Soundarya Lahari Sloka

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Soundarya lahari - Sree chakra – the effect of kundalini sakti – 05

15. Sree Goraakkumbhaar from Pandaripura :-

Goraakkumbhaar born in the kumbhaar family whose job is connected with pottery work his name was Goraa and work was connected with kumbhar or pottery work and hence the name.
He was born in a village called Todaki near Pandaripura to his father Annaiah and mother Sathyavati. His father Annaiah was highly devoted and hence directed his son to get blessings from guru.
Goraa got married to Padmavati. One very important incident took place in his life. One day while preparing the pots unknowingly Goraa switched fire to the pot in which there were some kittens sleeping. They died in the fire.
Goraa on knowing this was upset completely for the sin he committed and undertook pilgrimage to ganges and bathed in ganges.
Another incident took place after some time in his life. He was doing the job of making pots his legs always in the mud, whirling the muds. But his mouth was always uttering the name of lord Pandarinatha. One day while this process was taking place, unknowing his young son came crawling and got inside the mud and he unknowingly was tramping on the child and child died. He was not aware of the same.
Only when the mother Padmavati came to know that the child was missing, she searched for the child and came saw the dead body of the child and started crying. He was fully immersed in the chanting of the lords name and hence these incidents took place. Still he was chanting the name of Pandarinatha vittala vittala je je vittala. His mind was fully with the Lord.

The devotion of this great saint shows the effect of kundalini sakti as referred in the soundarya lahari by sri sankara.

16. Sree Periya daasar from Tanjore/Srirangam :-

There was a king named Mannaar naidu in tanjore in olden days. He was in the good books of his subordinates though he was not talented like other kings. He was having a highly devoted sheraaf - servant called Seshaacala chettiar. Sree periyasami was his son who became a great devotee by name Periyadaasar. He was asked by his father to take up a government job in the kingdom, but he did not like it and hence at last he was forced to do his family connected traditional job of maintaining a bangles shop.
But periyasamy was highly devoted and he was always chanting the lords name and spent whole time in naamasmarana and bhagavat dhyana.
He called all poor people and went on giving the bangles free of cost and hence the shop was to be closed in due course of time.

He was adviced to take up the job of his father sheraaf. Sheraaf used to travel in the horse only. But duly he left the job and was spending most of his time in temples. People called him as periya daasar instead of periya sami.He was interested only in devoting his time in imparting devotion to the people of the country. One day the king asked his poets how far is vaikuntam?They told that they didnt know and it may be possible to know the details only by the great devotees like periyadaasa. Periyadasa was brought immediately. But periyadasa told that he knew only the narasimha god and nothing else.
But he told that he knew only the temple gods;anyway he replied that vaikuntam may be only very very nearby because, when gajendra called aadimoola, the god Vishnu came immediately for his rescue. The king was pleased and gave lot of presents and sent him,But in due course, a desire came to the mind of the king that sree periyadaasa should sing in praise of him.
But periyadasa refused for the same saying that he will chant only the name of the lord. The king got angry and asked his servants to arrest him. But to his surprise, the effort was in vain as the saint was meditating on the lord. He was put in the cage of tiger.But nothing happened. The tiger surrendered to his love. He hands were burnt with hot iron rods but it was in vain. No burn was caused. The king tried all methods. But all in vain.
At last the lord narasimha came in front of the king.The king asked for pardon but narasimha asked him to approach periadasa for his relief. The king got the darsan of the lord due to great saint periya dasar.

The devotion of this great saint shows the effect of kundalini sakti as referred in the soundarya lahari by sri sankara.

17. Sree Thukkaaraam from Pandaripura :-

Sree Thukkaaraam was one of the most popular amongst those who propagated the devotion to the lord in the minds of the people in Maharashtra during the period of the great king Catrapati Sivaji and also when Delhi was ruled by the great moghul badusha Ourangaseb. It is told that Thukkaram was nobody other than the great saint Naama deva who took rebirth.
The great saint Maanickavaacaka was narrating the famous devotional Tiruvaacakam and was written in turn by azhakiya cittambalamudaiyaar. Similarly Naama deva sang many lakhs of songs in praise of the lord which were written by the lord pandarinatha himself. Namadeva wanted to complete it but could not do so before he left the body and hence is supposed to have taken rebirth to do the assigned job of writing these songs of pandarinatha thereby propitiating the lord and propagating the devotion and bhakti amongst the people.

