The well known forms of Lord –Matsya, Kurma etc are described in many puranas. In this muNDige Dasaru asserts that He is not talking of those forms but hints of the other workings of the Lord in subtle forms ,which He assumes to uplift a jiva.
ಬಲ್ಲವರು
ಪೇಳಿರಿ ಸೊಲ್ಲನೆಲ್ಲ
ಪುಲ್ಲನಾಭನ
ಚರಣಶರಣ ಜನರೆಲ್ಲ
ನೀರೊಳಗೆ
ಸಂಚರಿಸುವುದು ಮತ್ಸ್ಯಾವತಾರವಲ್ಲ
ಭಾರವನು
ಪೊತ್ತಿಹದು ಕೂರ್ಮಾವತಾರವಲ್ಲ
ಕೋರೆದಾಡೆಗಳುಂಟು
ವರಾಹಾವತಾರವಲ್ಲ
ಘೋರ
ಬಾಯ್ದೆರೆದಿರುವುದು ನರಸಿಂಹನಲ್ಲ
ಬಂದವರ
ಬೇಡುವುದು ವಾಮನನಲ್ಲ
ತಂದೆ
ನುಡಿಕೇಳುವುದು ಭಾರ್ಗವನಲ್ಲ
ಸಿಂಧುವನು
ದಾಟುವುದು ಶ್ರೀರಾಮ ತಾನಲ್ಲ
ಬಂದು
ಮಡುವಿನಲ್ಲಿ ದುಮುಕುವುದು
ಶ್ರೀಕೃಷ್ಣನಲ್ಲ
ಬತ್ತಲೆ
ನಿಂತಿಹುದು ಬೌಧ್ಧಾವತಾರವಲ್ಲ
ಉತ್ತಮತೇಜಿ
ಏರಿಹುದು ಕಲ್ಕಿಯಲ್ಲ
ಭಕ್ತವತ್ಸಲ
ನಮ್ಮ ಪುರಂದರವಿಠಲ
ಹತ್ತವತಾರ
ತಾಳಿದ ಹರಿಯು ತಾನಲ್ಲ
ಬಲ್ಲವರು
ಪೇಳಿರಿ ಸೊಲ್ಲನೆಲ್ಲ
ಪುಲ್ಲನಾಭನ
ಚರಣಶರಣ ಜನರೆಲ್ಲ
Who
are ‘ballavaru’?
Sri Vadirajaru answers this in his devaranama ‘nArAyaNa nene’
ODuva naDuguva devare ballaru pADuva bEDuva muNigale ballaru
nODuva nuDiva mukuthare ballaru ODanADuva rame tA ballalu
.......................
nADolu khEDa kaLeva krishnage EDuMTendadiru mUDA
The knowledge that Lord Krishna is the deliverer of the difficulties and miseries of His bhaktas and that He is unique, none can match Him in any aspect is known by the jNANis .ie.ballavaru.
Ballavaru are “Mahalakshmi, Vayu, and other devatas,muNis’. Each one knows according to their capacity. Goddess Mahalakshmi’s knowledge of the Lord’s working is clear and available always, for Vayu devaru ,he access knowledge just by doing a chintane of the required aspect, for others the effort required goes on increasing. Ballavaru are also jNAnis who have had the Lord’s vision. The sadhaka is a ‘jignyAsu’ who is searching for the knowledge and here one has to interpret that the message conveyed by the Dasaru has to be effectively contemplated on in different situations in life by the jignyAsu unlike the jNANi who is aware of it always. The move to try to contemplate on the Lord as the liberator of the jiva is itself a giant leap.
The knowers of the greatness of God(ballavaru) , who are the devotees of the Lord PadmanAbha can tell about His glory in creative ways. Dasaru is one such great jNANi and He talks of the different ways in which the Lord helps the jiva out of His extreme compassion. The word (ಪುಲ್ಲನಾಭ) PadmanAbha talks about the Lord with the lotus in His navel-signifying creation. Creation is designed by the Lord for the sadhana of a jiva. The progress of the jiva from acquiring a body to achieving aparOksha jNAna and the way the Lord guides and gives prerane at each instant show His magnificent glory and leela. It is described in the form of a riddle.
Correlating the actions/purpose of each of the ten avataras with the Lord’s hand and control in the soul’s journey is the key to unravel the puzzle. The last two lines which describe the benevolence of the Lord when combined with the beginning address (ಪುಲ್ಲನಾಭ) shows the boundless compassion that the Lord has on His devotee and what all He does in order to make them free from bondage.
The jiva is given a human body by the Lord to do sadhana. Human body is the only form of life that can think and acquire knowledge. Getting such a body is by itself difficult and the jiva traverses many life forms. Finally it arrives in the womb of a human mother.
eMbattunAlku laksha jIvarAshiyannu dATi baMda ee shareera....
