Devi Mookambike

The great Kola Maharshi performed intense tapas in the valley of the Kodachadri hills near Udupi in Karnataka. Pleased with his tapas, Lord Shiva appeared before him and granted him a boon. The Sage said that he wanted nothing for himself, but he wanted the Lord to reside in the sacred valley for the welfare of all the people. The Lord agreed and took the form of a Linga. However, the Sage wanted the presence of Devi Parvati also along with the Lord. In response to the rishi’s request, a golden line appeared on the Shiva linga to indicate the presence of Shakti along with Shiva. The place became known as Kollur.

Long after that, a rakshasa by name Kaumasura went about creating havoc amongst the pious and virtuous people. He undertook penance to propitiate Lord Brahma and ask for the boon of becoming invincible. His tapas was almost becoming fruitful and the Creator was about to bestow on him whatever boon he wanted. All the devatas were worried. If Brahma gave him the boon of becoming invincible, he would become a threat to all the three worlds. They all invoked Vagdevi – the Goddess of Speech and asked her to withdraw her grace from him. She agreed and withdrew the power of speech from the rakshasa, and as a result of that he became dumb. He could not ask the Lord for anything. From that day onwards, he came to be known as Mookasura. Mooka means ‘dumb’.

The angry Mookasura continued to trouble the devatas and sages. The devatas again prayed to Shakti. Devi appeared before them. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva along with their Sakti-s, Saraswathi, Lakshmi and Parvati, along with all the devatas transferred their powers to her. There was a fierce battle between Shakti and Mookasura and finally she killed Mookasura. From that day onwards she became known as Mookambika. She represents the power of speech (Vak) which destroys dumbness (mookatva).
Years later, as Adi Sankara was travelling through this region, pleased with his tapas, Vagdevi appeared in front of him desirous of bestowing a boon upon him. Sankara was overjoyed at the darshan of the Mother of the Universe and prayed to her to come with him and dwell in the land of his birth. She agreed to come with him, but she put forth one condition. While walking, he should not turn back and look. Sankara agreed and started walking. Mookambika walked behind him. He could hear the sound of her anklets. As they were approaching Kollur, suddenly Sankara did not hear the sound of Devi’s anklets. He turned around and looked. As per her condition, Mookambika or Vagdevi remained permanently there in Kollur, on the banks of the sacred Sauparnika river.
Sri Mookambika is the Goddess who destroys mookatva (ignorance) and confers speech (Knowledge) to all those who invoke her. Hence, during the Navaratri festival on the most auspicious day of Vijayadasami, Devi Mookambika is invoked and “Akshara Abhyas” or “initiation of the alphabets” is performed for little children before they start their formal education.

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Kaliya Narthana Krishna!

Kaliya was a venomous serpent living in the waters of Kalindi (Yamuna). The fiery poison was such that the waters of the river was almost boiling. Its fumes were reaching up to the skies and the birds flying over it dropped down dead. The wind which blew over the waters was contaminated by its poisonous spray and the cows, calves and cowherd boys on the bank of the river who came in contact with it met with their death.

When Sri Krishna heard about this, he climbed a tree nearby and plunged into the waters. The disturbed waters angered the serpent who realized that someone had entered the waters to counter him. Kaliya raised his multi-hoods and tried to bite Krishna. Krishna fought with Kaliya. On one side was the huge monstrous multi-hooded ferocious Kaliya spewing deadly poison on all sides and on the other side was little Sri Balakrishna, delicate and most charming, beautiful like the rain-bearing clouds, clad in silken yellow sporting a lovely smile on his face. 

