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SrI deSika stotra-s - Part 2: daSAvatAra stotram.

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Krishnamachari • February 6, 1998 


				SrI deSika stotra-s - 2. daSAvatAra stotram.

	This stotram was composed by SrI vedAta desika when he worshipped the Lord in the daSAvatAra sannidhi in SrIrangam.    The first Slokam is introductory in nature, and SrI deSika offers obeisance to Lord ranganAtha and Mother ranganAyAki whose ten divine incarnations he is going to cover in the stotram.  The next ten Slokams are devoted to the ten incarnations, one for each incarnation.  The twelfth Slokam summarizes all the ten incarnations in one Slokam, and the thirteenth and last Slokam is a phala-Sruti.  

	The most striking aspect of this stotra for me was the poetic side of SrI deSika that comes out  so vividly in this composition.   When this statement is made, it is not to diminish  the importance of the devotional fervor in the stotra in any way.  In praising the poetic gift of Sri deSika,  one writer has remarked that SrI deSika could compose a thousand pASurams in praise of SrI RanganAtha's pAduka-s with ease in one night, whereas no other poet would have found it easy to compose more than a handful of Sloka-s on the topic of  'sandals'.  This is the poet that is revealed to us when we go through the daSAvatAra stotram.  Especially in the description of the first few incarnations, this poetic expression is striking.

	In his description of the matsya incarnation, the poet describes the beauty of the eyes of the Lord thus - wherever He goes as a fish in the waters looking for the lost veda-s, His eyes look like a traveling lotus garden.  The huge waves that He creates as He travels collide with each other and this looks like a swing in the waters.  And Our Lord is having fun enjoying this ride in this swing as He is looking for the veda-s.

	In the kUrma avatara, SrI deSikan imagines the Lord in the form of a tortoise enjoying the massage by the mandAra mountain as it is used in churning the ocean while supported on His back.  This massage makes the Lord feel so comforted that He falls asleep.  His deep breathing results in the huge waves which again serve the Lord as the water-bed on which He is present with His Consort, blessing all of us.

	The poet describes the sound emanating from the nose of the Lord in the varAha incarnation (ghur-ghuraih) as reverberating across the worlds and purifying them.  The Lord takes this incarnation to retrieve the lost Earth from the ocean, and once He has retrieved Mother Earth, He has Her firmly seated on His canine teeth as He is rising out of the Ocean.  She is enjoying the firm seating on His canine teeth and creating all the forms from brahma all the way down to the grass and all other beings as She is enjoying the ride.

	When the Lord appeared as nr*simha in the pillar in hiranyakaSipu's palace, the pillar became the 'mother' of the Lord, who Himself is the Father of brahma.  Thus the pillar managed to lose its sterility, and now became the grandmother of brahma! Given that brahma himself is called the pitAmahan (grandfather), now the pillar became the grandmother for the grandfather also.   (How lucky is the pillar that had the good fortune to give birth to the Lord!).  Since the Lord did not know He had to appear in the pillar (until prahlAda so wished), He did not have His weapons for the slaying of hiraNyakaSipu.  This is just as well, because His nails obviously are more powerful than His other weapons!

	As the foot of the Lord in His vAmana incarnation keeps growing, SrI deSika imagines that His feet are carrying mahAbali's fame (for fulfilling His words to the Lord happily) like the soldier announcing a victorious king's arrival.  The Ganges river that resulted from brahma's washing of the Lord's Holy feet as it flowed down to earth looked like a white victory flag for the Lord.  

	The second aspect of the stotra that is noticeable is the description of the incarnations of the Lord using strikingly extreme aspects of the avatAra as if to illustrate that the Lord is all extremes at the same time.   In the description of the parasurAma and rAma incarnations, SrI deSika first points out the extreme capability or actions that they either did or are capable of, and then takes us down to the other extreme of their actions as if to contrast the two extremes.  Thus he first points out that ParSurAma destroyed 21 generations of kshatriya-s as a revenge for the slaying of his father, and captured the whole world for himself.  At the other extreme,  He sacrificed all his possessions in one swoop to Sage KaSyapa.  In rAma incarnation, SrI rAma was capable of draining the whole ocean with the heat of His arrows.  The power of His arrows is far more, and is many times more tortuous than the agni that devours the world mercilessly at the time of pralaya.  This same Lord rAma has as His vow the protection of those who surrender to Him just once. 

	The above are some instances in the daSAvatAra stotram where SrI deSika has lost himself intensely in the bhagavad-anubhava as he is describing the different incarnations.   In addition to the descriptions of the above incarnations, the stotram also has one Sloka each that is devoted to the balarAma, kr*shNa and kalki incarnations.   

	Originally when I had the desire to go through each of the deSika stotra-s and share a high-level summary of each, I had planned not to include the samskr*t version of any Sloka or present detailed meanings.  However, in the twelfth Sloka
in this stotram svAmi deSikan summarizes all the ten incarnations in one Sloka.  So I am including this Sloka and its meaning briefly.

	"IcchA-mIna vihAra-kacchapa mahA-potrin yadr*cchA-hare         
	rakshA-vAmana rosha-rAma karuNA-kAkutstha helA-harin         |
	krIDA-vallava kalka-vAhana-daSA-kalkin iti pratyaham
	jalpantah purushAh punanti bhuvanam puNyaugha paNyApaNAh  ||

	"Oh Lord! Those who speak your name daily 

as the One who took the form of a fish by your own free will, incarnated as a tortoise for the purposes of having fun, took the form of a big boar, appeared as Lord nr*simha when no one (including you) expected it, took the incarnation of vAmana just for protecting everyone (through the contact with your feet), presented yourself as the angry paraSurAma and also as rAma - the personification of kindness and mercy, had the sport with the plough in the balarAma avatAra and as the cowherd in your kr*shNa incarnation, and will ride the white horse in your kalki incarnation,

make this world pure by the store-house of puNya that they have accumulated, and are like the store where we can get all the puNya we need (i.e., by merely associating with them)".

	SrI deSika again gives vent to his poetic sentiments in describing these noble souls as shop-keepers from whom we can get all the puNya that we want by associating with them.   In the concluding Sloka, Sri deSika points out that even the desire to chant this stotram will lead to sarasvati-katAksham, in addition  to the spiritual development, purity of thought, and all kinds fame.  
	 
	As in the case of the previous write-up on SrI hayagrIva stotram, it is hoped that this high level description of the daSAvatAra stotram gives the desire to look at the detailed meanings of the stotram, chant it regularly,  and be blessed by our Lord and our AcArya. 

-dAsan kr*shNamAcAryan