nee dayAparanO ninnavara sAdhanavO

Purandara Dasaru was a great haridasa who dedicated himself to the Lord through his thought, word and deed. He lived during the period 1485-1565. Even though he was initially called as “Nava Koti Narayana” and used to love wealth excessively, the moment realisation of the purpose of his life dawned on him by the Lord's grace, he gave away all his wealth as dAna and became a haridasa whose sole intention in life was to propogate the glories of God to the common man and make him realise his purpose in life too.

In this soul stirring devurunama , Dasaru entreats the Lord to tell him about the secret of successful devotees. He asks if it is Lord's grace that whisked these devotees out of this bhava sagara or the sadhana of the devotee which helped him do it. Finally he answers that it is God's grace. Here Dasaru brings home the truth about the one component in a sadhaka's life which cannot be dispensed with -GRACE.

YamevEsha vriNuthEna labyaH – kaTOpanishad 2.23 – Only the chosen devotees of the Lord experience His Grace.

How can one become a chosen devotee? Dasaru is giving examples of such devotees on whom God showered His grace . By studying the lives of great bhakas and listening to their upliftment we get clues about leading a life which can lead us to be chosen by the Lord. Actually every mukthi yogya soul is a chosen devotee and the Lord is showering His grace all the time. The fact that we have been given a human birth and aceess to spiritual upliftment through the parampara of Acharya Madhva shows His compassion. Once we get tuned to Him, we will be ready to receive His Grace.

Crude example: A farmer sent his son with a big earthen pot and asked him to put it out in the garden where it was raining heavily. After the shower stopped the farmer went to collect the pot and found it empty. How did it happen?

The farmer's son had placed the pot upside down . In a similar way God is already showering Grace but the position we have to maintain to receive it is what is all important.

nee dayAparanO ninnavara sAdhanavO

muddu hayavadana pElidannaa

 “Oh sweet Lord Hayavadana, Please tell me whether the people who have become yours have achieved it because of their sadhana or because of your Grace.”

Dasaru is referring to the bhaktas who have attained enlightenment as “ninnavara”. What a wonderful way to refer to those chosen devotees! If one wants to belong to God, obviously God has to pick one up, otherwise it is impossible. Even in worldly matters if a person selects a car, it becomes his/her car. While people make choices based on their emotional/physical needs and within their financial limits, God has no such limitations. He is impartial. He bestows as per efforts and eligibility. It is one's bounden duty to use the talents one has been endowed with to make a sincere effort to implement the teachings as told in the scriptures or sung by the Haridasas in one's day to day life. Acharya Madhva stresses on performance of 'NishkAma karma” as one indispensible tool which leads to spiritual upliftment. In whatever circumstances we have been placed , in whatever country we have been placed, within the limits of our present conditions, performance of our duties without the desire for fruits and with dedication to God is the foundation for sadhana.

madakariyu sarasiyOl makariya bAdege siluki

padumAkShA padumEsha padumanAbha

padumasaMbavanaiyyA pAhi pAhi enalu

odagi rakShisidi tava dayavo sAdhanavO

 Dasaru says,” Oh Lord Padmanabha, when the elephant king who was subjected to that yoni because of his excessive pride was caught by the crocodile while in the pond, called out to You, You came to his aid and protected him, would you call this his sadhana or Your Grace ?”

The king who had been cursed was now being saved by the Lord . This happened during his lifetime as an elephant which was supposed to be a punishment for his pride. But even during that period , the Lord came to his bhaktas aid because His aim is not punishment but to make His bhakta improve and overcome his faults and become pure enough to visualize Him , thereby freeing the devotee from bondage forever.

We find a parallel to this in the Srimad Bhagavatham. Prahlada extols Lord Narasimha saying ,”Neither riches, noble birth, fine form, penance, erudition,education, virility,lustre, dignity, might, exertion and intelligence nor yogic exercises by themselves earn the grace of the Lord. Did not the Lord save Gajendra from the grip of the crocodile pleased with his ardent devotion?”

manye dhanAbhijanarupatapaH sHritoujastehaH prabhAvabalapourushabuddiyOgah

nArAdhanAya hi bhavaMti parasya pumsO bhaktyAtutOsha bhagavAnnanu yuthapAya II

Dasaru reminds us to cultivate devotion to the Lord by listening and singing the glories of the Lord by citing this example of Gajaraja.

Gajendra is the symbol of pride. Bhakta Prahlada has listed all the qualities which may cause pride in man in the above verse and stated specifically that these quanlities by themselves are not a hindance but become so when one associates oneself as responsible for the qualities forgetting the Lord's benevolence in bestowing them on us. We have to continuously strive to remember that anything and everything that we posses is due to the Lord and nothing is possible without Him being the initiator. If the above qualities are accompanied by intense devotion to the Lord without the pride of possesion of qualities/form/status/ then the Lord is pleased. This is vairAgya. Vairagya is not that which is there because there is nothing but that which is there even when there is everything.

PadumAksha -The Lord with the eyes like the lotus. Here it is relevant to recollect that the thought of 'PadumAksha = punDarIkAksha' has special significance.

