Damodarashtakam explained – The Controller is controlled and still remains in control
And, today is Diwali. Today is also the day when Krishna was born by Mother Krishna.
So, Anandana Loka Niratam, where Krishna acts like a human being, like a human child when we walk beside him. That is the pastime we will discuss today. And, I will discuss, words by words, the Damodarashtakam.
So, if we, when we sing the Damodarashtakam, we are actually integrating three distinct cultural forms. These three cultural forms are prayer, poetry, and song. Prayer is a universal language by which the human heart communes with the divine heart.
People, from across cultures, across history, and across geography, have, had some conception of the divine, and have offered, and have tried to connect with the divine through prayers. So, prayer plung the depths of the human heart to reach the indwelling divine, and connect with it. So, Damodarashtakam is a prayer.
That's one cultural form. The second form is poetry. Now, poetry, as contrasted with prose, in Sanskrit it's called as Gadya and Padya.
So, poetry, as contrasted with prose, is especially suited for expressing, experiencing, and conveying deep emotions. In fact, poetry, whereas prose, is linear and logical, poetry, is usually indicative and derivative. So, in, in poetry, the same points are conveyed through various literary devices, through various poetic ornaments.
In Sanskrit, there are two kinds of ornaments, Alamkar, they are called as Shabd Alamkar and Arth Alamkar. Shabd Alamkar means, the same word is used in different ways. And Arth Alamkar means, the meaning of a word is done in a different way.
Meaning in a particular context is different from the normal meaning. And in that way, there is poetic ornamentation. So, we'll discuss some of the poetic ornamentations in the Damodarashtakam also.
So, poetry is usually used to express the deep emotions of the human heart. Now, song and poetry is somewhat similar. But song, while poetry, both of them have rhymes.
But, songs are usually not containing much deep meaning. For example, now the most popular genre of songs that we are all familiar with is Bollywood songs. It's not that anybody has to write a commentary on what a Bollywood song means.
The meaning of songs is usually straightforward. Whereas, poems are much more deep and profound in meaning. Songs are characterised more by their capacity to be recited, either individually or collectively.
So, when we are singing Damodarashtakam, here these three things, or the three distinct cultural forms are brought together to evoke our spiritual emotions in a very powerful way. What we are singing is a prayer. But it is a prayer not written as a text, but it is a prayer as a poetry.
For a prayer as a text, we have in the Isha Upanishad example, Agmene Sukta Re Asmani, there is a prayer which says that, O Lord, he is guided in the right path. Now, the Isha Upanishad mantras are not exactly poetic verses. They are mantras.
So, here we have, what we have is a poetry. So, it is a prayer which is written in the form of poetry. But that poetry is not just for internal contemplation.
It is also for public, for outer recitation, individually and collectively. So, these three genres of culture, cultural forms are brought together in the Damodarashtakam when we sing it every day. So, quite often, the idea of a song in the lyrics, because we do sing, but the prayerfulness and the poetic appreciation, they may sometimes be lacking.
Because they are not what we daily involve ourselves when we sing the song. So, today we will try to appreciate both the prayerful mood and the poetic characteristics of this particular song. Now, Sanskrit and English both have their own structure for poetry and their own framework for analysing poetry.
I won't go into the technicalities of either. But from a layman's perspective, how we can appreciate some of the poetic ornaments of the Damodarashtakam, we will discuss. So, as the very name, Damodarashtakam.
Damodar refers to the Supreme Lord who is Dam-Udara. Udara is very dam-less. The rope which ties him to the name of the Ashtakam itself reveals what the essential pastime is.
And Ashtakam, in Bhakti tradition, number 8 is considered to be emotionally auspicious. And many songs, when there are names which are reflected, they are often in terms of 108 names or Meha Lakshmi Swara Sranam, 1000 names. But when there are prayers, prayers are opposite of the Ashtakam.
