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Ninteenth SlOkam ( Forehead of the Lord)
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labdhA tiTou kvacchidhiyam rajanI-karENa
LakshmI: sTirA SurapathE bhavathO lalADE
yath svEdha Bhindhu kaNikOdhgatha BhudhbudhAntha:
trayakksha: purA sa purushOajani SoolapANi:
(Extended Meaning): Oh Lord DhaivanAyakA! On the Sukla
ashtami days , the form of Chandra Kalai will be most
beautiful to look at. The poets are fond of comparing
the beautiful person's forehead to that ashtami chandran.
If it is so for human beings, it is easy to deduce how
many more times beautiful would be for Your Forehead . Your
forehead beats the beauty of Ashtami chandran by many
levels and instructs us that Ashtami Chandran derives
his own limited beauty from the richest source of
soundharyam (viz)., Your soundharyam-filled forehead .
There is some thing else , when poets compare the beauty
of Your forehead with ashtami chandran. In the case of
Chandran , his optimal beauty does not last beyond
the ashtami dinam. For You however , the beauty of
Your forehead is eternal. The power of Your forehead
is comprehended by the fact that it gave birth to
the Trident-wielding Soola PaaNi from a small portion
of a drop of sweat associated with Your forehead.
Such is the soundharyam and power of Your incomparable
forehead !
Additional Observations:
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Swamy Desikan refers to the permanent soundharya
Isvaryam of the forehead of Lord DevanAthan this way:
LabdhA tiTou kvacchidiyam rajanI-kaRENa
LAKSHMI: sTirA SurapathE bhavathO lalADE
This beauty(iyam LAKSHMI) acquired from Your forehead by
the Ashtami Chandran (Kavachidh tiTou rajani karENa
labdha ) is firm and unchanging ( sTirA), where as
the beauty of the Ashtami chandran lasts only one day.
The usage of the auspicious word , "Lakshmi " for
the forehead can be linked to KurEsar's description of
the beauty of the forehead of Lord VaradarAjan in his
Sri VaradarAja Sthavam using the same word , LakshmI:
UbhayOrapi pakshayOsthiTeeryA
vishamI-bhAva nirAsadhAshtameethi
upamAnaja sampadhE hi sEndhO:
VarAdhAbhUdh BhavathO LALAADA LAKSHMYA
Here , Kuresar as a master poet refers to
the BhAgyam that Ashtami Chandran got
through comparison with the Soundharya
Lakshmi of the Lord's forehead (LalADa Lakshmi).
On ashtami days, the Moon has a beautiful semi-circular
shape that reminds one of the beauty of the Lord's
forehead from which the Moon's beauty is derived.
Chandran worshipped the Lord of ThiruvahIndhrapuram
and got the boon of comparison to the beauty of
the Lord's forehead on Ashtami days ( KrishNa and
Sukla ashtamis)by poets.
Ashtami tiTi is also sacred for KrishNAvathAram
(JanmAshtami) , which is referred to by Swamy
Desikan in the 317th slOkam of SrI RanganAtha
PaadhukA sahasram (SanchAra Paddhathi).