shrI vaadhiraaja mamgalaaShtakam - sthOthra 5

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|| shrI vaadhiraajO vijayathE ||

 

|| shrI vaadhiraaja mamgalaaShtakam ||

 

yO jaanudhvayathO girim munivaraih pUrNam sa gathvaa thathO

gamdakyaaHRuthamaalikaamaTha dhadhou shrIvEmkatEshaaya cha |

abdhaarDham samupOShya sadhguruvarO yO dhvaarakaapaththanE

ashwaasyaanuga vaadhiraajagururaat dhadhyaath sadhaa mamgalam ||5||

 

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

 

In this shloka, the author explains about the visit of shrI vaadhiraaja

thIrTha to Tirupathi and Dwaraka. Let us look into the words

" jaanudhvayathah " , " maalikaam " , " abdhaarDham " etc.

 

Who doesn't know about Lord shrI VenkatEsha and Tirupathi ? Some

details about this famous place is available at http://www.tirumala.org

 

Presently shrIvaishNava tradition is being followed here, but it was

not so earlier. shrI vyaasa thIrTha was in charge of this temple for

12 years and madhva sampradaya was being followed here. But over the

years the tradition is changed, but still Tirupathi is an important

pilgrimage place to all madhvas.

While on his tour shrI vaadhiraaja thIrTha came to the bottom of the

hill, the whole hill appeared as a giant saalagrama shila, with

sannidhana of shrI Lord vEnkatEsha everywhere on the hill. So with

great devotion to Lord vEnkatEsha, swamiji hesitated to climb the hills

by foot, thinking that how can he step on saalagram? Hence shrI

vaadhiraaja thIrTha climbed the hill only on knees, without stepping,

till he get darshana of Lord shrInivasa. ShrI vaadhiraaja thIrTha

prayed Lord shrInivasa with 10 beautiful shlOkas, composed shrI

vEnkatEsha mangalaShtaka and offered a big garland of saalagrams to

Lord. Even now we can see this big garland of saalagraam at Tirupathi.

The devotional shlokas, with great literary flavor, may be listened at

the following site

http://www.geocities.com/sirivarna/audio/t_p_sri_1.rm -(342Kb 2 min

47sec)

http://www.geocities.com/sirivarna/audio/t_p_sri_2.rm -(476Kb 3 min

52sec)

http://www.geocities.com/sirivarna/audio/t_p_sri_3.rm -(417Kb 3 min

23sec)

http://www.geocities.com/sirivarna/audio/t_p_sri_4.rm -(425Kb 3 min

27sec)

 

Lord srInivaasa was pleased with the devotion of shrI vaadhiraaja and

as per his indications, shrI vaadhiraaja received a golden idol of

shrI-bhU-shrInivaasa which is even now being worshipped at Sode maTha

.. As a token of this episode, even now shrI Sode swamiji has got

special privilege to offer pooja to Lord shrInivasa.

 

Next part of the shloka describes shrI vaadhiraaja thIrTha's visit to

Dwaraka. Dwaraka is another famous pilgrimage place and one of the

seven holy places as per scriptures (The other six are ayOdhya,

maThura, maya(haridwara), kaashi, kaanchi, aavanthikaa puri(ujjaini)).

Lord shrI kRuShNa got this town built by 'vishwakarma' and resided here

with all his family members. It is on the bank of Gomathi river, in

Gujarat state.(It is reported that the famous shrI kRShNa temple at

this place also suffered little damage during recent earth quake).

There are many holy ponds in this place namely 'chakra thIrTha',

'shanKOdhDhara thIrTha', 'gOpi sarOvara' etc. The famous holy stone

'chakrankitha', which is used as an alternative for daily worship by

those can not afford 'saalagraama pooja', is available at this place.

Details about Dwaraka may be found in 'skaanda puraana'.

 

Earlier this place was famous as 'kusha sthali'. As per scriptures

Lord thrivikrama, came from bali's house at 'suthaLa lOka', to earth to

kill a demon by name 'kusha'. There is a temple for Lord Kusheshwara

and devotees are supposed to visit that temple first before entering to

Dwaraka.

 

shrI vaadhiraaja thIrtha stayed for six months here and did severe

fasting and tapas. During this period many became disciples of shrI

vaadhiraaja. There was another saint in that place by name 'kRuShNa'

and he was suffereing from heavy fever for a long time. He served Lord

with great devotion for a long time and got indication to approach shrI

vaadhiraaja thIRtha. As per Lord's wish, shrI vaadhiraaja thIrTha

composed 'shrI madhvaaShtaka' and blessed that saint. By chanting this

powerful sthothra, 'kRuShNa' saint got rid of his long-sufferings. He

became disciple of shrI vaadhiraaja thIrTha and propagated the 'mahima'

of shrI vaadhiraaja thIrTha in and around Gujarat. We may see this

'shrI madhvaaShtaka' at the following location

 

http://www.geocities.com/sirivarna/audio/madhvastakam_sanskrit.gif -in

Sanksrit

http://www.geocities.com/sirivarna/audio/madhvastakam.gif - in Kannada

 

and may listen to sthothra at

 

http://www.geocities.com/sirivarna/audio/madhvastaka.rm

 

 

While shrI vaadhiraaja was doing severe tapas, shrI Lord hayagrIva

appeared in his meditation, and shrI vaadhIraaja, for got the whole

world and went on deep meditaton on shrI Lord hayavadhana. After

sometime, Lord hayavadhana indicated to bring out the hayagrIva

saalagrama from the nearby cave for daily worship. shrI vaadhiraaja

thIrTha with great devotion, went into the cave, identified the shining

saalagram, brought it out and started worshipping daily.

 

May such guru vadhIraaja thIrTha , who is filled with great devotion

towards Lord HayagrIva, bless all of us mangala.

 

 

(Please correct me for any errors)

 

shrI Harih priyatham

B.Gopalakrishna

 

 

 

 

 

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