We have Damodar Ashtakam, we have Yamuna Ashtakam, we have Chauravarman Ashtakam, we have Goswami Ashtakam. So many Ashtakams are quite popular. So this is the particular genre of Ashtakam.
And the most common, the most repeated word in this Damodar Ashtakam is Namami. And its variant is Namak. We will see that Namami comes in the Ashtakam, the prayer, the song begins with Namami and the last line, the last paragraph also contains Namok, which is a variant of Namami.
So now, it is an offering of obeisance. Now while offering obeisance, who is the obeisance being offered to? Namamishwaram. So because in this particular pastime, the person who is being adored and worshipped, doesn't at first glance seem to be worshipable.
God is usually conceived of in his divine majesty as the supreme ruler of all beings. Whereas the person being adored over here is just a small child. And that did not occur.
The child is used in time. So we may think that this is just an ordinary child. So right in the beginning, after offering obeisances, this person is Eshwara.
He is the controller. And one of the beauties of this pastime and the song based on this pastime is that the controlled is still in control. Krishna is controlled when he is tied up with Eshwara.
And yet, he still remains in control. He still remains in control. He is not controlled.
He is the controller. He always remains the controller even when he seems to be controlled. And this theme will be especially seen in the 7th text.
It will come to a new course. Eshwara. Now somebody may raise this question.
Oh, this is a small child. How can he be the Eshwara? So it says, Don't get caught by externals. Don't get misled by appearances.
Although, this form may be a tiny but it is Satchidananda. It is. The form is eternal.
Full of knowledge. Full of bliss. So, sometimes on a cake, we have a cream topping.
So now, the cream topping sometimes is made into different shapes. There is a birthday of a small child. Then maybe the child's favourite toy is a horse.
The cream topping may be made into a form of a horse. So now, that horse is fully made of cream. So like that, Krishna's form is fully Satchidananda.
Satchidananda is not just like pervasive effulgence. But this particular form is also concentrated cognisance, bliss, and eternity. This is not an ordinary form.
Among Ishwara, Satchidananda is a form. And then, by describing that form, the first and in fact, the only ornament of Krishna that is mentioned over here is Kundala. Kundala is the ear ring.
Now, in poetry, there is a particular ornament or a literary device called the metonym. Metonym means one particular object is used to represent everything else. For example, a stethoscope is used to represent doctors.
Or, a flag of a country is used to represent the whole country. Or say, hands are used to represent labourers in a factory. So, one particular object is used to represent the whole set of objects.
So like that, here Kundala, the ear ring, is used to represent Krishna's beauty. Now, Lasat Kundala. Lasat is shining, effulgent.
Nathananda Goswami has written a commentary on the on this particular set of ashtakam in his Dikdarshanitika. And, there he mentions what is this Lasat can also mean fortune. So, what is a special fortune? Krishna wears many ornaments.
And, it is not a normally, we wear ornaments, whatever we wear, so that they enhance our beauty. People, after they wear something, they often look in the mirror and they ask others, how do I look? The idea is that, after wearing that, I should look better than what I was looking earlier. So, we wear ornaments, so that they enhance our beauty.
But, Krishna's beauty is perfect and complete in itself. Om Poornam. He is complete.
Naivaar Mana Prabhu Raghav Nija Labha Poornam. So, he does not need any ornaments for enhancing his beauty. Now, he wears ornaments just to give the ornaments an opportunity to serve him.
And, to give the devotees who offer him those ornaments an opportunity to serve him. And, when the ornaments are worn by him, it is not that he becomes more beautiful, the ornaments become beautified by being worn by him. He is Rukshana Ruksh Taha.
He is the ornament of all ornaments. And, plus it, what is the fortune of this particular ornament, the earring? He says that actually, among all the ornaments that Krishna wears, the earring is the only ornament that gets to kiss Krishna. So, the kissing as a form of affection will also be mentioned later in the fifth verse.
So, Sadhu Goswami explains that when Krishna, the child runs, he has a long earring, his earring is slightly long. So, when he runs, those earrings move and as they move, they get to touch his cheek. And as they touch his cheek, Sadhu Goswami's devotion will say that they kiss Krishna.
