Dikshitar – In His Own Words

R.Ravichander

I would like to explore three different facets of Shri Muttuswamy Dikshitar, based on his own words in his kritis.

1. Dikshitar & Videha Mukti  

Dikshitar in many of his kritis seeks ‘videha mukti’ from the Lord.To illustrate I would like to draw attention to the following statements made by him:

            1. ‘vikaLEbara kaivalya dAnAya’ (guruguhAya,sAma)

                ‘to the bestower of videha mukti’

            2. ‘vikaLEbara mukti dAna nipuNE’ (shrI kamalAmbikE,tOdi)

                ‘She who is adept in giving videha mukti’

            3. ‘vidEha kaivalyam yAmi’ (tyAgarAjE,sAranga)

                ‘I am approaching/moving towards videha mukti’

            4. ‘mAmaka vidEha mukti sAdanam’ (ranganAyakam,nAyaki)

                ‘One who is the means for my videha mukti’

Now, what exactly is videha mukti?
Before addressing this, we must first understand what ‘mukti/moksha’ per se is.

“ mOkshasya nahi vAsOsti   na grAmAntaramEva vA |

               ajHnAna hRdaya granti nAshO mOksha iti smRta: || ”

‘Moksha does not have any place (as its destination).It is not like going from one village to another. Destruction of the knots of ignorance in ones heart is known a moksha.’ (Shiva Gita, chapter XIII, 32)

Thus we can see that the concept of moksha is unique to Hinduism as opposed to the concept of ‘eternal’ paradise or hell. According to our religion, one has to come back to earth with the reminder of karmas (karma shesha) even from swarga or naraka.

“kEvalam cAshubham karma narakAya bhavEdiha | 
             shubham swargAya jAyEta dvAbhyAm mAnushyamIritam || ”

           ‘Purely evil deeds takes one to hell,
           purely good to heaven & mixed deeds (most of our day to day actions) to earth.’
           (Shiva Mahapurana,Kotirudra samhita,Vishweshvara mahatmyam)

 “kshINE puNyE marthya lOkam vishanti”

           ‘When the merits are exhausted, they fall to the Earth (to be born again)’. (Bhagavat Gita)

Moksha can be attained only when we realize the identity of our soul with the Brahman, whence we become one with that Brahman.With this background , we can proceed to see the 2 ways of attaining mukti:

1. krama mukti and

2. sadyO mukti.

According to our scriptures, those who are of matchless conduct & who practice the sAdanAs prescribed to attain god, go to Brahma loka after their death wherein they stay till they gain AtmasAkshAtkAra & are then liberated. This is ‘krama mukti’. (krama = gradual).

Sadyo mukti, as its name suggests means, ‘sadyO’ = immediate release.

Great saints attain gnana even while alive (in the present birth/body) & this is also known as ‘jIvan mukti’. They have already been liberated but they keep their bodies till their prArabdha karma is exhausted. Then they shed their mortal coils. This is known as ‘vidEha mukti’.

Thus ‘vidEha mukti’ is not mukti as such but just the shedding off of the body by an already released soul – a jIvan mukta. Ordinary men pray only for gnana & mukti. No one prays for videha mukti. Only a jivan mukta can pray for it.The very fact that Dikshitar talks about it in many kritis shows that he was already a jivan mukta- a released soul even when alive.

Dikshitar himself in the kriti ‘mArakOTi kOTi lAvaNya’(Arabhi) says:

‘viraktAnAm vidEha kaivalyadAna vichakshaNa, bhaktAnAm abhyapradAna’

‘One who excels in bestowing videha mukti to ‘viraktas’ and who gives abhaya (protection – no fear guarantee) to ‘bhaktas’.
Here ‘virakta’ means one who is devoid of attachment of anykind ,ie, a mukta.‘Bhakta’ is ofcourse the ordinary devotee. Thus we get an indirect confirmation from Dikshitar of the fact that he was a jivan mukta.

But why go for indirect inferences? After all , does he not declare in joy:
            ‘chid guruguha EvAham’
            ‘sacchidAnanda paripUrNa brahmAsmi’
            ‘nityAnanda rUpOsmi brahmAnanda rUpOsmi’ 

‘I am verily that guruguha who is the personification of knowledge’
‘I am that Brahman, who is in the nature of Truth-Knowledge-Bliss & who is complete’
‘I am the personification of perpetual bliss, the bliss of brahman’

Thus far about Dikshitar – the Mukta.

 2. Dikshitar & Bhakti

It is said in our scriptures that ‘bhaktyartham kalpitam dwaitam adwaitAdapi sundaram’.‘Pretence dwaita for the sake of bhakti is more beautiful than adwaita itself'! Apt to his own words ‘bhaktAnAm abhyapradAna’(as quoted above), in front of abhayAmbikA he sings :

‘bhukti mukti prada mArgam brUhi, mAyAdhInam dInam mAm pAhi’

‘Tell me the path that gives bhukti & mukti; O abhayAmbikE - protect me, poor me, who am subjugated by mAya’

A perfect example of bhaktyartham kalpitam dwaitam indeed!Dikshitar must have had the common folk in his mind when he sang thus on our behalf.Dikshitar’s Bhakti was in the true adwaitic spirit of Adi Shankara. He has sung on all deities from sadashiva to Shasta & navagrahas. But his favourite (ishta devata) was ambAL.
Look at his words:

         ‘madambA shri kamalAmbA jayati’ (shrI  kamalAmbA,Ahiri)
          ‘Victory to MY mother, kamalAmba’    

         ‘bRhadambA madambA jayati’(bRhadambA,bhAnumati)
           ‘Victory to MY mother, bRhadambA’

Look at him relating to ambal as his own mother! As if this were not enough, in the kriti ‘chidambara natarAja’ in tanukirti he calls shiva:

            ‘madambA shivakAmI patim’
            ‘My mother shivakami’s husband’!

