Faith

This morning at 8 o’clock one of the ardent devotees brought the Tamil note book written by Bhagavan and gave it to him. Bhagavan showed the verses he required, turned over some of the pages, showed some more verses and explained their meaning.

This morning at 8 o’clock one of the ardent devotees brought the Tamil note book written by Bhagavan and gave it to him. Bhagavan showed the verses he required, turned over some of the pages, showed some more verses and explained their meaning. I could not hear him and so looked at him enquiringly. Noticing it Bhagavan said loudly, “Some time ago, Muruganar wrote two verses in Tamil in praise of Vishnu. One is a Kayikam (pertaining to the body) and the other is a Vachikam (pertaining to the word of mouth). The gist of those verses is:

‘1. Swami, you took the Varaha Avatar (The Boar Incarnation), lifted the earth which was submerged in water and saved the people. How could I, one of the inhabitants of the earth, praise you suitably for the great good you have done me?’

‘2. The world was one great ocean (Ekarnavam) when the devatas prayed to you to save them. You then took the shape of a hamsa (swan) and when with both wings fanned the water, the water gave way and the earth came out of it. For what you have done for us, how can I sufficiently praise you?’

“This is the purport.

“After writing those two verses he insisted on my writing the third one Manasikam (pertaining to the mind). So I could not help writing it. It was only then that I wrote the verse, the purport of which is:

‘O Swami, to relieve the burden of the earth, you took the avatar of Krishna and by your teaching through the Gita, like, “whenever there is decline of righteousness,” “for the

protection of the virtuous”* you assured us that you would have several other incarnations. To praise such a Lord and his various forms, who am I?’

“These words of praise or ‘Who am I?’ have several meanings and could be interpreted in different ways by different people. I wrote this verse on Vishnu mainly on Muruganar’s insistence. He wrote Kayikam and Vachikam and said that Bhagavan alone should write the Manasikam. What could I do?”

I said, “Who else could possibly write the Manasikam?”

Looking at a gentleman sitting opposite, Bhagavan said, “Look, that Krishnaswami Iyer wrote a commentary on Bhagavad Gita, attached a picture of Krishna on the front page of the manuscript and pressed me to write something underneath. Then I wrote the verse ‘Parthan Therinal’ (in Tamil) and then changed it into a sloka in Sanskrit reading:

pawRsariwêpe[ ïaviyTva zuÉa< igrm!,

pawRSyaitRhrae dev> k«pamUitR Ss patu n>. As the Charioteer of Partha (Arjuna), the Lord gave him the divine teaching. May He, who is compassion incarnate and who resolved the distress of Arjuna, protect us!

“It is found in Bhagavad Gita Ratnamalika. These are the only two I have written in praise of Vishnu and I had to write them under the above circumstances.”

* Gita, IV: 7 & 8