Search:
Bhakti List Archives

Something Fishy

From the Bhakti List Archives

sadagopaniyengar • April 6, 2003 


                   
           Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

                                             "Something Fishy"

 

 

                "What a smelly topic to write about!" exclaims my daughter, glancing at the heading. (Critics galore there might be, but there are none so brutally frank as those close to you). Little does she know how important the fish is. There are supposedly 8400000 types of creatures in the Lord's Creation. Among these, the fish occupies an exalted position. It is also one of the organisms privileged to have the Vedas speak about it. The Scripture is full of "fishy" references, a few of which are recounted in this piece.

 

                The glory of the fish can be well understood from the fact that the Lord chose its species first and foremost for His avatAra. Forsaking the innumerable higher class of beings in His creation, if He were to adopt a fishy form, there must indeed be some significant reason for it. Though He assumed any number of forms later, including those of a ferocious boar, a giant turtle, a half-lion, a horse, a swan, etc., prompting Sri Nammazhwar to exclaim "ennindra yOniyumAi pirandAi imayOr talaivA", it is the piscine species that He honoured first. 

               

                The Matsya avatAra was taken for the purpose of Veda samrakshanam.

Vedas are the primary instruments of Creation, with the aid of which BrahmA conceives of and gives shape to the innumerable worlds in the Cosmos, with their varied inhabitants belonging to innumerable species. Realising the importance of the Shruti to the creative process, an asurA managed to make off with the Vedas during a moment of inattention on BrahmA's part, and hid them at the bottom of the ocean. The entire creation was paralysed and plunged into chaos and confusion, with BrahmA having lost his guiding lamp of the Shruti. Unable to recover the Vedas despite diligent search, BrahmA surrendered to the Lord, beseeching Him for the restoration of the Vedas. The ever merciful Lord, pitying the plight of not only PrajApati but also of the entire cosmos, assumed the form of a giant fish for searching out the Vedas. 

 

                People keeping aquariums, big and small, do so for the sheer pleasure of watching fish swim about gracefully in the tank. It is indeed a rare treat to the eyes to observe them moving about elegantly in water, their translucent bodies gleaming, their beady eyes shifting speedily from one target to another and their tails wagging gently as they pilot themselves hither and thither. The slow and steady movement of the gills, the graceful arc of movement, the sudden darting after microscopic items of food-all these impart a mesmerising effect, making it difficult for the onlooker to pry his eyes away from the bewitching spectacle.

 

           If such is the beauty of ordinary fish, imagine how beautiful, elegant and graceful the Lord would have been, as a fish! Swami Desikan provides a graphic description of the Lord's underwater sojourn, in his Dasavatara Stotram. The waves of the ocean, realising the rare guest they had in their midst, reacted enthusiastically and choreographed a divine dance with their every rise and fall, forming a swinging cradle for the Lord. Emperuman's singular identification, His beautiful lotus-eyes, stayed with Him during this avatArA too and enabled Him to pierce the underwater gloom in search of the missing Shruti. They soon led Him to their target and the Lord rescued the Vedas and restored them to BrahmA, after slaying the asurA responsible for their disappearance. Here is the beautiful sloka from Dasavatara Stotra-

     "nirmagna shruti jAla mArgaNa dasA datta kshaNair veekshaNai:

       antastanvat iva aravinda gahanAni oudanvatInAm apAm

      nishpratyUha taranga ringaNa mitha: pratyUda pAtha cchatA

     dolArOhaNa sadOhaLam bhagavatO MAtsyam vapu: pAtu na:"

 

It is not only the Lord who took a liking to the "fishy" janma. One of His closest devotees too wishes to be born a fish. We may wonder-when even the most uninformed devotee usually knows enough to crave redemption from the samsAra chakra, and the usual refrain is "AdalAl piravi vEndEn", why should this venerated votary of the Lord seek to be born in this world again, and that too, as a lowly fish? It is none other than Sri Kulasekhara Perumal who yearns for a "fishy" janma, in his Perumal Tirumozhi, and is prepared to sacrifice no less than the Emperorship of the whole world and Paradise too, for the sake of this funny wish-

"AnAda selvatthu arambayargaL tarchoozha

 vAn ALum selvamum maN arasum yAn vENdEn

 tEnAr poonchOlai TiruvEngada sunayil

 MeenAi pirakkum vidhi udayEn AvEnE"

 

"If I am to be born in Tirumala, I do not even want a sentient birth, and am prepared for even a lowly existence as that of a fish" says Azhwar. However, why a fish? What sort of earthly use is the fish, except to serve as food for some? If we consider, we would find that the fish is no ordinary species, but serves to preserve the cleanliness and purity of the water in which it lives, by consuming the moss, algae and other such dirt, which dirty the clear streams. Hence Azhwar too wishes to perform the kainkaryam of keeping the Swami Pushkarini clean and spotless for the Lord's devotees to perform their ablutions.

