Vyasa viTTala dasaru who lived around or before 1775 and was called as Kallur Subanna dasaru before he received the initiation to Haridasa parampara by Venugopala dasaru . He has written “Vijaya dAsara kavacha” which is like an armour to the devotee. He says that he has experienced the grace of the Vijaya Gurugalu and everyone who seeks will definitely receive the Guru’s grace.
Here is a beautiful devurnama by him describing the glories of the Lord in his dashaavatars along with glorious descriptions of other forms and leelas of the Lord.
He describes the perfect avatars of the perfect Lord in four different ways . In the anupallavi once and then in the three charanas he first glorifies the Lord in other ways and then describes the well known dashavatars along with some more forms of the Lord, using completely different words.
tiliyadO ninnATa tirupathiya veMkaTa
Dasaru says,” Oh Tirupathi Venkata, you are having so many leelas that is impossible to know them. We can only sing your glories in a few limited ways out of the many that the puranas describe.” veMkaTa – the destroyer of sins .”
Chanting His name destroys all sins. The Lord in Tirupathi is called Venkataramana/Venkatesha. By acknowledging that we do not know even the leelas that He, the Lord has displayed or documented in His avatar as VyAsa we are accepting our plight of being in ignorance, which is the first step towards redemption.
In the BG 4.9 Lord Krishna tells Arjuna :
janma karma cha me divyaM yO vetthi tatvataH
tyaktvA deham punarjanma naiti mAmeti sOrjuna II
“O Arjuna , he who truely understands that My births and deeds that are entirely strange/divine is freed from the round of births after he leaves his body and attains Me alone.”
holeva nirOlu geLuva moreya nelevanODuva
suliva kambadi ileyanaliyuva balire bhargava
kalana chedisi koLala dwanige naLinamukhiyara
nAchisuva balu hayadalada bahu havanegArane
holeva nirOlu- You shine in the water. Normally objects don’t shine when they are immersed in water but the Lord who is aprAkrita is not bound by the laws of nature. He is ever shining with jnAna anada – matsya
geluva moreya – you have a face that is always victorious – Kurma avatara
In the dashavatar stuti of Sri Vadirajaru, Kurma avatar is described as bhuvana nirmANa dhutavikritih – It means that even though the Lord created the universe He at no time suffers from any discomfort and does it effortlessly by His mere wish. He is the picture of perfection without any flaws , whatsoever.
nelevanODuva – varaha avatar .In the swAyambhuva manvantara the demon called HiranyAksha (not the one born of kAshyapa and Diti) stole the earth, You took the form of a boar and saved the earth by killing the demon. You bestowed your grace on this earth with your one look at it. It also can mean the Lord pleased Bhu devi by looking at her as she sat on His lap after being rescued by the Lord.
suliva kambadi – Lord Narasimha who came out of the pillar to save Prahlada. The word suliva means peel. The pillar was peeled open and it opened up gracefully just like an orange when peeled exposes the fruit inside.
ileyanaliyuva- Vamana – He measured the earth with his feet. King Bali the king of asuras was ruling supreme and wanted to annex the kingdom of Indra. He was full of ego and pride. The Lord out of His extreme compassion for his misled devotee Bali decided to bring him back on the track of sadhana.
Pride is the greatest impediment for a sadhaka. It should be forsaken at all costs. Only the knowledge of the supremacy of the Lord and His supreme control in all situations can take away the feeling of “I have done... I am .....I can.... I did.... etc etc etc.
balire bargava – He was commended by the sages for saving them from the Kshatriyas who had deviated from their duty. He was establishing dharma as promised in the Bhagavad Gita.
kalana chedisi – Rama who killed Ravana the stealer of Sita.
koLala dwanige nalinamukiyara nAchisuva – Lord Krishna who played the flute and made the gopis with beautiful faces dance – rasa lila
balu hayadalada bahu havanegArane – One who has a great force of warriors on horses (Kalki who sits on a horses and heads a great army) and who dispenses justice based on the actions/contemplations of all chetanas.
-haya means horse , dala –means army
– havanike means to contemplate or to distribute.
Oh Lord you are the end of all contemplation .
You are the Lord who distributes the fruits of the actions of all chetanas. You are the most impartial Lord who disburses according to the efforts.
Aru ballaru nimma shri lakumiya manasige thOruviyO
parabomma ulidavaru ballare nirajAsana bomma idu ninna marma
neerolage mane bAra bennali kOredADiya
nArasimhane dareya bEDida dheera purushane
vAribhandana mAra janakane nariyara vrata validu
kudureya Eri mereyuva suMdaraMgane
"Oh Lord Venkata, who can claim to know you, even Mahalakshmi Devi who is with you at all times is able to visualize only what you show her and never all your infinite gunas . You are the great origin of all (father of all) and how can anyone know about you more than Mahalakshmi, you are the father of Brahma born in the lotus flower from your navel. It is but because of all these gunas that you are so mysterious. Your mystery lies in the fact that You can never be known by anyone fully at any time. In the Bhagavatha Sage Shuka tells Parikshit that “He who knows that he knows not, about the Lord is the one who knows the glory of the Lord.”
