kaMDu kaMDu nee enna -Devurunama by Sri GuruPurandara Dasaru

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Hare Srinivasa!

 

kaMDu kaMDu nee enna kai biDuvare krishNa

puMDarIkAksha purushotamA

 

In this devaranama Sri Guru Purandara dasaru has unconditionally submitted himself to the Lord and is questioning Krishna as to why the Lord is looking on ,without offering His hand to uplift him. This seems to have been composed in a Krishna temple located in Honnur in Karnataka. GuruPurandara vittala is known to be the ankitha of one of the sons of Sri Purandara Dasaru.

In the first stanza he asserts that he has no relationships with anyone or any desire to enjoy the pleasures of material life and profers absolute faith in the Lord . The bhava of the song shows a kind of longing for something to happen.

This might be the stage just before aparOxa when the dasaru hankers continuously for the Lord's grace and feels desolate when time moves on without the darshan. Even in the world one observes that at such times as when one is waiting for a loved one, time moves like a snail. So also for Dasaru. He describes the movement of time very soulfully disclosing his longing for his loved Lord to appear.

After begging and beseeching the Lord, Dasaru finally gives an ultimatum to the Lord by asking Him if He wants to retain His title of bhakta vatsala. If so ,He had better be obedient to His devotee.

 

Dasaru is asking the Lord with righteous indignation as to why he is not responding when he ie., Dasaru has fulfilled the requirements for such grace. This should not be considered as a demand from Dasaru as none can demand from the Almighty and He showers His grace only on those whom He wishes to. It is more of a entreaty to the Lord but framed as a question. To clarify his position he address the Lord with two specific attributes.

He address the Lord as 'punDarIkAksha'. The one with eyes like the red lotus. This refers to the destroyer of enemies and here Dasaru is entreating the Lord to destroy the enemy that is bondage which is obstructing his release . Next he addresses the Lord as 'purushotamA'. He has framed a question at the Lord. Usually questions/accusations are asked of juniors and subordinates not of seniors. So Dasaru says, " I am asking this question of You, because You are the eternal sAkshi and have been witnessing everything and feel that I have the right to ask You because of my overwhelming longing to see You. I understand fully well that You are purushotamA and are not answerable to anyone. You are the supreme Lord and I am Your dasanu dasa."

 

How is it that Dasaru is claiming such special attention from the Lord?

To understand this we can look at this sloka of Sri Vyasarajaru.

 

Sri Vyasarajaru lists the nine tennets of Madhva's philosophy

sriman madhva mate hari parataraH

...............................................................

mukthir naijasukhAnubhutiH amala bhakthiH cha tat sAdhanam

 

"Mukthi is the experience of one's own self's bliss which is different for different jivas and such mukthi can be obtained only through abiding devotion."

 

Everyone may profess to have devotion to God. But how can Dasaru stake a claim to the Lord's grace?

 

To this Srimad Acharya has defined bhakthi. He says,

Bhakthi is that uninterrupted flow of devotion towards the Lord knowing fully well about His greatness, His infinite auspicious attributes and His complete independence and the dependence of all other entities on Him for their very existence, and such a love should exceed one's love for one's family,possessions or any other material connections.

In fact this hankering for more and more knowledge about the Lord's greatness causes the emotional stirring of the soul which has its outlet in devotional expression through different organs of the body. Every action ,every talk becomes a samarpana to the Lord as none other than He matters to the bhaktha. Pleasing Him, the beloved ParamAtma becomes the only aim of survival. In the BG the Lord says ," One who is engrossed in such devotion is a yogi and to such a one, the day appears dark and the night appears like day." A coded message to say that all that which the ordinary person sees, the yogi doesn't and all that the ordinary person does not see, the yogi sees and expereiences.

One with such bhakti will be graced by the Lord.

 

This is substantiated by the Lord in BG.

 

ananyAshchiMtayaMtO mAm ye janaH paryupAsate

tEshAm nityabhi yuktAnAm yogakshemam vahAmyaham

" One who continuously thinks of the Lord , One who always wants to do karma to please the Lord and earn His grace, one who is finding out ways to do this everyday , every second of his life ,to that person, I shall always provide yoga and kshema."

Yoga means to be fortunate enough to always get what one aspires for and keshma means to be able to retain and expereince the good things that one already has.

 

To understand how the definition of Bhakthi given by Acharyaru and that by the Lord match, Let's consider what the Lord said.

