GopalaDasaru is beleived to be an amsha of Sri Ganesha. He himself sings to this effect in one of his devaranams - pAlisaiyya pavananaiyya ...... mUru lOkavanella mUrumADuva bimba murthi vishWa. VishWa is the bimba murthi of Sri Ganesha. He is a unique haridasa as he gave away 40 years of his life span to his disciple "Jagannatha Dasaru" obeying the instructions of his guru Sri Vijayadasaru. He has walked the way of "Guruvina gulAma nAguva tanaka doreyadanna mukuthi". He has shiown that the Guru's instructions have to be followed instantly and explicitly even if it necessitates giving one's very life. All his devaranamas are very touching because they highlight the sad plight of embodied beings.

In this heart rending devaranama Gopaladasaru is entreating Lord Dhanvanthri to hold his hand and find out the disease plagueing him. He gives a big list of symptoms for which he needs medicine. Finally he tells the Lord that He is the doctor who can cure his disease called bhavaroga. "Bhavaroga" is the disease called bondage of souls in samsaara, they are bound by the Lord based on thier own anadi karma and swabhava. Only the Lord can unshackle this.

Dasaru aks the Lord." Oh Deva Dhanvanthri, what is this disease that I have? Can you hold my hand and look patiently to find out what it is?"

Ava rogavu enage dEva dhanvantari

savadhAnadi enna kaipiDidu nodaiyya

Here Dasaru is sure that he has a disease and that the Lord can find out what his problem his. He addresses the Lord as "Dhanvantari" as Lord Dhanvantari is the form of the Lord who gave the science of medicine. He is the Lord who appeared at the time of the samudra mathana with the "amrutha kalasha". One who has the tonic for immortality should definitely be having a medicine for any other disease- is the logic of Gopaladasaru. Then he tells the Lord, "Please be patient. Hold my hand ( wrist) while I list out the symtoms of the disease."

In AyurvEda the doctor diagnoses the illness by holding the wrist and checking the nAdi's- which are the energy lines flowing throughout the body. When there is a block in these nadis a disease manifests in the body. Dasaru is saying "In my journey towards you, there are hundreds of blocks causing my sadhana to break and my bhavaroga does not show signs of getting cured. So please intervene and help me."

harimurthigalu enna kaNgalige kANisavu

hariya keerthaneyu kElisad enna kiwigE

harimaMtrastOtra bAradu enna nAligege

hariprasAda jihvege saviyAgadaiyya

The list of symtoms first deals with the jnAnEndriyas. Dasaru says" I am not able to see the figures of the Lord Hari, I am not able to hear the compositions in praise of Lord Hari, I am not able to recite the mantras and stotras glorifying Lord Hari, I am not able to taste the sweetness of the food offered to the Lord Hari."

Indirectly Dasaru is saying that all his sense organs are busy with some other forms of entertainment and don't have any time for this.

Eyes: There are many ways which the eyes don't see the Lord's idol.

1. The eyes are blind.

2. The eyes are engaged in looking at other things .

3. The eyes look at the idol but it is not considered as seeing.While performing puja if the mind is notconcentrating on the word at hand then the eye may be doing its job of sending the light rays from the object into the eye but until the mind wants to register what it is sending, there is no end result.

A crude example to understand this better: We are walking on the street with out eyes open, but with thoughts of something on our mind. We so engrossed in our thoughts that we don't really notice the people going past. If suddenly one of our acquaintances come up and say hello,"Where are you?" Then we acknowledge that we were thinking of something and hence didn't see them.

A similar thing with respect to all our other sense organs. Dasaru says," My ears don't hear hyms in praise of the Lord.We can infer why this is so! It is because we are engrossed in using our ears for the pleasure of listening to worldly news, gossip and meaningless banter.

Dasaru says,"My mouth does not recite the slokas and mantras glorifying the Lord Hari." We know that the mouth of most of us is incessantly working either satisfying the urge to eat and make merry or to talk and boast. In both cases the usage of the mouth has been restricted to worldly matters . The higher purpose of the tongue is to taste the prasadam of the Lord and to sing and prasie Him.

One may ask Why this happens?

