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bhishma-stuthi-13

From the Bhakti List Archives

M K Sudarshan • June 28, 1997 


srimathE lakshmi-nrsumha parabrahmaNE namaha
sri vedanta guravE namaha

Dear "bhAgavatOttamA-s", 

The sixth and last "avatara-rahasya" (F) is hinted by the Lord in the
following "Gita" verse : 

     janma karma cha mE divyam Evam yO vEthi tattvata-ha I
        tyaktvA dEham punar janma naiti mAmEti sO-arjUna  II

(Meaning : He who has fully grasped this Transcendent nature of My
appearances and activities, O ArjUna, takes leave of the earthly abode of
his body; but he is never re-born, he never returns; for he has entered into
Mine Own Abode !)  

In the first verse of the 'bhisma-stuthi', BhishmAchAryA-r ends, you will
note, with a reference to "yat-Bhava-pravAha-ha" (the Lord's many Descents
into the World of Creation) after opening with the words "iti
matirupakalpitA vitrishnA ....etc" (Surrender my Mind to the Lord)!

In other words, Bhishma, in effect, says that "after having grasped the
nature of your many "descents", O Krishna, my mind surrenders in the
terminal moments of my life, abjectly and completely, unto You !"

This is the "tattvA" that Lord refers to in IV.9. This "grasping" of the
"tattva" is what makes Bhishma the sort of rare "gnyAni" the Lord Himself
declares, elsewhere in the Gita, constitutes His own "atmA" !

Now, it is very important to understand that there are two critical elements
that go to make up the climactic moment of "antima-smriti" :

(i)"grasping" of the "avatAra-tattva" and 
(ii) "Atma-nivEdanam"

The first leads to the other and then both elements together pave the way
for a "jIvA" to attain what Lord Krishna refers to as "tyaktvA dEham punar
janma naiti mAmEti sO-arjUna".

"AchAryA-s" illustrate how the twin elements operate in tandem to result in
"antima-smriti" through an apt imagery which runs as follows :

The Lord of Tirupati, Lord SrinivAsan, set out in his royal procession one
day ("utsava-samayam") being carried on His palanquin, alongwith His
Consorts, through the streets of the holy town.

As He passed through the many streets of Tirupati, the Divine Procession
paused at the door-steps of each house. There the devotees from each
household offered Him their worship with humble offerings of dry-fruit,
banana, sugar-candy, sandal-paste, rose-water and camphor-lights.

Lord then moved on to the next household to meet another set of His
devotees.And thence so on and so forth.

Suddenly, the Lord commanded the procession to take a detour and to enter
into a particular street where He had not been scheduled to pass through on
that occasion on that day. Since they were not expecting the Lord's
Procession in the their street-way the households there were taken utterly
by surprise to see their Lord marching down to their homes.

Everybody was rattled. They were totally unprepared for the Lord's visit.
Some did not have even the basic customary offerings of coconut, dry-fruit,
banana and camphor-tablets to offer the Lord !

They all trembled. They were disappointed, too, that they would have to let
the Lord pass by their homesteads without showing him due honours and worship.

One devotee, however, came out onto the street, stood empty-handed but
confidently before the Lord.

Lord Srinivasa queried him, "And what have thee to offer Us ?".

The devotee folded his hands in worship, looked into the lustrous faces of
the Lord and his Consorts, and spoke :

"Oh Govinda, if Thou asketh what I have to offer Thee now, my answer is naught!"

The Lord answered gravely, "And thou believest We are pleased to hear thee
say so? Art thou pleased yourself to say so ?"

The devotee remained silent and penitent before the Lord.

The Lord continued to tease the devotee, "Speak, art thou pleased with the
honours and worship thou hast to offer Us today ?".

The devotee remained silent again.

"Speak then, my good man", commanded the Lord.

The devotee began to speak :

"Govinda, it pleaseth him who offers it and him, as well, that receives a
thing the receiver does not possess."

The Lord looked quizzically at the devotee and spoke sternly, "What sayest
thou, my man ? Speak not to Us in riddles !".

The devotee continued, "No riddle, my Lord. But surely Thou will agree the
pleasure of a thing given you doubles when it happens to be a thing Thou
dost not possess. Does greater joy lie in offerings of coconut, banana and
camphor than in an offering of a thing Thou dost not possess ? Lord, I ask
Thee, dost Thou not possess already in ample measure coconuts, bananas,
dry-fruit, camphor and sweet-smelling incense ? "

Lord Srinivasa looked at the devotee and sensed the impertinent tone in his
voice.

