Chapter 27-Kurai Ondrum Illai

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Sri:

 

Chapter 27

 

Parasara bhattar asked, “Won’t the same Bhagavan who protects us when we are

sleeping, protect us when we are awake…?” Bhagvan established sleep for us

just to make sure that we realize this truth; through this He makes us

realize that He is sarvantharyAmi. All siddhantams accept that Bhagavan is

the only rakshakan. We have to bring this Bhagavan for all the yagams and

poojas that we perform. But, without doing anything of that sort(bringing

Him to the yagams), Paramathma came to Bali Chakravarthy’s asvamedha yagam.

The end result of Maha Bali’s yagam itself is coming face to face!

Bhagavan who is all pervading, the One who is vibhu and visvam, has

controlled Himself, hidden everything and has the appearance of a dwarf as

Vamanan. He is vibhu: He is also prabhu—He’s above everything; He controls

and owns everything. His arrival to the yagam means something very

special…this is Paramathma’s ‘uththama gunam’. Aandaal has much to do with

the vamana avatharam. She celebrates vamanan as ‘ongi ulahalandha

uththaman’. Uththaman…? Uththaman is one who does service for others; he is

the one who will do anything for people who accept him. Bhagavan asked to

be Arjuna’s sarathy because Arjunan accepted Him. Whenever the chariot

would stop, Bhagavan would get down first, and then help Arjunan get

down!—look at His ‘bhavyam’! He did whatever Arjuna said, such as ‘stop

here’ or ‘go there’! After the war was over, Bhagavan changed! He didn’t get

down first, instead He asked Arjuna to get down. He said, “get down and go

away!”. After Arjunan got down and moved, Perumal got down; the chariot

burnt right away! For all that time, Perumal was the One protecting the

chariot from getting destroyed. The same way, the devas worshipped Him, so

He went to the yagam looking for them. He came to the Earth as Vamanan.

This yagam is a very difficult yagam. When listening to it, your hands will

start shaking, your words will become mumbled. You will start sweating, and

wouldn’t know what to ask. The ‘yaasipavar’ will only be able to utter,

‘adiyen…adiyen’. Whatever happens to a person during andhima kalam(time of

death), will happen to the person conducting the yagam—sasthram says this.

So, it is equivalent to loss! But Paramathma overtook this kaimkaryam!

Mahabali was completely surprised to see Paramathma. He said, “I don’t

know who you are…” What will Paramathma say to that? So He says,

“apoorva:”, He also says, ”you have not seen Me before and you will not

understand it if I say who I am.” I(author) come here everyday to give

upanyasam, but do you(meaning us) understand it? NO! Even I don’t understand

everything to the full extent! Can I say that I understand the full meaning

of visva sapdam? All we can do is talk about PerumaL’s gunams. There is a

quote, “kondi pasuvukkuth thadi kati vitaarpola…”—this upanyasam is like

that.

A man had a hundred cows, but one of them is thushtai(not good). It won’t

eat grass, but will eat the crops instead! The owner of the crops beat the

cow severely one day, and the cow was sad. And he also placed a wooden

stick on the cow’s neck, so that if it if moved, the stick will hit the

limbs and will be extremely painful. So, the cow stopped eating the grains!

We are the same way. We have a stick tied to us called the Vishnu

Sahasranamam. Since we talk about it everyday for two hours, our hearts

don’t go astray. All of us can sit at one place and one time and get a

chance to think about Bhagavan. In kali yugam, group prayer is more

effective. If we give upanyasams and listen to upanyasams, due to Bhagavad

anugraham, everything will become clearer to us. This is also because of

His blessings!

So, ‘apoorva:’ means something that cannot realized fully—this is the reply

that Perumal gave for Bali Chakravarthy. So Bali asked the next question,

“Where do you come from?”. HE says, “My town is everything that is in this

bramha srushti”! Bali took pity on Bhagavan as soon as he heard HIS reply.

He thought, “He seems to be such a great mahan, but He is in such poverty!”

If one says, “This whole of chennai is mine”, what is the real meaning? It

means that he owns absolutely none of it—it usually co notates a person who

thinks, upwards is the sky and down there’s the earth. So Mahabali took

that meaning! His next question, “What does your father do?”. HE says, “I’m

an orphan, I don’t have anybody.” After hearing this, Bali chakravarthy got

courage. He wanted to give something to this visitor who had such Bramha

tejas. So he said, “What do you want…? Ask for anything, and I’ll give it

to you.” So Bhagavan shows His small Feet and says, “I want three feet of

earth the size of My Feet” And Bali replied, “You don’t wany anything

more…?” HE said, “I don’t need it. I will be quite satisfied with the

amount I mentioned earlier.” Sukrachariar was witness to this dialogue. He

thought, “ I am going through so many difficulties performing this

yagam…someone has come just at this time, to swindle everything….!”

Sukrachariar warned Mahabali, but Mahabali didn’t listen to him. Even if

Narayanan Himself came in front of him, Mahabali was not going to stop, he

would give the Brahmanan what He wanted.

 

Mahabali was a ‘parama bhagavaththothaman’. Even though he tortured the

devathas, he would keep his promises. Even though he knew that Perumal

Himself came in front of him, Bali did not back out from his word.

VindhyavaLi is Mahabali’s wife; when Bali is giving the dhanam, she comes

near to give water. At that time, Sukracharyar takes the form of a frog

inside the kamandalam and stops the water from flowing. At that time,

Bhagavan pierces the kamandalam with his visvamithra dharbam which He has in

His Hand. Perumal came as a bramhachari with tejas; the dharbam signifies

this position. He covers His chest by a vasthram called ‘krishnaageenam’.