So, the fortune of this ornament is that it gets to the Swasth Kundal and then after giving as a description, the identity and the beauty of Krishna, now there are different ways in which articles or poems are written. So, first you draw a person inside. Suppose you want to tell a story, suppose a novel is starting, so the novel starts.
And there was a shot and suddenly there was a cut and a body fell down on the table. And then you say, okay, so it happened in Mumbai, in Swansopolis. So, like that, first draw people in with the most relating action and then tell the locale of the action, where the action happened.
So, then after telling this, this is happening, the Supreme Lord is getting bound, the Supreme Eshwara is getting bound. While we could read that past tense, now we can do the geographical locale. This is happening in Gokule Rajamanam.
It's happening in Gokule. And Gokule is Rajamanam. Rajamanam is effulgent, shining.
Resplendent. So, there is the tabod itself is resplendent. And further, the resplendence is increased by the presence of the supremely resplendent Lord.
Krishna performed his past tense at various places. In Vrindavan, in his childhood, Vrindavan is the name of a particular forest. And Vrindavan is also the name of the broad area where the twelve forests are there.
So, Krishna performed his childhood past tense in a place called Gokule, which is within the larger place called Vrindavan. But which is not Vrindavan, the forest. And then, what is the past tense? Yashodaviyolukaladhavamanam paramrishnivartin pratholukte gopyah.
Yashodaviyolukaladhavamanam. So, be fearful, ukarad. Away from the mortal, dhavamanam.
He ran away. So, we know the past tense that when Krishna was feeding butter to the monkeys while standing on the stukkhala, mother Yashoda, she came and saw that her butter pots were broken and somebody had fled. And she saw butter footprints on the ground.
She followed those footprints and she was sneaking behind Krishna. And as the monkeys were eating, their mouths dropped open in horror, in fear. And Krishna whirled around.
He saw Yashoda and jumped off and fled. And Yashodaviyolukaladhavamanam paramrishnivartin pratholukte gopyah. Gopi, paramrishnivartin, she ran much faster.
That was very difficult to do, but she did that and she caught Krishna. अनेज देखं मनसो जवियो नहिनद देवा तो अन्य पिष्ट दभात How is this? So the means by which Yashoda is going to catch and tie Krishna, that will be revealed in the next text. In the first text, he means, the supreme controller is now brought under control.
He is being called. So that is now, the second text also, again in writing it is said that if you want to say the most important things, either say it right in the beginning of a sentence or say it right at the end of the sentence. Because in the beginning and at the end, people's attention is a little high.
In between, people's attention goes off. When we are here in class also, initially in the beginning we are attentive. And then our mind goes off for walks here and there.
And then if there is a joke, the mind comes again, I don't want to miss the joke, tell me what happened. So like that, in the beginning and the end, if the most important things are put, then that catches attention. People will get the maximum benefit from that.
So we will see in the second stanza, the first and the last words are extremely significant. Rudantam. Rudantam is crying.
Now this is an extraordinary activity. Crying is an extraordinary activity for the supreme. Now crying is what we human beings do because we undergo so many miseries in material existence.
And crying is what often takes us towards the supreme lord for relief. And the supreme lord can dry away all our tears. The Bhagavatam says, the third canto in the Kapila section, that if one just comes and beholds the beautiful smile of the lord.
So people, they are undergoing great suffering. And how much is he suffering? The people out of their distress are shedding an ocean of tears of sorrow. But Krishna is like the sun.
No matter how powerful the sun is, sometimes it gets some puddle on the ground. And then the sun comes in the sky. The sun dries up the puddle.
So like that in this world, when we have some distress, we need a shoulder to cry on, we need somebody to offer us relief. And they can offer us some relief. So they are like an ordinary sun who can dry up a small puddle.
But material existence is so ultimately miserable that it's like an ocean of tears. No sun can dry up an ocean. But Krishna is the supreme sun who can dry up an ocean of tears.