Thukkaram was born to a great devotee called Madhava rao who was a businessman dealing with groceries in a place called Devanagara. Thukkaram became a highly intelligent person without high education and without any worldly experience.By nature he was possessing sweet voice and musical and poetic talent. He married two girls and lived happily.The elder of the wives died after giving birth to two boys.Thukkaram lived with the younger wife kamala baai and his two children.He also undertook the job [business grocery] of his father.
He also constructed a big and beautiful temple of pandarinatha in devanagara. But suddenly as a testing, poverty took over that place and seeing the poor people suffering thukkaram helped them by offering all food clothes etc. But on seeing this, the two children abandoned him and went out. His wife kamalabaai also got angry and shouted at him.
But she realized the problem and got some money on loan from a maarvaadi and gave him telling that he should go out in search of some business and get back the money and more for the welfare of the family. He went on travel by bullock cart with the groceries purchased by the money given by his wife and continued traveling.Enroute he felt high devotion to lord and started meditating after leaving the bullock carts and the materials nearby and slept unknowingly. But on getting up in the morning, to his surprise found that the materials and the bullock and the carts were missing. He was worried very much about the bullocks thinking sympathetically on those poor bullocks who were not able to express their difficulties. Also, he thought he should not go home since he could not get any money nor material to be taken to his wife. Hence thought that it is better to surrender to lord pandarinatha instead of brooding over these. He sat on padmasan nearby and went to Samadhi state. In the mean time, another thukkarm [lord himself took the form] approached his wife with lot of material and money and bulocks.Kamalabaai was very much pleased on seeing this and prayed the lord for this act of kindness and mercy on her. He told that he will take bath in the river and return. She took the money borrowed on loan to the marvaadi and went to his house to hand over the money back. But to her surprise the marvaadi told that just then her husband landed there and gave the money thereby getting the receipt of the same and he was very happy for that act of faith and punctuality. But she found that thukkaram who went for bathing did not return at all and hence went in search of him.At last after roaming around a lot, she found that thukaram was sitting in a place meditating. She fell on his feet and started crying.
He asked her why she is crying. She told the incidents happened. But thukkaram told that she was blessed to have the darshan of lord in his form which he even could not get his blessings or darshan.

The devotion of this great saint Thukkaram shows the effect of kundalini sakti as referred in the soundarya lahari by sri sankara.

18. Sree Thukkaaraam from Pandaripura :-
Sree Thukkaram came back home. He wanted to do some job but did not undertake any job. He did not take any effort. His mind was always immersed in Iswara dhyana. His wife Kamalabaai was worried about this. At last she found out a job for him.

He became a watchman-servant in the house of a business man and was given the job to look after his fields. A small hut was made in the field at one corner and he was asked to sit there at the top of the hut and watch during day and night.He was able to see from the top of the hut all the fields.He was watching the fields. He found that the birds came singing and were eating the grains.Thukkaram was happy to see that and enjoy. He thought those birds are god’s children singing with joy and more and more number of birds came flocking and they ate more and more grains and in due course of time they came near thukkaram’s hut and were dancing there with joy.He sang the songs in praise of pandarinatha and the birds started dancing according to the tune of the songs.
The land owner – the businessman came and got angry with Thukkaram.He wanted to beat thukkaram. But one of his friends who was watching the devotion of Thukkaram told that it is wrong to beat him who is a staunch devotee of the lord. He gave an alternative solution to the business man to watch for the output of the field and if found less than usual then take action to send Thukkaram away.
But to his surprise, the businessman got lot of profits and hence he was taken aback with surprise and could find Thukkaram’s devotion to the lord.

The devotion of this great saint Thukkaram shows the effect of kundalini sakti as referred in the soundarya lahari by sri sankara.

19. Sree Thukkaaraam from Pandaripura :-

Thukkaram and Catrapati SivaajiThukkaram was going on giving whatever he got to poor people and helping the downtrodden and was living with his mind ever fixed in the Lord.Kamalabaai was thinking during the night when Thukkaram was sleeping silently-why this man is ever going on giving things to poor people even without keeping for his household purposes.
Thukkaram suddenly got up from sleep as if from dream and started chanting with ecstasy –panduranga! Pandarinatha! Vittala vittala! I am coming.His wife asked him about the matter.Thukkaram told about his dream.He was sitting in a beautiful mantap.He saw in the mantap in a cradle full of decorated flower.
He saw Rugmini sitting with Krishna in that seat of flowers. Then Krishna asked thukkaram –Oh ! thukkaram – did you forget your job?You told me when you were naama deva that you will complete the songs left out during your next janma as Thukkaram.Even children were taken to ecstasy when they heard the abhang and the songs of Thukkarm.

In pandaripura, aashaadha sukla ekaadasi festival was being celebrated.Thukkarm wanted to sing his abhang songs in the name of the lord in the temple.Catrapati Sivaji has already heard about Thukkaram and hence he wanted to see and hear his songs in the temple during the festival but he went in the shape of a simple devotee and not in the form of a king.
At that time, king Ourangazeb of delhi heard the news and he wanted to arrest Sivaji. He sent a set of soldiers with horses and asked them to arrest Sivaji. The soldiers surrounded the temple outside completely. Thukkarm came to know of this and he prayed the lord while going on singing that no harm should be done to the king Sivaji and that the king should not be arrested.

On seeing the devotion of Thukkarm, lord Pandarinatha showed mercy on thukkaram.The lord took the form/shape of Sivaji and climbed upon a horse and started running in front of those soldiers. The soldiers started chasing him but could not succeed as he was going here and there and started hiding in between and the soldiers were defeated and they started running with fear to Delhi back. Next day morning news came that the horse sets sent by the king Aurangazeb which came with soldiers got wounded and were defeated and had to run back to Delhi. But when this news came, Catrapati Sivaji was on meditation.After getting up from meditation, when he was informed of this news, He got astonished and he understood that Lord Pandarinatha himself came to save him.
When Sivaji knew about the devotion of Thukkarm and about the poverty faced by Kamalabaai, he came to see her with lot of materials and went away after giving those materials to her.But to the surprise of all, Thukkarm gave away all those to poor people. Thukkaram was immersed in dhyana, ever thinking of the Lord.

The devotion of this great saint Thukkaram shows the effect of kundalini sakti as referred in the Soundarya Lahari by Sri Sankara.