bhushanake bhushana -Sri Sripadarajaru's composition

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Hare Srinivasa,Sri SripAdaraja gurubhyoh namah!bhushanke

bhushana idu bhushana – sEshAdrivAsa vasa veMkaTeshaâ€

Bhushana

has many meanings of which the meaning worthiness applies here.

What

is that which can make something standout or worthy ? This is the

question that Sripadarajaru answers. He says,†The Lord who has His

abode in the mountains called Seshadri , who is ever ready to grant

boons to His devotees and who removes the mountains of pApas of His

devotees is the one who can cause splendour in anything and make it

standout.â€

 

Sri

Sripadarajaru specially talks of the human body in this . The Lord of

the seven hills is Seshadrivasa. Sesha also stands for the kundalini

energy which can propel the jiva in the upward direction of spiritual

upliftment. The seven centres of energy in the human body end in the

sahasrara which is 1000 petalled lotus with the Lord seated in it. If

it is awakened by directing concentration on the Lord ,then it

carries the jiva spiritually upwards. He says that the real purpose

or the worth of the human body lies in realising this Lord who is

seated there and the the bimba rupa in the heart lotus.

 

Sri

Purandara Dasaru has spoken of this in the devaranama

kanninolage

noDO

AdhAra modhalAda Aru chakrashODhisi bidabEku IShaNa mUrusADhisi suShuMna Eru allibhEdhisi nI para braHmana sEru

 

According to

kuMDAlini yoga there are six chakras in the body namely mulAdhAra,

swAdishTAna, manipura, anAhata,vishuddi, agnya. The seventh one is at

the top of the head .In the normal man these chakras are said to be

downward facing,pulling towards materialism and pleasures of the

body, but in the yogi they are facing upwards carrying the yogi

towards spiritaul fulfillment.

This

entire devaranma is dedicated to how one can realise this using the accessable method of dedication of all activities done by indriyas to

the Lord.

 

 

Consider

the questions :

What

makes a decoration a decoration?

What

makes an oranament an oranament?

What

makes a diamond shine and suitable as an ornament?

What

makes gold shine as it does?

What

makes a rose garland fragrant and beautiful?

The

reason why all these things appear as they do is because God’s

design for each thing is unique and special for that thing. If the

diamond did not shine, then no one would use it for decoration. If

gold did not shine and bend as it does then no one would use it to

make intricate ornaments. Similarly the rose is designed to be

fragrant , soft and beautiful. The unique designer who designed all

these is the great Lord Sri Narayana. So behind the power of every

decorative piece lies the power of God who is there not only in the

designing process, He exists in the actual object and gives it the

name, form and properties which make it attractive or otherwise.

In the BG 10.41 Lord Krishna says:

“yadyad

vibhthi matsatwam shrimadUrjitameva vA

Tadtadevavagachcha

tvam mama tejOamsha samudbhavam “

“If

there is something that is beautiful, majestic, glorious or

especially worthy then you have to understand that these entities

are endowed with a speck of My splendour.â€So Sripadarajaru befittingly says

“bhushanke bhushana idu bhushana –

sEshAdrivAsa vasa veMkaTeshaâ€

We

see from the charanams that the topic of discussion are the various

parts of the body and the things which contribute to the apt usage of

these organs. In what context is Sripadarajaru using the word

"worthiness" for our jNAnendriyas and karmendriyas ?

 

In

our social speech we say that “ I have decorated the hall of my new

house. I have purchased all the things that would be befitting the

hall.†It implies that the better suited the furniture is to the

hall the better decorated it can be considered. Similarly if we look

at our body as the house then what are the suitable decorations? One

may ask where is it told that our body is a house. For that Lord

Krishna’s answer to the another question of Uddhava as “Which is

the real house?†is given as

griham

shareeram mAnushyam….

Once

we have reached upon this agreement then how should we decorate it?

This is answered by this devaranama. The various karmEndriyas and

jNAnendriyas are the doors, windows and the mind,.buddhi and heart

lotus are the rooms. This concept is treated in detail by Sri

Jagannatha Dasaru in Vibhuthi sandhi of HKAS too.

 

 

bhushanake

bhushana idu bhushana

seshAdrivAsa

sri varaveMkaTesha

 

 

nAligege

bhushana nArayana nAma

The

tongue should always chant “Narayana†nama. What is Narayana

nama? It is the enumeration of the infnite auspicious

attributes of the Lord who is devoid of any defects. He is the

storehouse of excellent attributes which can never be exhausted.

