Veda gyan

Welcome to the 20^th issue of Vedagyan!

Sri Bhagavat Gita:

Verse 3 Chapter 1

pasyaitam pandu-putranam
acarya mahatim camum
vyudham drupada-putrena
tava sisyena dhimata

Duryodana says:

Acharya! Look at the magnificently arranged army formation of Pandavas under the able leadership of Drishtadymna the son of Durpata, your able disciple! Here there is an interesting incident behind that Duryodana points out indirectly to his teacher Sri Dronacharya. Dronacharya and King Durpada were classmates and friends.

They develop a difference of opinion and opposed each other. This results in Drupada doing a penance and obtaining a son to kill Drona! But Dronacharya was a true Brahmana so he readily imparted all his military knowledge to Drushtadymna when as a child he was entrusted to Dronacharya to be educated. Duryodana points out to this mistake in a subtle manner. 

Verse 4 Chapter 1

atra sura mahesv-asa
bhimarjuna-sama yudhi
yuyudhano viratas ca
drupadas ca maha-rathah

Duryodana continues to describe the Pandava army. He says that, there are great warriors equal to Bhima and Arjuna they are Yuyudhana, Virata, Drupada all of whom are maharatas ( This is a ranking in the army those days just like Commander of the modern army).

Verse 5 Chapter 1

dhrishtaketus cekitanah
kasirajas ca viryavan
purujit kuntibhojas ca
saibyas ca nara-pungavah

Drishtaketu,Chekitana, the King of Kasi are there, who are valiant warriors, Purujit, Kuntibhoja, Saibya are also there who are noble among men of their caliber!

Verse 6 chapter 1

yudhamanyus ca vikranta
uttamaujas ca viryavan
saubhadro draupadeyas ca
sarva eva maha-rathah

Yudhamanyu ,Uttamaujas the son of Subadhra,the sons of Draupati are all great maha ratas.

Story of Sri Vishnuchitta….

In the last issue we learnt about Godha or Andal the daughter of Periazvar or Sri Vishnuchitta. Let us now learn how Sri Vishnuchitta came to be called Periazvar. One day, the then Pandiya King called Sri Vallabhadeva convened a conference to discuss the primacy of Lord Narayana among the Vedic Godheads! To this conference he invited Sri Vishnuchitta too. Sri Vishnuchitta was too reluctant to participate in this conference as he did not know much of the Vedas but only knew the Lord to be every thing as for as he is concerned! But Lord appeared in Sri Vishnuchitta’s dream and told him to accept the invitation and proceed to Madurai.

Sri Vishnuchitta accepted the adesa or command from the Lord and proceeded to Madurai. There he was given a royal welcome and was escorted to the venue! The conference began and the scholars began debating various points of views on the subject. Azvar’s turn came and he put forth his arguments forcefully! To his own surprise he was extempore and quoted extensively from the scriptures and established beyond doubt that Sri Narayana is the pratatva or the Supreme Lord! The Pandia King was immensely pleased with Sri Vishnuchitta and declared that he had won the debate and has established the supremacy of the Lord! He also presented the Alwar with a lot of wealth and gifts. He brought Azvar in a procession on his Royal Elephant and accorded the Royal honour to him. While he was being brought to the palace the Lord appeared on his bird mount Sri Garuda, along with consort Sri Lakshmi and also he sported his weapons like Sarnga the bow, Disc, Mace, Shanka the conch etc. Sri Vishnuchitta was so overwhelmed by this sight, immediately sang in praise of the Lord in which he blessed the Lord Himself to live for a thousand years! This was his spontaneous love for the Lord, and he did not want any one to cast an evil eye on the Lord!! These became the famous “Pallandu” that is sung even to today in front of the Lord. Because he went ahead and blessed the Lord Himself, he came to be known as Periazvar.

Brief notes on Sri Madhvacharya the great acharya who established a school of philosophy called Dvaita Philosophy.  