'apavita pavitO va sarvAvastAn gatO piva

yasmarEt puNDarIkAksham sa bAhya abyaMtara shuchiH

By bringing the Lord into focus ,one becomes pure in body and mind and is cleansed of all impurities, gross and subtle. Aksha means eyes in particular and indriyas in general. Just as the lotus does not get tainted by the muddy water in a pond eventhough it grows right in the pond, similarly the Lord though He is present in all beings and intiates their thoughts and actions remains unaffected and untainted by the impure nature of this world. If one worships the Lord with this anusandhana , then the Lord grants one the ability to remain unaffected by the onslaught of external stimulli which pull the mind outwards .Such a devotee reamins unsullied by the turbulant inputs coming in from the indriyas.

Then he says 'padumEsa' – The Lord of Lakshmi

Triguna abhimani ,Mahalakshmi is pleased with this address and allows the devotee to continue his sadhana without being affected by the trigunas played out continusouly by Prakrithi. Also the Lord is trigunAtheeta” means He is out of the realm of the prakrithi which is the realm of the trigunas. In order to cross the barrier of trigunas we need Mahalakshmi's grace and what more can please mother Lakshmi than praising her through the attribute of Her Lord.. Acyarya Madhva has the entire 7^th adhyaya of Dwadasha stotra dedicated to Mahalakshmi, through the praise of the Lord.

PadumasambavanaiyyA – Lord who is the father of Brahma born from the lotus. Dasaru imagines the plainitive cry of help made by Gajaraja,” You are the father of Brahma who was born directly from Your navel. You are the source of everything, You are the initiator of creation, You are the initiator of the travels of all embodied beings and their experiences in the world depend solely on You, such being Your independence, I request you to forgive my pride and protect me in the same way that a father protects his child.”

aMtyageya sahavAsadali vipravarannoba

saMtasadiMda bahu kAla kaledu

aMtyakAlake tanna magana kareyalu kaayde

iMthA yAthane vairagya sAdhanavo

 In the Bhagavatha ,Ajamila is the example of a bhakta who has fallen from the striaght path to God due to prArabdha. But because of his good deeds he had the fortune of naming his son -Narayana. He loved the child and at one instant when he was about to die, he called ,'Narayana” being accustomed to using the name again and again during his lifetime even though for a mundane purpose. But the Lord's grace on him was such that when he uttered the word , memories of his past sadhana and glories of God came flooding back. In an instant his thoughts were on the Lord. As a result Vishnu dootas appeared on the spot and refused to allows the yama dootas to take him away. He was granted a lease of life during which time he developed ardent devotion to the Lord and finally was granted liberation.

Dasaru is citing yet another example of a fallen devotee who was steered back onto the right path. He is giving hope to bhaktas that whatever faults one may have, all is not lost. It is noteworthy that Ajamila had completed most of his sadhana during his previous lifetimes and due to prarabdha he had to suffer the fall. It shows that whatever one may do to acquire spiritual knowledge, those efforts will not be wasted but will be useful at sometime or other.

In the BG 6.40 , the Lord says that:

“pArtha naiveha nAmutra vinAshastasya vidyate

na hi kalyANakritkaschit durgatim tAta gachchati II

“O Arjuna! Neither adversities not hell are in store for an embodied being who has strayed from the path of Yoga of contemplation here or hereafter. O dear one, noone practising with faith the yOga of contemplation, even for a short while, meets with misfortunes. ”

avaravara yogyatheyanaritu prerakanAgi

avariMda nuDisi nuDinuDige higgi

avarigOlida namma puraMdara viTTala

avanisha ninna dayavo sAdhanavO

He says, “: Oh Lord of the universe, the King of kings, You are all knowing, and know the eligibility of each and every individual devotee , and based on this you make them sing and praise Your glory and are pleased by this and shower Your Grace on them. Now would you call that Your Benefaction or the devotees sadhana?”

Jagannatha Dasaru says in the HKAS 2.9

obanali nintADuvanu mattobbanali nODuvanu beDuvanu

obbanali nIDuvanu mAtADuvanu beragAgi

abbarada heddaiva niva mattobbaranu lekkisanu lOkadolu

obbane tAbAdya bAdakanAda nirbhItA

Jaganannatha Dasaru describes the Lord saying that He is the fearless one, who is solely responsible for all the goings on in the universe. Dasaru glorifies His supremacy by saying that there is no one to whom He has to report to, or take orders from. He is the one and only one controlling ther entire cosmos. Such a Lord is surely the instigator for all actions whether it is giving, taking, listening or speaking . All action is instigated by the Lord through Mukya PrAna devuru and the respective abhimani devatas.

One might wonder , on what basis does He do this? To that we find a direct answer here. Purandara Dasaru says ,”He makes them speak and listens to them based on their yogyathe ie eligibility which is decided on the jeeva swarupa swabhava, the anAdi karma and prayathna of the jeeva. The prayathna of the jeeva is again the icchha or wish that the jeeva makes to serve the Lord and should not be interpreted as individual ,independent efforts or actions. Then the Lord makes the devotee do the sadhana keeping in view all factors and bestows His grace. In this stanza , Dasaru is giving the final verdict .

“Lord's Grace is indispensible.”

The message ot Dasaru is that one should understand one's total dependence on the Lord and seek His grace by following the footsteps of great Haribhaktas described in the epics and puranas.

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