GEMS FROM
THE
Beach
4: A Dose of Mythology
Wave
5: Padma-pAda-dhUli-pAdukA
There are four words in the title. Padma is Lotus. PAda stands for the (divine) feet. DhUli means dust; it is dust from the divine feet. PAdukA is
sandal. In this article we shall talk about the lotus feet of God, Dust
of the divine feet and Sandals of Divinity. In talking about them we
shall go through a vast spectrum of Hindu religious thought .
Mystics, Saints and Acharyas all through the centuries
have gone into raptures on these concepts. The Divine Feet constitute the
ultimate solace for all sorrows. Nammalwar, the soul
of the twelve great Vaishnava Alwars, right in the
very first stanza of his immortal work, glorifies the Divine Feet: tuyarvaru chuDar aDi ,
that is, ‘the glowing feet of the Lord which blasts off all gloom and grief’. uyarvaRa uyarnalam uDayavan,
says he: ‘The Lord’s glories and qualities are of the superlative kind; there
is nothing greater than this’. According to Vaishnava tradition, it is the
Lord’s feet that have incarnated as Nammalwar.
The vertical line or lines worn by the orthodox devotees of Vishnu on
their forehead is the symbol of the Lord’s Divine Foot. The lotus feet of the
Divine are ageless and faultless, they eradicate all our misdeeds – so goes one
Vedic mantra : caraNaM pavitraM vitataM purANaM yena pUtas-tarati
dushhkRtAni. This is the mantra which
is customarily used when we ritually wash the feet of elders, mystics and
Acharyas.
Whenever we refer to the divine feet it is customary to
refer to them as lotus feet. The lotus flower is an ancient divine symbol. Its
unfolding petals suggest the expansion of the soul. The growth of its pure
beauty from the mud of its origin holds a benign spiritual promise. The fact
that though it grows amidst mud and slush, it does not carry even an iota of
its unclean surroundings, is an indication of how pure the Lord’s feet are
inspite of the fact that, all the time,
they are being touched by all and sundry in the entire world. Recall
that Creator BrahmA and Goddess Lakshmi, the Divinities of potence and wealth,
have both the lotus symbol associated with them exclusively.
The steps that the Divine Feet take are so great that He
is known as ‘the Great who measured or spanned the whole Universe’: ulagalanda-perumAL
(in Tamil). He is amita-vikramaH, the One who has
an unlimited span of stride. He is also tri-vikramaH, the One Who
spanned the three worlds by His strides. trivikrama
also means He pervades the three Vedas by His Power – incidentally also hinting
that His Power to shower Grace is in His Feet! The Vishnu-Sahasranama
has eka-pAd as one of His names
and this glorifies the divine feet even more, for it means that the entire
universe is part of his one foot. This resonates again with the statement in
the Purushha-sUkta
(which occurs both in the Rig Veda and the Yajur Veda): pado’sya vishvA bhUtAni,
meaning, ‘All these beings emanated from His divine foot’. This concept that He
pervades, permeates and generates the whole universe is one of the
fountain-head concepts of Hinduism. It actually distinguishes the Hindu
religion from every other. In the Gita also this thought is reproduced in the
same language by the Lord: vishhTabhyAham-idam kRtsnaM ekAmshena sthito jagat (This whole universe
is supported by just one infinitesimal part of Me).
Divine Mother’s divine feet are glorified in the Lalita Sahasranama.
nakha-dIdhiti-samchinna-namaj-jana-tamo-guNA -- ‘the
bright rays emanating from Her toe nails dispel the darkness of Her
worshippers’. In other words meditation on Her feet
dispels ignorance – the ignorance that causes our bondage to the transmigratory
cycle of births and deaths. Again, in a similar vein, Shankara, in
verse no.4 of his Soundarya-lahari,
praises the Divine Feet in superlative terms: ‘Oh Mother of the Universe.
Deities other than You reveal their divine form by
showing the abhaya-mudrA (Sign
proclaiming ‘Have no Fear’) by their right hand and the vara-mudrA (Sign granting the desired boons) by their left hand.
But You are holding four different objects in your hands and thus the hands do
not show the mudras. Does it not mean
that not only these but more will all be granted by your divine feet
themselves?
Shankara himself is only a manifestation of Lord Shiva.
