Subramhanya bhujangam – 16

We are in the last few shlokas of the pAdAdi kEsha varNana. This shloka is a prayer to the six heads of Murugan. The four lines of this shloka can be split into two portions. The former portion gives a glimpse about bAla murugan or the little Murugan, whereas the latter shows what lofty thing this Lord of the world is up to.

Adi Shankara offers his respects to the heads of Murugan, the Lord of the worlds, which are adorned with shining crowns and which bear the burden of all the worlds, the same heads that were smelt with joy by His Father, Lord Siva, reciting the mantra “Dear Son, born from me! May you live long” six times (as part of the jAta karma of Murugan).

सुत अङ्ग उद्भवो मे असि जीव इति षड्धा (suta anga udbhavO mE asi jIva iti ShaDdhA)

Son/Child – body – born from – Me/my – is/be – may you live (long) – thus – six times

जपन् मन्त्रम् ईशो मुदा जिघ्रते यान् (japan mantram IshO mudA jighratE yAn)

Reciting – mantra/verse – Isha (Siva) – happily – smelt – to those which

जगत् भार भृद्भ्यो जगन्नाथ तेभ्यः (jagat bhAra bhrdbhyO jagannAtha tEbhyah)

Worlds – burden/pressure – (for/towards that) bearing – Lord of the world – (for) those

किरीट उज्ज्वलेभ्यो नमो मस्तकेभ्यः (kirIta ujjvalEbhyO namO mastakEbhyah)

Crown – (for) shining – salutations –(for) head

The first two lines show a typical father-son moment. There are several rituals performed when a child is born and jAtakarma is one such. Here, Adi Shankara, with an excellent imagery, shows us all the jAtakarma ceremony that might have happened for Murugan where Lord Siva (Ishah), recites (japan) the vedic mantra (mantram) that means as (iti) “Son! (suta), you are born from me (mE angOdbhavah asi). May you live long (jIva)!” six times (ShaDdhA) with joy (mudA) and smells (jighratE) the six heads of Murugan. jighratE can be equated to uchi mugardhal (உச்சி முகர்தல்) in Tamil and it is part of jAtakarma ceremony. When talking about uchi mugardhal, how can one miss to think about Bharathiyar’s chinnanchiru kiliye – உச்சிதனை முகந்தால் – கருவம் 
ஓங்கி வளருதடி.

I think such things are the most beautiful when it comes to poetry. Nobody knows whether jAtakarma and such ceremonies happened to Murugan or are such rituals applicable for Him, He being jagannAthah. But Shankara just brought that in front of us. He helped us visualize the ceremony. One can see Siva holding the baby Murugan in His hands and breathing at his little head with Parvati standing close by and Ganesha probably too eager to play with His little brother and Maha Vishnu, Lakshmi, Bramha and Saraswati are all present. The Devas are happily watching it as they have got a hope that their worries are going to end soon. The bhUtagaNas are rejoicing and Nandi playing the Mridangam. I mean, yeah, one can imagine however one would like but the seed of imagination has been sown by Adi Shankara and of course many other poets.

In the two lines that immediately follow, Adi Shankara switches the context – that those heads are no longer that of the baby. The same heads that were smelt by Siva are the six heads of Jagannatha, the Lord who sustains the world, that bear the burden and pressure of all the worlds. Those wonderful heads are adorned by shining crowns as fit for a king.

In the shloka that praises His hands, Shankara says that the hands sva lIlA dhrta aNDAn and jagat trANa shauNDAn– That the hands sustain the universes very casually without much effort and are adept at protecting all the worlds. His heads take the burden of the whole world. In Tamil, there is a vAkyam – வேலுண்டு வினையில்லை, மயிலுண்டு பயமில்லை (vEluNdu vinayillai, mayiluNdu bayamillai), there can be no misfortune when there is vEl (Murugan’s spear) and there is no need to fear when there is the peacock. Murugan is there to take care of everything and there is really no need to worry or be stressed about.

As stated in great works, as living beings born into this world, we cannot escape actions. Constant doubts and worries and stress lead us to inaction most of the time. Setting aside all such thoughts, if only we could concentrate on what should be done and do them at the right time and leaving everything else to Him, maybe we could all find peace then. He is jagat bhArabhrt, the one who takes the pressure of the entire world, won’t he take care of ours too? bhArabhrt is one of the namas in Vishnu sahasranamam too.

The second portion of this shloka is in chaturthi vibhakthi entirely, indicates ‘for those heads’ – bhArabhrdbhyah, tEbhyah, kirIta ujjvalEbhyah, mastakEbhyah. Generally, when the word namah is used, it is used with the object in fourth case, the popular examples being guravE namah, gurubhyO namah. Here, salutations (namah) for those (tEbhyah) heads (mastakEbhyah) and the adjectives are also in fourth case.

There are many sandhis in this shloka, which has been split in the above word by word meaning. उद्भवो, ईशो, भृद्भ्यो, उज्ज्वलेभ्यो are all actually उद्भवः, ईशः, भृद्भ्यः, उज्ज्वलेभ्यः but are in that form because of visarga sandhi – the visarga is replaced with ‘O’ because of the starting letter of the next word and helping with the meter too. A few other sandhis in this shloka include but not limited to savarNa dIrgha (sutAngOdbhavO), guNa (jIvEti, kirItOjjvalEbhyO).