Veda gyan

Welcome to the 22^nd Issue of Vedagyan . In the last issues we saw thirteen verses from Baghavat Gita and in this issue too we shall continue the first chapter.

Srimad Bhagavat Gita.

Verse 14 Chapter 1

tatah svetair hayair yukte
mahati syandane sthitau
madhavah pandavas caiva
divyau sankhau pradadhmatuh

There, mounted on the chariot, drawn by white horses Arjuna and Lord Krishna blew their holy conches along with the Pandavas.

Verse 15 Chapter 1

pancajanyam hrsikeso
devadattam dhananjayah
paundram dadhmau maha-sankham
bhima-karma vrkodarah

Hrshikesa (Lord) blew his Panchajanya, Arjuna blew his Devattam, Bhima capable of Herculean tasks, and who has appetite for more blew his conch called Poundram.

Verse 16 Chapter 1

anantavijayam raja
kunti-putro yudhisthirah
nakulah sahadevas ca
sughosa-manipuspakau

Raja Yudhishtira the son of Kunti blew his conch called Ananthavijaya, Nakula and Sahadeva blew their conches called Sugosha and Manipushpaka respectively.

Verse 17 Chapter 1

kasyas ca paramesv-asah
sikhandi ca maha-rathah
dhrishtadyumno viratas ca
satyakis caparajitah

The King of Kasi the valiant archer, Sikhandi, Dhrshtadyumna, and Virata all of whom are great charioteers and can not be conquered.

Verse 18 Chapter 1

drupado draupadeyas ca
sarvasah prithivi-pate
saubhadras ca maha-bahuh
sankhan dadhmuh prithak prithak

Oh! King, Drupada the sons of Draupadi, and the others as the mighty-armed son of Subhadra, blew their conches.

Verse 19 Chapter 1

sa ghoso dhartarastranam
hridayani vyadarayat
nabhas ca prithivim caiva
tumulo ’bhyanunadayan

The sound of these conches, being blown together vibrated in the sky and upon earth. It rattled the hearts of the sons of Dritarashtra. 

To be continued.... 

Story of Sri Kulasekara Alwar

Sri Kulasekara was born to a Chera king called Didavrthan and Nandhanayaki during 8^th century (subject of speculation) in Malai Nadu what is known as Kerala today. Both the parents of Kulasekara were great Vishnu Bakthas, so naturally the child too was one. During his formative years, the King made arrangements for Kulasekara to learn all Sastras, the language of Sanskrit, the Vedic scriptures apart from poetry, literature etc.

 He also learnt the art of fighting the wars, the knowledge of weaponry, horse riding, elephant riding, archery, and other skills. In the due course the King installed his son Kulasekara as the successor to his throne. He also ruled the kingdom in an exemplary manner. He valiantly fought many wars and won over the kings of Chola and Pandia dynasties. Looking at his prowess the Pandia King gave his daughter in marriage to the King.

 A son and a daughter were born to him whom he named Didavrathan and Ila.  Kulasekara apart from being a benevolent King was an un paralleled Vishnu baktha. His attachment to Sri Rama, an avatara of Sri Narayana was unique. Once there was a Ramayana discourse at his palace and the king was listening to it with rapt attention. When the person telling the story told about Ram’s hermitage at the forest was surrounded by the demo ness Surpanaka and telling Lakshmana to remain inside the hut to guard Sita, Rama came out where he was confronted by many sword wielding Asuras of the demoness Sri Kulasekara lost himself and totally identified himself with the scene and ordered his army to go on alert to protect Rama against these asuras.

 Realising the situation the ministers asked the sage who was narrating the story to hasten and tell about Rama winning the war with Ravana. So as soon as he narrated the story ahead the King became calm! The King’s Vishnu bakthi annoyed his ministers and once they stole the Navaratna mala adorning the Rama idol at the pooja mantap.

 This startled the King and he called his ministers to inquire into this incident. Some of them suggested that it must be the handiwork of Vishnu bakthas who thronged the palace! King was shocked to hear this from his own ministers and decided to crack it himself. He ordered a pot full of poisonous snakes to be brought to him and declared that if it was the work of a Vishnu Baktha then he would insert his hand into to the pot, and would be bitten by the snakes and die, if it was not true nothing would happen to him. He did slip his hand into the pot and nothing happened.

 At this juncture the ministers came out clean and accepted their mistake to have implicated the name of Visnu bakthas and sought King’s pardon. The King was kind to them too, and pardoned them.

His songs were in praise of Sri Rama and he sang a number of songs on deities of temples he visited and they are known as Perumal Tirumozi.

Because of his un paralleled bakthi to Lord Narayana he came to be known as Kulasekara Alwar.

Story of Meiporul Nayanar

Chetinadu was an ancient kingdom and Tirukovalur was a famous capital of that kingdom. It was being ruled by a famous king called Meiporul. A great Siva baktha. He ruled his kingdom with impeccable law and justice and was a peace loving king who ushered prosperity to his country men. His devotion to Lord Siva was total, that he would honour his devotees and would not tolerate any harm to them. His valor made all his neighbouring kings friendly towards him. But one of the nearby kingdoms that was ruled by Muthanatan was not able to accept this, and waged a number of wars against Meiporul, but only to loose every time!

 So he decided to adopt a wicked method and defeat the King, he dressed up himself as a Siva baktha smearing the sacred ash all over his body and holding the holy book of songs of Siva in hand and concealing a dagger in it, went to the King Meiporul with an intention of killing him. It was already dark when he reached the palace. Thathan one of the close assistants to the king stopped him and told him that the king has retired for the day in his private chambers. But the camouflaged devotee did not bother to listen and barged into King’s quarters.

 Confronted with a Lord’s devotee at this odd hour, the King hurriedly got up and received the guest with reverence. The devotee told the king that he had brought a holy book that praises Lord Siva and should be taught to a person in privacy. So the King asked his wife to retire to another chamber immediately and offered a seat to the Devotee and sat under his feet. Immediately the wicked man took out the dagger and stabbed the King. Right from the beginning Thathan suspected the stranger in the guise of a devotee and was watching the happenings immediately rushed to help the sagging King and took out his sword to kill the stranger.

 But to his surprise, the King forbade him and told him that no harm should come upon the stranger as he was donning the holy marks of the Lord and should be treated as a great devotee. He asked the body guard to escort the stranger who by now had been identified as the King of the neighboring country till the edges of his kingdom.

Thus he established that his devotion to Lord Siva was dear to him than his life.