Desikasthothramala- Dasavatarasthothram

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5. prathyaadhishtapuraathana

praharaNagraamaH

kshaNam paaNijaiH

avyaath threeNi jaganthi akunTa mahimaa

vaikunTa kanTeeravaH

yathpraadhurbhavanaath avanDhyajaTaraa

yaadhrcChikaath veDhasaam

yaa kaachith sahasaa mahaasuragrhasThooNaa

pithaamahee abhooth

 

May

the lion of Vaikunta, who has unimpeded glory and who for a moment , with His

nails, set aside all His former weapons, by whose appearance by chance, the pillar of the palace of the

great asura, not barren any more, became the paternal grandmother to all the brahmas,

protect the three worlds.

 

Desika

is known not only for his devotion and scholarliness in vedanta but also for

his skill in language and poetry. His vocabulary is great and the word play,

pun on the words and poetic imaginar tion, all vie with each other for

excellence. Here he ascribes the status of the paternal grandmother to all the

brahmas to the pillar in the palace

of Hiranyakasipu. He says

that by the appearance of Lord Narsimha in that pillar by chance it became the

mother of the Lord who is the father of all brahmas in every kalpa and suddenly

became bereft of its barrenness. It was a chab nce appearance becaseu the Lord

di not know where Hiranyakasipu was going to point out and hence Desika says in

his Varadaraja panchasath that the whole universe was Nrsimha garbha ,

containing the Lord ready to come out. Hence except that one pillar from which

He came out the whole world is still Nrsimhagarbha. sthambhaika varjam aDhunaa api

kareesa noonamthrailokyam ethath akhilam nrsimhagarbham (Var.Panch.23)

 

But

the barrenness of the pillar before the Lord came into it is also correct

because the whole Narsimhavathara

happened for a short while only. That is why Desika uses the word sahasaa,

suddenly. It was a chance happening in as much as the Lord waiting for

Hiranyakasipu to point out a place and it was by chance he struck that pillar.

 

The

Narasimhavathara as such was not only to prove the word of His bhaktha that the

Lord is everywhere but also to make true the boon given by another bhaktha, His

son Brahma. Though the Lord could have killed Hiranyakasipu in any form or with

any weapon anywhere, anytime, He chose to appear as a man-lion, killed him with

nails, on the door step, in the evening to fulfil all the conditions of the

boon so that the promise of Brahma should not be made invalid. That is why

Desika says that the Lord had laid aside all His weapons ha had been wielding

from time immemorial and killed Hiranyakasipu wiyh His nails. The glory of

Narasimahavatara is endless and one could go on writing on it but only the

relevant details are mentioned here.

 

prathyaadhishtaa means counter-command, aadhishta meaning command

and prathi added to it gives opposite meaning that the weapons were not ordered

to do their job. The word prathi by itself means towards. prathyaadhishta, counter ordered, puraathanaanaam , ancient, praharaNaanaam,

weapons , graamaH, collection.

 

kshaNam –for a moment , paaNijaiH- by His nails. The nails have taken over the work of His

weapons for a shortwhile.

 

avyaath –may protect

 

threeni jagath- the three worlds

 

vaikunTa kanTeeravaH- the lion of Vaikunta.(Narsimha)

 

vigathaH kunTah yasmaath saH

vaikunTaH- VaikunTa is so called

because of the presence of the Lord there is no dearth of glory. Hence He

himself is called VaikunTa here. akunTa

mahimaa means undiminished

glory.

 

kanTeeravah means a lion because of his roar, kanTasya-of the throat, ravaH- sound, yasya saH. VaikunTaScha, the Lord, asou kanTeeravaScha, the lion,

ithi vaikunTa kanTeeravaH, Narasimha.

 

yath praadhiurbhavaath- by whose appearance

 

yadhrcChikaath- by chance

 

mahaasuragrhasTHooNaa- the pillar, sThooNaa,

in the palace of the great asura, HiraNya kasipu,

 

avanDhya jaTaraa- became free from barrenness, vanDhyaa means a barren woman. jaTara

means stomach and here the womb. The jaTaraa

of the sThooNaa became avanDhya.

 

sahasaa- at once

 

pithaamahee abhooth- became the paternal grandmother

 

veDhasaam- of all brahmas. veDHaaH means Brahma and veDhasaam

is genitive plural of veDhaaH

 

yaa kaachith means some pillar, that is, it could be any pillar.

 

With

Narasihavathara the incarnations of the Lord in forms other than human was over

and the rest of the incarnations were all in human form. But it is fascination

to think why should He take all the trouble of assuming the form of a fish,

tortoise, boar and lion for His dhushtanigraha and Sishtaparipalana which He

could have done from where He was , that is from VaikunTa. But as Desika

himself supplies te answer in Yadhavabhyudhaya saying that the Lord puts on

different costumes like an actor and enjoys acting in the role, it is all His leela

so that His devotees could enjoy Him in various ways.