The great cosmic
dance of Shiva in the holy place of Chidambaram, includes in its esoteric
interpretations, distinct meanings for the ‘raised foot of the divine’ --tUkkiya tiruvaDi,
in Tamil – and ‘held foot of the divine’ --UnRiya tiruvaDi . The former grants the ultimate
boon, namely, Mokshha and the latter performs what is called obliteration (tirodhAna -- disappearance, vanishing.), one of
the five divine functions – creation, sustenance, dissolution, grace, and
obliteration. Without this fifth function, obliteration, our sins can never be
exhausted. Only by exhausting our karma can we hope to cross the ocean of
birth-death cycle. To exhaust our karma we need God’s Grace for his fifth
function to operate. The dissolution function of God does extinguish the created
world and the whole universe, but the VasanAs which we have accumulated through our sins
of past lives, committed by ourselves for ourselves can never be extinguished
by the dissolution function. Even after the deluge they all stay in latent form
waiting for the next day of BrahmA, to sprout again in our new lives. Only by
God’s willing exercise of his obliteration function will the latent VasanAs
in us be obliterated . The only way therefore to
obliterate all our sins of the past is to surrender to His ‘held foot’
unconditionally. We should be able to surrender not only ourselves but also our
ego at that foot of His. Then certainly He will release us from all obligations
and bondage – so assures the Lord in the charama shloka (Ch.18 – Verse 66)
of the Gita.
It is from these feet of Lord Shiva that has emanated the
famous divine disc called Sudarshana chakra says the Shiva Purana. It is the
Lord Shiva who gave the Sudarshana chakra to
Lord Vishnu.
Evam-uktvA
dadau chakraM sUryAyudha-sama-prabhaM /
sudarshanaM sva-pAdothaM
sarva-shatru-vinAshanaM //
Let us note a disclaimer here imbedded in our shAstras,
particularly the advaitic tradition. There is no hierarchy meant between Lord
Shiva and Lord Vishnu by the above. This is a confirmation, if one be needed,
that between the various manifestations of Divinity no distinction in status is
meant or intended because just one Hand of Godhead is giving to another Hand of
the same and only Godhead. See One Truth – Many
Expressions.
The power and fame of the Sudarshana Disc are well-known. It
saved the elephant-devotee Gajendra from extinction by the giant crocodile who
grabbed him from under water. And thus arose the
famous Gajendra-mokshha
chapter of the Bhagavatam.
It is the same Sudarshana disc which
disposed off the arch-enemy, Sishupala, of the Lord in His manifestation as
This was the same Disc which was given to King Ambarisha by the
Lord in appreciation of his devotion. King Ambarisha was the great-grandson of
Vaivasvata Manu, the seventh Lord of the entire Earth in the present cosmic day
of Brahma. Neither his kingship nor the wealth that goes with it could enchant
him away from his constant and intense devotion for the Lord. It was Sage
Durvasa (known for his short temper, fierce anger and renowned spirituality)
who came to test his devotion. Ambarisha, once performed a year-long dvAdashi-vrata.
This enjoined on him a complete fast on every ekAdashi
day (the 11th day of the lunar fortnight) and which has to be broken
exactly on the next day (dvAdashi = the
12th day) at a specific time. On one such occasion, on the morning
of dvAdashi day,
the sage Durvasa, came as guest, along with his
disciples, at the doors of king Ambarisha. The latter was about to break his
fast, but seeing the esteemed guest, he was ready to play host for him but
Durvasa wanted time to go to the river and perform his morning rituals before
he partook of Ambarisha’s hospitality. Ambarisha agreed to wait, hoping that
Durvasa would respect his Vrata and come back before the time of his breaking
the fast. The fast was to be broken not later than a specific time. But he
waited and waited; Durvasa did not turn up before the specific time. When it
was no more possible to wait, the king’s advisors advised him to sip a little
water in the form of an Acamanam by chanting the names of God and that,
they said, would be equivalent to breaking one’s fast. This would satisfy the
requirements of the Vrata as well as the protocol, by which, he would not have
eaten before his notable guest.
But Durvasa, when he appeared, would not agree. He felt the protocol
broken and he had been insulted; in no time he created a demon from one of his
hairs to attack and kill the King. The King did not move an inch but the Lord’s
Disc which was protecting him, not only burnt the demon by its fiery power, but
now in its turn, attacked Durvasa himself. The sage in sheer fright, ran for
his life ! The Disc of the Lord pursued Durvasa
wherever he went, through even the three worlds. Finally he went to the Creator
BrahmA.
The Creator pleaded inability to defend him against the Disc. Durvasa then went
to Lord Shiva. The latter said; The whole world is engulfed in VishNu-mAyA.
None of us, can help you in this matter. You may try
going to Lord VishNu
Himself. So Durvasa came to Lord VishNu’s abode and fell at His feet. And Vishnu said:
My devotee is greater than Myself; so you have to go
back to him and apologise. Finally that is what was done. Ambarisha prayed to
the Disc to stop attacking Durvasa. The prayer was heard and thus was the great
sage saved from ignominy and extinction.
Such was the prowess of Sudarshana Chakra. The fact that
such a chakra emanated from the divine feet of Lord Shiva, adds glory to the already glorified Divine
Feet.