Gopala dasaru himself answers to this in another devaranama. He says " iMdriyaMglalu vishayadiMda tegeyalu enna vashake bAravO | iMdire arasa brahmAdivaMdita ninna baMdakasakuthige namO namO ||" "I am unable to pull my indriyas which are engulfed in wordly delights, I salute to Your power of putting me in bondage, Oh Lord of IMdira devi, Oh Lord who is worhshipped by all dieties beginning from the BrahmA."

haripAda sevegenna hastagalu chalisavu

guruhiriyaMgrige shira bAgadu

hariya nirmAlya AgrAnisadu nAsikavu

hariyAtregaligenna kAlelavaiyya

Dasaru is listing further symptoms. He says," My hands don't move to do the seva of the Lord's feet, my head does not bow down to elders and gurus ,my nose does not smell the nirmAlya offered to Hari, my feet refuse to comply if I want to go for HariyAtra, (travelling to do darshan of the Lord in the various teetha kshetras).

anAtha baMdu gopAlaviTTala reyA

enna bAgada vaidya neeneyAdi

anAdikAlada bhavaroga kaleyaiyya

naa neMdigu mareye nee maDida upkAra

Now Dasaru is saying ," Oh Lord, who is the best relative of the destitute, Gopalavittala, You are the my special doctor, Please cure my disease of bhavaroga which is there since time immemorial . I shall be ever grateful to You on this account."

Here Dasaru is reffering to the Lord GopalaviTTala as anAthabandu. Bandhu means one who is related to the person. Relations are those who are there with us on account of relationship with the body, like father, mother, husband,wife, children,brother, uncle ,aunt, etc. The word' anAtha' means one who does not have any relatives like father, mother ,wife, children etc. It implies that the Lord protects one who has no relatives. But we know that the Lord protected "Prahlada, Dhruva" and other who had relatives. This seems like a contradiction. To understand this, we should recollect the phrase from the song' raMga ninna koMDADuva maMgalAtmara" which goes like this "heMDaru makkalu ninna toMDarembaro". One who understands that all the people related to oneself in this birth are due to His grace and are there to help one to do seva to the Lord, to those people the Lord becomes' anAtha baMdu" They are the devotees like Prahlada and Dhruva who understand at all times and never forget that these relatives are not the ones who will protect them but the Lord who protects them. In cases where it is apparent that our relatives have protected us we should understand that it is the Lord only who has protected through these representatives of His.

One more way to understand this is that "Bandhu" is for the body but the soul has no such relatives. For the soul, the eternal bandhu is the Lord. He resides in the heart lotus and travels everywhere with the jiva, never deserting it for even a single moment. One can say that there is no existence without the Lord. In one devaranama Prasanna Venkata vittala dasaru says ," nee kaRuNisO viTTala......shrIvara prasanna veMkata viTTala jIvake hONe nee viTTala." means "Oh Lord Venkata vittala, without You there is no question of the jiva existing or having any identity, You are the pillar who gives it meaning."

Dasaru is highlighting important philosophical points here.

1. He says that the Lord is the eternal bandhu of the jiva which is eternally lonely. (sarvasya chAham hridi sannivishTO)

2. The Lord is the One who can clean up the bondage. (One of the eightfold controls of the Lord-moksha prada)

3. The bodily roga, is related to the anadiroga which is dependent on the anadi karma and it there form time immemorial. Chanting the Lord's name -Dhanvantri cures diseases by curing the anadi roga which caused the bodily disease.

4. All jivas are the dasas of the Lord eternally and to glorify the Lord even after He releases one from bondage it is one's duty as well as pleasure.

On the aaradhana of this great saint let us take his words to our hearts and ask the Lord to GRACE us.

idE pAlis idE palis iDe pAlisaiyya

jiva aswaMtaMtra dEva nija swAtaMtra

jIva jaDarella dEvarAdhinaveMdu

jIVOthamaralli bhakuthi jaDagalalli virakuthi

jIva jaDarella dEvarAdhinaveMdu

Sri KrishnArpanamastu

I am not the doer, Lord Hari is the doer

All that I am made to do is His worship by His grace.

R.Parimala