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.