A person who thinks of the Lord always and engages in activities to secure His grace is ananyAshchiMtayaMtO . If at all such a person is involved in the world he sees the Lord as the antaryami of all beings, as the doer of all karma ,as the origin for all beauty ,as the source of everything. Such a person is untouched by any attachment for relations, possesions etc or moha for anything as he understands God's hand behind everything and sees only Him not the instrument. It follows that such a person will be a bhakta of the highest order who thinks incessantly of the Lord and His

glory and loves the Lord above all material things and relationships and will be blessed with yoga and keshma by the Lord. The higest yoga obtainable by a jiva is to be able to understand one's own self and expereince the bliss and knowledge that make up the essence of the jiva. The highest kshema is never to return to samsaara after having obtained mukthi.

 

kaMDu kaMDu nee enna kai biDuvare krishNa

puMDarIkAksha purushotamA

 

baMdugalu enagilla badukinali sukhavilla

niMdeyali noMdenaiyya nIrajAkshA

taMde tAyiyu neene baMdu balagavu neene

eMdeMdige ninna nambidenu krishNA

 

Dasaru is putting his case before the Lord. He says, " I don't have any relations in this world. I am weary of this world and its pleasures and I am very very tired after going through the miseries of samsaara endlessly. O NirajAkshA . You are my father,mother, relative and friend. You are my only resort. I have placed my complete trust in You always , O Krishna ........Why are You delaying Your grace on me even after witnessing my every plight since time immemorial?"

The words eMdeMdige points to an important fact about Dasaru's nature-steady in trust. He has always had faith in the Lord and is once again reposing his faith. This is to clarify that he is not asking the Lord questions because of lack of faith. It is only a way of expressing his longing for the Lord. In fact it is this faith that moves Dasaru to have

this heartrending monologue with the Lord.

 

Here Dasaru address the Lord as NirajAkshA. He says " Whatever I am saying about my travails in samsaara show that the world which is created by You, has many types of sights, sounds and inputs which are impure, but though You pervade the entire creation, You are untouched by these impurities and You are the origin of everything, propelling each entity along, according to its inherent nature. "You remian pure and flawless just as the lotus remains pure in the midst of polluted water. "

The lotus gives us a clue about this infinite guNa of the Lord.

It is a fact that the Lord's creation holds many secrets about His auspiscious attributes and it is the joy of every bhakta to discover them according to one's own ability.

 

mAtA nrisimhAshcha pitA nrisimhA

bratA nrisimhAshcha sakhA nrisimhA

vidyA nrisimhAshcha draviNam nrisimhA

...........................

This sloka lists the specific relationships that we have on earth and then tells us that all this is Lord Narasimha. It implies that He is the source and cause.He exists as the antaryAmi in the mAtA and takes care of the child . He exists in the father. He exists in the brother, friend and in the knowledge and wealth. Not only does He exist He is the cause for that person being that specific relative of oneself, He is cause for that person's behaviour towards oneself, He controls the path of each one. Anything that one possesses is controlled by NrisimhA the inner controller of all things. When Dasaru says he does not have any bandus etc he must be meaning this, "One has no bandus independent of the Lord and everything depends on Him. At the final stage before aparOxa, one accepts this dispensation of the Lord without even a

tiny bit of distrust and that is total surrender."

 

This total surrender is what the Lord accepts, nothing less. This is evidenced in the episode of Draupadi manaraksha.

Sri Purandara Dasaru describes this very vividly in his padya .

.........

yArigodaridar enna dUru kEluvarilla

bAra biDisuvar yAra kANe nAn i dareyolage

sAridare poreva kamsAri ninnallade

iMyArO enagApta baMdu

mAridaru dharma devategenna vallabaru

bAra ninnadu yeMdu naMbideno enAthananu

neerinolagaddu ksheeradolagaddu

nArAyana rakshisO

asura bennaTTi bare pashupatiya rakshisidi

hasula dhruva rAyage olidi

......................................................

rakshisO anAtha baMdO

taMde tAyiyu neene baMdu balagavu neene

iMdenna kulaswAmi gurupitAmaha neene

eMdu naMbida enna mAnabhimAnavanu

ninagoppisdanai ........................

Sri Purandara Dasaru describes in stages , how Draupadi devi first seeks helps from those present there and when none of them come to her aid being bound by different bonds made of thier own karma ,she calls out to Lord Krishna as the eternal saviour of those who understand that He is the only saviour. She lists all the bhaktas who did the same thing before her like Shiva,ahalya,prahlada, dhruva etc and received the Lord's grace. Then Dasaru describes the scene. " So saying she lifts her arms in surrender and does Atmasamarpana ,she closes her eyes and calls out 'Govinda, gOviMda, ......" . Then the Lord who was sitting in Dwaraka with Rukmini devi at his side, responded to her prayer and blessed her saying," Let the costumes of Draupadi become limitless and let her feel peace and happiness." Those physically present did not remove her

distress but the Lord who is not seen but is always present responds instantly to the deserving devotee.

