A Bhajan offering at His lotus feet

Today, in sadan, a Bhajan Jagata udharana is going to be rendered by someone. While who sings the bhajan is totally irrelevant, let us go through the meditated, absorbed flow from a devotee's heart.

JAGATA UDHARANA PARTHI VIHARANA

SAI TUMHO KARUNA NIDHAN

BABA TUM HO MANGALA DAAN

JAI SAIRAM JAI SAIRAM (2 VARIATIONS)

PAAPA VIMOCHANA BHAVA BHAYA BANJANA (2 VARIATIONS)

SUNDARA NAYANABI RAM… (2 VARIATIONS)

SAI TUMHO KARUNA NIDHAN

BABA TUM HO MANGALA DAAN

JAI SAIRAM JAI SAIRAM (2 VARIATIONS)

JAGATA UDHARANA PARTHI VIHARANA

The first line starts with the essence of incarnation which was clearly written by Swami to His brother way back in 1947, About the purpose of His incarnation, Swami wrote “I have a "Task": To foster all mankind and ensure for all of them lives full of bliss (ananda). I have a "Vow": To lead all who stray away from the straight path again into goodness and save them. I am attached to a "work" that I love: To remove the sufferings of the poor and grant them what they lack. I have a "reason to be proud", for I rescue all who worship and adore me, aright. I have my definition of the "devotion" I expect: Those devoted to me have to treat joy and grief, gain and loss, with equal fortitude. This means that I will never give up those who attach themselves to me”

Can there be any other better way to understand why we start the bhajan with the line “JAGATA UDHARANA’??

Swami goes on to re iterate the purpose of Avtaar in His milestone discourse delivered on 23.11.1968, as was explained by Sri Krishna to Arjuna thousands of years before. Swami said “For the protection of the virtuous, for the destruction of evil-doers and for establishing righteousness on a firm footing, I incarnate from age to age. Whenever disharmony (asanthi) overwhelms the world, the Lord will incarnate in human form to establish the modes of earning peace (prasanthi) and to reeducate the human community in the paths of peace “.

For the transformation of mankind, for uplifting Manavas to the level of Madhava, Parabrahman wills to descend on earth from time to time with a form as Rama, Krishna, Jesus, Buddha, Zorastra, Allah and now, He Descends in parthi, as parthi viharana, for the purpose of Udhaar of Jagath.

SAI TUMHO KARUNA NIDHAN, BABA TUMHO MANGALA DAAN

When we realize His compassion, His mercy, His Daya, culminates into his showering of Krupa on us by descending on earth in Human form to elevate us to divine level, to realize Him in us, to realize the unity of all creations, our eyes are welled with tears. (That is why in all bhajans, krupa always follows daya, never precedes daya.) His compassion, Daya, makes Him extend his grace (krupa) and having showered His grace, He protects us (Raksha) from getting into the maya of this jagath, the maya of desires and attachment, so that we may not rush to Him again and again, for His Daya, Krupa and Raksha, though He never fails to bestow the THIS TRIPLE BOON on us even on N+1th time).

With the realization of His daya, devotee proceeds to sing the third line “Tumho Karuna nidhan, Baba

tumho mangala daan” and devotee’s heart gets melted with gratitude and with the heart full of ananda and gratitude, how can he help restricting himself to sing the next line “ Jai Sairam Jai Sairam”. (We use this word at our level to convey our thanks to the other and when it comes to expressing our gratitude to Him, with no other adequate words to express our deepest gratitude, we end up using a simple expression “Jai Sairam, Jai Sairam”.

PAPA VIMOCHANA BHAVABHAYA BANJANA

When tears of devotion gush out as a stream, Lord recognizes the same and when the devotee has totally surrendered himself to His will, at one point of time, out of His will, like he says cancel is cancelled, He also gives a look at the devotee, crying out with deepest devotion and with that one look, He cancels the karmic balance of all our sins and releases us from the fear of the cycle of birth and death.

There are numerous instances where devotee’s karmic debts are cleared by Bhagwan, when the devotee, like ahalya in Ramayana, surrenders totally to His will and has purified himself totally.

Once, Bhagwan has performed His role as papa vimochana in a devotee’s life, , then the devotee experiences what is REAL TRUTH, WHAT IS REAL AUSPICIOUSNESS, WHAT IS REAL BEAUTY and at that time, devotee realizes the value of the line “ TUMHO MANGALA DAAN”!!!

SUNDARA NAYANABI RAM

Arriving at the inner meaning for this line and its connection with all the earlier lines, took more than 2 days of meditation. On the surface level, we can say, O Lotus eyed Sai, O lord with mesmerizing looks etc but then, what is the relevance of this line in this bhajan, especially after dealing with jagata udharana, papa vimochana. After my sins are washed away and I have been taken by the lord from form to formless and I am in the state of SATCHITANANDA??

Swami revealed. When, after having understood the avatar’s purpose, when having gone through the cleansing process and having witnessed Sai’s role as papa vimochana, bhava bhaya bhanjana, devotes meditates on lord/ rushes to parthi to extend his heart felt gratitude to the Lord and there, Lord comes floating and when His chair reaches the devotee’s place in the hall, Lord gives a beautiful look, a most unassuming look, a look conveying as though He does not know about the transformation process of the devotee and as though He does not take any ownership of the crucial role of “PAPA VIMOCHANA” in devotee’s life, when Swami passes by, giving a simple (yet piercing) look, how can one stop shedding tears of joy/ tears of ecstasy, tears of unconditional love/ tears of total gratitude/ of total surrender/crying out “Sundara nayana Rama”. Here, more than the physical beauty of lord’s eyes, the beauty of the whole process of Lord holding the devotee’s hands, guiding the devotee in his transformation process, clearing all the karmic debts of the devotee in rare cases, the beauty of looking at the devotee with an assurance, “ I have come not to punish you, but to transform you”, the beauty of Lord ever forgiving us for all our lapses / of all our mistakes committed from the time we visited parthi last and our current visit, these things go to make the devotee looking at the Lord and witnessing the beauty of the whole process and ending up with a simple analogy “Sundara Nayana”, for want of better words to describe how beautifully the Lord has acted as supreme companion in lifting the devotee in his spiritual journey and making him pure, as gold, as bangaru, after having made the devotee go through the tough process of becoming a gold, from what he was, a worthless piece of iron!!!!!!!!!

Baba Tumho Karuna Nidhan

Baba Tumho Mangala Daan

Jai Sairam Jai Sairam)

(Samarpan – Vol 4 and Vol 5, Page No. 70-72)