tIkAcharyara pAda sOkida koNe duli tAkida manujarige

kAku buddigalella parihAravAguvudu bEkAda padaviya koDuvanu sri hari

sOkida-come into contact

kone-tip

The minute dust particle which has come into contact with the feet of Teekacharyaru aquires immense cleansing and divine powers, so much so that a person who is fortunate enough to touch this dust particle will be releived of all wicked intentions arising in the mind and will be bestowed the special place by the Lord Sri Hari himself.

Vijayadasaru’s great devotion to this Acharyaru is seen in this composition. He highlights the great devotion and power of this great haribhaktha and saint by using the word’ the dust off the feet’.

Just observe this:

He does not say, “The blessings of Teekacharyaru’. He does not say ‘ the namaskaras to Teekacharyaru’. He does not say ‘ the offerings of seva to Teekacharyaru’. He does not say the feet of Teekacharyaru’ Instead he says ,’ the dust off the feet of Teekacharyaru’ has this great power. Just let one’s imagination run. What would the power of Sri Jayatheertharu’s brindAvana darshana be? What would the power of one word of Teekacharyaru be? What would the power of the grantha of Jayatheertharu be?  What would not the anugraha of such a saint bring?  In other words ,There is nothing in the world that would be deneid to a devotee of this saint.” To emphasise this point Sri Vijayadasaru brings in the word ‘sri hari’. It is Sri Hari himself who would be pleased with a person who expresses devotion to Sri Teecharyaru and none lesser. One there is the stamp of approval from Sri Hari, no one can interrupt the sequence of events He designs.

Sri Vadirajaru beautifully says in one devurunama

‘nArayanana nene manave

’ Avana  paksha balakkedurilla ‘ (That narayana should be contemplated . Whosoever is protected by Him, he/she can never be defeated.”

Here Vijayadasaru’s intent is on the power of the composer of the Tika. What a magnificient personality! What great devotion ! and what an elevated soul, he must have been. Indeed he was none other than Indra avatara of the eighth kaksha with an avesha of Sesha devuru.

kAku buddi is that which does not show the reality of the nature of the soul. The buddi which is not able to understand from the scriptures and words of Acharyaru and haridasarus that the soul is eternally dependent on the Lord and exists only because of God’s grace can be called as kAku buddhi. It leads one to believe that we are the masters of our destiny and detracts our path towards material gratifications. One has to understand one’s nature of self as being an eternal dAsa in order to glorify the gracious Lord. Firstly if the Lord releives one of this ignorance that one is one’s own master, then the progress of the soul is sure. Finding the master and understanding Him to the best of one’s ability becomes one’s aim in life. It is no wonder the most important form of grace that is required for a sadhaka.

 Sri Kanaka Dasaru says in’Isha ninna charana bhajane”

paMkajAksha nInu enna maMku buddiyannu biDisi

kiMkarnna mADikollo saMkarushana

buddi shUMyanAgi enna badda kAya kuhaka manava

tiddi hridaya shuddha mADo pradyumnane

“Please releive of my foolish intellect which does not even observe and see Your great glory as manifested in the human body and the world around. Make me understand Your supreme control and thereby make me a willing dAsa O Lord sankarshana”.

I am bereft of any kind of intellect, it is as good as saying that I am mindless, and completely believe my self to be my body and am attached to it completely. Please rectify this by teaching me and guiding me and thereby make my heart pure ‘O Pradyumna”.

Now Vijayadasaru goes on to state the magnificinet glory of this saint.

madvamataveMbo dugdAbdiyoly udbhavisida chaMdranO

advaitamata vipina bEda kuTara vidyAraMyara garvake parihAra

dugdha- milk

vipina- forest

bheda- difference

kuTAra -axe

“He is the moon which arose from the great ocean of milk which is the madhva matha.” He broke or ruptured the theory of the advaitins just as an axe cuts off the trees in a forest. He is the one who subdued the pride of Vidyaranaya who was a scholar of Advaita.”

The madhva mata is compared to an ocean of milk. This is the shastra that is given by Poorna prajna and is the one which can feed the milk of knowledge to the sadhaka. Uusally when the moon appears on the night sky it appears as if it arose right from the middle of the ocean. So Vijayadasaru is comparing the rise of Sri Jayatheertharu from the study of the Madhva shastra under his guru Sri Akshobya theertharu.Sri Jayatheertharu was an acclaimed scholar and great devotee of the Lord. He defined the term bhakthi very efficaciously saying that, ”It is that uninterrupted flow of devotion towards the Lord which is of the highest level possible. “ He states that one’s love towards the Lord can be called as bhakthi only if one loves the Lord more that any earthly bandhu or relations on the earth.

