Sri Harikathaamritha Saaraa – an Introduction

04 Sep 2009 1 Comment

by dvaitavedanta in Sri Jagannatha Dasa

|| Hari Sarvothama Vayu Jivothama ||

The below article was written by my Guru Dr.B.Basker Rao, who is also called as Upanyasa Chakravarthy. My sincere thanks to him for presenting such a nice article.

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Sri Harikathaamritha Saaraa - an Introduction by Dr. B. Basker

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Namaskara to all Haribhaktas.

The Harikathaamritha saara known as the Kannada sudha had been written by the great Jagannaatha Daasaru who was none other that Sahlaada the brother of Prahladaand born as Salya in the Dwapara yuga and again as Sri Jagannatha Daasaru in the Kali Yuga. The name as it denotes means the juice of the myraid glories of Sri Harih. But this has an inner meaning which exhilerates all of us.

Sri – Mahalakshmi
Harih – the Lord who expunges all the sins.
Katah – the sristha, stiti, laya, karanah aspects of the Lord
Amrita – another name for Sri Vaayuh
Saaraaa – mukyaamsha of the above.

Further more it has the four lakshanas of a great grantha namely

Vishayam – here the vishayam is Lord Vishnu himself who is the pratipaadaya of the grantha
Prayojanam – it signifies the attainment of moksha
Adhikaaranatvam – Lord Harih
Sambandam – get the grace of the Lord and get released from the fetters of samsara.

Sri harih is the giver of taste to the taste itself and the saaraa of his glories is obviously the elixirby itself. This grantha has the unique distinction of having a sanskrit commentary by Sri Sankarshana Udayaru.We also find an allusion in the first shloka of Sri Sumadhva Vijaya where Narayana Panditaafcharyaru says “Sri Praaana Naathaaya Namaskaromi”. Here the term can be  translated as follows:

Sri (Lakshmi) Praananaathaayaa(Lord) or else the Lord of Lakshmi.
Sri (Lakshmi), Praana (Mukhyapraanaa), Naathaaya (Lord) or else the Lord of Sri Lakshmi and
Mukyuapraanaa. Great souls think alike. Is it not?

Sri Krshnaarpanamasthu

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Yours in the service of Sri Harih,
Venkatesh Rajendra Rao