mara
nuMguva pakshi maneyoLage baMdide
This is a mundige of Sri Kanaka Dasaru
where he discusses
the process of attaining fulfillment of
the purpose of life – aparOXa jNAna.
When we think of a bird, we think of a
bird which usually lives in a nest in the tree, never will our mind concieve of
this bird which can swallow a tree. Such is Dasaru’s expertise with thoughts
and words, he puts forth the theory that the Lord is having achintya adbhuta
shakthi in such a simple riddle.
The Lord created the world for the
upliftment of souls. He pervades the entire world and exists inside each and
every jiva that takes birth. But when He sees it fit, He destroys the world by
swallowing it completely. One of His great attributes is jagadbugu. Contradictory
attributes rest without contradiction in the Lord. Kanaka Dasaru wants to
convey that using logic to solve the puzzle of life or creation will get one
nowhere. It is because God is beyond logic.
He creates but He also destroys. He is
inside the jiva and He pervades the huge universe .He is changeless. Dasaru
refers to the first set. He exists in the jiva and gives it the ability to
expereince the world and He also swallows the entire world which Dasaru refers
to, as the tree. This is the reference given for the world in kaTopanishad
where the world is compared to a fig tree , the ground is the Lord.
mara
nuMguva pakshi maneyoLage baMdide- idara
The bird which swallows the tree has come
inside the house.
Here the bird is the Lord. How so? It is
because it is said so in the Upanishad.
dwAsuparNa sayujA
sakhAyAm……
Two birds on a tree…. describes the the
jiva and the Lord inside the jiva both inside the body.
kuruha pELi kuLittidda
janaru
“ O people around me, can you tell me the
solution to this riddle?”
Kanaka Dasaru gives more clues to unravel
the mystery of this puzzle. Why does the Lord do this leela?
oMTi
koMbina pakshi oDaloLage karuLilla
gaMTalu
muruMTu mUgillavu
kuMTamanujanaMte
kuLitihudu maneyoLage
eMTu
hattara annavanu bakshisuvudu
The bird has one horn, it has no
intestines, it has three throats and no nose. It is is like a crippled man
sitting inside the house. It eats the food that is labelled 18.
The sadhana path of the jiva is chalked
out in neat steps by Dasaru.
The
first charanam discusses the necessity to acquire knowledge about the Lord. The
first and foremost duty of a human being is
being
a jignyAsu- knowing that there is a creator and provider is the first step in
jnAna then searching for knowledge about the creator.
The
second charanam talks about the progressive milestones of going on this path.
The third charanam gives the final outcome .
First charanam: jnAna
oMTi
koMbina pakshi-Varaha rUpi paramAtma
He says that one should be aware of one’s
existence being made possible because Varaha rupi paramatma upholds the body by
existing in the energy lines (nAdis of
the body.) Just as Varaha upheld the earth and placed it back in its orbit, so
also Varaha inside the body upholds the body and gives it the strength to do
the sadhana.
Jagannatha Dasaru in HKS 4.2 says ‘krODa eppathueradu sAvira nADigata devethegoLagiddu
AdutAnaMdAtma charisuva lOkadolu tAnu.” kODa is Varaha and lOka is the
human body.
oDaloLage
karuLilla
Next, Dasaru says that all jivas in
samsaara are plagued by ignorance. Hiranyakashipu who was the personification
of ignorance was killed by Narasimha.Dasaru refers to Narasimha by saying
‘karulu illa’ because a lion has no lengthy intestines. Lord Narasimha kills
ignorance in the mind of jiva .
gaMTalu muruMTu- Hayagreeva
roopa
of the Lord where He chants the three vedas. The jiva does upasana of
Hayagreeva roopa to obtain knowledge contained in the three vedas.
mUgillA- Matsayavatara This knowledge
that has been obtained with difficulty is attacked by the enemy called as
‘kAmA’ which destroys the knowledge that has been obtained.
BG 3.39 says”The eternal opponenet in the
guise of Kama, O Arjuna ,insatiable, enhancing grief and unpacifiable,obscures
the understanding of the wise. It halts the acquisition of scriptural knowledge
and cripples the learning already collected.”
Doing the the upAsana of Matsya as the
redeemer of knowledge, one gets to shed ones worldly desires and be motivated
along the path of jnAna.
kuMTa manujanaMte
maneyoLage kuLitihudu
At this juncture, Daaru says all these
avataras of the Lord are of the same Lord who sits inside the jiva and who
appears as motionless as a crippled man.