Now again Dasaru describes the avataras in another way.
neerolage mane – you live in the water- matsya avatar . During the prAlaya before the Vaivasvatamanvantara the Lord took the form of the golden fish with a great horn and He supported a wooden boat with all the necessary equipment to enable Manu to continue with creation and life after the pralaya was over.
bAra bennali – You carried the mandara mountain on your back during the churning of milky ocean – Kurma avatar
kOredADiya – You are the Varaha avatar who took the form of the boar and lifted the earth with your snout and place it back in its orbit after killing the Adidaitya HiranyAksha who tried to destroy the earth.
nArasimhane – Oh Lord Narasimha who took the man-lion form to remove the distress of your great devotee – Prahlada. Acharya Madhva describes in his Narasimha Nakha stuthi that each nail of the limbs of Lord Narasimha shone with as much brilliance and power as a thunderbolt. This description can ignite the imagination of the devotee to imagine the Lord’s immense magnificient power .
dareya bEDida- As Vamana He went to ask biksha from Mahabali the King of Daityas and asked him for 3 steps of land which He would measure with His feet.
dheera purushana – He is brave and wild form of the Lord who wanted to see the end of all the kings who had wronged the sages.
vAribhandana – Lord Rama who built the bridge accorss the ocean to reach Lanka and kill Ravana.
mArajanakane – He is the father of Kama, the devata who instigates love
nAriyara vrata validu- He performed the Rasa lila with the gopis of brindavan who were the greated pativratas. Here Dasaru has included mArajanaka first and then nAriyara vrata validu to shows that Lord Krishna did not have any kAma as he is the father of kAma himself had performed the Rasa lila to please the hearts of His great devotees –the gopis
kudureya Eri mereyuva – He rode the horse and is all grandeur
suMdarAngane- Oh Lord , you are the embodiment of beauty with perfectly proportioned limbs.
sakala mAyavidEnu vrikana vAyu sakana salahide neenu
bhakuthi indali tutiparige suradhEnu sura kAma dhenu
nikhila vEdOdhAra giridhara akila bUmiya
kanDa narahari yukuthiyali nelenalada bhargava
mukuthigosuga phalava savidane rukumananujeya ramana
boudhane lakumi ramanane kalki roopiye
Dasaru is questioning the Lord about all the mAya he initiates.
"You are the cause of all, the cause of the ignorance of the jiva obscuring it from realising its true nature as well as the screening the greatness of the Lord .You saved Sugriva the friend of Hanuman . You are the giver of all wishes to your bhaktas who glorfy and chant you names so much so that we call you the Kama dhenu of good people. Kama dhenu is a cow in Swarga loka ,endowed with great powers to bless the good people who ask it for anything . Similarly you are just waiting to grant the wishes and the moment your bhakta asks , you bestow your grace.Infact the cow kAmadhenu get its name from you and not vice-versa. You are the power behind the kAmadhenu in swarga too. "
In the BG7.14 the Lord acknowledges that He is the initator for all perplexing situations.
daivi hyEsha guNamaYi mama mAya durathyaya
mAmeva ye prapadyanthe mAyamethAm taranthi te II
Lord Krishna says,” This divine mAya Goddess Durga presiding over Tamas very dear to me, perplexes people with her irresistable power which is very hard to tide over. Hence the persistence of this eternal ignorange in all jivas. But those who surrender to ME alone, surmount it.”
nhikila veDodhAra – The Lord took the form of Matsya and kept the entire Vedas in His belly during the time of pralaya. He is the bestower of knowledge as all knowledge emnates from Him.
giridhara – He is the one who supported the mountain mandhara on His back to help the devas in churning the ocean to obtain amrutha/nectar. Similarly He can hold our mind steady as we try to churn the ocean of shastras to obtain the nectar of the Lord ‘s glory- HarikathAmrutha. Here we can also think about His govardhana giri leela during Krishna avatar.
akila bUmiya kaMDa – After rescuing the Bhoomi from the Adi daitya HiranyAksha , the Lord placed her playfully on His lap as He played about in the subtle ocean. Dasaru is trying to give us an idea of the omnipresence of the Lord The earth is huge as know from expereince and Science. Dasaru says that the Lord looked at the entire earth in one glance –kaMDa means saw at once or one scence viewed by Him, then imagine His how infinitely huge He can be.
narahari – nara means human and hari means lion, He who has the man-lion form and came to the rescue of his devotee Prahlada. The demon Hiranyakashipu thought that he was being clever in asking for a boon from Brahma that he should neither be killed by man or animal, by dead or living things, during the day or night. By assuming the form of Narahari the Lord shows His omnipotence. What seemed like a impregnable boon to the demon, was just a play for the Lord. We cannot begin to cognize His omnipotence.