Such devotion can lead the sadhaka towards to the Lord and make him rise in stature. This is the kind of devotion that Sri Jayatheertharu had as is obvious from his life and works.This is symbolically represented as the rise of the moon from depths of the ocean. He had the great responsibility to fight off attacks against Tatvavada and hence he is referred to as the axe which cut of the forest of advaita.

How did he do this? This is explained by Sri Vijayadasaru in the next padya.

tatvava nuDisalu tatvasudhA bhAshya vistarisida chandranO

Chittavittu mADi tIkAvannu suttelu jagakella prakaTisi meredaMta…

“He wanted to expose the truth of tatva as expounded by Sri Madhvacharya and hence he took up the task to expand the AnuvyAkyAna which is terse and cript so that the scholars of the day would be able to understand it . He is the moon who did this.” He put his heart and soul to this task and composed a tIka which clearly revealed the glory of this AnyvyAkyAna to the entire seven worlds.The seven worlds are

bhulOka, bhuvarlOka, ,suvar lOka, mahar lOka ,tapo loka,jano loka , satya lOka. Those below bhu lOka are not mentioned here as  knowledge is not sought by those in the worlds below. This grantha of Tikacharya is so powerful it revealed the truth to the seekers in any of the worlds not just this earth. Such is the greatness of this nyAyasudha.

Now Dasaru takes the position of a common man with no knowledge of Sanskrit to study this great text. Then what? What should such a person do?

To them Dasaru says,

eMdigAdaru omme kone nAligeyiMda biMdu mAtradi nuDiye

maMdamatigAdaru ajNAna nAshana saMdeha villavaiyya smaraNE mADidamele

“ Just do the smarane of this grantha kartha, it has the power to uplift the most dull headed ones by destroying their ignorance.”

Dasaru has not said: ‘ smaraNe of this grantha kartha” or “smarane of this grantha’ will cause upliftment but instead Dasaru is highlighting the value of this smarane by saying with tip of the tongue if one just says and contemplates on even a part of this acharya’s name or works then one can consider oneself  on the way to enlightenment. Such is the great power of this yati.

Now Dasaru goes on to elaborate the effects of each syllable of the name of this great yati. He says ,

ja eMdu nuDiyallu jayasheelanAguva ya eMdu nuDiye yamanaMjuvA

tI yeMbu nuDiyalu timira pAtaka hAni rtha eMdu nuDiyalu tApatraya parihArA

“Saying the sylabble ‘ja’ one gets the continuous victory as part of one’s integral character,. Saying the sylabble ‘ya’ causes the fear of death to dissappear. Yama himself is scared of approaching this sadhaka who contemplates on the syllable ‘ya’. Saying the syllable’thi’ both the darkness in the form of ignorance acts which arises from this ignorance are dealt a deathly blow. With the utterance of the syllable ‘rtha’ the three types of miseries which are possible in life namely-Adibhoutika, Adidaivika and AdyAtmika are averted.

yOgi akshObyara karakamala saMjAtA bAgavatara prIyaNe

yOgigala arasane maLakhEDa nIvAsa vijayaviTTala dAsa

The innermost desire of an elevated soul is to be known and accepted as the dAsa of Sri Hari. This evidenced by Sri Hanumantha’s definition of himself as’ dAsOham kOsalEMdrasya’. Such a tittle is sought after by the true devotees. Sri Jayatheertharu is first identified as the disciple of the yOgi akshObhya theertharu. By the defintion of yOgi we know from BG – samatvam yOga uchchatE” implying that Sri AkshObya theertharu was unaffected by the pleasures and pains of life. All he did was with the intention to please the Lord. So taking on the disciple named DhonDe Deshpande was also one such work. Sri Jayatheertharu took a rebirth at Akshobya theertharu’s lotus hands. He transformed from being the prince of a small kingdom to being the prince of the hearts of all bhagavathas meaning bhagavad bhaktas. He is further glorified by Dasaru as the king of yOgis . This yogi is resident in Malakhed and should be sought after as the reverred devotee of the Lord Vijayavittala.