Sri GuNa Rathan KOsam : Part XIV-- SlOkam 5

[Guest guest]

Namo NaarAyaNA !

 

Dear BhakthAs:

 

The fifth slOkam of ParAsara Bhattar's eulogy of

Sri RanganAyaki ThAyAr takes this form:

 

yadhyAvath tava vaibhavam tadhuchitha

sthOthrAya dhurE spruhA

sthOthum kE vayam ithyadhasccha

jagruhu: prAnchO virinchAdhaya:

apyEvam tava Devi! vaangmanasayOr

bhAshAnabhij~nam padham

kaavAcha: prayathAmahE kavayithum

svasthi prasasthyai girAm

 

Dr.V.N.VedAntha Desikan's translation of the Meaning

*****************************************************

 

Where is Your greatness? And where am I ?

My qualifications do not justify even my

harbouring a wish to sing a hymn in Your

praise.Indeed great sages , even Brahma

included, have declared that they are not

competent to sing of You. Not withstanding

all this , I begin my venture ;why? To acquire

a certain sanctity and auspiciousness for my

tongue and my words , which are otherwise

faulty and mean .

 

Additional comments by Sri V.N.Vedantha Desikan Swamy

******************************************************

 

Oh RanganAyaki ! Oh My Mother ! May all the eforts

of mine as an unqualified poet to praise You become

auspicious ! May they be filled with MangaLam ! May these

words coming out of the mouth of a lowly one like me

praise You and as a result confer on me the powers to

create auspicious eulogy about You !

 

Oh Periya PirAtti ! How great is Your Vaibhavam

and how far spread is that Vaibhavam ! adiyEn ,

who is an ignoramus about Your limitless glories

is totally unfit to compose a sthOthram that

adequately captures Your Vaibhavam . Infact ,

adiyEn is a lowly person and as such is far removed

from even the thought of composing such a sthOthram.

 

You might say : " What is new here ? In ancient times ,

BrahmA and other dEvAs used to disqualify themselves

as unfit ones to praise us through sthuthis in a

mood of naichyAnusandhAnam . My child ! Are you

following their route ? "

 

adiyen replies: " Yes indeed ! Even for BrahmA ,

the act of creating a sthuthi that came close

to describe adequately Your kalyANa gunams

was an effort that was far above his capabilities " .

 

Inspite of this well known deficencies , adiyEn

with my unpious speech tries boldly to eulogize You ,

whose glories can not be comprehended by vaak or manas .

Why do I persist in this impossible task ? adiyEn

persists with my self-assigned task for my tongue and

my words to be cleansed and be blessed with sanctity

and auspiciousness as a result of association with

the celebration of your most sacred Vaibhavam.

 

Additional comments by V.Sadagopan (V.S):

******************************************

 

Sri ParAsara Bhattar is engaged here in the time honored

tradition of poets , when they approach their task of

creating sthuthis on BhagavAn and His divine consort.

 

Echos of Swamy AlavandhAr and KurEsar , the father of

ParAsara Bhattar can be heard in this fifth slOkam of

Sri GuNa Rathna Kosam .

 

Swamy AlavandhAr expresses his unfitness even to

approach the task of eulogizing the Lord this way:

 

yadhvA srama avadhi yathA madhi vaapyasaktha:

sthoumyEvamEva kalu tEpi sadha sthuvantha:

VedAsc chathurmukha mukhAsccha mahArnavAntha:

kO majjadhOraNu kulAchalayO: VisEsha:

--Swamy AlavandhAr SthOthra rathnam: slOkam 8

 

(comments): Oh Sriman NaarAyaNa ! adiyEn started

my sthuthi proudly by saying : " na: kula dhanam ,

kula dhaivatham , Aravindhalochanasya paadhAravindham

sthOshyAmi " .Then adiyEn recognized quickly that

a mandha mathi and alpaj~nan like myself making

a sankalpam to eulogize You is a saahasam because

even MahAns like BrahmA and SivA fail in their

attempts to praise adequately even a fraction of

Your glories. Yet , adiyEn of feeble sakthi

attempts to praise Your limitless vaibhavam

to the limit of my abilities with huge struggle.

adiyEn is emboldened in this self-assigned task

through the rememberance that VedAs , BrahmA and

others praising You . Their efforts would be much

greater than mine and yet in a ocean of Your

kalyANa guNAs , what is the difference between

a blade of grass and a small object that is sunken

there ?

 

Swamy AlavandhAr goes on to state : " mandha buddhE:

mama thu srama: sulabha:ithi mama cha ayam udhyama:

uchitha:( For me of feeble intellect , this fatigue

is but natural , when adiyEn attempts to praise You .