When Nanda, Yashoda and others heard about this, they rushed to the banks of Kalindi and were terrified to see Krishna entrapped in the deadly coils of Kaliya. When Krishna saw that everyone was terrified and distressed, he expanded his body and escaped from the bondage of Kaliya. Seeing the angry Kaliya with uplifted hoods and hissing and breathing out poison through its nostrils, Krishna, the “Guru of all the forms of Kala or Art-forms”, leapt on to the bejewelled-hood of Kaliya and started dancing! Seeing the Lord dancing, all the devatas, gandharvas, siddhas, charanas and apsaras assembled there in the sky. The devatas chanted sublime hymns. The celestial musicians played their divine instruments. The apsaras like Rambha and Urvashi performed bharatanatya. Narada and Tumburu sang beautiful songs keeping rhythm with the cymbals. Nandi played the percussion instrument.

As Krishna danced on the hoods of Kaliya, the dark curly locks of hair around his beautiful moon-like face flew in all directions. The sweet and divine tinkling naada (sound) from his anklets and from the bells strung on his waist-band was mesmerising. The gods showered flowers on the Lord from the skies. Whichever hood Kaliya raised, Krishna trampled and crushed it under His tiny crimson lotus feet. The Lord continued dancing on the multi-hooded Kaliya with his grip firmly on Kaliya’s tail. Under the pressure of the Lord’s feet, Kaliya emitted all the poison through his mouth. Finally in sheer exhaustion he swooned. Coming back to his senses, Kaliya realized the Lord’s glory and he along with his wives prayed to the Lord for protection. 

Kaliya realized that he had been indeed doubly blessed by the touch of the Lord’s feet. Kaliya’s wives invoked the Lord through a beautiful stotra: “namasthubyam bhagavathe purushaya mahatmane….namah krishnaya ramaya vasudevasutaya cha pradyumnaya aniruddhaya satvatam pathaye namaha…” Sri Krishna thereupon told Kaliya, his wives, children and relatives to leave the river and proceed to the ocean for their stay. And the Lord promised that Garuda fearing whom Kaliya had taken shelter in Yamuna will in future not trouble him because the Lord’s footprints had been etched out on his hoods. Yamuna regained her pristine glory and her waters again became nectarine like for one and all to partake.

Significance: Yamuna represents the “mind-lake” and the water represent our “thoughts”. Kaliya is the multi-hooded serpent called the “ego” which pours forth its desire, anger, greed, jealousy, envy and innumerable emotions into the mind-lake to poison and pollute it. The powerful and corrosive emotions poison and ruin our noble and satvik thoughts represented by the cowherds, cows and calves. Krishna represents the “spiritual-knowledge-in-the-intellect” (the knowledge of the scriptures) which alone can render the ego incapable of destroying the individual-personality. The footprints of the Lord on Kaliya indicate the absence of I-ness and My-ness and the consequent sense of absolute surrender of the individual unto the Lord. Once the ego is “contained”, the mind-lake becomes clean, pure and satvik and can be used for higher contemplation to realize the Supreme Brahman.

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Naadayogi Sri Tyagaraja Swami

Sri Tyagabrahma or Sri Tyagaraja Swami (1767-1847AD) is one among the Music Trinity of Carnatic Music. He was born to a pious couple in Tiruvarur in Tamil Nadu. Along with the study of Sastras, he learnt music from the well known Vidwan, Sonti Venkataramanaiah. He was an ardent devotee of Lord Rama, and started composing keerthans at a very young age. To him the idol of Sri Rama was a living presence. Tyagaraja associated simple daily activities like waking up, taking a bath, eating food, sleeping, etc., with the Lord and composed keerthans for all these occasions. He studied the Naradeeyam, a treatise on music. He considered Sage Narada as his Guru and consistently meditated on him. Sage Narada appeared before him and bestowed on him the knowledge of music. 

Tyagaraja was initiated into the Sri Rama mantra. When he completed chanting the mantra ninety six crore times, he heard a knock on the front door. When he opened the door, he was blessed with the vision of Lord Rama accompanied by his consort, Seeta. An overjoyed Tyagaraja sang in praise of his divine parents: Devi Seeta and Sri Rama. 

