath in the temple

"pushkaraNi" steps and suddenly heard someone nearby

shout, "gOhindA", "gOhindA". It was some poor pilgrim who had just

finished his own ritual-bath and who was readying himself eagerly

for the "suprapatha darsanam".

 

Mukkur Swami was a little uneasy about the Lord's name being

mispronounced and that too so un-inhibitedly by a common pilgrim.

Nevertheless, Swami related, he ignored it and proceeded with his

own ablutions. After Swami finished he sat on the 'pushkarini' step-

stones and prepared to don "tirumaN-kAppu". Again the pilgrim nearby

began to yell hoarse, "gOhindA, gOhindA, g-O-O-OhindA".Swami

recounted that this was taking place at around 2AM, there were not

many people around the temple-tank and in the silence of the night

the cry of "gOhindA,gOhindA" seemed to reverberate through all the

Seven Hills !

 

The Swami said that this time around he couldn't tolerate the rustic

pilgrim anymore continuing to mispronounce the most lovely

'tirU-nAmam' of 'tiruvEngadamUdiyAn' and decided to do something

about it. He intended to go up to the pilgrim and gently correct him

in the correct pronunciation of the Lord's name and if necessary to

briefly enlighten the poor unlearned soul of the beauteous

significance of "govinda-nAma shabdham". The 'nAma' was "gOvinda"

not "gOhinda".

 

Mukkur Swami then related how he was stopped dead in his tracks when

he heard the pilgrim suddenly break into a wonderful, most touching

personal dialogue with 'tirUvengamUdaiyAn' himself. The Swami

recounted :

 

"As I rose wanting to walk up to the pilgrim to gently chide him for

abuse of the Lord's name, I suddenly saw him turn on his feet on the

'pushkarani' steps and face the glorious 'vimanam' of the Lord's

temple beyond the walls and atop the 'garbha-griha". And then in the

stillness of the night I heard the poor pilgrim converse loudly with

the Lord in the boorish Telugu dialect of deep Guntur heartland:

 

"Oh gOhindA, my saviour, O gOhinda, I thank you very much, my

gOhindA. Last year at this same time, dear gOhindA, I was at this

very spot, o gOhindA and talking to you as I do now. Remember, O

gohindA, I prayed to you that my crops be good, my cows be good, my

family's health be good, my son pass his matriculation and my

daughter be married. You never fail me O gOhinda ! I only have to ask

you for a thing O gOhindA, and when have you ever refused me Oh

gOhindA ! So here I stand again in this spot Oh gOhindA, and pray to

you Oh gOhinda in the sure hope that next year too, Oh gOhinda, I

shall stand here in this very spot, Oh gOhinda, looking into the sky

at your 'vimana', Oh gOhinda and cry out to you …. "gOhinda!

gOhinda! g-O-O-OhindA !"

 

Mukkur swami continued, "At this point I had got up from my seat on

the 'pushkarini' steps to go to him but when I eavesdropped on this

most wonderful dialogue between the poor pilgrim and the Lord of the

Seven Hills I sat down again without a murmur. It struck me in that

moment with the force of 'sastra-ic' truth that I had really no

business to chide or advise the pilgrim on the correct "utchAraNam"

of 'bhagavan-namA'. Here he was saying loudly, the poor blessed

pilgrim, that he had been at the same spot the previous year and had

similarly addressed the Lord and sought favours and was now

reporting back to the Lord, in thanksgiving, that everything in life

was just fine with him and his family --- thanks to the Lord !

 

"I thought about it", Swami continued", and trembled at the gravity

of what I had been about to do in wanting to correct the boorish

'bhaktha'. I might have succeeded in persuading him to switch over

to "gOvindA" instead of 'gOhinda'. But then in the process I might

have deprived the Lord of the Seven Hills next year around, when the

pilgrim returned, of listening again to and savouring the sound of

the rather unusual 'tiru-nama' of "gOhinda" which obviously seemed

to have given Him so much "swArasyam" (the kind of pleasure we too

enjoy when toddlers in our homes lisp out names of family-members).

In the process I would incur the displeasure of the Lord and would

also have unnecessarily ventured to upset a relationship of such

touching intimacy built up over the years between a simple-minded,

rustic 'bhAgavata' and the Supreme Being, the Great One addressed as

"gOhinda, gOhinda" in such cavalier fashion.

 

" It struck me," Swami continued, "that obviously the Lord wasn't

the least concerned about how the pilgrim pronounced his glorious

name of "GOVINDA" for, if he had indeed been offended, would the

pilgrim have had all his wishes of the years gone by granted? So

what business was it of mine to go up to the pilgrim and correct him

when the Lord himself apparently had happily accepted the

unusual "tirunAmA' of "gOhindA, gOhindA"? "

 

Listening to Sri Mukkur swami relate this amusing anecdote many in

the "bhAgavata" audience went into splits of laughter. Many however

couldn't help fight back a tear or two because it immediately

brought to their mind sweet remembrances of the sublime compassion

that 'tiruvengadamudaiyAn' indeed shows the millions of poor

pilgrims who trek to his great abode on earth atop the Venkatam Hill.

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

 

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