SriPadarajaru was a great saint and scholar in the Madhva lineage, who encouraged the singing of devaranamas in Kannada during the daily puja ritual. He inculcated this system of singing the glory of the Lord in the language of the masses. He is known as the pitAmaha (grandfather ) of Dasa sahitya . In this devarama, Sri Sripadarajaru extols the glory of the Lord of the seven hills and seeks His blessings .

hare veMkaTa shaila vallabhA

pAliso nee enna

The name 'hare' meaning "hari= lion"brings to mind the aupisious form of Lord Hari in His avatara as Narahari wherein He appeared out of the pillar to protect His devotee -Prahlada. Here Hinyakashipu denotes the entire hordes of ajNAna within the recesses of everyone's memory shells. By contemplating Lord Narahari's auspicious form which destroyed the personification fo ajNAna namely Hiranyakashipu , we beseech Him to destroy the ajNAna inside us and enable us to visualize His glory to the extent possible for each one. "veMkaTA shaila vallabhA" address the Lord VenkaTa of the seven hills namely Tirupathi.

Hari is also the auspicious bimba murthi of one and all. Recalling that He is the inner controller of one and all is the first step to realise His supremacy.

vallabha means beloved above all,supreme, lover

"Oh Lord Hari, the remover of distress , the remover of ignorance , the Lord of the seven hills, You are the most dearest to me, above all, I entrust myself to you, please do the needful for my upliftment."

In MTBN 1.84 Srimad Achyarya says,

"mahAtmajNAna pUrvastu sudriDassarvatOdhikaH

snEho bhaktiriti proktastaya muktirna chAnyata ||

"That steadfast , unshaken, abiding love for the Lord with the knowledge of His Supremacy which is not swayed even in times of difficulties, and is above all other ties of the world is called as bhakti and such an overflow of devotion towards the Lord results in His grace and thereby mukthi, there is no other means."

Sripadarajaru in this devaranama is saying to Lord Venkateshawara -" I consider you as my only beloved as well as my saviour. So please take care of me."

Sripadarajaru is hinting that one has to follow the above teaching of Sri Madhva in order to be eligible for mukthi.

If one asks Why Hari, Why Venkateshawara? Why not some other devatha?

To that Sripadarajaru answers

duritadUra nInallade dareyoLu

porevara nA kANe yennANe

"You are above all defects and miseries. And you are the only one who is completely free from defects of any kind. I cannot see anyone who would care for me like You do , even though I have looked far and wide."

nA kANe - tells us that he has looked where he needed to look ie in the shruthis , in the words of his guru...etc, but he cannot find anyone greater than Venkata who has no doshas and therefore He is the one who can save others.

One who is himself sufferring in the same problem as oneself cannot uplift the other, Someone who is not in the same misery as oneself only can come to the aid of the one suffering. So Dasaru is highlighting to the sadhakas that Venkata the one who is supreme is without any defects and hence can protect all other who seek His shelter.

The same universal truth is echoed by Sri Vadirajaru in Lakshmi Shobane where he says,

"tA duHkhiyAdare surarArtiya kaLedu
 modavIvudakke dharegAgi
mAdhava bAhane kesaroLu muLugida
bhAdhipa kesara biDisuvane "
" If one is already expereicing sorrow, how can He rise above it and remove the sorrows of the demigods, humans and other jivas ? We do know from the shastras that the Lord is sought after when some problems arise in the clan of the demi gods. That is itself proof of the fact that Lord Madhava is above all this murky and dark waters of bondage and ignorance." Why ? It is because one who is in the muddy waters of the marsh cannot clean of the mud stuck on others . It is quite a natural occurence. If someone gets stuck in a marsh, they need outside help to get out to safety. Anyone who is also in the same plight will only sink further into the marsh with any movement or trials of getting out.

Sripadarajaru expresses his bhakthi to God by saying one word ' vallaba'

And he is now addressing Venkata shaila - The one who can cut away entire mountains of papas . The one who is gracing the temple at Tirupathi. The one who is the Lord of the seven hills, the one who is Supreme without any equal , one who is the beloved of Sripadarajaru. He shows us how to call out to the Lord with the minimum of words but the maximum import.

Aru ninna horetenna porevaru

nirajAkSha hariye a

pAramahimA purANapuruSha

gORa duritagaLa dUra mADiso

"Who is there who will give me shelter, other than you, O lovely Lord with the lotus-shaped eyes, O lord with limitless greatness, O Lord who is there since time immemorial, who exists when no one else is aware of themselves , please remove the deadly dangers and miseries afflicting me."

Sripadarajaru is highlighting the "SadguNapoorNatva" and "sarvadOsha duratva" attributes of the Lord, the upasana of which is a must for all sadhakas. Srimad Achayaru has highlighted that the manushya sadhakas need to the "sachhcidAnandaAtma" upasana of the Lord. sat - flawless , chit - limitless knowledge, Ananda- limitless complete bliss, Atma -mamaswAmi the controller who dwells inside the heart lotus of every jiva. Within these four any number of attributes can be contemplated on according to the ability of the sadhaka.

Eg: sat - flawless . - achchuta - one who is having no restriction in time/space and gUNas, These lead to omnipresence, omnipotence. The two of these together imply omniscience - one who knows everything at all times and controls all at all times. He controls the mukta jivas too - muktAnAm parama gatiH. This leads to antaryAmi gUNa anusandhana. The one who controls me is the same as the one who controls all other beings in the world. The Lord exists in all sentient and insentient things because He controls them meaning He is sarvavyApta - vishVa. He exists in the vibrations of sound -and is the originator of sound which was the cause of srishti -mahAswanaH. He has no restriction of time means - bhuta bhavishya bhavat prabhuH.