Instead of calling nataraja his father, he calls him his mother’s husband! So much was his attachment to devi. But Dikshitar was no bigoted shAkta. Far from it. He has sung with equal devotion to all deities.

Some of his words that are pretty personal:

            ‘mAmaka sahasra kamalAsInO’(shrI nAthAdi,mAyAmAlavagaula)
            ‘Seated in the thousand petal lotus in MY heart(or brahmarandhra)’

           ‘mAmaka hRdayasthitEna, madguruguha mAnitEna’(rAmacandrENa,mAnji)
           ‘By he who dwells in MY heart, held in esteem by ME, guruguha’

Here dikshitar says ‘madguruguha’ to show that by guruguha, he is referring to himself.
Or look at this :

           ‘vIravasanta tyAgarAja tArayAshu mAm karuNAnidhE’(raga vIra vasanta)
            ‘O repository of karuNa ,vira vasanta tyAgarAja, uplift me – quikly’.

Thus he has sung with great devotion to almost every deity in the hindu pantheon knowing that they are but different forms of the same Brahman. This, he himself confirms in the kriti ‘sUryamUrtE’ in saurAshtram.

            ‘bhAratIsha hari harAtmanE’
            ‘Suryamurthi – one whose soul is (the same as that of) Brahma, Vishnu & Shiva.

Or as he so beautifully puts in the sAma kriti,

‘bhaktAnugrahAya guNAtItAya rUparahitAya hariharavirinci rUpAya saccidAnanda svarUpAya shivAya’

‘To the blesser of his devotees, beyond attributes, without form, but assuming the forms of Vishnu, shiva & Brahma (to be read with bhaktAnugraha .ie assumed the forms of Vishnu etc to bless the devotees), whose real nature is nothing but Existence- Consciousness – Bliss , the auspiscious …. To that guruguha, my salutations’.

 Thus far about Dikshitar – the Bhakta.

 3. Dikshitar - as a person

It is well known that , for all his AcAra & shri vidya upAsana , Dikshitar was a very broad minded person. This is shown by the fact that he had accepted the Tanjore quartette, dasi Kamalam, Shuddha maddalam Tambiyappan as his disciples.

Also well known is the fact that he refused to approach the Tanjore king & sing in his praise even in dire poverty as witnessed by :

           ‘hInamAnavAshrayam tyajAmi’(hiraNmayIm,lalita)
           ‘mAyAmaya dharaNIsham tyajAmi’(mAyUranAtham,dhanyAshi)

            ‘I reject the refuge of lowly humans’
            ‘I reject the mAya deluded king’

However, it is not so well known that where acknowledgement was due, Dikshitar was most kind. A Vaidyalinga Mudaliyar performed kumbhAbhishEkam to the VishwanAtha temple at Kuzhikkarai. He invited Dikshitar to bless the occasion & also performed kanakAbhishEkam to Dikshitar. In gratitude, Dikshitar in the kriti ‘kAshI vishwEshvara’ (kAmbhOji) calls shiva

‘bhavarOga hara catura vaidyalinga vibhO’
          ‘O lord, O doctor adept in curing the disease of samsAra’

Here Dikshitar, by slesha (double entendre) mentions the name of the patron ‘vaidyalinga’.He adopts the same sleshAlankAra to express his gratitude to Venkateshvara eddappa of Ettayapuram who conducted the marriage of his brother Baluswami Dikshitar & supported his family. In the kriti ‘venkatEshvara’ in megharanji he calls Vishnu,

          ‘vEnkatEshvara yAdava bhUpatim’
            ‘venkateshvara, the lord of yAdavas (Krishna)’

Here ‘venkateshvara’ refers to venkateshvara eddappa by slesha.

Thus we can see that though Dikshitar would not, of his own accord, approach a human & praise him, where he is indebted to one – he does not fail to immortalize him in his kritis.A parallelism can be found in Kavichakravarti Kambar, who denounced the chozha king who asked him to sing his praises but at the same time has sung in praise of Sadayappa vaLLal every 1000 verse in his Kamba Ramayanam.

Among the trinity Dikshitar was the only person who has :

1.      set to music another’s lyrics (rAmAshtapadi) and

2.      written sanskrit  sahitya for anothers’ music (western tunes)

This shows his appreciation for others’ works & even other forms of music. He calls ambal ‘sangIta sAhitya sArajHna sannutE’ ‘she who is worshipped  by connoisseurs of music & literature’ (mangalAbikAyai,mAlavashrI). Clearly, Md himself was a connoisseur of music & literature.

Dikshitar’s karuna is known by the incidents of  his curing of Tambiyappan & the amRtavarshA. In the kriti ‘AnandAmRtAkarshiNi’ he signs ‘sadya suvRshti hEtavE’ ‘I pray to you for sadya=immediate , suvRshti = heavy rain’

Having Chennai in my mind & repeating the words ‘salilam varshaya varshaya varshaya’ , I end the third part : Dikshitar – The Uttama Purusha.