After his marriage, Tyagaraja led an extremely simple life of a householder. To him, Sri Rama was his wealth. Rama Bhakti was his kingdom. When the king heard of the great musician, he extended a royal invitation to Tyagaraja to become the court musician. He sent royal gifts in the form of silken apparel, gem-studded ornaments and gold coins. Tyagaraja politely declined both – the royal gifts and the glory of becoming a court musician. He composed a beautiful krithi: “O Mind, tell me the truth. What gives you real happiness – material wealth or Lord Rama’s divine association?” The royal attendants went back. 

Tyagaraja’s elder brother was very unhappy and annoyed that his brother had rejected the seat of Asthana Vidwan. He blamed it all on Lord Rama who had become the heart and soul of his brother. At night Tyagaraja’s brother secretly took the idol of Lord Rama from the puja-room and tossed it into the Kaveri river. In the morning, when Tyagaraja went into the prayer room for his regular worship, he found the idol missing. Overwhelmed with grief, without food and sleep, he searched for Rama everywhere. He went on a pilgrimage, and at every pilgrimage centre, Tyagaraja composed beautiful keerthans on the presiding deity of the temple. After a long, arduous search, the Lord appeared in his dream and told him that he was on the river-bed of Kaveri. Extremely happy, Tyagaraja retrieved the idol of Sri Rama and with all festive celebrations reinstalled it back in his prayer room. His brother realized his mistake as well as the great devotion that Tyagaraja had for the Lord. 

It was the marriage function of Tyagaraja’s daughter. One of his disciples brought a beautiful portrait of Lord Rama and Seeta as a gift for the newly-wed. From a distance, Tyagaraja saw his disciple walking and coming with the gift. To Tyagaraja, it was not a portrait. It was the Lord accompanied by Seeta walking towards him. With a joyous heart overflowing with devotion, he sang, “O Lord of my life, knowing that the sole purpose and fulfillment of my life is to have your glorious darshan, you have walked all the way and come along with Mother Janaki to bestow upon me your grace and blessings!”

Once Tyagaraja went to witness a program by a touring groupe. The artists performed to a song in raga Ananda Bhairavi:”Mathura nagarilo”. The sequence was the Gopis asking Krishna who had blocked their path, to give them way to go to Mathura to sell milk. Tyagaraja was overjoyed at the beautiful performance of the artists. He immensely praised and wholeheartedly blessed them. They were overwhelmed to receive such appreciation from the great Musician-Saint. The head of the troupe offered his salutations and made a strange request. He asked for Ananda Bhairavi Raga as a gift from Tyagaraja! Everyone including Tyagaraja was surprised. Tyagaraja asked him for the reason. He said, “in the years to come, people will hear and read of your greatness as a devotee of Lord Rama and a Musician-Composer par excellence. People will then read and hear about this event where you gave away Ananda Bhairavi Raga as a gift to a small insignificant musical troupe like ours. Along with your immortal glories, we will also be remembered and become immortal! Our lives will become blessed and fulfilled!!  Tyagaraja was stunned at his sweet innocence, and gave away his rights over the raga to them. Hence only three krithis written earlier to this event by Tyagaraja in Ananda Bhairavi Raga are available. 
Tyagaraja continued to teach music to all those who reached him. He composed around 24,000 keerthans, but only around 700 are available. His krithis are simple, but full of devotion. They contain the essence of the scriptures. Tyagaraja chose music as his path to God realization: NAADOPAASANA. His Pancharatna Krithis are well known and every year during Sri Tyagaraja Aradhana, these krithis are sung by musicians who gather there for the celebrations. When Tyagaraja knew that his time to leave his physical body was approaching, he took the vows of sanyasa. Lord Rama appeared in his dream, and told him that he would be bestowed with mukti or liberation after ten days, which Tyagaraja has recorded in his keerthan. On the sacred Pushya bahula panchami, Tyagaraja Swami attained samadhi and merged with Sri Rama.
“SRI RAMA JAYA RAMA JAYA JAYA RAMA!”

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