From slokam 6 upto 31, Swamy Desikan addresses Sri HayagrIvan directly and prays for hisanugrham. In the sixth slOkam, He mentioned that he is a mughdhan (aRiyAp PiLLai/ignorant one) and hence deserved to be the object of the mercy-laden glances of the Lord ofVidhyais. In the seventh slOkam, he acknowledged that DakshiNA Moorthy, Sarasvathi Devi,VyAsa-VaalmIki-ParAsarAs noted for their Vaak-siddhi shine by the power of a fraction of LordHayagrIvan’s prowess.
Here in this slOkam, Swamy Desikan salutes the apAra (limitless) karuNai of the Lord, whosaved Brahma Devan from the lot of being a stupid one through His benevolent UpadEsam onthe VedAs.
MEANING:
Oh VaachAm nidhE (the treasure house of all kalais/vidhyAs)! Oh HayagrIva Bhagavann! Youperformed upadEsam on the Vedams and their esoteric meanings for Your son, BrahmA. Thetwo asurAs by the name of Madhu and Kaitabhan stole those VedAs from Your son, when hewas temporarily distracted. Brahma was totally incapable of performing his srushti duties as aresult of the loss of the vedaas. He was dumbfounded and actionless.
Out of Your karuNai for BrahmA, You recovered the VedAs for him and reinstructed BrahmAon those vedAs and their meanings once again. If You had not performed the UpadEsam forthe second time, what would have been the lot of BrahmA? He would have stayed dumb andremained incapable of performing his assigned duties.
This slOkam deals with the avathAra KaaraNam of Lord HayagrIvan, which was for thepurpose of upadEsam for BrahmA on the VedAs once again. Sri D. Ramaswamy Iyengarquotes here the Upanishadic pasage: “yO brahmANam vidhaathi poorvam, yOvai VedAmchaprahiNOthi tasmai” to refer to the teaching of the VedAs to BrahmA for helping him with hisassigned duties of creation after his loss of the VedAs to Madhu and KaitabhA.
Swamy Desikan says to Lord HayagrIvA in this slOkam: “Oh Lord! Had You not restored theVedAs from the two asurAs and instructed BrahmA once again (thvam dhaithya-apaneethAnnigamAn DayayA yEva BhUya: api na adhyApayishyaya: chEth), then BrahmA would foreverbe a mandha-mathi (dim witted) and lost his bhAgyam and status as the creator of the janthusas ordained by You (Virincha: vanchitha bhAgadEya: niyatham mandha: abhavishyath). Itcertainly would have been so (niyatham).
BrahmA’s prayer was of the form that we come across in Taittiriya AraNyakam III.15.1:
“Harigum haranthamanuyanthi dEvA visvasyEsAnam
vrushabham matheenAm, BrahmasarUpammanu
mEdhamAgAdhayanam maa vivadhee: vikramasva”
MEANING:
Like loyal servants, dEvAs follow Hari, who is the Lord of the Universe, who leads all thoughtsas the Supreme leader and who absorbs into Himself the Universe at the time of PraLayam.May this path to liberation be taught in the vedAs open itself to me! Oh Lord, deprive me not ofthat bhAgyam! Please strive to secure that anugraham for me!
Brahma devan prayed to the Lord with manthrams like ThrisuparNa manthrams invoking Hisintervention to restore his intellect (medhA and praj~nA) to resume his assigned duties:
“BrahmEthu maam, madhumEthu maam,
BrahmEva madhumEthu maam, yaasthE sOma
prajA vathsOapi sO aham –”
This set of manthrams is recited by those who seek divine knowledge and who wish to burnaway all sins that stand in the way of enlightenment. This section of Upanishad means: “Maythe Supreme Brahman reach me! May the blissful one (Sathyam Jn~Anam anantham BrahmA)reach me! May the Supreme One (ParamAthmA) that is blissful and svathasiddham reach me!Oh Lord being one among Thy creatures, I am Thy child.. Destroy my sorrow! I offer myself asan oblation unto Thee!”
The Lord answered BrahmA back and revealed the warp and woof of the world to be created asDharmA through instruction on the profound manthrAs like the ones below:
“dharma ithi dharmENa sarvamidham parigruhItham
dharmath athidusccharam tasmAth dharmE ramanthE”
— Sri mahA NaarAyaNOpanishad: 78
MEANING:
Some consider that performance of dharmam (scriptural duties here) is the means of liberation.By the performance of dharmam, the entire world is held together. There is nothing moredifficult to practise than dharmam ordained by the scriptures. There are many obstructions thatpresent themselves while one goes about doing his ordained dharmams to eliminate selfishfeelings and destructive passions which interfere with the development of a life of harmonywith his fellow beings.
“DharmO visvasya jagatha: prathishtA lOkE
dharmishta prajA upasarpanthi, dharmENa paapam
apanudhathi, dharmE sarvam prathishtitham,
tasmAth dharmam paramam vadanthi”
–Sri MahA NaarAyaNOpanishad: Section 79
MEANING:
Dharmam (rutham) is the support of all the Universe. Every one draws near a person, who isfully devoted to the practise of Dharmam. Through the observance of his dharmam, a personbanishes all the sins. All are supported by DharmA. Hence, they say that DharmA is thesupreme means of liberation.
BrahmA’s confusion was removed. He was blessed with dhivya Jn~Anam by Lord HayagrIvanto resume his dharmam. In the next slOkam, Swamy Desikan describes the anugraham of LordHayagrIvan to the dEva guru, Bruhaspathi, when his mind was full of doubts.
Source
To be continued…