Sri Madhvacharya was born in a Brahmin family in a village near Uduppi in Karnataka in around the year 1238 AD. When he was eight years old, he received the spiritual initiation. He was initiated into Sanyasa at the age of 12 years. His main aim was to oppose the Advaitha philosophy and establish the supremacy of Lord Narayana as paratatva. He had differences with Visishtadhvaitha philosophy of Sri Ramanuja too. He established his own philosophy called Dvaitha Philosophy. Even when he was very young he had robust health, he was good at physical exercises, wrestling, swimming and mountaineering. He had a melodious voice and would recite the verses of Veda that were soul stirring. He traveled the length and breadth of India and gave discourses on Srimad Bhagavata. He was a student of Sri Achyutaprakasa and on assuming the sanyasa he was given a new name called Purnaprajna. He was also known as Anandathirtha and later was named Madhva. He wrote commentaries on Brahma Sutra. When he visited Badrikasrama he presented the commentary on Srimad Bhagavat Gita and he is supposed to have had the darshan of Sri Vyasa at his asrama. On his return journey from the north, he visited all the southern states, and held debates with a number of scholars and won over them. Notable among them are Swami sastrin and Shobana Bhatta. They later became the disciples of Sri Madhvacharya and were known as Narahari Thirtha and Padhmanaba Thirtha. He installed a beautiful idol of Sri Krishna at the Uduppi temple and established the mutt there.

Another famous pandit called Trivikrama pandit during the King jayasimha period engaged in a prolonged debate on the philosophy and was finally won by the Acharya. He became a disciple of Sri Madvacharya.

During the period of the Parisian King Jalaludin Kilji, it was very risky for travelers like acharya, to travel and preach our religion; they would risk their life in doing so. But Sri Madvacharya braved such conditions and once he swam across the river Ganges to reach the other shore. But unfortunately, he and his disciples were caught and brought before the King!

Sri Madhvacharya spoke to the King in chaste Persian and explained his predicament. Seeing a scholar in him he immediately released all of them!

He disappeared from the midst of all and is supposed to have gone to Badrikasrama and dwell there permanently.

Life sketch of Tirumoolar, a great exponent of Yoga and Tantra sastra:

His great contribution is a work called Tirumandiram, a principal Siva Agama literature dealing with yoga and Tantra. It is believed that he belonged to the period of Patanjali as he mentions his yoga sutras in Tirumandiram. This colossal work consists of 3000 verses. They are supposed to have been sung one verse per year over a period of three thousand years! There is an interesting story behind Tirumoolar, he was a yogi who dwelt at Kailas the abode of Lord Shiva, once he wanted to visit the Great Agastiya muni in the Vindhyas of south. So he started his journey towards the southern mountains. On his way after visiting many shrines of Lord Siva he reached Kaveri river bank. There he saw a cowherd called Moolan was laying dead and all his flock were lamenting shedding tears near his mortal remains! This scene moved the Yogi and he wanted to alleviate the sufferings of these cows! As he was endowed with a number of siddhis or capabilities due to his Yogic powers, he performed what is called Para Kaya Pravesam or entering another body other than his own! He left his won body in a tree trunk and entered the mortal remains of the cowherd! Soon he sprang to life and all the cows around him jumped in joy, rejoicing at his regaining life. He took charge of these cows and escorted them to their respective houses. Afterward he returned back, while he was returning, he went in search of his body kept in a tree trunk, but to his surprise he found his body missing. Then he meditated and found that it was Lord Siva who had removed his body from there and wanted him to propagate the message of yoga in his present form itself. In the meanwhile, Moolan’s wife approached him and wanted him to return home. But he refused, she complained to the village elders about this strange behaviour. They thoughtfully analysed his behaviour and ruled that he was neither mad nor foolish and advised her that it was a yogi in the body of her husband and she had to respect his sentiments and live separately! After this he reached the abode of Lord Siva at Triuvavaduthurai near Kumbakonam. There he sat under an Arasu tree he went into yogic trance and later rendered the first verse of his Tirumandiram a great work on yoga! He came to be known as Tirumoolar. He laid emphasis on the upkeep of the body in order to achieve the lofty goals of yoga. His famous aphorisms are “ Anbe Sivam”, “ Udambai valarthen Uyir valarthene” etc. He stated that there are five cows in the house of a Paarpan (par means to see, so it is a seer) that wander freely without any control, if they are controlled by the cowherd, and then they would yield all the milk. This is an esoterically mentioned passage. Here the cows refer to one’s organs of perception and the cowherd is the Lord Supreme. The milk refers to the Eternal Knowledge!

Do you know?  That “Vyasa” is an official name given to a great exponent of Vedas and who is entrusted with the job of codifying the Vedas in every Dvapara yuga! Till now 28 such saints have appeared and the one who will don the mantle in the coming Dvapara yuga will be “Asvathama” the son of “Dronacharya” who will be named Vyasa!   

We shall see more of our tradition and ethos in our next issue!