GITA 9.20

GITA 9.20

TIRUVALI SRI LAKSHMI NARASIMHA

We are in Tiruvaali, one of the Chola region Divyadesam. Including this, Sri Narasimha is gracing in Five Kshetrams. With the Five great elements or Pancha bhootha, as His body, the Lord is gracing the devotees. In this Kshetram, He is representing Water. Why it is so? In this Kshetram only the Lord is Sri Lakshmi Narasimha. Sri Lakshmi is merciful and at our plight, She melts like water. Alwar had a very deep love for the Lord here. He sends bees as emissaries to tell the Lord of Tiruvaali, famous for yagnas, of 'her' [Alwar in the disguise of a woman] plight. Thus, the Lord had stolen Alwar's mind. Alwar, in this female disguise, was sleeping with 'her' mother; when a well built handsome Male comes. In the words of the mother, Alwar says: whether this Male was a thief or not, she did not know. But the Lord had come to take away 'her'. Because Alwar was the property of the Lord. So, how anyone could say taking one's own property as stealing? The Lord called 'her' to come with Him, and 'she' also immediately followed Him, ignoring 'her' mother. The mother laments this event next day to her neighbour. She says that she was not aware where the couple had gone, to Tiruvaali or to Lanka. Alwar implies that 'she' was in great love with the Lord of Tiruvaali, and the Lord also reciprocated. Hence, in their madness of love, they could have gone anywhere.

 From this, we understand that we are all His property and we have no authority to question why He takes people with Him. Bhakti, maturing into madness will be irrational. All the thirty pasurams of Tirumangai Alwar reflect this great Bhakti. We will now see 19th sloka:

tapamy aham aham varsam
nigrhnamy utsrijami ca
amritam caiva mrityus ca
sad asac caham arjuna

"O Arjuna, I give heat, and I withhold and send forth the rain. I am immortality, and I am also death personified. All in all times, past, present and future, are in Me."

The Lord lists some more items and declares He represents them also. By taking these as His bodies, the Lord does related actions. He talks of rain here, and aptly the Lord Sri Narasimha is representing water, in this Kshetram. Aham = I, Sri Krishna,  tapamy = burn or produce heat. We know heat is produced by the Sun or fire or a lamp. So the Lord implies that He is the motive force in all these to produce heat or light. He is the antaratman in the Sun or fire or lamp and commands them in their jobs. Even the heat in our body is because of Him. Aham = I, Sri Krishna,  nigranhamy = suck [ by evaporation] water from various sources like ocean or lakes, etc., by the Sun's heat, utsrijami = and as cloud produce, varsam =rain. He produces warmth and heat in this Universe and produces rain by collecting water from various sources, thereby cooling the Universe. Why should He do both? Why heat and then cool? If we ponder over this, we will find that we are never happy with only heat or cold, but we aspire for coolness when it is hot and vice-versa. Thus the Lord is responsible for everything, we need. It is worth remembering the Fourth pasuram of Tiruppavai -aazhi mazhaik kanna..[ஆழி மழைக் கண்ணா]. Amrutham = life saving, ca = and, mrithyu = death. Here, amruth denotes various lifesaving devices and not the nectar obtained by churning the milky ocean. Lifesaving may appear as a medicine or herb or Sri Rama mantra, anything which saves a life from departing a body. Similarly, He is also all those which make a soul to depart a body. If we think of this, we can understand the life cycle. As an example, rats are there and to prevent their growth excessively, snakes are there. To arrest their growth, mongooses are there; and so on. Arjuna = Arjuna, aham = I, Sri Krishna. am, sad = all those existing in the present, and asad = all those different from present; that is, both past and future. So, all that are existing now are His body; and all those which existed or which will be existing, are His body. He is the soul of all in the present, past and future; He is the soul of life-saving and death-causing items; and, He is the soul of warmth, cold, rain, heat producing and clouds. By these Four slokas, the Lord exhausts everything we can perceive in this Universe and says that He, as One, is the Soul of all these and commands them to do their jobs. This knowledge makes one mature in Bhakti. We will now take leave of this Kshetram.

                                                                                                         (continued)