JnanaYagna Report

[Guest guest]

Hare Srinivasa.

 

The " JNANAYAJNA " Project

Dear Haribhaktas,

 

Here is the detailed report about our first Jnanayagna project.

 

The first outdoor program conducted by SVBM/VMS (West Coast) was far more

enjoyable and encouraging. Let us go back and see how it was.

 

On Saturday June 23rd, all enthusiastic VMS volunteers assembled at Lakeside

Park, Sunnyvale at 1:00 p.m. with their bag full of eatables and mind full

of curiosity. Everyone was eager to know as " What we are going to do from

1p.m. To 9 p.m. " . Yes it was 8 long hours program. Weather was more than

perfect on that day for outing and we had participants from little Sriprama

(18 months) to senior citizens.

 

The early comers started building the volleyball court with the portable kit

while the others warmed up themselves in the nice sunshine. Soon after

everyone's arrival, all members assembled for the satsanga session. Shri

Sathynarayana christened this new activity as " Jnanayajna " and welcomed

everyone for the outdoor session. He briefed about the aim and objectives of

the " Jnanayajna " and hoped to continue this activity hereafter. Shri

Sheshagiri explained about the general format of the session and requested

the members to come up with more ideas and suggestions.

 

With the " Prarthana " , the " jnanayajna " session started. The topic of the

day was " Shri Krishnastaka " , composed by Shri Vadiraja. To start with, every

one recited the whole sthothra together. Next each member recited one shloka

and explained the meaning of that shloka (with the help of the printout

circulated by Shri Sathyanarayana.) The short book published by Shri Suguna

samsath was used for the purpose of narrating the meaning. Once the

sthothra was completed, general discussion about the sthothra was started.

Following are the important points of the discussion.

 

1) Shri Sheshagiri wanted to know about any specific background for

composing this sthothra and no one in the team was aware of any related

story. Next some special meaning in the stothra was discussed. Shri

GopalaKrishna, who was very well prepared by also making use of his recent

Samskita shibhira, enlightened the team about the following. It is to be

noted that the very first name used in the Stothra is " Achyutha " and it is

very holy name. The same name is used in the " namatraya japa " , to remove all

the doshas while performing any rituals. So it is very powerful name and it

has to be pronounced properly. Many a times it is pronounced as " Achchutha "

and also written like that. It is not the correct name and we need to take

care for not making mistakes in reciting Lord's name. The second name used

in this Sthothra is " Ajitha " . This is not very common name and not found in

many literatures. Shri Acharya Madhva has used this name in " Dwadasha

Sthotra " in the stanza " … Shriryath kataksha balavathyajitham namami " . This

is one of the rupa of Shri Narayana and it is said that Shri Narayana took

this rupa during " Sumudra Mathana " . It is also to be noted that Shri

Vadiraja Thirtha has mentioned the name of Shri Acharya Madhva in the very

beginning of the sthothra. It reconfirms that all our prayers and pooja to

Lord has to go through our great 'Guru' Shri Acharya. In the third stanza

it is mentioned that " svAnubhAvanidar`sanAya di`santamarthishu `santamam "

meaning that Shri Krishna is only capable of giving the highest fruit moksha

and none else. Also in the other stanza it is mentioned ''shubhadhImayam " ,

implying that Lord is " aprakratha. " He is only " sat " , " chit " and " Ananda "

swaroopa.

 

2) Next it was discussed about the name " rUpyapeeta " . Shri Gopalkrishna also

taking the excerpts from Shri Bannanje Govindacharya provided this great

explanation. Udupi is also known as " rajatapetha " . It is the first name in

the shloka " rupyapeetam kumaradri kumbhashi. " , mentioning the 7 holy

places in the Parashurama kshethra. In Sanskrit " rupya' or " rajatha'

