shrI vaadhiraaja mamgalaaShtakam- shloka 4

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|| shrI vaadhiraajO vijayathE ||

 

||shrI vaadhiraaja mamgalaaShtakam ||

 

BUMyaam sThaapithaBUmipaalathanayam yO$jIvayath thIrThathO

BUpaath dhaththamanarGyaviththamathulam gamgaajalE praaxipath|

laxmyaah praakRuthapadhyathO navavaram yO$jIvayan mamdapE

ashwaasyaanuga vaadhiraajagururaat dhadhyaath sadhaa mamgalam ||4||

 

( Note Baraha 2000 is used to transliterate the Sanskrit words)

 

In this shloka, the poet describes two rare miraculous incidents where

shrI vaadhiraaja thIrTha blesses the devotees' family by granting life

to the dead person. Both these incidents belong to other community

family, thus exemplifying the kindness of shrI vaadiraaja thIrTha for

all human beings.

 

The first incident belongs to Muslim king of Delhi. The name and other

details are not clearly available, but the incident seems to belong to

Sikhandhar Lodi(1489-1516). This incident happened at the very young

age( around 18-20) of shrI vaadhiraaja thIrTha.

 

While touring around the country shrI vaadhiraaja thIrTha reached the

place, called Indraprastha, part of the present Delhi. The touring

team sheltered in a garden, on outskirts of the city. ShrI vaadhiraaja

thIrTha selected a specific spot for his pooja and the disciples went

ahead with the preparation for pooja. Meanwhile, through local people,

the touring team came to know that it was tomb of one of the princes of

Delhi Sultan, who died recently. The team felt very bad for placing the

sacred box containing the icons of Lord on the tomb of a Muslim prince.

They approached shrI vaadhiraaja thIrTha and apologized for the

mistake. Then shrI vaadhiraaja thIrTha who knew the true story informed

them that the place is not a tomb since the buried prince is not yet

dead. The crowd was surprised at this and immediately the sultan came

to know about this. He fell at the feet of shrI vaadhiraaja thIrTha and

prayed for his blessings.

 

ShrI vaadhiraaja thIrTha was kind enough to bless the Muslim family and

at his instructions, the tomb was dug and the buried body was taken

out. ShrI vaadhiraaja sprinkled the holy water- thIrtha on the body

and the prince woke up as if he was sleeping all these time. The whole

crowd was dumb-stuck and Sultan's family could not believe their own

eyes. Sultan fell at the feet of shrI vaadhiraaja thIrTha and worshiped

him with all honors and offered him all luxuries and huge amount of

wealth, inspite of shrI vaadhiraaja's reluctance to accept any thing.

To such great devotee shrI vaadhiraaja thIrTha, who has relinquished

this worldly pleasures, only Shri Hari is greatest wealth and rest all

are only colorful stones. But to get away from the pleading Sultan,

shrI vaadhiraaja thIrTha took the wealth and continued his journey.

 

When the team came to Holy River Ganga, shrI vaadhiraaja thIrTha

offered all that wealth to Goddess Ganga and poured the whole load of

wealth into the river. This incident highlights the great devotion of

shrI vadhiraaja thIrTha in Lord shrI Hari only and nothing else.

 

The author describes yet another incident, exemplifying the divine

powers of shrI vaadhiraaja thIrtha. While touring around the country,

the team was sheltering in a town where a big landlord had arranged for

his daughter's marriage. While the whole town was enjoying the

celebrations, the bridegroom all of a sudden became a victim to snake

bite and died in the marriage hall. The whole crowd was grief stuck and

they came running and fell at the feet of shrI vaadhiraaja thIrTha and

begged him to protect the young bride. ShrI vaadhiraaja thIrtha,

consoled the crowd and prayed shrI Laxmi and Lord Narayana with a

kannda song, describing the marriage of shrI Laxmi and Lord Narayana

during 'samudhra maThana',i.e churning of milk ocean. With the grace of

Lord ShrI Hari, the bridegroom got rid of the poison and woke up at the

end of the song, as if he was asleep. This great composition is called

" laxmI shObhAne " and now also it is being sung on all auspicious

occasions, especially on marriages, for get blessings of shrI Hari to

the newly wedded couples. Though the composition looks to simple, it

consists of scholarly thoughts and is a strong proclamation of dvaitha

philosophy.

 

The word " praakRutha padhya " is very significant here. Normally it was

believed that only veda-manthras , hymns from shruthi / smruthi or

sanskrit shtothras may result in wonders if chanted properly and

accurately. But quite against to this, shrI vaadhiraaja thIrTha

composed the song in the local language Kannada, and proved that Lord

shrI hari can be pleased only by pure devotion, irrespective of

language. The language itself does not have any power. It is the

composer who fills the power in the composition and the language. We

have many incidents to narrate the divine powers of vedic chanting /

sthothra chanting. But there seems to be no other incident where such

divine power is demonstrated by singing a song in the local language.

 

The " laxmI shObhane " can be read in kannada at the location

 

http://www.geocities.com/bgkvarna/LaxmiShobane1.html

 

and the first few stanzas can be listened at the following location

 

http://www.geocities.com/bgkvarna/Audio/laxmishobane.rm

 

Again it is to be noted that shrI vaadhiraaja thIrTha was not limited

to only his madhva followers, but to any one who begged for his mercy,

irrestive of caste/culture and thus indeed a " Jagad Guru " . May shrI

vaadhiraaja thIrTha, who by the grace of Lord shrI Hayavadhana,

protected the devotees by granting life to the deceased family member,

bless all of us with pure knowledge, devotion and dedication.

 

(Please correct me for any mistakes.)

 

shrI harih prIyathAm

B.Gopalakrishna

 

 

 

 

 

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