There are many more episodes in the purAnas where the Lord has shown that he never forsakes those who repose total faith in them. In this case, Draupadi is well aware of this fact but being in a human avatara she portrays her part to life and expresses anguish about not being helped by anyone present. All these are to show the mukthi yogya souls about the Lord's beautiful guNa - karUNA.

 

kshaNa oMdu yugavAgi truNaparvatavAgi

eNisalalavalla ee bhavada vyatheya

sanakAdimuNi vaMdya vanajasambavanaiyya

phaNishAyi prahlAdagolida narahariye

Dasaru is talking about the relative nature of time. Waiting for the Lord has been going on and on . Now every moment of delay seems like one yuga and every tiny one millionth or trillionth of a sub atomic particale called as truNa seems like a mountain. Dasaru has given the example of time in two ways. One comparing time to units of time itself as in kshana and yuga and then comparing time to physical entities as in truNa and parvata. This is to emphasize the extent of his longing for the Lord.

 

Sri Gopala Dasaru also questions that Lord as to when He will be able to see Him.

eMdu kAMbeno enna salhuva taMde uDupiya jANana

maMda hAsa praveeNana iMdira bhU ramaNanA

"When will I see You my father, my Lord , the most auspicious who is worshipped in Udupi, who has a beautiful smile playing on His lips always and who is the giver of bliss to His consorts Indira devi and Bhu devi." Indira devi and Bhu devi are two forms of Sri Mahalakshmi.

 

At this point Dasaru remembers the names of various ekAMta bhaktas of the Lord as if to obtain more support from them for his argument with the Lord.

Why does he address the Lord by referring to the devotees ?

It is because the Lord is pleased with those who revere His devotees and showers His grace on them.

In the HKAS 13.12 Sri Jagannatha Dasaru talks of the power of the devotee to uplift those who remember them with respect.

keMDa kANade muTTidaru sari kaMDu muttalu dahisutippude?

puMDarIka dalAyatAkshaNa vimala padapadma

baMDuNigaleMdenipa bhaktara hiMdu nOdida mAtradali

tanu diMDu keDahida narana pAvanamAlparu AkshaNadi

"Just as the fire is sure to burn irrespective of when one knows its power and touches it or one touches it unknowingly, similarly the mere vision of the bhaktas who are incessantly attracted to the Lord's lotus feet is sure to make one pious."

Here Dasaru defines a bhakta by saying that just as honey bee is attracted to the red lotus flower and incessantly buzzes near it and enjoys this bliss so also the bhakta is attracted to the Lord's lotus feet. What a wonderful comparison! One can just prostrate physically or mentally in front of such a bhaktha with full contemplation of his devotion to the Lord and one will become instantly purified. Guru Purandara Dasaru is saluting the great bhaktas -Sanakadi rishis by glorifying them as the one who are always worshipping Vishnu, he remembers Brahma as the one being fortunate to be born as the Lord Narayana's son, he remembers Shesha as the one being chosen by the Lord to lie on and Prahalada as the devotee for whom the Lord took the avatara of 'narahari' .

Indirectly Dasaru is hinting to the Lord that You have graced all of these devotees, so why not me? This becomes clear in the next stanza .

 

bhaktavatsalanembo birudu bekAdare

bhaktarAdina nAgirabEDave

mukthi dAyaka dEva honnuru puravasa

shakta guru puraMdara viTTala srI krishNA

 

"O guru puraMdara viTTala my sweet krishNA who resides in the town of honnuru, who is the giver of mukthi the highest purushartha, if You want to retain Your title of bhakta vatsala You should consider my proposal. You should listen to my pleas."

Dasaru is continuing the context of the previous staza here by referring to the Lord who has always been favouring His devotees . Here Dasaru brings out the guNa which is unique to the Lord. He is mukthi dayaka ie He bestows the highest position obtainable by any soul depending on its eligibility, yet He is so humble and loving to the devotee that the devotee can question Him without fearing His wrath.

 

In this devaranama at Dasaru has used different bhavas. These emotional outbursts that Dasaru has expressed in the same song shows his desperate need to convey his longing to the Lord. This is the kind of attachment and devotion one needs to develop towards the Lord and then wait for His grace which will surely come when the time is ripe.

 

srI krishNArpaNa mastu

I am not the doer, Lord Hari is the doer

Whatever He makes me do is His worship with His grace

R.Parimala

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