means silver. It was recalled that " King RamaBhoja installed four Naga

Devathas on silver basement in Four Corners of the city and so the name came

as silver base or rajatha peetha or rupya peetha. It was also discussed

about the origin of the name " Udupi " . The popular story is that it came from

the name 'Udupa' meaning Chandra, attributing the story to temple

Chandramouleshwara. But Shri Bannanje Govindhacharya mentions that it is

most likely from the tulu word " odipu " meaning ship wreckage. The name

" odapandeshwara " also seems to be originated from the same word. It is

guessed that long back a ship, sailing from Dwaraka, somehow got into

trouble at this place and probably got broken or sunk. Shri Acharya Madhva

got the Shri Krishna statue from this ship wreckage at this place. There is

no proper authentic literature available for the present version of the

story that Shri Acharya saved the ship and got the idol from the ship.

 

3) It was mentioned that in this stothra Shri Vadiraja describes Shri Udupi

Krishna from head to toe. There is another way of describing Lord, from toe

to head. There is a bhajan by Shri Purandara dasa describing Shri Krishna in

similar fashion, " Krishnamurthy kanna munde ninthidanthide. " As per the

request of devotees, Smt Shubha Sheshagiri sang this song, with her usual

melodious voice.

 

4) Gopalkrishna mentioned that in this sthothra, Udupi was also described as

a holy place with many special adjectives like " siddha samsththa " , " vara " ,

" dwarakopama " etc to describe the holiness of Udupi.

 

5) Next topic of the discussion was about the story of Shri Krishna turning

from east to west. It was told that there is no proper literature available

for this. None of our Haridasas or any prominent leaders had mentioned this.

In fact there are evidences available favoring that Shri Acharya consecrated

Shri Krishna facing west only and not the east. It was requested with all

the members to look for any literature available to clarify this.

 

6) Shri Pandurangi mentioned that there is another small Krishna Statue near

the main statue. It is said that earlier Shri Shankaracharya had established

that idol and later Shri Acharya Madhva established the main statue next to

that. It is not known that whether Shri Shankaracharya had also established

that idol facing west or it was turned west later while establishing the

main idol. One of the members expressed a doubt that whether the Shri

Krishna statue consecrated by Shri Acharya Madhva who is Jivoththama can be

made to turn the other way by Shri Kanakadasa. To this Shri Padaki told that

even if it is turned to west because of Shri Kanakadasa, it does not go

against the " taratamya " , as everything is as per the wishes of Shri Hari.

Shri Sheshagiri mentioned that we are not qualified enough to discuss how it

could turn, but our interest is to know the fact whether it turned or not.

 

7) Next the question turned to Taratamya. Shri Pandurangi told that Shri

Vyasaraya Thirtha is avatara of Prahlad and Shri Purandara Dasa is avatara

of Narada. How was it that Shri Narada who is at higher Kaksha can become

shishya of Prahlad? Shri Balakrishna answered this narrating an incident in

the life history of Shri Raghavendra swamy. It was said that when Shri

Raghavendra swamy visited Pandarapura, he did namaskara to Purandara Pillar.

When he was asked how cans he as a sanyasi could salute to a grahasta, Shri

Raghavendra swamy replied that he saluted to the mula roopa of Shri

Purandara Dasa. Shri Balakrishna clarified that whenever great people come

to earth, they behave like a common man, maintaining the general

relationship. So it is quite possible that in an avatara, a higher kaksha

devatha can be at lower position in earth.

 

With such enlightening discussion it was quite educative to everyone and the

session was concluded with the same stothra recitation. It is decided to

take up " Shri Dasavathara sthothra " of Shri Vadirajaru for the next session.

 

Later all the gents and few ladies went for volleyball game while majority

of other ladies relaxed in the sunshine. Next it was time for snack session.

Thanks to all members who brought delicious snacks following the strict

instruction that no rice items should be brought. Members refreshed

themselves with rava idly, Jamun, chakkali, kodubale, kharada avalakki,

mosaru avalakki, majjige and so on. As usual, Bhajans and devara Nama filled

the snack session with devotional spirit.

 

Thus it was a good session with exercise to both mind and body. We request

all the members to make use of such sessions and have fun time while

learning spirituality.

 

 

Regards

SVBM