Athi Manushastavam

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SlOkam 35:
THE BUTTER THIEF!

Pasyastsu soorishu sadaa padam tE
dEvyaa sriyaa saha vasan parayaa vibhoothyaa /
yOgEna yOganiratai: parimrigyamaaNa:
kim tvam rajEshu navaneetham ahO!vyamushNaa:?//

?Oh! Lord! You know that the dEvas, yOgis and Munis seek you through
meditation all the time and the Nityasooris are incessantly staring at you
without even batting their eyelids for a split second. This being so, I
wonder, how did you take bold to steal butter in the homes of AyarpaaDi??

COMMENTS:

Here Azhwaan alludes to the Veda Vaakhyam
?Tad VIshNO: paramam padam sadaa pasyanti Sooraya:?

Azhwaan seems to imply that in the world, a thief would ply his trade only
in the absence of people who might catch him red-handed. When great Mahaans
were always after the Lord, how could he ever entertain even the thought of
stealing? Especially, how could he hope to escape the watchful eyes of the
eternally vigilant Nityasooris in Paramapadam?

Paryaa vibhootyaa:
Azhwaan seems to ask: ?Also, only those in want might sometimes get such
ideas as stealing. But, you are the Lord of all the worlds. How come, you
thought fit to indulge in such a mean act??

dEvyaa Sriyaa: saha vasan:
?In the world, when the wife comes to know that her husband is a thief she
would feel very bad about it. Much worse, it would be a matter of utter
shame for the husband. This being so, ?Sri?, your wife is always with you
and in your company (akalgillEn iraiyum enru alarmElmangai urai maarbaa).
Are you not ashamed to go about stealing in the very presence of your own
wife??

nava neetam:
The word ?nava? means both ?fresh? and ?nine?. The butter churned out in
Gokulam was always fresh. But, how ?nine? fits in? It is said that from the
time milk is milked from the udder of the cow to the point when butter is
churned out, the process undergoes nine different stages. In the Rahasya
grantas, ?Tattva navaneetam? and ?Rahasya navaneetam?, Swami Desika
identifies these nine stages.

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SLOKAM 36:
Yam durgraham sumanasO manasaapi nityam
Bandaschidam paramam eesamudaaharanti /
Daamnaa nibaddha iti susruma tam bhavantam
naaLam babhoovidha! Batha! slatanaaya tasya //

?You are known to the wise and the divine celestials as ?THE Supreme being,
as THE one who is always beyond the comprehension of anyone, as THE one who
alone can cut asunder the strong bonds of Karma, as THE one who is always in
the company of ?Sri?, as THE one who is unequalled unique leader ? It is
said that such a you appeared weak enough to be bound by a rope to a mortar
and that you were not strong enough to free yourself from this bondage! How
incredibly strange is your drama in this??

COMMENTS:

Nityam durgraham:
In Bhagavad Gita 7.25, the lord describes himself as ?naaham prakaasa:
sarvEshaamyOgamaayaa samaavrata:? and in 7.26 as ?maam tu vEda na kaschana?
meaning that he cannot be recognized by those who are shrouded in his
yOgamaaya and none can know him fully.

Badha chittam:
The Maharshi vaakhyam that none can free oneself from the bondage by one?s
own efforts has been reflected by Swami Desika in Sarvaartha Siddhi.? kaTTil
irundu viDupaDa virumbubavan DamOdaranai dhyaanikkak kaDavan?- The one who
desires to cut off the shackles of Samsaaram should meditate on DaamOdara.
Daama means Rope and Udra means belly. Hence DaamOdara meaning ?one whose
belly was bound by a rope?

Paramam:
Parakaalan in his 10.6.6 refers to how the Lord?s Paratvam and Sulabhyam
play all at the same time and says: ?Look at the Lord who can free others
from bondage is bound as punishment for having stolen butter?
?kaaNmin! Inru aaychiyaraal aLai veNNai uNDu aappunDu irundavanE?

Swami Nammaazhwaar?s famous quote ?mathuru kaDai veNnai kalavinil uraliDai
yaappuNdu ethiram uralinOdu iNaindu irundu yEngiya yeLivE? should be
remembered in this context. It may also be remembered that even at birth, it
was the same Krishna who broke off the shackles from the feet of his father
VasudEva. Now, he acts as if he cannot break off the rope shackle that his
YasOda had wound around his belly warning him

?Oh! Brat! Go, if you CAN get off the rope?
?Yadi saknOshi gachcha tvam athi chanchala chEshTita?

Azhwaan wonders at the good fortune of the mortar getting KrishNa tied to
it.

In Yaadhavaabhyudaya, Swami Desikan says:
?nikhila bandha nivartaka sannidhou vigaLanam nigaLasya kin adbutam? /
abaalisO baalisavat prajaanaam prakhyaapayan svaatmani paaratantryam/?

Meaning:

?You are the one who relieves the bondage of everyone. How strange that
though the most powerful, you appeared as if you were so powerless even to
get out of the feeble and brittle rope that your mother tied you with and
you had to depend on her (paaratantryam) for this?

And,

?nyadarsayat visvapati: prajaanaam bandhE cah mOkshE cha nijam prabhutvam //

Meaning:

?You are the ultimate authority whether it is for binding or for unbinding
(bandE cha mOkshE cha nijam prabhutvam)?