"So thou suggest We are in want of certain things of the world, eh ?", asked
the Lord sarcastically.

The devotee stunned the Lord with his response, "Aye, that I do suggest, My
Lord! Thou dost lack a certain thing which I possess and which, if I were to
offer it to Thee, would give far greater pleasure to Thyself than the humble
coconut, banana or camphor !".

The Lord was enraged by the devotee's insolence.

"What ! Darest say thou We lack a thing in this world which thou ownest and
which thou condescend to make as offering unto Ourselves !"

"Aye, My Lord," said the devotee calmly.

"Mortal, explain thyself well," thundered the Lord,"or else prepare thyself
to face the full force of my wrath!".

The devotee was unperturbed and replied calmly :

"Oh Govinda, I have nothing to fear from Thee ! Pray listen to me."

"My Lord, thou dost not possess a certain thing, indeed, and the thing is
Thine own Heart ! Aye, 'tis true, Thou has no possession of Thy Heart ! And
I know the reason for it ! In your last 'avatara' in the world, as Krishna
the cow-herd, you stole butter from the lovely damsels of Brindavan and they
in turn relieved Thee of Thine own Heart and ran away with it !!

"Therefore, Oh Lord, Thou dost need a new heart now ! Yea, that's a thing Ye
don't possess and are certainly in dire need of !

"And hence, Oh Govinda, here and now I do offer Thee a gift more precious
and more pleasureable to you than all the coconuts, banana and camphor in
the world .... I offer Thee my heart to replace Thine own which thou lost
many ages ago to those love-lorn "gOpikA-s" !!"
  
The story goes that after hearing out what the devotee had to say, the Lord
bade the devotee climb up His palanquin and address His Feet! 

Lord Srinivasa then embraced him warmly !

                   ***************************************

In the above simple story our "AchAryA-s" recount, we see the twin elements of  
(i) "grasping" of the "avatAra-tattva" and 
(ii) "Atma-nivEdanam"

both very well illustrated in the example of the devotee who bravely quoted
to the Lord an incident from His previous "avatara" and used it
contextually, cleverly and above all, very poignantly, to perform his own
"surrender" to Lord Srinivasa and secured His Warm Embrace !

The SAME twin elements are indeed the CRUX of the first soul-stirring verse
of BhishmA's great "stuthi" :

               iti matirupakalpitA vitrishnA
                  Bhagavati sAtvata-pUngavE viBhUmni I
               svasuKha-mupagatE Kachi-dvihartum
                  prakriti-mupEyushi yatBhava-pravAha-ha II


At the end of the first verse of the "bhishma-stuthi" (and after 13 long
posts of mine !) we can now re-visit the questions I raised in the very 1st
post of mine in this series.

If you all remember, in the first post, I had posed questions to myself such as:

---- Is SriVaishnavism, as religious faith, obsessed with "dying" and "death"?

or,

---- Does one's cultivated yearning for "antima-smriti" make the
prospect of "dying" any less bleak and painful than it otherwise appears ?

The first verse of the "bhishma-stuthi" and the discussions we have had so
far clearly show us that a departing soul is not so much concerned about
Death itself as about "entering into the Lord's Abode" i.e. the state of
being "un-born" like the Lord Himself! The whole focus of "antima-smriti" as
per our "AchArya-siddhAtham", therefore, is not so much on "dying" as it is
on attaining what we saw the "purusha-suktam" describe as "birthless-ness"
--- "ajAya-mAna-ha" !

It is not Death that SriRamanuja "siddhantam" is pre-occupied with; it is
human "birth-lessness" that is its true and eternal concern !
 
                 ********************************************

Dear "bhAgavatOttamA-s", we have concluded examining the First ShlOka from
the "bhishma-stuthi".

In the absence of any feed-back -- neither +ve or -ve -- from friends on the
"list" (except perhaps Sri.Sadagopan, who never fails to keep encouraging
me, and Smt.Nagu Satyan) I am not sure if this series is of any interest to
many of you.

I feel I'm "flying blind" at night and "without radar" equipment!

If I'm boring you all, please forgive me my tresspass. I realize the
subject-matter I've chosen is quite "heavy" and can be quite "indigestible"
if not handled as well as I know my own "manaseega-AchAryan", Sri.Mukkur
Swamy II does.

Before I continue with the rest of the "stuthi" I ask myself if I should
really be imposing myself further on you all.

Who can tell ? 

srimathe srivan satagopa sri narayana yathindra mahadesikaya namaha
sudarshan