This makes it appropriate for me to engage in this effort ).

 

Swamy AaLavandhAr follwed the example set by Pokai Piran

( avaravar thaanthAmaRinthavAREtti) and Swamy NammazhwAr

( tangaLanbhAratthamathu SOLVALATTHAAL talai tali siRanthu

poosippa ). ParAsara Bhattar follows the path of AaLavandhaar

and his father KurEsar in humbly acknowledging his futile

effort to praise the kalyANa guNams of Sri RanganAyaki.

 

The father of Bhattar, Sri KuResar ( linked to the AchArya

lineage of AaLavandhAr-Periyanambi-RaamAnujar) addresses

Sri Devi in his Sri Sthavam and comes out with thoughts

identical to Swamy AaLavandhAr , when he refers to

the futility of the effort to praise adequately the anantha

kalyANa guNams of Sri RanganAyaki (Sri Devi). He says:

Oh Sri Devi! " taavakA: guNA: VaachAm manasaam cha

durgrahathayA khyAtha: " (Your limitless auspicious guNAs

are famous in that they can not be accessed by mind or

speech ).Those can not be described even by the Master of

speech,BrahmA ( Tvath sathguNArNonidhou thaadrusI vaak

VAACHASPATHINAA API SAKYA RACHANAA KATHAM ?).

 

KurEsar goes onto say that PirAtti's kalyANa guNams

are such that it would be laughable to attempt to engage

in praising them( haasyam na manmahE). In a mood of

naicchAnusnadhAnam ,KurEsar describes himself to

Sri Devi as a dim-witted one (aj~na:), low ( neechan)

and with mean mind ( dushta buddhi).He says that inspite of

all these deficencies , he is going to attempt

to praise Sri Devi just as a dog is not afraid

to lick the waters of the most sacred GangA river.

The dog's thirst is quenched by that attempt and

no harm comes to the glory of GangA by the contact

of the tongue of the lowly dog (BhAgIrathi sunA

leeDaapi nahi dhushyEth; Suna: aarthisthu saamyEth).

KurEsA's naicchAnusandhAnam serves to focus on

the kalyANa guNams of Sri Devia as GangA PravAham ,

limitless and svathassuddham.The Sunaka sparsam

leading to sukha sparsam for the Sunakam (Dog)

is reason enough . ParAsara Bhattar follows

the lead of his great father and his prAchAryans.

 

The phrases and thoughts used by Swamy AaLavandhAr,

KurEsar and ParAsara Bhattar are almost identical.

 

We will conclude this posting with the insight

provided by KurEsar (Sri Sthavam )and AaLavandhAr

(ChathusslOki)in their sthOthrams about Sri Devi:

 

BrahmEsAdhi suravrajas sadayithas tvath daasa daasI gaNa:

SririthyEva naama tE Bhagavathi BhrUma: katham thvAm Vayam ?

--Swamy AaLavanthAr , ChathusslOki: SlOkam 1 passage

 

( Oh Mother! BrahmA , the DevAs and their wives

are Your assembly of servants; You are addressed by

the most glorious name of Sri Devi with the connation

of ShaadguNya sampoorNai .How can we ( the lowly ones )

dare to speak about you and attempt to praise You ?)

 

yasyAstE mahimAnam athmana iva tvath vallabhOpi Prabhu:

naalam maathumiyatthayA niravdhim nithyAnukoolam savtha:

--Swamy AaLavanthAr ,ChathusslOki : SlOkam 2 pasage

 

( Oh LokaikEswari! LokanAtha dayithE !Your Lord

Sriman NaarAyanan of limitless prabhAvam Himself

is unable to assess as to how great Your vaibhavam is .

He becomes asakthan in these efforts. If that is so ,

what about our ( poor ones) lot , when it comes to

eulogizing You ?).

 

Devi tvanmahimAvathir na HariNA naapi thvayA Jn~AyathE

-- KurEsar in Sri Sthavam

 

{ OH Sri Devi! Your Lord is Sarvaj~nan and Sarva Sakthan

(Omniscient and Omnipotent). Even He can not fully

assess Your prabhAvam to His satisfaction. If that were

to be so, we are not even fit to open our mouth

in any effort to praise Your limitless auspicious

attributes .}

 

PirAtti's dayA is " SvathO nithyAnukoolam "

(always inherently comforting and dayA-laden) .

Keeping this assuaging thought in mind ,

ParAsara Bhattar proceeds with his sthOthram

on Sri RanganAyaki in the way shown by his

father and Swamy AaLavanthAr. Swamy Desikan

will follow the panthA (path) shown by

ParAsara Bhattar in his Sri Sthuthi.

 

SrimathE RanganAyakyai Nama:

Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SatakOpan