Sri Sripadarajaru says one can continue doing anusandhana without any end and hence calls the Lord - apAra mahima - infinite greatness

apAra mahima - signifies His limitless knowledge as the greatest of the great is knowledge. If one asks how can greatness and knowledge be same ?

For that let us look at this sloka quoted bySri Vidyamanya Theertharu in his Bhagavad gita lectures .

vittam banduH vayaH karma chaiva cha panchami

etAni mAnyastAnAni balIyO hyutarOtaram ||

" A relative is more greater in status than a richman, still greater is a man older than oneself and greater than him is one who is dedicated to his word and above such a one is an educated or knowledgeable person." So if follows that the greatness of an entity lies in the knowledge factor and being immeasurable in gUNAs, the Lord is the only entity with complete knowledge of all things sentient and insentient at all times and all places. So He is definitely capable of giving shelter to anyone whenever or whereever His shelter is resorted to. But the condition is that one should understand His control over all others and then seek His shelter. To such a one the Lord never forsakes and bestows His grace and eternal beatitude.

Since he has addressed the Lord as saviour of those in distress, one may wonder if the miserable,pitiable scenes that the Lord witnesses every second being the antaryAmi of all jivas, leaves any imprint on Him

As an answer ,Dasaru is addressing the Lord as nirajAksha - the one whose eyes/indiryas resemble that of the lotus.

The lotus plant lives in a dirty pond but has the special property that it continues to look serene, beautiful and fresh inspite of its miserable location. akshA means eyes in particular and indriyas or sense organs in general. So the Lord's interaction with the jivas through His Will by being the instigator for all actions does not taint Him in anyway. He remains pure, and serene always. Here His will is His indriyas as the Lord is not different from His attributes.

indirEsha aravinDa nayana ennA

tande tAyi neene

hondidavara aghavrindava kaLeva

mandarAdridharane shridarane

aravinda nayana - one whose eyes are like the lotus flower.

"You are the King of the kings, You are extremely beautiful with the lovely eyes like the lotus flower, You are my father and mother. O Lord who carries the Mandara mountain, You are the remover of the miseries of those who seek Your shelter."

Here indirEsha signifies the omnipotent power of the Lord being the consort of Indra devi-Mahalakshmi the most superior among all others. and also being the controller of the Indra - the king of the demi gods. But inspite of being powerful, He is not arrogant but looks at His devotees with His soft, beautiful eyes . He takes complete care of His devotees just as a father and mother do for their infant. It also implies that He is the controller inside every father and mother on this earth and inspires them to perform actions necessary for the all round upliftment of their child.

Dasaru says ," I know that You remove the distress of those who seek your shelter and you bestow on them their rightful desires."

What is the proof for this?

Dasaru says ,"Isn't it You who carried the mandara mountain on Your back to hold it steady ."

maMdarA is the mountain which was used by the devas and daityas as a churning stick for churning the milky ocean to obtain nectar. At the time, the mountain was brought there with the help of Garuda who was empowered by the Lord to do so and then the Lord manifested in His Kruma roopa to hold the mountain in place, to enable churning. In case one wonders about the Lord assuming this form, and what would happen to His powers , Dasaru addresses the Lord as 'srIdharene"

sRi is one of the six attributes which form the part of the shatguNas that Bhagavan is defined by.

srI is the power or control on all beings and things. So Sripadarajaru highlights that the Lord retains the control at all times and that all His forms whether it is Kurma or Sridhara have similar auspicious attributes.

mangaLAnga mahanIya guNArnava

gangOdita pAda

angajapita ahirAjashayya shrI

rangaviTTala doreye shrI hariye

" You are extremely auspicious . You are full of infinite wonderful attributes, Your feet gave the Ganges to the earth, You are the father of Brahma, You relax on the the sepent king -Shesha ' O Lord Ranga viTTala, You are my master."

Once again Dasaru is highlighting the Dasa -Isha bhava that one has to have with the Lord . Humility can be developed only when one is aware of the magnifience of the Lord and His compassion in caring for all the jivas irrespective of their attitudes to Him. He sees that all get their deserved destinations. Everyone knows the "Ganga river" to be a very cleansing river which is proclaimed to cleanse the body and soul of sins of countless janmas. This mahima has been obtained by the Ganges because of having its origin at the feet of the Lord. During the Trivikrama roopas when the Lord measured the three steps, while He took the first step and crossed the earth and all below, the second one the world's above, at the time nail of the Lord made a dent in the brahmAMDa and seeing the beautiful feet of the Lord, Brahma paid homage to the Lord by pouring the water from his kamandala on to the Lord feet. This is the pAdOdaka of Lord Trivikrama which flows down to the earth and because of the excessive impact Shiva was asked to intercede and receive the water in his locks. Even today when the nirmalya of puja is removed it has to be placed in a golden plate assuming that Shiva is there to take it as he has earned the right to take the nirmalya first. Nirmalya should always be revered and should never be discarded with disrespect.

"O Lord, You are the father of Brahma who was instrumental in creating the world, the king of the serpents Shesha offers seva to You by becoming Your bed. You are the great One , O Lord and I am proud to proclaim that You are my master ,O Ranga vittala."