 

The association between the Lord and the fish is deep-rooted. In the VibhUti Yoga of Sri Bhagavat Gita, the Lord enumerates the excellent among each species of beings. While doing so, He is selective in His choice of beings-not all constituents of creation find a mention, but the fish does. It would appear therefore that the fish is indeed dear to the Lord's heart. Of all the wide varieties of marine life that fill the ocean, the Lord calls Himself the Shark-"JhashANAm Makara: cha asmi".

 

A mere thought of the Lord in His MatsyAvatAra is enough to destroy all our sins and ensure liberation, says the MAtsya PurAna. However, there is the contrary story of a Maharshi, who got into bondage because of fish. Soubhari Maharshi renounced all worldly pleasures and spent his entire life and times immersed in blissful contemplation of the Lord and His auspicious attributes. One day, when he took a palmful of water from the river for performing arghyapradAnam during SandhyAvandanam, a school of fish accidentally swam into his palm. Distracted by the apparently cheerful and carefree fish, consisting of an old one and several young ones, possibly belonging to the same happy family, the Maharshi was reminded of his own long-past days of familial bliss. The thought haunted him for quite some time, becoming a recurring theme of contemplation and affected him so much that from a life of total renunciation, he re-entered wedlock and consequent bondage.

 

>From the aforesaid, the fish would appear to be a blessed being, being one chosen by the Lord for His primary avatara. However, the Shruti differs and calls the piscine species an accursed one. The Sixth Prasna of the Second kAnda of the Yajus SamhitA has this fishy tale to tell. Agni dEva had three brothers, who toiled all their long lives as mere carriers of "havis" or sacrificial offering to the dEvatAs and met with an insignificant death after leading mediocre lives of menial couriers. Agni was afraid that his existence too would turn out similarly insufferable, and to escape from this bondage, hid himself in the depths of the ocean. When the dEvatAs, denied of their havir bhAga from the Yagas and Yagyas performed by rishis and others, started searching high and low, they came across some fish, which gave away the hiding place of the fugitive Agni. Angered at the betrayal, Agni cursed the fish to untimely death at the whims and fancies of fishermen who cast their nets daily far and wide to return with a

 

As fishermen would attest, catches of fish in rivers and ponds are now rare to come across and it is the ocean that is the primary source. This is perhaps a sign of the overall decline in natural resources the world over. However, there were times of plenty and prosperity when fish were found not only in regular water sources like the sea, rivers and ponds, but also in fields. The water level in the fields was always high and supported a wide variety of marine life, as the Tiruppavai attests-

"Ongu perum sennel oodu Kayal ugaLa".

 All ponds and tanks were filled with fish, says Sri Thirumangai Mannan in the context of Gajendra Moksham-"Meen amar poigai".

 

Apart from scriptural contexts, the fish has occupied a prominent place in worldly matters too. The PAndyAs, who ruled over vast portions of Tamilnadu, are an ancient clan of kings who find a mention even in Srimad Ramayana. They were fearless warriors and just kings, devoted to their subjects' welfare and to spiritual causes. These wise Pandya kings had the symbol of the fish on their flags and proudly called themselves "Meena kodiyOn". As many of them were extremely devoted to Sriman Narayana, it was perhaps to remind themselves of the Lord's first and foremost avatara that they had the Fish on their flag and as a talisman for divine protection. It is indeed a tribute to the beauty of the fish that poets, ancient and modern, are fond of comparing women's eyes with it. "Meen vizhiyAL", "Kayal vizhi" etc. are some of the sobriquets bestowed upon women, who have beautiful eyes shaped like a fish.

 

To bring the fishy tale to an end, it is noteworthy that only in two avataras did the Lord grow at a phenomenal rate, immediately after manifesting Himself. One was the Trivikramavatara, where the Lord grew from a short, juvenile Brahmachari into a towering figure, with His tiruvadi traversing the three worlds with ease. The only other avatara where the Lord exhibited such a rapid pace of physical development (he grew from a small but beautiful fish in a pot into one of such huge dimensions that it could be accommodated only in the ocean) was the Matsyavatara. No doubt, all that we see and hear in this world is part of the glorious Bhagavat vibhUti: however, if we wish to see a graceful, elegant and lovely specimen of the same, it is to the Fish that we must turn.

 

Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka Srivan Satakopa Sri Narayana Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

Dasan, sadagopan

 

 

 

 

 

"

                                                    

                        



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



--------------------------------------------------------------
           - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
To Post a message, send it to:   bhakti-list@yahoogroups.com
Group Home: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bhakti-list
Archives: http://ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/
 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/