Sri

Vadirajaru says

“nArAyana enniro…â€

and

“nArAyanana nene

manave nArAyana neneâ€

Sri Purandara Dasaru says ,â€Narayana

ninna nAmada smarane saaramruthavu enna naaligege barali.â€

 

kAlige

bhushana hariyAtreyu

The

movement of the feet towards the kshetras of Sri Hari is the

appropriate decoration for the feet. One may ask, “How can we keep

on going on yAtra all the time? Don’t we have to live and earn our

keep?â€

 

This

should be understood from the devaranama of Sri Vijayadasaru

sAdhanake

bage gANennabahude

sAdaradi

guru karuNe tA paDeda balikA....

......naDadaaDuvudu

ella hariyAtra “

 

When

is it possible ?

 

It

is possible when one remembers Hari during every movement one makes.

The dedication of all movement should be made to Hari with the humble

knowledge that “He is the doer, He is inspirer of all action.

Without the endowments of the legs, feet , body and mind to make us

move we would be unable to think or to move. So when we move, if we

think of the movement as the yatra to Hari’s temple, or the

movement as a pradakshina to Hari as told by Purandara Dasaru . One

may ask how can we think of it as Hari yatra when we have really not

visited a Vishnu temple This is can be done because ,Hari exists as

antaryami in every object and person and whomsoever we went to visit,

the antaryAmi rUpa of the Lord in that person or object is the Lord

whom we are refferring to as the purpose of visit.

“ sulabha pujeya mADi

….

tirugADi

daniyuvude harige pradakshineyuâ€

 

Alayakke

bhushana tulasi briMdAvana

In

the mind which is the Alaya of this body, we should have built a

brindavana of Tulasi. What is the significance of this? The tulasi is

the most sacred offering that can be given to the Lord. A tulasi dala

is said to contain 5317 roopas of the Lord. So imagine how many

roopas of the Lord will be in the entire brindavana. It is said to

have the Vedas in each dala and all the theerthas in the roots, the

devathas in the stems. This shows that the tulasi brindavana is the

personification of great purity and knowledge .

 

yanmUle

sarva theertAni yan madhye sarva devathAH

yadAgre

sarve vEdAH tulasi tvAm namAmyaham

Our

mind should be filled with purity and knowledge always and

Sripadarajaru is giving us a clue to remembering about it. If we

imagine that there is a tulasi brindavana in our mind, then we would

not pour dirty water into it. So we would take precautions on the

kind of thoughts we entertain and curb the entry of negative

emotions.

Such

should be the state of mind of a devotee who has dedicated one’s

entire being to the Lord.

 

karNakke

bhushana vishnu katheyu

The

ornament most suited to the ear is the story of Vishnu the one who

pervades the entire universe. The ear receives the sound waves from

the space around . Each and every nook and corner of the universe is

pervaded by the Lord. Each and every sound is the name of the Lord

for the knowing devotee. For a devotee who is in the process of

sadhana, these are the Apta vAkyas and effort should be made to

associate every sound with the Lord and His infinite auspicious

attributes.

dhAnave

bhushana yeraDu hastagalige

Giving

away material wealth or the wealth of knowledge to the deserving is

the most worthy action for the hand. What is the use of a hand that

is decorated with finger rings or other ornaments if such a hand is

not used for such a honourable thing as “dAnAâ€.

 

Giving

to the those who need is called as dharma . Dharma should be adhered

to by giving within ones means to anyone who comes and asks .dAna is

different. The person who receives the dAnA should be deserving of

it. All giving should be done with the special anusandhana that

it is the Lord Himself who receives as well gives being the inner

controller of all.

Sri

Jagannatha Dasaru says

 

‘obbanali niMtADuvanu

mattobbanali nODuvanu bEDuvanobbanali nIDuvanu mAtADuvanu

beragAgiabbarada heddaivaniva mattobbaranu lekkisanu

lOkadoLobbanE tA bAdhya bAdhakanAha niRbhIta.

mAnave

bhushana manujarige

Being

born a human being, one has to be dignified. Dignity is the hallmark

that distinguishes humans from all other life forms. What is dignity?