The Vedas themselves prostrate at the feet of the Divine
Mother of the Universe. Lalita Sahasranama
has a name which
describes this in a poetically enjoyable way. The word ‘Shruti’
which stands for the Vedas, is feminine. When Shruti
falls at the feet of the Mother, her head touches the divine feet. The dust of
the divine feet is crimson in colour since the feet of the Mother is always
painted that way – also to remind us of the fact millions of devotees have all
the time been doing archanA to
Her feet with Kunkum. The crimson dust sticks to the head of Lady Shruti
exactly at the parting of the hair. Thus arises the name: Shruti-sImanta-sindhUrI-kRta-pAdAbja-dhUlikA meaning, the dust of
whose lotus feet has crimson-coloured the parting of the hair on the head of
Shruti. The dust of the divine feet on
the head of Shruti is also an indication that even though Shruti may be of vast
content and knowledge, Her knowledge of the Divine
Mother is only a speck!
In the second verse of Soundarya-lahari, Shankara
glorifies this dust of the Mother’s Divine Feet. ‘Oh Mother of the Cosmos! I don’t need even Your Feet. Just a speck of
dust from Your divine Feet is enough. Even the Creator
BrahmA creates the fourteen worlds only with the strength of the divine dust
collected by Him from under your feet. Mahavishnu sustains the whole world only
because of the strength of the Dust of your divine feet. Lord Shiva wears it on
His forehead as sacred vibhUti.’ When this is the case with the Lords of
Trinity, where are we poor mortals?
The great work DurgA-sapta-shati eulogises the worshipping of
young girls as manifestations of the Divine Mother and the wearing of the dust
under their feet after the worship. In the Shri Vaishnava tradition, to purify
oneself with the dust of the feet of the devotees by washing their feet with
water and sprinkling that holy water on one’s head is considered such a sacred
act that one of the twelve
Alwars got his name toNDar-aDip-poDi-Alwar from
the act of his which became a habit and routine with him once he changed his
earlier sinning life to one of supreme devotion to the Lord and His devotees.
Great are the Divine Feet, greater is the dust under the
Divine Feet but greatest is the pair of sandals of the divine feet – known as PAdukA.
That is why in the Ramayana
Bharata asks for the divine sandals from Rama after he fails to convince him to
return to Ayodhya and resume his kingship. The sandals take the place of the
Lord for fourteen years as the symbolic King under whose banner Bharata serves
and discharges the kingly duties. While he reluctantly takes leave of Rama in
the forest where he has gone to plead for his return, and finally gets only the
sandals of the Divine instead of the Divine Himself, he puts them on his head
and carries them back to the capital with all reverence. The joining together
of the two extremities – the Feet of the Divine with the head of the devotee –
is what is symbolised in the joining of the palms when one worships or bows in
reverence. The right palm denotes the feet of the Divine and the left palm
denotes the head of the devotee. This is the esoteric principle behind the
joining of the palms.
The greatness of the divine sandals have
been sung by succession of poets over the centuries. But the heights of such
raptural ecstasy can be seen in the work called PAdukA SahasraM (meaning, one thousand verses all on the pair of
sandals, of the Divine) by Vedanta Desika
of the fourteenth century. It was done
by him in fulfillment of a competition committed to as a challenge by his
disciples when they
were provoked by members of another school. Full of beautiful
poetry, of superb devotion, of conceptual density of philosophy and mythology,
of poetic gymnastics, of lilting rhyme,
and of majesty of language, these thousand verses were all composed by
Desika in just one night – as he puts it, by the Grace of the PadukA of the
Divine.
The sandals of the Purushhottama (the Supreme Person, the
Divine Supreme) are known as the ShaThAri. The ShaThAri is like a
crown placed reverentially on the heads of devotees (for instance, in a
Vaishnava temple) who receive it with great humility. The classic instance of
this act was first done by Bharata when he received the sandals from Rama. But
before he receives it, he requests the Lord to wear the sandals once and remove
it. The act of Rama that is requested here is to step on the sandals and step
down. This is described in Valmiki Ramayana. Rama obliges accordingly. Imagine
this scene in your mind. What esoteric significance does it suggest to you? The
obvious guess is that Rama is requested to step on the sandals and step down so
that the PAdukA
may receive the spiritual vibrations from the Lord and therefore become so
sacred as to be venerated and be able to receive the honour of being the object
of worship from Bharata for all the period of Rama’s exile. This is what the
great Acharya, Vedanta Desika, also thinks and weaves into his verse #113. But
three verses later he eulogises the PAdukA to such heights that this dramatic scene
obtains an enormous significance revealed only by the great intuition of the
super-devotee Vedanta Desika. The argument goes like this.
