The topic for Kousalya Sivakumar’s musical discourse at Parthasarathy Swami Sabha on December 21, was Lord Narayana’s Sudarsana Chakra. Resource material is abundant for the subject and Kousalya quoted from the pasurams of Azhwars and also Vedanta Desika’s works, besides including verses from the Ahirbudhnya Samhita, wherein Ahirbudhnya (Siva) extols Sudarsana.
She delineated how the Lord’s weapon is synonymous with the Lord Himself. Lord Narayana is known as Purusha, because of certain attributes of His. Sudarsana has all these attributes too, and so Sudarsana too may be referred to as Purusha. When one is on the first step of the ladder of bhakti, the Lord’s weapons appear as weapons. As one progresses to the next step, His weapons appear as ornaments.
To see the Lord’s weapons as the Lord Himself is the epitome of bhakti. Kousalya quoted a verse from Kooranarayana Jeer’s Sudarsana Satakam, in which Sudarsana is seen as representing every numeral because of His various attributes. Thus He is synonymous with two, because He gets rid of the twin traps of sin and virtue. He is synonymous with three, because Lord Siva the three-eyed One worships Him; He is five because He gets rid of the temptations that our five senses lead us into; He is the numeral nine, because He nullifies the effects of planetary positions on our lives and so on.
Kousalya pointed out that Sudarsana had accompanied the Lord during each of His avataras. In the Narasimha avatara, for example, Sudarsana took the form of the Lord’s nails.
Verses from ‘Shodasayudha stotram’ and ‘Sudarsanashtakam’ were rendered in ragas Naattai, Varali, Valaji, Kalyani, Hamsanandi, Dhanyasi, Sahana, Begada, Kiravani, Khamas, Atana, Saranga, Kuntalavarali and Surutti. Kousalya had chosen ragas that suited the meaning and meter of the verses.
Namagiri Ramesh gave a solo rendering of Nammazhvar’s ‘Kaisina Paravai’ pasuram in Shanmukhapriya, the 100th verse in the Sudarsana Sataka in Dhanyasi, Tirumazhisai Azhwar’s ‘Punpula vazhi adaithu’ in Ananda Bhairavi and Periyazhvar’s ‘ Naazhigai Koorittu’ in Vasantha. Her voice has a rich timbre.
On Vedanta Desika’s refrain ‘Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana,’ Kousalya observed that Sudarsana’s consort is Jayasri, also known as Vijayavalli. In this, as in other interesting interpretations, the guiding hand of scholar Dr. M.K. Srinivasan, whose help Kousalya acknowledged, was evident.