During the time that the jiva lies in the womb of the mother, the Lord supports it by taking care of it . One can marvel at this leela-miracle:The body which cannot exist on earth without the continuous breath of air, survives nine months immersed in the fluid of the womb. This is the Lord's marvellous leela. We see it all around us, yet few of us think of it as the mahima and benevolence of the Lord. He makes the feotus swim . The irony of creation of a human being who has never taken a breath for nine months, but when born cannot live without that breath. Who supported the jiva during that time ? He is not matsya avatara but He is the saviour who gives the proper nourishment for the growth of the sadhana shareera while encompassed in water.
ಭಾರವನು ಪೊತ್ತಿಹದು ಕೂರ್ಮಾವತಾರವಲ್ಲ
He carries the burden of the devotee on Himself. He is called as bhakta rakshaka. How? He tolerates the heavy weight of the pApa that accompanies every jiva in samsaara and inspight of it gives it a suitable environment to do sadhana.
pApa karmava sahisuveDe lakshmIdavana samarAda divijariLLa
ಕೋರೆದಾಡೆಗಳುಂಟು ವರಾಹಾವತಾರವಲ್ಲ
The daitya HiranyAksha represents the attraction of a soul to material wealth and power which causes it to move away from the track of sadhana. Instead of using the precious human birth to know about oneself and God, it is wasted on ephemeral delights. At those instances and in case of deserving devotees the Lord comes to the devotee’s aid.
As Varaha He used the koredADi to put the earth which was moved out of its orbit by Hiranyaksha ,back into its kaksha(orbit). In the lives of yogya sadhakas who have lost the track ,He inspires the guru who is the instrument(koredADi to put the jiva on the track .
ಘೋರ ಬಾಯ್ದೆರೆದಿರುವುದು ನರಸಿಂಹನಲ್ಲ
So far the jiva has been given a sadhana shareera , to endow a proper opportunity for sadhana, the Lord has discounted the papas by His extreme benevolence and given the right environment for spiritual progress. Next, He ensures the eradication of wrong knowledge.
Hirnyakashipu is the symbolic representation of wrong knowledge. Not being aware of the Lord’s supremacy and attributing life and experiences to one’s own innate ability is not just ignorance but an unforgivable blunder. Just as Narasimha killed the daitya Hiranyakashipu who refused to accept the Lord as the primal source of everything, the Lord keeps His mouth wide open to cut and chew away the ignorance in the mind of an eligible devotee and make Him understand the truth as it is.
Sri Gopala Dasaru accuses Lord Narasimha of not removing the ignorance of His devotee.
jNAna shoonyana nAgi nA ninna marethare
enna nI marevyenO pElO sri nArasimhA
But this is just Gopala Dasaru’s closeness to the Lord that gives him the authority to talk like that to the Lord who has the ‘gOramukhA’. This is how he refers to the Lord in the previous stanza of the song –kAyo srinArasimha........
He who as Narasimha killed Hiranyakashipu kills wrong knowledge in our minds ,thereby destroying our mental diseases and leads us to right knowledge and thereby, moksha.
ಬಂದವರ ಬೇಡುವುದು ವಾಮನನಲ್ಲ
In HKAS 4.26 Jagannatha dasaru says that the Lord accepts the karma of the jiva.
'jIvakritha karmagala biDade ramAvaranu svikarisi phalagalanIva
adhikArAnusAradali avarige anavarata"
During the course of enjoying a meal, or enjoying some activity, if the devotee remembers the Lord and says krishnArpaNa ,even involuntarily then the Lord puts His hands out to ask for some of the food just as a small child puts out its hand in front of the mother when she is eating.
uNuuNutha mai maretu krishNArpaNa enalu kai koMba
arbaka jaNANi bhOjana samayadi kai yoDDuvaMdadali
So far the jiva has moved 5 steps, acquiring a body, having a suitable environment and senses to acquire knowledge,a guru to show the path,eradication of ignorance,accepting karma and uplifting the soul,spiritually. With the awareness of the Lord’s complete control on all our thoughts and actions if one offers it to the Lord with a full heart, He accepts it and grants excessive grace to the soul just as He accepted dAna from Bali and bestowed on him the padavi of the future Indra .
ತಂದೆ
ನುಡಿಕೇಳುವುದು ಭಾರ್ಗವನಲ್ಲ
He
listens to His bhaktas .
solla lAlisi kaMbadim baMda bhakuthanige
"He listened to the words of His great devotee, Prahlada and came to save him."
Due to His boundless compassion He assents to the words of His bhakta.
Enu karuNAnidhiyo hari mattenu bhaktAdInano - HKAS-2.16
In the Bhagavatham the Lord expresses how deep His love for a bhakta is.