If you’re asking why He covers His Chest, even during His bramhachari

‘kolam’, Piraati does not leave Him! She’s holding on tightly to His Chest!

He covered His Chest, because He didn’t want Piraati’s ‘paarvai’(sight) to

fall on Bali. If that happens, then Bali will have an unlimited amount of

wealth! Then, this avataram cannot attain ‘poorthi’. So, He covered His

Chest. When VindhyavaLi pours water, Perumal seems as if He is accepting it

with His Hands, while He pokes Sukrachariar’s eye with His dharbai. So

Sukrachariar lost one eye! If you’re asking on whether it’s possible to poke

someone’s eye and make them blind with a dharbai…well Perumal had Sudharsana

Chakram as His dharbai! Therefore, the dharbai had all the powers of

Sudharsana Chakram! The water flows down to Bhagavan’s Hands. At that

time, where did His Lotus Feet go…His Feet kept getting larger and larger!

It crosses bhulokam, and the other lokams, and even crosses Brahma’s home

called satya lokam! It crosses satya lokam and pierces aavarana jalam.

Aavarana jalam means the water that surrounds the world. Just as how in the

womb, there is water that surrounds the fetus(placenta), this aavarana

jalam(AS) surrounds each world. Bhagavan’s Feet pierces this jalam. Brahma

saw the Foot that crossed his home and went towards the AS. This is the

same Thiruvadi that all the four Vedas search for and couldn’t find! It’s

the Thiruvadi that our hearts and word(vaaku) search for but cannot realize!

There is a story about how manam and vaaku search for His Feet….I will

cover that in the next chapter.

 

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Sri:

 

SrimatE Gopaladesika MahadesikAya Namaha,

 

Kumari Bhagyalakshmi,

 

Thank you very much for your superb kaimkaryam of translating the

Vishnu Sahasranamam upanyasam of U.Ve. Sri Mukkur Swamin. This latest

post is easily the jewel in the crown. The references to the Vamana

avataram are deep and contain profound philosophical significance.

Kindly permit diyen to add the following observations:

 

First, Vamana avataram is the most celebrated avataram in the Vedas.

Specifically, the Rg Vedam extensively glorifies Bhagavan Vamana.

The Vishnu Sooktam Rk " Urukramasya SahibandhurittA: " glorifies the

rapidly growing feet of Trivikrama as they covered the entire

universe.

 

Swami Alavandar seeks the blessings of these Feet as the Ornament for

his head in the Stotra Ratnam salutation " KadA punah shankakalpaka

dvajAravindAmkusha vajralAnchanam Trivikramadvad charanAmbhuja dvayam

madhIya mUrDhAnam alankarishyati " . Swami Desikan blesses us with a

superb anubhavam of the Vamana avataram in verse 85 of the Daya

Shatakam " PrasakthamdhunAvidhi praNihitaisa paryOdakai: Samastha

durithachidhA nigamagandhinAtvam dayE.

AshEshamavishEshatastrijagadAnjanAdrIshituhu

charAcharamachIkarascharaNa PankajEnAnkitam "

 

In this verse, Swami Desikan is full of regret for the fact that he

was not born during the time of the Vamana Avataram, during which

every sentient and insentient being of the universe received the

grace of the rapidly growing Feet of Trivikrama. Swami Desikan

further elaborates on this fact by stating that the " Feet " of Vamana

treated every sentient and insentient being equally, while blessing

them. In this respect, the " Feet " are very much like the Ganges river

that cleanses one and all (who bathe in it) of their sins, regardless

of caste, creed, sex, affiliation, social status, and attainments.

Interestingly it is this. In this context, it may be asked " how can

the Lord's Feet be compared with Ganga, who after all arose from

those

very Feet during the Trivikrama Avataram? "

 

Swami Desikan provides the

answer with respect to these very Feet. Even Mahalakshmi was

separated

from the Lord's Feet during the Vamana Avataram. However, the

Padhukas

of the Lord offered constant protection to His Feet and retained

contact with those Feet. Brahma performed Sripada teertham to those

Feet and the waters from this Sripada teertham became the Ganga

river.

The Ganga river attained added sanctity on account of contact with

the Lord's Padhukas, which denote Satari Soori or Swami NammAzhwar

the Kulapati of our sampradayam. Swami Desikan has often emphasized

the well established tradition of Our Sampradayam that exclusive

worship of Lord Narayana is the foremost mode of worship.

Worship offered to His Bhagavatas is even greater. However even

greater than both of these is worship offered to Sadacharyas in the

line of Swami NammAzhwar. In this context Ganga attains a unique

position on account of repeated contact with the Lord's Padhukas

(during the Vamana Avataram, Rama Avataram, and

Krishna Avataram). Therefore, Swami Desikan compares the Lord's feet

to the Ganga river.

 

Swami Desikan then reconciles himself to the fact that although he

was

not born during the Vamana Avataram, He is privy to the unfailing

grace of Sadacharyas in the line of Swami NammAzhwar as a result of

which He is assured of nithya Kaimkaryam to the Lord's Lotus Feet.

Swami Desikan then asks, how does all this come about and provides

the answer with the resounding declaration 'undoubtedly due to the

Lord's Daya " .

 

Namo Narayana,

 

SriMuralidhara Dasan