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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00043 Jun 2006

 
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--- In tiruvenkatam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Sudarshan M.K." 
<sampathkumar_2000@...> wrote:

                 "Govinda" or "Gohinda"?

Mukkur Swami once visited Tirumala kshetram. Before the "suprabatha 
darsanam" Swami wanted to have his ritual bath in the temple 
"pushkaraNi" steps and suddenly heard someone nearby 
shout, "gOhindA", "gOhindA". It was some poor pilgrim who had just 
finished his own ritual-bath and who was readying himself eagerly 
for the "suprapatha darsanam".

Mukkur Swami was a little uneasy about the Lord's name being 
mispronounced and that too so un-inhibitedly by a common pilgrim. 
Nevertheless, Swami related, he ignored it and proceeded with his 
own ablutions. After Swami finished he sat on the 'pushkarini' step-
stones and prepared to don "tirumaN-kAppu". Again the pilgrim nearby 
began to yell hoarse, "gOhindA, gOhindA, g-O-O-OhindA".Swami 
recounted that this was taking place at around 2AM, there were not 
many people around the temple-tank and in the silence of the night 
the cry of "gOhindA,gOhindA" seemed to reverberate through all the 
Seven Hills ! 

The Swami said that this time around he couldn't tolerate the rustic 
pilgrim anymore continuing to mispronounce the most lovely 
'tirU-nAmam' of 'tiruvEngadamUdiyAn' and decided to do something 
about it. He intended to go up to the pilgrim and gently correct him 
in the correct pronunciation of the Lord's name and if necessary to 
briefly enlighten the poor unlearned soul of the beauteous 
significance of "govinda-nAma shabdham". The 'nAma' was "gOvinda" 
not "gOhinda".

Mukkur Swami then related how he was stopped dead in his tracks when 
he heard the pilgrim suddenly break into a wonderful, most touching 
personal dialogue with 'tirUvengamUdaiyAn' himself. The Swami 
recounted :

"As I rose wanting to walk up to the pilgrim to gently chide him for 
abuse of the Lord's name, I suddenly saw him turn on his feet on the 
'pushkarani' steps and face the glorious 'vimanam' of the Lord's 
temple beyond the walls and atop the 'garbha-griha". And then in the 
stillness of the night I heard the poor pilgrim converse loudly with 
the Lord in the boorish Telugu dialect of deep Guntur heartland:

 "Oh gOhindA, my saviour, O gOhinda, I thank you very much, my 
gOhindA. Last year at this same time, dear gOhindA, I was at this 
very spot, o gOhindA and talking to you as I do now. Remember, O 
gohindA, I prayed to you that my crops be good, my cows be good, my 
family's health be good, my son pass his matriculation and my 
daughter be married. You never fail me O gOhinda ! I only have to ask
you for a thing O gOhindA, and when have you ever refused me Oh 
gOhindA ! So here I stand again in this spot Oh gOhindA, and pray to 
you Oh gOhinda in the sure hope that next year too, Oh gOhinda, I 
shall stand here in this very spot, Oh gOhinda, looking into the sky 
at your 'vimana', Oh gOhinda and cry out to you ?. "gOhinda! 
gOhinda! g-O-O-OhindA !"

Mukkur swami continued, "At this point I had got up from my seat on 
the 'pushkarini' steps to go to him but when I eavesdropped on this 
most wonderful dialogue between the poor pilgrim and the Lord of the 
Seven Hills I sat down again without a murmur. It struck me in that 
moment with the force of 'sastra-ic' truth that I had really no 
business to chide or advise the pilgrim on the correct "utchAraNam" 
of 'bhagavan-namA'. Here he was saying loudly, the poor blessed 
pilgrim, that he had been at the same spot the previous year and had 
similarly addressed the Lord and sought favours and was now 
reporting back to the Lord, in thanksgiving, that everything in life 
was just fine with him and his family --- thanks to the Lord ! 

"I thought about it", Swami continued", and trembled at the gravity 
of what I had been about to do in wanting to correct the boorish 
'bhaktha'. I might have succeeded in persuading him to switch over 
to "gOvindA" instead of 'gOhinda'. But then in the process I might 
have deprived the Lord of the Seven Hills next year around, when the 
pilgrim returned, of listening again to and savouring the sound of 
the rather unusual 'tiru-nama' of "gOhinda" which obviously seemed 
to have given Him so much "swArasyam" (the kind of pleasure we too 
enjoy when toddlers in our homes lisp out names of family-members). 
In the process I would incur the displeasure of the Lord and would 
also have unnecessarily ventured to upset a relationship of such 
touching intimacy built up over the years between a simple-minded, 
rustic 'bhAgavata' and the Supreme Being, the Great One addressed as 
"gOhinda, gOhinda" in such cavalier fashion.

" It struck me," Swami continued, "that obviously the Lord wasn't 
the least concerned about how the pilgrim pronounced his glorious 
name of "GOVINDA" for, if he had indeed been offended, would the 
pilgrim have had all his wishes of the years gone by granted?  So 
what business was it of mine to go up to the pilgrim and correct him 
when the Lord himself apparently had happily accepted the 
unusual "tirunAmA' of "gOhindA, gOhindA"? "

Listening to Sri Mukkur swami relate this amusing anecdote many in 
the "bhAgavata" audience went into splits of laughter. Many however 
couldn't help fight back a tear or two because it immediately 
brought to their mind sweet remembrances of the sublime compassion 
that 'tiruvengadamudaiyAn' indeed shows the millions of poor 
pilgrims who trek to his great abode on earth atop the Venkatam Hill.
                 
    ***********       *************        **********

--- End forwarded message ---






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