Excerpts from Vamana Stavana by His Holiness Shrimad Sudhindra Tirtha Swamiji

 Salutations to the cutest and most beautiful vatu Lord Vamana

Excerpts from Vamana stavana by His Holiness Shrimad Sudhindra Tirtha Swamiji by "Chaitreya" Gopal Pai Mani.

The exemplary style of writing which was possessed by His Holiness Shrimad Sudhindra Tirtha Swamiji is always seen in HHs compositions which is collected and processed in one beautiful book called Namana for benefit of devotees who can use it for Vyasopasana. One of the stuti or stavana which is composed by HH is on Lord's avatara Vamana, the cutest, the attractive vatu rupa. Let me jot down some points in summary form below for benefit of sadbhaktas on auspicious ocassion of Dadhi Vamana jayanti 

Birth of Vamana

First two stanzas speaks on Vamana's birth and how he looked different from other new born.

The pious couple who we find in many stories in puranas are sage Kashyapa and his wife Aditi, they are worshipped and thanked even by devatas for their devotion towards Lord and both of them wanted Lord as their child, getting a child today is task for many couples in this fast track era just imagine the task of getting Lord as child but undeterred in their aim the couple with utmost devotion conducted payovrata that is only consuming milk throughout until they get lord as child. After a particular point of time the compassionate Lord who became mighty pleased with devotion of Aditi and Kashyapa descended down as a cute vatu or kid called as Vamana the son of Aditi and Kashyapa. His color was as radiant as purest form of Milk.

The child looked different from other new born in this world as he had four arms, had beautiful marks of Chakra and Lotus on his feet and by witnessing such divine child even the sage couple instead of cuddling the child or new born did salutations with utmost humility as both of them knew its Lord who has blessed them  

Vamana who is indifferent from Vishnu

We do know the story of Vamana avatara but here Swamiji has clearly stated how Vamana is indifferent than what he is in Mula roopa as Vishnu. To prove this Swamiji makes the following Salutations :

* salutations to Vamana through whose navel Chaturmukha Brahma was born.

*salutations to Vamana through whose blessings Kashyapa became respected.

* salutations to lord Vamana through whom Indra named Purandara got back his lost seat or esteemed position.

Now comes salutations to Ganga Janaka or one who gave birth to Mother Ganga the holy river :

*Salutations to Lord through whose lotus feet mother Ganga was born and the same lotus feet was worshipped by Brahma.

* Ganga the river Jhanavi who resided on head or hair locks of Lord Shankara, who descended to earth through sage  bhageerata's holy efforts I submit my salutations to such vamana who is indifferent than the Ganga Janaka.

With the above two salutations Swamiji makes one point very clear that Vamana is no different than vishnu in mula rupa.

The Objective behind Lord taking Vamana avatara

Swamiji in one stanza gives objective behind Vamana avatara HH says -

Salutations to Lord Vamana the Indirapati (husband of Bhu devi) whose persona is excellent and pleasantly attractive, whose objective is to be a roadblock and suppressor to enemy of Indra named Bali, by whose attractive persona the powerful Yajnikas ( priests conducting Bali's Ashwamedha yaga) have accepted defeat

Beautiful portrayal of Lord Vamana

The next three stanzas Swamiji dips and submerges us into thought provoking  portrayal of Lord Vamana's beautiful and resplendent looks :

portrayal of radiant but a very beautiful pleasant body

His Holiness writes

-Salutations to Lord Vamana who made Moon shy by his resplendent and pleasant looks.

-Salutations to the Lord whose beautiful and handsome body made Manmatha accept the defeat

- Salutations to the Lord whose radiance made the ever limitless radiant galaxy look dull and dark.

portrayal of Lord Vamana's magnetic presence

Salutations to Lord Vamana whose divine, magnificent, innocent vatu rupa who kept the great sages of devata and asuras wondering on the same and whose magnetic presence ensured they kept watching him again and again without any boundaries of satisfaction.

portrayal of distinct appearance of Vamana rupa

In this stanza Swamiji doesn't miss a divine opportunity to describe appearance of Lord Vamana -

Salutations to beautiful Lord who has come as small Vatu holding Umbrella (Chatra) in one hand, and holy club (danda) and Ajana in other, whose face is filled with radiance of Brahma Teja, who can rule and prevail, who is also the giver of boons.

Vamana turns into Trivikrama and defeat of Bali

The next two stanzas Swamiji talks about how Vamana turned himself into Trivikrama and defeat of Bali.

- Salutations to magnificent Lord Vamana who measured the three lokas by three mighty steps

- Salutations to one who made the three lokas holy by descending himself as Trivikrama

- Salutations to the one who showed his infinite prowess to the whole world by the above two divine acts.

The very next stanza Swamiji talks on Bali Nigraha and his anugraha 

Salutations to Lord Vamana who defeated the mighty Bali by placing his feet on Bali's head, one who gave back the power to Indra through which he showed limitless compassion he showers on Hari Bhaktas.

The Conclusion

remembering Guru and phala shruti of reciting Vamana stavana

One of the salient feature of any stotra composed by His Holiness Shrimad Sudhindra Tirtha Swamiji is submitting the divine work to HHs Guru Shrimad Sukratindra Tirtha Swamiji and then giving brief the immense result (phala shruti) it has one devotees who chant it. Here Swamiji concludes Vamana Stavana as below

This work called Vamana Stavana is composed by us after having immense blessings from our Guru Shrimad Sukratindra Tirtha Swamiji of Shri Kashimath Samsthan, a devotee who chants and submits the same daily to lotus feet of Lord shall get unblemished devotion towards Lord

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All the right words and right things mentioned above is submitted at lotus feet of His Holiness Shrimad Sudhindra Tirtha Swamiji and HHs antaryami Lord Vamana abhinna Vedavyasa and all mistakes and errors in it are mine for which I humbly apologize. Let the radiance of Lord Vamana shed away the darkness of Ignorance and lighten up the lamp of knowledge in us and shower in us the Jnana Bhakti Vairagya.

References for above article :

- Namana book published by BKVS Bangalore

- Genius named Sudhindra Tirtha by Shri Girish Prabhu