Ava Rogavu Enage Deva Dhanvantari ----- Gopaladasaru

Ava rogavu enage deva dhanvantari
savadhanadi enna kaipididu nodaiyya

Gopaladasaru ask the Lord." Oh Deva Dhanvanthri, what is this disease that I have? Can you hold my hand and look patiently to find out what it is?"

Here Gopaladasaru is sure that he has a disease and that the Lord can find out what his problem is. He addresses the Lord as "Dhanvantari" as Lord Dhanvantari is the form of the Lord who gave the science of medicine. He is the Lord who appeared at the time of the samudra mathana with the "amrutha kalasha". One who has the tonic for immortality should definitely be having a medicine for any other disease- is the logic of Gopaladasaru. Then he tells the Lord, "Please be patient. Hold my hand (wrist) while I list out the symptoms of the disease."

In Ayurveda the doctor diagnoses the illness by holding the wrist and checking the nadi's- which are the energy lines flowing throughout the body. When there is a block in these nadis a disease manifests in the body. Gopaladasaru is saying "In my journey towards you, there are hundreds of blocks causing my sadhana to break and my bhavaroga does not show signs of getting cured. So please intervene and help me."

harimurthigalu enna kangalige kanisavu
hariya keerthaneyu kelisad enna kiwige
harimamtrastotra baradu enna naligege
hariprasada jihvege saviyagadaiyya

The list of symptoms first deals with the jnanendriyas. Gopaladasaru says" I am not able to see the figures of the Lord Hari, I am not able to hear the compositions in praise of Lord Hari, I am not able to recite the mantras and stotras glorifying Lord Hari, I am not able to taste the sweetness of the food offered to the Lord Hari."

Indirectly Gopaladasaru is saying that all his sense organs are busy with some other forms of entertainment and don't have any time for this.

There are many ways which the eyes don't see the Lord's idol.

1. The eyes are blind.
2. The eyes are engaged in looking at other things.
3. The eyes look at the idol but it is not considered as seeing.

While performing puja if the mind is not concentrating on the word at hand then the eye may be doing its job of sending the light rays from the object into the eye but until the mind wants to register what it is sending, there is no end result.

A crude example to understand this better: We are walking on the street with out eyes open, but with thoughts of something on our mind. We so engrossed in our thoughts that we don't really notice the people going past. If suddenly one of our acquaintances come up and say hello, "Where are you?" Then we acknowledge that we were thinking of something and hence didn't see them.
A similar thing with respect to all our other sense organs. Gopaladasaru says," My ears don't hear hymns in praise of the Lord. We can infer why this is so! It is because we are engrossed in using our ears for the pleasure of listening to worldly news, gossip and meaningless banter.

Gopaladasaru says, "My mouth does not recite the slokas and mantras glorifying the Lord Hari." We know that the mouth of most of us is incessantly working either satisfying the urge to eat and make merry or to talk and boast. In both cases the usage of the mouth has been restricted to worldly matters. The higher purpose of the tongue is to taste the Prasada of the Lord and to sing and praise Him.

haripada sevegenna hastagalu chalisavu
guruhiriyangrige shira bagadu
hariya nirmalya agranisadu nasikavu
hariyatregaligenna kalelavaiyya

Gopaladasaru is listing further symptoms. He says," My hands don't move to do the seva of the Lord's feet, my head does not bow down to elders and gurus ,my nose does not smell the nirmalya offered to Hari, my feet refuse to comply if I want to go for Hariyatra, (travelling to have darshana of the Lord in the various tirtha kshetras).

anathabandu gopalavittala reya
enna bagada vaidya neeneyadi
anadikalada bhavaroga kaleyaiyya
naa nendigu mareye nee madida upkara

Now Gopaladasaru is saying ," Oh Lord, who is the best relative of the destitute, Gopalavittala, You are the my special doctor, Please cure my disease of bhavaroga which is there since time immemorial . I shall be ever grateful to You on this account."

Here Gopaladasaru is referring to the Lord Gopalavittala as anathabandu. Bandhu means one who is related to the person. Relations are those who are there with us on account of relationship with the body, like father, mother, husband, wife, children, brother, uncle, aunt, etc. The word' anatha' means one who does not have any relatives like father, mother, wife, children etc. It implies that the Lord protects one who has no relatives.

One more way to understand this is that "Bandhu" is for the body but the soul has no such relatives. For the soul, the eternal bandhu is the Lord. He resides in the heart lotus and travels everywhere with the jiva, never deserting it for even a single moment.