Krishna is the one who can offer us supreme relief from all misery. So he is the person who dries our tears. And yet that person is now shedding tears.
So as he is crying, with his two hands, he is rubbing his two eyes. He is trying to control his tears. Now Kunti Maharani also talks about this.
And she describes, His face is pointed down. Even when somebody is ashamed, that person looks down. Now Krishna is ashamed of his misbehaviour.
More importantly, he is fearful of his anger. Sometimes we are afraid of someone's anger. Then we can't meet their eye.
So he is looking down. But at the same time, Krishna knows his fate is hanging. So while looking down, he is stealing glances at his mother.
Is her anger pacified or is she still angry? How is she going to punish him? So he is stealing glances up at her. And as he is stealing glances, Karambhoja Yugmena Saatanka Netram Aatanka You know, we have Kamala Yudhishthira Aatankavadi. Aatankavadi means terrorists.
So Aatanka is terror. Saatanka means that his eyes are terrified. Saatanka Netram Krishna with terrified eyes is looking at his mother.
Is she still angry? What is she going to do with me? And as he is looking up, stealing glances at her, in Saatanka Muhushwa Sakampa Trilekham Kakanta Muhushwa Sakampa Now, prior to this, Krishna has been running away from Mother Yashoda. Yashoda has also been running. And Krishna has been caught.
But because of all this activity of running and crying, he is, his chest is heaving. His breaths are coming out in gasps. And as his chest is moving up and down, Trilekham Kakanta Beauty is something which is universally appreciated by all cultures.
At the same time, different cultures have often their own specific markers of beauty. So in the Indian tradition, if there are three lines on the neck, that is considered, three distinct well-formed lines on the neck, they are considered one of the signs of beauty. So as Krishna is looking up, and because he is moving up, his chest is also heaving, so there are three lines formed on his throat.
So Trilekham Kakanta. And that is the sign of beauty. even when Krishna, sometimes, the people, when they look beautiful, they have to do a lot of make-up and then they look beautiful.
But, if they cry, then their all make-up gets spoiled and they don't look at all beautiful. So this, this Kantha, three lines on the Kantha, this is meant to convey that even when Krishna is crying, still he is beautiful. He is sublimely, supremely beautiful.
And, that Damodar, he is bound. What binds him is not a rope, but it is devotion. So Sanatana Goswami, Satyavrata Muni, who has composed this song, he is composing this in his own devotional rapture.
The prayers of the great saints offer us glimpses into their heart. As Hanuman, at one time, literally opened his heart. He bared his heart and then the world saw around.
So that is very dramatic. Literally rip open the heart. But actually, when the great saints compose their prayers, they are also bearing their heart.
And they are revealing to us the Lord who is present there. So here, Satyavrata Muni is telling us that Krishna is bound by Hanuman. So he is not giving here a linear narrative of the past time.
He is meditating on the past time and he is simply focussing on those things which are important for him. That's why the whole song presumes familiarity with the past time. The past time is practically not described here at all.
It is just certain striking, dramatic high points within the past time are stressed and some analysis and some devotional meditation is given. So the first word and the last word in this whole stanza are significant. How can the Lord who is priest one from tears, everyone from tears be in tears? And how can that Lord who is never bound free those who are bound how can he be bound? He is bound by devotion.
And from the next stanza onwards the significance of this is elucidated. So there is a seamless flow from narration to edification. Edification is instruction.