The PAdukAs of the Divine are more powerful than the
Divine itself. So when the Lord is on the point of embarking on a commitment to
walk through the forests of the country for the next fourteen years, he was relying
on the power of the PAdukA to protect
him and his feet. Now that Bharata is asking for the PAdukAs and that means separation
for Rama from them. He
is now stepping up on them and stepping down so as to receive the spiritual vibrations from them and thereby the energy for him to sustain the challenge
of walking barefooted through the entire forest. So the poet says: If he
did not do it, how could he have walked through the rough ground and dense
shrubbery of the Dandaka dforest with bare feet for so long? Is this not the
height of devotion to the divine PadukA on the part of Desika?
tad-vishhNoH paramaM padaM, say the Upanishads, punning
on the word ‘padaM’ thus meaning the Divine feet are the supreme. Desika
continues in that strain: Lord Vishnu’s divine feet are the origin of the
sacred
The inner meaning of every verse of the PAdukA-Sahasram
has something to do with the glory of the Guru. In fact the PAdukA of
the Divine is equated to the Guru
or Acharya. The Grace of the Guru is considered to be more powerful than the
Grace of the Lord Himself. We realise
that even if we surrender to God we are not able to ingratiate ourselves into
the Lord's favour. A Guru actually pleads for us with the Lord on our behalf.
In fact there is a saying: Shive rushte gurus-trAtA,
gurau rushte na kaScana meaning, When the
Lord is angered the Guru becomes the saviour but when the Guru is angered,
nobody can save. We need the Guru for this role of his.
Indeed the Guru’s Grace can give us a double
benefit. It can give us what we want as well as take us towards the Lord. Scriptures
declare the analogy of the dream state to our real waking state. Just as all
dream-experience is only a passing show from the point of view of one's waking
state, so also the waking state itself, according to the scriptures, is a
passing show from the absolute standpoint. But this declaration does not carry
conviction with us because most of us have never had the experience of that
absolute standpoint. On the other hand we do understand that the dream-state is
not absolutely real because we do have the experience of the waking state of
awareness. Nobody is able to tell us -- or has to tell us -- from within the
dream that the dream experience is unreal. The beauty of the
Guru-concept and the greatness of the Guru stem from the fact that a Guru does
exactly this for us in respect of our waking state. From the absolute
standpoint this waking state itself is dream-like. He, being a jIvan-mukta
(liberated, even while living), knows this as a fact of experience. He is not
only a jIvan-mukta
who is in that absolute state of awareness all the time but he can also descend
to our level of the ordinary mundane worldly ‘waking state’ and tell us from
within our ‘world-dream’ that this world is a dream and we must wake up to
Reality from this ‘dream’ of ours.
Guru is the one who
thus destroys the ignorance of the disciple. He may do it by actual teaching,
he may do it by just a blessing, or he may do it by a spiritual fiat. That is
why in the 30 verses of Bhaja-Govindam Shankara ends up by referring to the
power of the lotus feet of the Guru to take us upward in the ladder of
evolution. Guru-charaNAmbuja-nirbhara-bhaktaH ..
goes the verse. Remember, the Guru himself is the
divine feet of God, and it is his divine feet that are praised now, in strict
conformity with tradition – as we saw earlier in the case of the story of
Ambarisha – namely, the devotee of the Lord is more significant than the Lord
Himself. The Guru stands for certain principles of behaviour as well as of
wisdom. He not only stands for them but also stands on them ! – in the sense that the greatness of the Guru goes back to the
values of life for which he lived and preached all his life. So the sandals or
the feet on which he stands represent the values for which he stood! Therefore
the devotion to those feet and to those sandals of the divine guru, will certainly confer on one the strength to respect
and reverberate the same values. The
Lord’s ‘held foot’ is the ideal for us to cling close to his ideals and values.
The stories and
complex mythology all go to show that it is the Ultimate Divine that is being
talked about, though in terms of its manifestations, names and forms. When we
worship the Sun as Sun-God what we are worshipping is the Absolute Supreme. A
Shiva Purana may
extol Shiva as the highest Transcendental Supreme and a Vishnu Purana may say
the same thing about Vishnu. The Rama Sahasranama says that He is worshipped by
Shiva and all other deities. The Shiva Sahasranama says that Rama is His
devotee. There is no contradiction meant, implied or slurred over. When
Hinduism says that all names and forms are those of God it means it. It is this catholicity of the culture and
tradition of Hinduism that welcomes other religions as so many varied paths to
God and consequently does not find anything contradictory or harmful in the coexistence of
several Faiths. The external multiplicity is only an expression of the
underlying truth of advaitic (non-dualistic) unity. Multiplicity and plurality
are secondary; one-ness is primary.
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©
Copyright. V. Krishnamurthy. July 2006