Baraiyya ba ba ba ba ba Bakutara Priya Srinivasa Raya----Gopaladasaru

varijalayapati varijanabhane
varijabhavapita varijanetrane
varijamitra aparaprabhavane
varija jhandada karana doreye

Varija – lotus
Varijalayapati, one who is the husband of the one who resides in lotus (Maha Lakshmi)

Varijanabha describes the Lord Narayana who manifests the lotus from His navel at the beginning of creation. From the lotus comes Brahma and Brahma is given instructions to do further.

Thus He is Varijabhavapita as He is father to Brahma.

In the next word Gopaladasaru is describing Him as Varijanatrane - lotus eyed. What is the significance of this description, other than just beauty? A lotus even though it is born in the slushy pond remains on the surface and is unaffected by the dirt inspite of being in it. This is a crude example to explain that the Lord is not tainted by the ills of samsaara even though He exists in every jiva as well as in all insentient things giving it form and identity.

Next Gopaladasaru says, Varijamitra "You are the friend of the varija" - Lord Lakshminarayana in the Sun is the friend of the lotus and enables it to flower because of the light.

Gopaladasaru says, "You have limitless lustre and if not for You, all life forms on this earth would have no life. So you are the life source and the cause of all existence not only in the unseen way but also by being visible to all as the Sun. " Artificial sources of light and heat always fall short, but the Sun being controlled by the Lord is always available to provide heat and warmth day after day, year after year, century after century. It is relevant to recount that all food webs have the Sun as the source of energy. Plants are primacy food producers manufacturing food using sunlight as the main source of energy. Human beings and animals depend on plants, so they too are dependent on the Sun. Without Sun, no plants, without plants no animals or humans. The immense grace and glory of the Lord glimpsed by contemplating on this simple daily occurrence.

baraiyya ba ba bakutara priya Srinivasa raya
mara janaka mukutharodeya devaiyya jiya baraiyya ba ba ba ba ba

"Oh Srinivasa! Come, come come, You are the beloved whom the bhakta desires to see and You also love Your bhakta. Glimpses of Your infinite glory can be experienced by listening, singing and doing the nine types of bhakthi- sravana, keerthana, vandana, smarana, padasevana, dasya, sakya, atmanivedana. One may ask, How so? To that, "When a bhakta experiences Your glory, then He experiences bliss. Since the jiva's constituent nature is one of bliss and knowledge, he yearns for it and hence becomes dear to the Lord.

Gopaladasaru says, “You are the father of "Kama". “Kama is the abimani for all forms of desires. Gopaladasaru is praying to Lord as mara janaka and then says 'mukutharodeya' meaning that the jivas who reach mukthi are cared for by the Lord and the foremost criterion for such selected GRACE is their overcoming all desires and surrendering to Him. You are the father of all devas - devaiyya. You are my favourite - jiya is an endearing term Gopaladasaru uses to call out affectionately to the Lord Srinivasa. Even Srinivasa raya has special significance here. It is because all desire is caused by the effect of the trigunas and Godess Mahalakshmi is the abimani for this. So praising the Lord by saying that Sri resides in Him gives one the ability to rise above the bondage of the trigunas and move towards varaigya for worldly matters and devotion towards God and then to moksha.

Sri meaning Mahalakshmi is the abimani of the Vedas -source of knowledge- one who strives towards acquisition of knowledge, to such seekers God is always with them (nivasa).

Syandana veribappa ranga devotunga
nandanadanarimada bhanga karuna panga
sindhu shayana sundaranga he Narasingha

kanda virinchiyu nandivahana amarendra
sanakana sanandanadi munivrindanidu
bandu nindu dim dim dimikendu
nindadalu Anadadi manake

baraiyya ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba bakutara priya Srinivasa raya

Oh Lord Ranga, who are the hugest among all deities, who is the source of all, the killer of Kamsa, the embodiment of mercy , who has His abode in the skheera sAgara, who has the most beautiful forms . Dasaru says ,"Oh Narasimha!" to give emphasis he says 'he nArasimha' addressing the Lord implying that He is within hailing distance of the sincere devotee.
A crude example : When a boy or girl whom you are addressing and who is not responding upon your first call then you tend to add a 'he ......' to attract attention. Similarly Dasaru is calling out to the Lord with affection.