That conduct which is true to the moral and ethical values and

elicits respects from other human beings automatically can be

referred to as a simplified definition of dignity.

dhyAnave

bhushana muniyogivaryarige

Muni

is a person who is able to contemplate on the shastric literature

and come to firm conclusions about “Godâ€, “Soulâ€, creation

etc within one’s capabilities. Yogi is one who is able to take all

life’s dealing with equinamity, without craving for anything or

without deriding something always. To achieve such a state the

sadhaka needs to do contemplation of the scriptures afters study

under a guru.

mAninige

bhushana pati bhakthiyu

The

direct translation is :The word mAnini means a woman who is proud of

her husband due to his greatness in all virtues. The

best and natural ornament for such a married woman is the love and

respect for her husband as she observes his excellent gunas. It

may not be easy to see the difference between one who is glowing with

the feeling of love and one without such affection for the spouse in

the material world ,but we do hear of the examples in our spiritual

literature.

 

nirupamAnaMda

Atma bhava nirjarasabhAsamsevya

rujugaNa

arase satvaprachura vAnimukha sarOjenA

Lord

Brahma is to Saraswathi as the sun is to the lotus. Her overwhelming

regard, respection and devotion to the Lord is evident in the

brightness of her face which as if blossom with one look or thought

of Brahma..

 

The

outward array of costumes and ornaments hardly matter as the real

personality does not depend on this as much as it does on the

internal outlook of the soul. So Dasaru talks of the speciality of

this and this is caused by the Lord being the internal preraka for

all actions and experiences. This example is given to show that the

outward definitions of being a worthy person need not necessarily be

sufficient to actually decide if one is worthy or not, but one has to

look deeper at the mindset of the person rather than just the

physical aspects.

Another

way of understanding this: The mind is the emotional side of every

sadhaka. The mind should be devoted to the Lord who is the pati of

every mukthi yogya soul.

 

Sri

Purandara Dasaru says ,

'muttaida

AgirabEku mudadiMdali

hattu

nooru nAmadoDeya hari namma patiyeMdu"

raMganna

nODuvudu kaMgalige bhushana

The

most worthy use of the eyes is to the the images of the Lord and the

Lord inside His creation and other proper adhishTanas like earth,

fire, saligramas,figurines, Brahmins etc as described in the

shastras. Sripadarajaru himself has sung

kaMGalityAtako

kAveri raMgana nODade

maMgalAtmana

paniva shira bhushana

The

head should bow in humility to the Lord. One should firmly fix the

concept of dAsa-Isha bhava as the relationship of the jiva to the

Lord. Knowing the greatness of the Lord and the total dependence of

the jiva on the Lord’s control , one should always bow to the Lord.

 

 

Sri

Vyasarajaru sings about these very same things in a neethi bodhana

song.

aMtaraMGadali

hariya kANadava huTTu kuruDano

......

mamateyiMdali

kEshavage namaskAra mADadavne mrigavO eMdeMdigu

A

person who does not bow his head with respect and devotion to the

Lord is nothing but an animal implying that the appropriate use of

the human body has been ignored and measures should be taken to

rectify it while there is still time.

sriMgAra

tulasi mani koralige bhushanA

The

devotion of SriMahalakshmi to the Lord can be observed ,using many

ways in which she is always serving Him. Purandara Dasaru says

Enu

dhanyalO lakumi entha mAnyalO

sAnurAgadi

hariya tAne seve mADuvalu

Similarly

we observe a tulasi plant.

Tulasi

dala- for archane

Tulasi

kAshTa – for lighting lamp

Tulasi

kaTTae – grinded on the sANe kallu for abhisheka ,

 

tulasi

mani mala for doing japa

Tulasi

is always serving the Lord and is one of the AshTamahishis of the

Lord with an amsha of MAhalakshmi. Having such a tulasi mani mala

around the neck exudes a positive vibration suitable to the spiritual

sadhana.

raMga

viTTalana nAma atibhushana

raMga

viTTala is the final decoration for everything because He is the

cause of the attribute of every thing or jiva that has the property.

chEtanAchEtanavilaxaNanUtana

padARthagaLoLage balunUtanati suMdarake suMdara rasake rasarUpa …

2.23

He is different from the living and non

–living entities. He is new and special always and in any new thing

He exists in it giving it the special property of newness, novelty,

beauty or taste.

Sri KrishnArapanamastu

I am not the doer,Lord Hari is the doer

Even so,whatever He makes me do is His worship by His grace

R.Parimala

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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