yukuthiyali nelenaLadiha – Bali the grandson of Prahlad performed a yAga to fulfil his desire to rule over the Land of the devas. He had the ambition to conquer Indra and with performed a unvaishnava yaGa which led to the Lord bringing down his pride, He spoke words which were more apt than they seemed at first. Bali was asked to grant three steps of land to be measured by the feet of Vamana which appeared tiny and small to him. Once it was granted the Lord took the huge form of Trivikrama and sent Bali down to the nether regions. At that juncture Prahlada appeared before the Lord and asked the Lord to forgive his grandson. The Lord assured Prahlada that He was doing it for the crushing of the pride /ego of Bali and would bless him with the kingdom of the devas in the next manvantara.
bhargava – He who attacked the ksyatriyas who were causing distress to the rishis .
mukthigosuga phala savidu- Lord Rama who accepted the berries offered by Shabari an old woman from the hunter’s clan who had been serving her guru and waiting for the arrival of Lord Rama. He then bestowed Shabari with moksha.
rukumaanujeya ramana – Who is the giver of joy to the sister of Rukuma – ie the husband of Rukmini –Lord Krishna
boudhane – Who appeared as Lord Buddha breifly to destroy the knowledge of the tripurasuras who were born again and were obtaining the right knowledge for which they were not eligible, which Lord Krishna had dispensed during His avatar in Dwapara yuga. Acharya Madhva says in his MTBN that the Lord took the place of the baby of Jina and spoke words which were percieved to mean “illusion-shUnya” by the people around. To strengthen their belief He asked the devatas to hurl weapons at the baby and attack it. Nothing happened to the baby as Lord Vishnu had taken its place with His aprAkrita form. After a while the Lord returned the actual baby and went back to His abode. The baby(not the Lord) grew up to be known as Buddha who preached “Shunya vAda”.
Here Dasaru is praying to the Lord Buddha who showed himself briefly , to remove ignorance and bestow right knowledge to deserving devotees.
lakumi ramaNane – Dasaru is deviating from the order of the dashaavatars in order to explicitly state that the one whom He is glorifying is none other that the Lord Narayana, the bestower of happiness to Mahalakshmi. Dasaru wants to reiterate that the form or avatars of the Lord is just the same as Lord Narayana. There is no difference in attributes between the different forms of the Lord.
kalki roopiye : The kalki avatar where the Lord takes to riding a horse and has a double edged sword to tackle the enemies of dharma.
ninna roopina leela noDuvajanake kannu sAvira villA
nA pADi pogalalu pannagAdipa nalla neenariyadilla
kannu muchchade bennu toruvi mannu kedaruvi
chinna golidane sanna vAmana aNNa rAmane
punya purushane banna baDakane heNNugala vrata
keDisi tEjiya bennanErida vyAsa viTTala
Now Dasaru is saying ,”Oh Lord you have innumerable roopas and each roopa has innumerable leelas associated with it, for people who want to behold them , they don’t have a thousand eyes and even of they had a thousand eyes these eyes would also prove insufficient . Not only my eyes are inefficient my tongue is also incapable of singing all the glories as Sesha devuru does”.
Dasaru is quite sarcastic at this juncture using the “sakhya” bhava of bhakthi and talking as one would to a close friend, saying , “I am not PannagAdipa, the king of snakes-Sesha with his thousand heads his two thousand tongues singing Your glory , you know this very well.” It is Sesha devuru who tells the Srimad Bhagavatham to Sanatkumara and other sons of Brahma. It is documented that Sesha devuru recited the bhagavatham with one thousand tongues and the used the other one thousand tongues to describe the glories of the Lord.
kannu muchade – the fish never closes its eyes – Matsya. The Lord in his matsya form kept the Vedas in His belly. The eyes are the gateways of light/knowledge. If the eyes are closed the world becomes dark.So also if a person wants to obtain knowledge he/she should be ever vigilant and keep his/her eyes/indiryas/manas controlled so as to allow wisdom to enter.
bennu toruvi –He offered His back to the Devas to place the Mandara mountain –Kurma. You are always there as the saviour for the devotee ready to offer your help when the need arises. If the devotee unloads or offers all his karma to You, you accept and make the devotee’s sojourn in the world without worry but full of bliss.
mannu kedaruvi –You rake the mud ie earth – Varaha who lifted the earth and placed it back into its orbit when Hiranyaksha an Adidaitya wanted to displace it. This fact is recorded even by scientists that at some point in the history of the earth it was displaced from its orbit but was restored. The cause for restoration is not known. But Bhagavatha mentions this leela of the Lord.
chinna golidane – You showered your grace on the little child Prahlada – Lord Narasimha
sanna vAmana – The form of the small boy – Vamana
aNNa ramane – You were called ParashurAma the Rama who showed yourself before you appeared as Dasharatha Rama
punya purushane – You are the embodiment of all purity- Rama
banna baDakane – You are “ Rama” who destroys the miseries of your devotees
hennugala vrata keDisi – The gopis of Vrindavan came running leaving thier houses, their cooking, children, husbands when you started making sweet music with your flute. Rasa lila.
tejiya bennanErida – who rode the brilliant horse- Kalki
VyAsa viTTala – Dasaru is offering his kriti to the Lord by referring to Him as vyAsa viTTala the aMkitha given by his guru Venugopala dasaru.