"Your little one Brahma, and your grandson -Rudra who rides the Nandi, Indra and king of devatas, the great munis Sanaka, Sanandana are all assembled and are dancing in bliss to the chanting of your name 'Oh Srinivasa!' so please come along and enter my manas. " Here Dasaru is making a point. Where ever the Lord's name is chanted with love and devotion, whereever His glories are spoken of or discussed about, there all His retinue will assemble to bless the devotees present in achieving their heart's desire of having the apaROXa of the Lord. And when the retinue of the Lord arrives the Lord will definitely arrive because He always comes where His devotees are. So even if an ordinary person is not upto the mark in devotion if he/she does with full faith the retinue of the Lord who come along first will provide the necessary inspiration to the senses and mind to concentrate and bring out the best in that jiva. It also indicates the necessity to offer prayers to all the vriMda-retinue of the Lord in the respective order also called as tAratamya. We should never forget to show our gratitude to these devatas and should understand the important part they play in reaching our goal of mukthi.

jagat janmmadi karta govinda udaradi lokava
laguvagi darisida mukunda bhaktara manake
jaga jagaisuta polevananda nigamavaliyinda

"Oh govinda, you are the power behind the creation, destruction, maintenance and sustenance of the jivas.”When Gopaladasaru says janmadi, (Adi means etc) it implies all the four activities associated with creation of universe. Next there are four other important activities associated with sentient beings, which the Lord does as part of His Leela. They are - granting knowledge, ignorance, bondage and moksha. Here Gopaladasaru addresses the Lord as Govinda , the cowherd while we are all cattle. During pralaya the Lord effortlessly bears the entire hordes of jivas in His stomach. Then he talks of the souls in bondage who are placed in different areas of the Lord's udara-stomach based on their nature. Those jivas who have crossed the bondage and ignorace and have realised the Lord - for those Gopaladasaru refers to the Lord as 'Mukunda" means the granter of moksha as well as the caretaker of the jivas in mukthi.

Oh Lord, please come to the bhakta's heart which has been decorated with the precious jewels extracted from the deep sea of knowledge from the scriptures after listening, singing and doing contemplation. The heart of the true devotee is filled with bliss just at the thought of Your beautiful name or form. They are so much in bliss that the mere mention of the Lord's name can trigger an automatic emotional response like tears from the eyes, the hairs on skin become stiff and they become ecstatic with these thoughts of the Lord. To the devotee who calls out to the Lord and has these conditions, he/she can rest assured to see the Lord.

aganita munigalu naga kaga mriga shashi
gagana manyAdyaru sogasagi bhage bhage
pogalutali bega chigichigidadalu
mugulunageyu maha uragagirivasa

baraiyya ba ba ba ba ba bakutara priya Srinivasa raya

Gopaladasaru says, "Countless other devotees of the Lord who are also ecstatic with devotion, other life forms like snakes, crows, birds, animals, the moon are in sky. The skies are filled with more such devotees all singing the praise of the Lord in different ways. And from their midst comes the Lord "maha uragigiri vasa" dancing and smiling. Srinivasa is the Lord who resides in the Tirumala hills.

During the Dwapara yuga it was called as "Sheshachala" and Gopaladasaru is referring to this name here. He says 'maHa' as an adjective for the Lord. He is declaring the Supremacy of the Lord Srinivasa . This also shows that Dasaru wants to convey that Lord Srinivasa is the same Lord Narayana and that the forms of the Lord may appear different but His attributes are the same in all the forms.

tadamada byadavo he nalla vaku lalisuennodeya
Gopala vittalaa deva paraku
adi idu bhaktavatsala shri lakuminalla

maduvinolage gaja moreyidalakshane
madadige hellade dudududune bandu
hididu nakrana baya kadidu bidisidane
sadagaradali ramepodaveyodagude

baraiyya ba ba ba ba ba bakutara priya Srinivasa raya

lAlisu- hear to my words nalla - darling, lover, husband ;parraku - adulation ; praise
“Oh my darling, please don't delay your arrival, please hearken to my words Oh my Lord Gopala Vittala, please extend Your adorable feet into my heart. You are known for your excessive love for Your devotees inspite of being the darling husband of Mahalakshmi. You have proved this by rushing to the aid of Gajendra who called out in total surrender without even informing Mahalakshmi about it. You came in haste and cut the mouth of the crocodile which was causing distress to Your bhakta. At the hurried time You were accompanied by the podave (Pallu) of Ramadevi the mother of the world."

Gopaladasaru is begging the Lord to come quickly. He is using endearments and formal addresses to address the Lord. He says Your feet are adored by the pious sages, please give me a glimpse of those wonderful feet which has been the object of countless praises in the scriptures.