Narration Itthidruk swalilabhir anandakunde Itthidruk swalilabhir by his own past time anandakunde kunda means lake so ananda is happiness so it's a metaphorical reference often sometimes we are feeling very hot and we nowadays we don't have any kundas we often have bathing tubs in our houses if we are feeling hot we may jump into the bathing tub and so like that now that gives a lot of relief but here it is said that Krishna is inundating his devotees in lakes of happiness itthidruk swalilabhir anandakunde so ghoshan nimajandam akhyapayantam and as they are getting absorbed he is declaring to the whole world taddiyeshu taddiyeshu bhaktahirjitar taddiyeshu eeshitargeshu that means those geshu those who are knowledge those who focus on his divinity this is referring to those people who worship God focussing primarily on his greatness there are two aspects to God there is his greatness and there is his sweetness his greatness awareness of his greatness invokes submission and awareness of his sweetness invokes affection and devotion is a combination of both submission and affection but if the focus is too much on God's greatness then the submission overshadows the affection and then Krishna cannot have loving reciprocations you know if someone wants to talk with us and if say we want to talk with someone and that person says whatever you say is correct no I am asking your opinion, no whatever you say is correct ok that means submission but then you can't have any reciprocation you can't have any discussion so if people just perennially bow down to Krishna then Krishna can't have much of a loving reciprocation with them so here especially Vrindavan the awareness of Krishna's sweetness overshadows his awareness of his goodness and the affection overshadows the submission so Krishna and Sita Puri is telling that when there is love like this, love in which the affection overshadows the submission, in which the absorption in Krishna's sweetness is far greater than the awareness of his greatness when a devotee is more concerned with Krishna's sweetness than his greatness then it is that devotion that conquers him that lord is conquered by such devotion this is what Krishna is declaring so what is Krishna declaring? that I am conquered by affection which is unmitigated by unfettered by awareness of my goodness he says that therefore again with love I offer obeisances not just once hundreds of times I offer obeisances so as Sita Puri is describing this the beauty of bhakti is that the expression intensifies the experience sometimes people say that oh why don't you do an exhibition of your devotion chant in your mind why do you want to do a loud kirtan and chant the holy names no the beauty of the bhakti is that expression enhances the experience when we express emotion that expression enhances the experience of that emotion so here as Sita Puri is expressing his appreciation of his pastime that expression is enhancing his experience also does he say I offer obeisances hundreds of times now after describing the significance of the pastime normally whenever people approach the lord they usually want some benediction from him so now he discusses what benediction does he want varandeva moksham namoksham varandeva he acknowledges my dear lord you are the giver of benediction and then namoksham now often what people desire tells us what their values are now what we consider valuable is shaped by our values and it reflects our values so different people may go to god and pray for different things and that reflects their values so here he doesn't even talk about worldly prosperity now when people ask most people will ask ok maybe he will give me a job or many people go to temples there are whole temples in various places in south india especially they are called visa ganesh temples where people their deepest desire is to get a visa to go to america and there is a form of ganesh who is supposed to specialise in granting visas so you go there so this is somebody wants to go to america that's a fond desire of them in the vedic context people wanted to go to heaven but satyagraha moni is at such an exalted level of devotion that he doesn't even need to reject any material benediction it doesn't even require mention at all sometimes when you say somebody gives an answer if you say it is not even wrong right and wrong means it is somewhere in the vicinity of the right answer it is not even wrong that means it is nowhere in the scope of so the material benediction don't come in the picture only for him he says what he rejects is varandeva moksha na moksha vadimba i don't want moksha and i don't want moksha vadimba so ratan maslang explains what is moksha vadimba that is greater than moksha he says that is residency that is going to the spiritual world now why does he not want moksha vadimba that will be explained as we move forward from the negation to the assertion in this verse but what else does he repeat varandeva moksha na moksha vadimba na chaanya runeha vadisha vadimba na chaanya now do i want anything else vadisha again he is stressing that you are capable of giving benedictions now sometimes