Guruvayurappan - Experiences of Bhattathiri

Part 10

Experiences of Bhattathiri in the Narayaneeyam

In one of his conversations with the Lord, Bhattathiri fondly recalls the incarnation of Lord Varaha and says, “Oh My Guruvayurappa, Hiranyaksha came down and hid the whole world under water. You know what you did, you took even a smaller form and came out from the nose of Lord Brahma and you eventually grew to the size of a big mountain to become a boar”. Bhattathiri beautifully admires how the Lord became a boar and how he sailed through the air and jumped right into the ocean with the nose pointing down akin to a wild boar and picked Mother Earth on his teeth which were curved upwards. Bhattathiri admires the teeth which were sparkling white and the earth which was blue in color and looked like the third day moon with a little curve and streak on top. “You were so happily grunting!”, says Bhattathiri.

Hiranyaksha came out to look for Lord Hari and enquired the Lord’s whereabouts with Sage Narada, who asked him to go to the forests. On seeing the Lord in the guise of a boar, Hiranyaksha started attacking the boar form of the Lord. The Lord accepted all the blows by Hiranyaksha just as a beautiful lotus garland around the neck and still blessed him with Moksha. Bhattathiri was in awe of the Lord’s immense compassion for Hiranyaksha. This is verily an instance of how Bhattathiri enjoyed the Leela of Lord in Narayaneeyam.

When Gajendra shouted “Narayana Akhila Guro Bhagawan Namaste”, the Lord came on Garuda and blessed him with liberation [moksha], the greatest of the greatest. Suddenly Bhattathiri had a doubt on the Lord’s form. The Lord had four hands and in one hand he was holding the conch [shankha], in the other hand he had the discus [chakra], mace [gada] in the third hand and lotus in the fourth hand. He was sure of the first three items namely the conch, discus and mace which are verily the Lord’s sporting items in Vaikuntam and Ocean of milk. He was unsure about the lotus in the Lord’s fourth hand and so he enquired about it and the Lord replied that it was verily the lotus that was offered at the Lord’s holy feet by Gajendra. He had offered a lotus from the pond when the Lord saved him from the crocodile. It is a fact that the Lord holds whatever that is offered by a devotee very close to his heart.

Out of hundred dashakams In Narayaneeyam, about seventy to eighty dashakams are dedicated to Lord Krishna’s divine plays. He delineated all the divine plays of the Lord in Narayaneeyam. During Kaliya Nartanam, he was unable to believe that Guruvayurappan danced on the head of Kaliya, the thousand headed snake. He jumped from the branch of a Kadamba tree right on the snake and touched the tail first. Kaliya soon entwined Lord Krishna with his tail and took him inside the waters. Lord Krishna was inside the waters for a few minutes as if caught by the snake. Gopas and Gopis, who were standing on the banks of the river Yamuna, started crying since they were not able to see him and thought that they had lost him. The Lord wanted to play a prank on the Gopas and Gopis and so hid himself in the waters. They were unable to comprehend this and started weeping. The Lord then realized that it was not the right time to play pranks and so he immediately came out of the waters and jumped right on Kaliya’s head and started to dance.

The cadence in which Bhattathiri described Kaliya Nartanam was in the same meter in which the Lord danced on Kaliya and the reason Bhattathiri was able to portray the divine play in such a visual manner was only because the Lord performed the leela in front of Bhattathiri. Even today there are lots of inscriptions on Lord Krishna’s divine plays on the temple pillars in Guruvayur, which stands as a testimony to the precept that Lord Krishna himself had played the leelas there.

Dashakam means a set of ten shlokas. After every dasakam, he cries out to the Lord – “Oh! My Lord Guruvayurappa, you have bestowed your grace on everyone, will you not bestow your grace on me?” He was suffering from rheumatism and cried out to the Lord that only he can cure him of that disease. The Lord wanted to extract Narayaneeyam from Bhattathiri and that was exactly the reason he was afflicted with the disease.

When Bhadrachalam Ramadas was imprisoned, he thought it was a good time to sing kirtans on Lord Rama. He was least bothered by the problems inside the prison in Golkonda fort and he was only thinking about Lord Rama. Even today one can see the gory place where Bhadrachalam Ramadas was imprisoned.

If we take the life-history of Bhakta Meera, she was in absolute peace with her Giridhari even when she was tortured by King Rana. Brindavan was in her heart and she did not want to go anywhere! It was only when Rana banished her, she moved to Brindavan.

When Mahans undergo more and more sufferings, it only makes them more and more aligned to the Lord. It's an important lesson for all devotees to emulate them during their worst times, as it brings out the best in them!