Desikasthothramala- Dasavatarasthothram

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SrI:

Dear All :

You would enjoy this tribute of Swamy Desikan to Sri Nrsimhan as intrepreted by Dr.Saroja Ramanujam .

V.Sadagopan

 

 

5. prathyaadhishtapuraathana praharaNagraamaH

kshaNam paaNijaiH

avyaath threeNi jaganthi akunTa mahimaa

vaikunTa kanTeeravaH

yathpraadhurbhavanaath avanDhyajaTaraa

yaadhrcChikaath veDhasaam

yaa kaachith sahasaa mahaasuragrhasThooNaa

pithaamahee abhooth

 

May the lion of Vaikunta, who has unimpeded glory and who for a moment , with His nails, set aside all His former weapons, by whose appearance by chance, the pillar of the palace of the great asura, not barren any more, became the paternal grandmother to all the brahmas, protect the three worlds.

 

Desika is known not only for his devotion and scholarliness in vedanta but also for his skill in language and poetry. His vocabulary is great and the word play, pun on the words and poetic imaginar tion, all vie with each other for excellence. Here he ascribes the status of the paternal grandmother to all the brahmas to the pillar in the palace of Hiranyakasipu. He says that by the appearance of Lord Narsimha in that pillar by chance it became the mother of the Lord who is the father of all brahmas in every kalpa and suddenly became bereft of its barrenness. It was a chab nce appearance becaseu the Lord di not know where Hiranyakasipu was going to point out and hence Desika says in his Varadaraja panchasath that the whole universe was Nrsimha garbha , containing the Lord ready to come out. Hence except that one pillar from which He came out the whole world is still Nrsimhagarbha. sthambhaika varjam aDhunaa api kareesa noonamthrailokyam ethath akhilam nrsimhagarbham (Var.Panch.23)

 

But the barrenness of the pillar before the Lord came into it is also correct because the whole Narsimhavathara happened for a short while only. That is why Desika uses the word sahasaa, suddenly. It was a chance happening in as much as the Lord waiting for Hiranyakasipu to point out a place and it was by chance he struck that pillar.

 

The Narasimhavathara as such was not only to prove the word of His bhaktha that the Lord is everywhere but also to make true the boon given by another bhaktha, His son Brahma. Though the Lord could have killed Hiranyakasipu in any form or with any weapon anywhere, anytime, He chose to appear as a man-lion, killed him with nails, on the door step, in the evening to fulfil all the conditions of the boon so that the promise of Brahma should not be made invalid. That is why Desika says that the Lord had laid aside all His weapons ha had been wielding from time immemorial and killed Hiranyakasipu wiyh His nails. The glory of Narasimahavatara is endless and one could go on writing on it but only the relevant details are mentioned here.

 

prathyaadhishtaa means counter-command, aadhishta meaning command and prathi added to it gives opposite meaning that the weapons were not ordered to do their job. The word prathi by itself means towards. prathyaadhishta, counter ordered, puraathanaanaam , ancient, praharaNaanaam, weapons , graamaH, collection.

 

kshaNam –for a moment , paaNijaiH- by His nails. The nails have taken over the work of His weapons for a shortwhile.

 

avyaath –may protect

 

threeni jagath- the three worlds

 

vaikunTa kanTeeravaH- the lion of Vaikunta.(Narsimha)

 

vigathaH kunTah yasmaath saH vaikunTaH- VaikunTa is so called because of the presence of the Lord there is no dearth of glory. Hence He himself is called VaikunTa here. akunTa mahimaa means undiminished glory.

 

kanTeeravah means a lion because of his roar, kanTasya-of the throat, ravaH- sound, yasya saH. VaikunTaScha, the Lord, asou kanTeeravaScha, the lion, ithi vaikunTa kanTeeravaH, Narasimha.

 

yath praadhiurbhavaath- by whose appearance

 

yadhrcChikaath- by chance

 

mahaasuragrhasTHooNaa- the pillar, sThooNaa, in the palace of the great asura, HiraNya kasipu,

 

avanDhya jaTaraa- became free from barrenness, vanDhyaa means a barren woman. jaTara means stomach and here the womb. The jaTaraa of the sThooNaa became avanDhya.

 

sahasaa- at once

 

pithaamahee abhooth- became the paternal grandmother

 

veDhasaam- of all brahmas. veDHaaH means Brahma and veDhasaam is genitive plural of veDhaaH

 

yaa kaachith means some pillar, that is, it could be any pillar.

 

With Narasihavathara the incarnations of the Lord in forms other than human was over and the rest of the incarnations were all in human form. But it is fascination to think why should He take all the trouble of assuming the form of a fish, tortoise, boar and lion for His dhushtanigraha and Sishtaparipalana which He could have done from where He was , that is from VaikunTa. But as Desika himself supplies te answer in Yadhavabhyudhaya saying that the Lord puts on different costumes like an actor and enjoys acting in the role, it is all His leela so that His devotees could enjoy Him in various ways.