we may not ask something from someone because that person doesn't have the capacity to do it and that person will feel embarrassed to say that i can't give this so we also don't want to cause that embarrassment and that's why we don't ask this is not a situation he asserts that you can give twice he says varandeva and varandeva moksha na moksha vadimba na chaanya runeha vadisha vadimba you are the lord of all benedictions but i don't want anya refers to this ananda swamy explains that higher than liberation attainment of vaikuntha because vaikuntha one is liberated from material existence but also situated in the association of the lord but higher than attainment of vaikuntha he quotes prayers of pruthu maharaj and he says that higher than attainment of vaikuntha is engagement complete absorption in the activities of bhakti because that is itself the essence of liberation so highly Krishna is saying i am not present in vaikuntha also i am present where my devotees are glorifying me why? because we can't perceive the lord's presence in vaikuntha but when devotees glorify Krishna we can perceive his presence there na chaanya runeha vadisha vadimba and what does he want? i don't want any of these things idamdeva kurnatha gopa sadami vatsya avirashita this vakoranam the supreme lord has come in the form of gopalabha sadami manasya avirashita let this be let this form be manifest in my mind forever the nature of love is that when we love something we want that thing more than anything else and pure love means we want only the object of love and nothing else so here as sattva pune's devotion is getting intensified his devotional rapture is going towards zenith, towards the pinnacle and he is feeling such ecstasy in meditating on the supreme lord in his form of dharmotha that he says i do not want anything else idamdeva kurnatha gopalabha sadami manasya avirashita let this alone be there always manasya avirashita this is so ravishing to do what else is there to do yam labhachaparam labham anvidenadikam tatha yasurto dukkhena gurunathicchayate krishna talks about the state of supreme samadhi in the bhagavad gita from 6.20 to 23 and then he said once one has attained that supreme spiritual perception, one feels that there is nothing more to be gained that is his art, you see here the consciousness of the devotee is being reflected I don't want anything else and he focusses on that particular vision he moves forward and says idamte mukham bhaujum atyantanilai prutham kundalai siddhara paise mukham idamte mukham bhaujum so now the camera focusses more and more, the camera of his heart this is the vision that I want, what is that vision idamte mukham bhaujum that face is so beautiful he said atyantanilai prutham kundalai siddhara, so he says that beautiful face is covered by lots of hair krishna's complexion is bluish black his hair is blackish and it creates a beautiful contrast and smooth soft hair so idamte mukham bhaujum atyantanilai prutham kundalai siddhara paise mukham idamte mukham he says that krishna's lips are compared to others lips and there are in the morning when krishna was drinking her milk nirishita was overwhelmed by affection for the man, she was kissing him so there are the marks of the kiss that are there on his face so this is the second reference you can see in the song and it says that mohushchumbhitaam bimbarakta dharamme manasya avirashtam alam lakshadam manasya avirashtam, again the same desire, manasya avirashtam let this be manifest in my heart in my consciousness the mind for us sadhakas we differentiate between the mind and the soul for the advanced devotees the mind and the heart become one chaitanya mahapurusha is also in the chaitanya chaitanamut moraman vrindavan he says my mind, my inner being it's become vrindavan so he says let this lord be manifest in my inner world not just manifest in inner world let him pervade my inner world and kimanyaya alam lakshadabhai, same moon is coming what other thing can I want and even lakhs and crores of other things don't come now here there is a transition now there is inner vision and there is outer vision so satyavathuni in the previous two verses in the fourth and fifth text he is praying that let my inner vision stay focused on you oh lord but now he desires the outer vision so next verse we talk about avyakshi nisha so the sixth verse is he desires that yes we can see the lord in the heart and that is wonderful but the devotees also desire to see the lord with their eyes and it's that desire which he is going to express and this desire is so exalted do you know what other thing to ask suppose suppose we are going by car and some beggar knocks on the car window and then what do you want give me this car how dare you ask something like that something which is very very too big to ask it is not appropriate to ask so avyakshi nisha so satyavathuni is saying that asking the lord to give him his darshan he says i am not qualified so therefore he preludes that request by giving some background now praying to the lord is largely like begging because begging means the beggar does not deserve anything so when we beg