Sri KrishNa BhakthAs /NaadhOpAsakAs : Part II
From the Bhakti List Archives
• September 23, 1999
Dear Sri KrishNa BhakthAs : In this posting , adiyEn would cover the life and contributions of Sri NarAyaNa Theertha considered as an aparAvathAram (reincarnation ) of Sri JayadEva Kavi. He is the author of the most beautiful Sri KrishNa LilA TarangiNi ( the river of the LilAs of Sri KrishNA ). He is also the author of another Naatakam known as " PaarijAthApaharaNam ". This deals with the story of Sri KrishNA stealing the PaarijAthA tree from Indra"s nandhavanam to please His dear Consort, SatyabhAmA . SriNaaraayaNa Theethar's sishya paramparai includes Sonti Venkata Subbiah and Sonti Venakata RamaNayyA , the Guru of Saint ThyagarAjA (1767-1847 A.D). Sri NaarAyana Theerthar lived in the early part of the 17th century .He hailed from a family of Smaartha Telegu Brahmins of Tanjore District, who had migrated during the time of Muslim invasions of Deccaan . They settled down in the villages of Cauveri delta and were grat Vedic Scholars . ShyAmA Saastrigal is a member of one such telegu family and Saint ThyagarAjA hails from another such family . Theethar was proficient in Sanskrit already at an early stage in his life and was also an expert in Karnatic Music and Bharatha- Naatyam . He was a keen student of Srimadh Bhaagavatham as well .He was a grahasthaa , who had to take aapath sanyAsam, when he thought that the floods of the river Cauveri were going to put an end to his life prematurely . Once he swam across Cauveri to reach his father-in-law's house , where his wife was staying . A swift current and a whirl pool knocked him off his feet and dragged him down as he was in the middle of the river . He was a man of high spiritual disposition and he feared that he would lose his life and impulsively , he took Aapath sanyAsam using the procedures known to him . These procedures required him to throw away his sacred thread , pluck a hair off his head in lieu of complete shaving of his head and utter the PrEksha manthram . Soon after this , the swift current pushed him towards the bank and he held onto some bush and stumbled out safe . As he walked towards his father-in-law's home to have a reunion with his wife , he was overcome by many emotions . He was deeply in love with his young wife and at the same time , the thought of having taken sanyAsam bothered him .He convinced himself that nobody knew about his entering the TuriyAsramam thru the Aapath sanyAsam route and hence , he can get back to his normal , erstwhile life . He entered his father-in-law's house and was greeted by his wife, who was startled to find that her husband had acquired a divya tEjas as a mahA purushan . She prostrated before him and was confused about the changes in her husband's countenance . She went inside and consulted with her parents. They came out and could not see any changes in their son-in-law. Only to his dear wife's eyes , Sri NaarayaNA appeared like an unapproachable MahA purushar with a divya tEjas. The wife was frightened . The parents pressed the son-in-law for any recent happenings and the son-in-law confided in them about his taking SanyAsam under duress . NaarAyaNA recognized the greatness of his wife, who could sense that transformation in him . The situation was awkward and he had no choice except to leave his home and follow his yathi dharmam .He became a wandering ministrel and spent some time at Challapalle, KrishNa district. Here , he composed many krithis in praise of VedAdri Narasimhan , the presiding deity of this sthalam . He moved onto Thiruppathi .On the way , he was overcome by severe stomach pain and prayed to Sri VenkatEsa BhagavAn for relief . In his dream ,Sri VenkatachalAdhipathi commanded him to go to a village near ThiruvayyAru , where an amsam of His had established Himself , to get relief form his pain . Next morning , Sri NaarAyaNa Theethar started his trek south and arrived at the banks of Cauveri few days later . During his sleep that night in a PiLLayAr koil , he had another dream in which the Lord told him to follow two wild boars that would appear next morning after his morning prayers at the village of NadukkAvEri . The Sun rose . After anushtAnam in front of VinAyakA , the sanyAsi saw the trunk of VinAyakA pointing west ward and he saw the two wild boars in front of the temple to lead him to the temple of VenakatesvarA in the village of VarahUr . NaarAyana Theerthar followed the fast moving boars , which stopped at VarahUr temple front and then disappeared . Once the saint entered the temple and had the darsanam of the Lord, his stomach pain vanished . >From then on , he did not move away from the temple and completed the epic dance drama , Sri KrishNa LilA TarangiNi ,the essence of Dasama skandham of Srimadh BhAgavatham there . He danced in front of the Lord while singing the krithis that he had just composed .The AnjanEyar archA serving Sri VenkatEsA kept time with His cymbals . When AnjanEyar failed to keep time , the saint recognized that those krithis were not acceptable to the lord and cast them aside .As a result of this selective process, the Sri krishNa LilA TarangiNi is fragmentary in covering the story line followed by Srimadh BhAgavatham. At the conclusion of the composition of the Sri KrishNa LilA TarangiNi , the saint had the divya darsanam of Sri KrishNA in ThirukkalyANa Kolam and he then decided not to go on with any further compositions .He taught the TarangiNi to his students and conducted Sri KrishNa Jayanthi every year .Even today , this tradition is continued in VarahUr and the TarangiNi is enacted during the Jayanthi for our Lord KrishNA . The KrishNa TarangiNi has 12 cantos just like the 12 sargAs of Sri JayadEvA's Gita Govindham .These are: 1. Sri KrishNa PrAdhurbhAva Varnanam , MangaLaacharaNam : Birth of the Lord in His uncle KamsA's prison . 2. Bala LilA VarNanam : PutanA samhAram, YamaLArjuna Bhanjanam , Visvaroopa darsanam for YasOdhA , the Mother , when she asked her child to open its mouth to test whether He had eaten mud . 3. Govatsa Paalana VarNanam : Slaying of AghAsura, BrahmA's stealing of the cows , The chastised Brahma Devan's praise of the Lord . 4. GopAlana VarNanam : protection of the cows as the divine cowherd , KaaLiya Mardhanam . 5. Gopi VasthrApaharaNam and GovardhanOddhAraNam 6. Gopi SamAgamana VarNanam : Spiritual communion of the Gopis at BrindhAvanam . 7. Raasa KrIdA varNanam : The ankle bells of the Lord were heard from inside the garbhagraham , when the Saint Composed the krithis of this sargam . 8. RadhA KrishNa samvAdham : VislEsham and samslEsham . 9. MadhurA PravEsa VarNanam : AkrurA's Misison and the Lord's entry in to the City of MadhurA . 10.Kamsa Nirharnam 11.DvArApathi PravEsa varNanam : UddhavA's mission , Gopi's sororws , defeat of JarAsandhA , Blessing of MuchukundhA and the Lord's entry of DwArakai . 12.Sri KrishNa-RukmiNi KalyANa MahOthsavam at DwArakai. The saint was blessed with the vision of the ThirukkalyANam and after witnessing this scene , he entered Jeva samAdhi at Thiruppanthrutthi under a Mango Tree , whose branches are thick in a direction over the samAdhi of the saint so that the Sun's hot rays do not fall on his samAdhi. many miracles are happening even today at this site (BrindhAvanam for the saint ). Sri KrishNAya Thubhyam nama : Daasan , Oppiliappan koil Varadachari SadagOpan
- Next message: Ramanbil_at_aol.com: "Re: Sri Nigamanta Mahadesika: Biography"
- Previous message: Mani Varadarajan: "Re: What is a billion dollars anyway?"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]