Dasaru wants to make the point that, to
the sadhaka who is in pursuit of the
goal of life and who is seeking the grace of Varaha, Narasimha, Hayagreeva and
Matsya will soon come to become aware of this Lord’s presence in the heart
lotus. There may be a long way to go before He expereinces the Lord’s presence
, but surely the acceptance and wonder of the Lord’s presence makes its
appearance. Once this happens then this wonder is continuously fed by reading
the puranas and itihaasas . In particular Dasaru is referring to the number 18
which represents ‘jaya’ and ‘Mahabharatha is referred to as jayO nAma itihAsa’.
So discovering the glory of the Lord as described in the sadAgamas feeds this
jNAna which Dasaru says as eMTu
hattara annavanu bakshisuvudu
Second charanam : bhakthi & Vairagya
nuDiyutalaMbudu naDu
nettiyali bAyi
kaDunAdada gAyana
mADutihudu
aDaviyali huTTuvude agali
eraDAguvudu
baDatanavu baMdare bahaLa
rakshipudu
nuDiyutaluMbudu- two things are effected
with the same action
naDu nettiyali bAyi- agni, here it refers
to jnAna agni
At this stage the sadhaka begins to get
immersed in the leela of the Lord ,in chanting His name and singing and
dancing.For such a one, the Lord’s name is a the magic wand which causes
“anishTa nivrithi’ and ishTa prApthi at the same time.
Purandara Dasaru says this of rAma nAma.
rAma embo eraDaksharada
mahimeyanu pAmararu tAvenu ballaraiyyA
rA embo mAtradolu rakta
mAmsadollida AyastikadivAda pApavannu
mAyavanu mADi maharAya
mukthiya koDuva dAyavanu vAlmiki munirAya ballA
This is the bhakthi pravAha which comes
spontaneously to the sadhaka and fuels the jNAna agni further. The progressive
nature of the devotional states of a bhaktha fuel the acquisition of further
knowledge about the object of devotion-the beloved Lord.
kaDunAdada gAyana
mADutihudu
The deeper states of meditation reached
by the sadhaka enable one to discern the nAda emnating inside the body known as
the anAhata dwaNi. It is the sound which cannot be heard by the outer ear, but
is perceived by the mind.
aDaviyali huTTuvudu
In such a state, the sadhaka is
completely separate from the world. He is free of all material attachment and
hence Dasaru refers to such a person’s mind as a forest. In this state of
mind,pure devotion is born.
agali eraDAguvudu
The earnest devotion in such a mind which
has one pointed attention to God, begets VairAgya which is a natural consequence
of abiding love of God.
baDatanavu baMdare bahaLa
rakshipudu
The devoted bhakta is saved from the
suffering of poverty because of one pointed devotion. The mind is immersed in
the highly auspicious attributes and names of the Lord and refuses to consider
base things like food and clothes. This has been proved by the parables of the
bhakthas like Sri Raghavendra rayaru.
Sri Vijayadasaru echoes these thoughts in
a devaranama
charaNava tOro
karuNigalarasane
baDavara AdAri divya
vibhushana charanNava tOro
Third charanam: Bimba darshana
kaMjavadaneyara
karadi nalidADuvudu
eMjala
tinisuvude murjagakke
raMjipa
maniya siMhAsanada melippa
kuMjaravaradAdikeshava
tA balla
kaMjavadaneyara
karadi nalidADuvudu
The
gopis of vrindavan had such one pointed devotion as described in the 10th
skanda of Srimad Bhagavatham. Dasaru gives this an example to show that the
further one goes into the subtle depths of the mind, the further one
expereinces His presence by His grace.
eMjala
tinisuvude murjagakke
Understanding
and perceiving that these expereinces are all the prasada of the Lord is next.He
is the grAhya grAhaka, sevya sevaka,kArya kAraNA. He eats and makes us eat. Sri
Jagannatha Dasaru says ‘uMdu unisuva’. This expresses the bimba pratibimba
bhaava. A total dependence of the jiva on the bimba murthi for every experiecne.
raMjipa
maniya siMhAsanada melippa
The
heart is the simhAsana which has now been decorated with the shining jewels of
jNAna, bhakthi and vairAgya. Now the Lord gives the vision of Himself sitting
on this seat inside the body. This is the bimba darshana or aparOXa jNAna.
Vijaya
Dasaru’s devaranama –
sadA enna hridayalli vAsa
mADo sri hari
jNAna veMbo navaratnada
maMtapada madyadalli
kuMjaravaradAdikeshava
tA balla
The Lord
who is the saviour of Gajendra, who called out to Him in surrender, with a
humble mind bent with devotion,keeping in mind that he is the Lord’s dasa and
that everything that he has ever expereinced was because of the Lord’s grace.
To such a soul, the Lord shows Himself. Adi keshava knows who is eligible for
what and He knows who is the pakshi who can eat up the whole tree as well as
exist inside the subatomic sized jiva.
Let us
recall Vyasa vittala Dasaru’s words in this context.
tiliyado ninnATa
tirupathiya veMkaTA