normally if you are going for a job interview we tell how good i am how great i am you know i got this qualification i got this i got that so give me this job but when we beg actually we tell how destitute we are and that evokes the compassion of the person so begging basically means that we glorify the donor for their charitability and then we depict our own destitute condition so this is what satyavathuni does in this 6th stanza he glorifies the lord because he has to make such a great request he wants to please the lord one of the most reliable time tested ways of pleasing the lord is by reciting his names so in this verse he will recite 4 names of the lord namo deva namo dharanam kalshiyon actually 5 names namo deva namo dharanam kalshiyon namo deva namo dharanam kalshiyon 5 names he recites namo deva the word deva means one who is the giver so you can give everything so you can give your darshan also namo deva namo dharanam and you are won over by love to bind you is very difficult it's almost impossible but that is done similarly giving darshan is very difficult revealing your darshan is very difficult but you can do it a lot namo deva namo dharanam you are unlimited there is nothing that is impossible for you wish no just to meet you I am in Vaikuntha how can I come down from Vaikuntha to meet you no you don't have to come you are everywhere Vishnu it's a common name what it means is there are various different ways in which one who is in the Vishwas every Anu is Vishnu so Vishnu is Vishwa plus Anu one who is in the Vishwas every Anu is Vishnu he is all pervading so you don't have to come all the way from Vaikuntha a lot you are already all pervading you just manifest yourself and in Prabho you are the master, you are the controller of everything so you can reveal yourself from anywhere and everywhere proceed please be pleased with me please have mercy proceed Prabho dukkha jala di I am abdi means the ocean dukkha jala is the ocean of misery so this is the second reference to a water body in the second stanza there is a reference to Ananda Kund now this is dukkha jala di so there is a poetic contrast being drawn over here he says oh lord you are so merciful that you you you drown you delight your devotees by giving them by inundating them in lakes of ecstasy and yet how is it that I am drowning in an ocean of misery please oh lord have mercy on me dukkha jala di krupa drishti drishtya di dinam batanu krupa drishti drishtya so please have your just glance on me sometimes some beggar may be very fervently begging now if somebody just glances at the beggar and says oh this is a good condition that glance itself will evoke mercy so please glance at me oh lord please bestow your merciful glance krupa drishti drishtya di dinam batanu so he has glorified the lord now he expresses his own fallen condition in three words he is talking about dukkha jala di I am in an ocean of misery di dinam I am very fallen I am deluded I don't even know how to help myself therefore oh lord please cast your merciful glance on me there are two references to the glances first is you cast a glance on me and now he is saying that all this misery he is not suffering from some terrible disease because of which he is in a lot of pain and he is saying please give me relief what he is suffering from is the intense separation from the lord and he is saying therefore relieve me of this misery by granting your darshan ek dhyakshi dharsha please oh lord become visible to these eyes now the next verse he very beautifully ingeniously integrates the continuing narration of the past time and a continuing offering of his prayer the lord may say but you are not qualified why should I be stolen by darshan people he says that all the past you yourself as Damodar have bestowed your darshan on someone who is unqualified you have given great paradox who are they? next verse kuveraatmajaam kuveraatmajaam aatmajaam aatma means body it can mean soul, jaam is born so aatma basically means self so aatmajaam means one who is born from oneself that is children kuveraatmajaam refers to the sons of kuvera kuveraatmajaam when Krishna was bound by Yashoda Yashoda went away to do her work when Krishna dragged the grinding mortar and it got trapped between two giant giant trees and when Krishna pulled both those trees came crumbling down crashing down and then from those trees emerged two celestial beings these were the sons of kuvera they offered a beautiful praise to Krishna they desired that let my heart be completely absorbed in glorifying you remembering you, loving you so that pastime is now being recollected by Siddhapuni over here kuveraatmijau baddhau murtyaivalabhav in this verse there is a play with the theme of bondage and liberation so kuveraatmijau baddhau murtyaivalabhav you were in a form that is bound normally if someone is bound then that person needs someone else to come and free the person but you O Lord even when you were bound while you were bound you freed those who were bound even when you were bound kuveraatmijau baddhau murtyaivalabhav you freed them and not only did you free them how were they trapped? they