He says ,”If anyone harms my devotee then I shall see that they are punished. Why even if my very arms were to harm my devotee, I would not hesitate to cut them off.”
This is to show the extent of His love for His bhaktas and should be taken only in that context.
ParashurAma did not hesitate to cut of the head of His own mother at instruction of his father ‘jamadagni’. So also the Lord gaurds His devotee and reacts instantly to the pleas of His devotees. He is called ‘Apta bandhu’
In one devaranama Purandara Dasaru says
chiMte yAke mADuthidi chinmayaniddAne
…………
ballida bajakara hridayadi niMtu puraMdara viTTala
Sollasolligavare bayake sallisuttidAne
He sits inside the heart lotus of the jNAnis and controls all aspects of his environment so that it is favourable and suited to the jNAnis wishes.
ಸಿಂಧುವನು ದಾಟುವುದು ಶ್ರೀರಾಮ ತಾನಲ್ಲ
A devaranama by Sri Kanaka Dasaru gives a clue to the sindhu as well as the bridge that rAma builds.
srI rAma nAmava nene manve
rAma yeMdavane dhanyanu
hIgeMdu shruti tatigalyu pogaluthive
taruni sutaru samsAraveMba
E sharadiyolu mulugirade manave
"The attachment to the family, property and other things in the world are like an ocean in which a jiva drowns unless He is rescued by the bridge built with the rAma nAma". So rAma can take us accross the sindu meaning ocean . Dasaru says Rama just didn't build the bridge to cross the ocean to reach Lanka, He builds it between His devotee and Himself .
ಬಂದು
ಮಡುವಿನಲ್ಲಿ ದುಮುಕುವುದು
ಶ್ರೀಕೃಷ್ಣನಲ್ಲ
Our
mind is like a pool and the arishadvargas are the heads of the
Kalinga snake.
The Lord makes it His pleasure to stamp on these heads of avaguNas of His devotee and make them free of it.
satguNava kaddavara aghava kadivanu anaghaneMdenisi (HKS)
Does He do it to everyone,if so then how come our experience with people contradicts it ?
He does not do this favour to everyone. The favour is only for the devotee.The devotee has to fulfil the requirement of contemplating on the auspicious attributes of the Lord, only then the Lord will trample on the snake heads of kAma, krOdha, lObha, mOha ,mada and matsarya.
ಬತ್ತಲೆ ನಿಂತಿಹುದು ಬೌಧ್ಧಾವತಾರವಲ್ಲ
The biMba aparOskha is granted by God wherein He reveals Himself to His bhakta. It happens when the two screens namely the jivAchAdika and the paramachAdika seperating the jiva from the Lord and making it unaware of its true nature as well as God's are removed revealing the glory of the Lord as per one's yogayte. He shows His true form to each devotee according to what the devotee deserves. The leela of the Lord where He decides to unveil the jivAchAdhika and a little of Himself as per the yogyate is referred to by Dasaru as- ಬತ್ತಲೆ ನಿಂತಿಹುದು
ಉತ್ತಮತೇಜಿ
ಏರಿಹುದು ಕಲ್ಕಿಯಲ್ಲ
By
now the progress of the jiva has made it completely tuned to the
Lord, the aparOksha has removed the sanchita and AgAmi karmas from
the jiva’s account and the jiva is pure. It is fertile with the
thoughts of the Lord and His auspicious attributes .Dasaru compares
such a mind to a fast moving able horse.
What is the relationship between the horse and mind?
A horse is the fastest animal used for travel by people . The mind is faster than the fastest horse and hence a comparison is possible. A jNAni's mind is fast as well as pure . The Lord rides this horse ie He grants the knowledge of Himself to the jNAni and makes the jNAni expereince the bliss. He also makes the aparOksha jNAni (GURU) to engage in works in the world for the benefit of other deserving jivas. He travels across the scriptures and brings the essence of it to the sishyas.
ಭಕ್ತವತ್ಸಲ
ನಮ್ಮ ಪುರಂದರವಿಠಲ
ಹತ್ತವತಾರ
ತಾಳಿದ
ಹರಿಯು
ತಾನಲ್ಲ
The Lord who is compassionate towards His devotees ,Sri Purandara Vittala is not just the Lord who took the ten forms of avatars which are widely known. He works in innumumerable ways taking on innumerable forms. All His forms are not different from each other. All His attributes are completely auspicious and infinite.
Sri Purandara Dasaru himself talks about this immeasureble, inconcievable glory of the Lord in his devaranama
ako hyAMgihAna iko hIMgihAna
parabrahma nArAyana hyaMgihAneMdare ....
kallilade neDasuva kai yillade hiDisuva.....