Sri Purandara Dasa gurubyoh namah

In this devaranama Dasaru is asking the Lord ,”Which is the road to Vaikunta? Show me the way to Vaikunta.

Now we have a question : “Where is this Vaikunta?”

For that Dasaru himself answers

 ‘illE vaikuMta kANirO sirivallabana aMgrigala nerenaMbidavanige ille vaikuMTa kANiro

nuDigeraDa Adade kaDukOpamADade

baDAtana baMdare lekkisade…….

…………………………………………………..

mOkshava bayasuta anyaya valiyuta

lakshminarayana biDade dyAniparige…ille vaikuMTa kANirO

parahitavanu mADi kerebAvigala………

The scriptures declare that the abode of the Lord is VaikunTa and those who are freed from the bondage of samsaara by the grace of the Lord shall surely be taken to expereince the true bliss of their own nature. Dasaru says, “ The state of being free from the bondage of samsaara is granted by the Lord to certain devotees by His choice. But the Lord does not choose randomly, He confers His grace on those who are deserving of it. And to deserve His grace one needs to have abiding devotion with the knowledge of His greatness. In order to obtain sucha state of mind which is completely ,respectfully and lovingly devoted to the Lord  one needs to follow the steps described in the shastras. In the above song, Dasaru is talking about those steps : Integrity,patience, tolerance ….

But despite wanting to have such integrity ,patience etc we seldom are able to enforce it on our minds. We seldom have control over our emotions and display fits of anger, arrogance, ego etc. It is no wonder that Sri Purandara Dasaru says that these are like waves in the ocean. They keep crashing on the banks  continuously and it is physically impossible for anyone to think that they can stop these waves arising in the mind unless one has the grace of the Lord and this grace can be obtained only by submission to His will. 

aMbiga nA ninna naMbidEne… Aru tereya nOdaMbigA adu meeribarutalide aMbiga

In this devaranama “dAri yAvudaiyya”,Dasaru submits before the Lord seeking His grace in finding the path to reach His abode –Vaikunta.

In the first charanam Dasaru is proclaiming our state in samsaara. How are we actually finding our life? Is is completely free of any anxiety, worry or sorrow. ?  Dasaru answers  ,” It is clear from my expereince that I am always groping in the dark and full of fear of the unknown. Every second that passes is the past which we know, but every second that is due to come, contains the capsule of expereince which may be joyful or sad. The element of uncertainity in predicting the state of ourselves, our body ,our mind as well as our kith and kin, our posessions is unimaginable.

This uncertaininity is not visible daily to us, because we always never think about it . Most of us are engaged in activities which  are not beneficial to the soul  and we may be either in the process of enjoying some physical pleasure or contemplating on such enjoyments in the future. We rarely question the uncertaininty of the future to the extent that we need to find a permanent solution to it. This bare and hard fact slams us in the face when we are confronted with a crisis in life which happens sooner or later to everyone.

When such a crisis looms up,no earthly pleasure can give one the peace of mind which is the happiness that we seek.” At that time we begin to question, “Why did such a thing happen to me? Why me ? Why me? “ is always there in front of us.

So Dasaru tells the Lord, “ I am in this thick samsaara wherein there is darkness and fear. I am shaking with fear as I do not know the way out of this capsule of fear that threathens to muffle my very soul. Please show me the way!  I beg of you,please show me the lighted path, which will take me from this darkness to light.”

Dasaru brings us to this level of thought and then moves on to submit ourselves and our expereinces to the Lord knowing that all the expereinces are partly due to what we have done previously.

nAsato vidyate bhAvO nAbhAvO vidyate sataH

ubhayOrapi drishTOMtastvanayOstatvadarshibhiH||

As said by Lord Krishna in the Gita Chapter 2 , nothing bad comes from doing something good and one never reaps good results from bad actions. So if we are in great difficulties and problems, it means we have a store of bad actions.

It is what Dasaru says  in the second charanam,

pApa pUravadali mADidudakke lEpavAgide karma

E pariyiMdali ninna nenesikoMbe  sreepati salhenna bhUpa nArAyANa

“Focussing on the thought that Sreepathi, who the consort of the Laksmi the trigunamAni . Paramatma is described as bhUpa nArayana -who is the controller of every sentient as well insentient thing existing and who has  infinite auspiscious gunas and at the same time He is completely flawless.

Submitting our helplessness in not being able to reach  a certain state of mind  is the first step. Acknowledging our helplessness makes us understand our complete dependence on the flawless and Complete Lord. When one focusses on the auspiscious attributes of the Lord as “Sripathi, Narayana, bhupa … then  by His grace it is possible to attain the right state of mind which can pave the way for a freedom from further bondage.

bittavara bava pAshadhimdhali kattuvanu bahu kaTiNaniva shi
ShishtEShtanemdhari dhanavaratha sadhbhakthipAshadhali
kattuvara bhavakattu bidisuva sittinavanivalla nivanalla kAmadha
kottu kAvanu sakala souKyagaLiha paramgaLali HKS 2.26

Sri Jagannatha Dasaru talks about this in the Harikathamrutha saara. “One who never thinks about the Lord, never attempts at understanding Him, He ties them in the tight bondage of samsaara. He is really strict . Whereas the same Lord, removes the bondage of those who acknowledge that He is Supreme saviour and seek Him through devotion without any selfish motive. To scuh devotees He bestows happiness in this world of samsaara too as well as in mukthi.

innu nA janisalAre bhumIya mele ninna  dAsanAdeno

pannaMga shayana sri puraMdara viTTala innu puTTisadiro enna nArAyaNa

Now Dasaru tells the Lord, “ I shall not take birth on this earth again. I have become Your dasa and surrendered to You , O pannanga shayana Purandara vittala, so don’t give me any more births.”

If one reflects on this prayer, it is such a profound entreaty. Firstly one needs to recognise the fact that the journey of life should lead to the perfection of the soul. The shastras declare that a soul which is free of defects is free from bondage.