were trapped in arboreal forms arboreal is an adjective for trees so they were trapped in tree bodies so they were trapped in arboreal forms and not only did you free them from the tree body but further you freed them from the ignorance about your existence by granting them devotional service bhaktvayaamochitav bhaktibhaajau kutavichar you granted them bhakti and by giving this pramana like often when we go in a court we may take precedence in this case the court ruled like this or if we go and ask someone to give something in that time you help that person, please help me also so that time he is giving this precedence in that time you bestow them please similarly your lord please bestow please bestow loving devotion on me this is my heart's desire once again reiterating the idea is that this and this is what I want, nothing else and the devotee, the lord gives that let's say mother is doing some work the child starts crying and the mother may give some toy and the mother goes away and does her work but if the child is crying the child is the mother then whatever toy the mother gives, the child puts aside the toy, what do you want? the mother gives another toy, what do you want? no I don't want, what do you want? I want you then the mother puts everything aside picks up the child and lets him go so similarly the lord will offer various things and time and time again no I don't want other things I want you dear lord he says I do not want I do not want once again the word and then and then the last answer is the conclusion the vision of devotion is such that not only is the lord sanctified not only is the lord cherished but things connected with him are also cherished in the Chaitanya Charitamrit in the 13th chapter when the appearance of lord Chaitanya is described that chapter describes a prayer where Krishna Das Prakash says I offer obeisances not to lord Chaitanya I offer obeisances to that sacred day on which lord Chaitanya you may wonder how do you offer obeisances to a day? where is the day to offer obeisances? but the idea is that things connected with the lord also become sacred so here that same mood is there that he is not offering obeisances to the lord he is offering obeisances to the rope Namostu Damne what is it is effulgent it is extraordinary it is very shining and what is its speciality? this rope was used to bind your udara your belly and actually your belly is the source of the whole universe through a series of complex expansions there is Vyuha and there is Avataar for Prabhupada there is expansion and incarnation Vyuha is that which expands at the spiritual level Avataar is that which descends from the spiritual level to the material level that Prabhupada translates as incarnation so there is a complex series of expansion and incarnations Vyuha and Avataar so from Krishna there is ultimately Vishnu who comes from Vishnu from this belly the primaeval lotus comes from which the whole universe comes about that is referred to over here and it is said that your belly is the source of the supreme of the whole universe and how can one object within the universe that is this rope how can one object within this universe bind that which is the source of the universe that is a great paradox and that is what this rope did and so the rope is so special I offer obeisances to that rope Namoh says to Ram Ram Goswami says that actually the past tense of Krishna and Radharani are in confliction and that is why these are only hinted at they are not described but the mention is important because Radha Maharani is not just the Pahu's devotee of the Lord she is devotion personified personification here is not just a literary device something which is impersonal we call it personal personification means that she is the embodiment, she is the reservoir of all devotion so whoever has any devotion has got the devotion by the Mansi of Radharani so even the devotion of Yashoda by which she has bound Krishna that devotion ultimately comes from the ocean the ocean of Radharani so that is why it is said over here the whole song is about the glory of devotion and naturally there has to be a reference it has to be the goddess of devotion who is devotion personified that goddess of devotion is very dear to me I offer obeisances to her so beautiful the verse doesn't conclude with any phala shruti or any phala yajna there is no mention of phala it is simply a declaration that I offer obeisances to that lord who performs unlimited pastimes the idea is that this one pastime itself is so relational and the lord has performed so many pastimes like this and by meditating on his pastimes we can stay absorbed and not only can we stay absorbed and protected from the miseries of existence but by being absorbed in him we can become purified, we can become elevated we can become liberated in remembering the many wonderful pastimes of Krishna all our deepest longings for love and happiness can be fulfilled that is the essential message that we carry home through this beautiful damodarashtakam thank you very much shuddamodarashtakam ki tantra shrinidh bhagavatam ki tatlok rinam shuklopadhki jaya jaya.