DOSHA PARIHARA ASHTAKAM – 8 VERSES

Courtesy: Sri.K. S. Shankar

दोष परिहाराष्टकं - 1

DOSHA PARIHARA ASHTAKAM –  8 VERSES

 

I will post one verse each day from this Ashtakam with meaning and explanation for the next eight days.

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Dosha means defects, weakness, vices. Parihara means giving up. Giving up whose defects? We should not be bothered about giving up defects of others, but only in removing our own defects. The Author has written 8 beautiful verses how to handle our defects and how to change our attitude of finding doshas or faults in others. It is a great work and it can change our lives and our dealings with the world.

 

Author – Shri Sridhara Venkateshacharya popularly known as Ayyaval from Tiruvisanallur near Kumbakonam, Tanjore. He lived around 400 years ago.

Let us see the background as to why Sridhar Ayyaval wrote this Dosha Pariharashtakam – 8 slokas which is an exemplary illustration of the divine nature of Sri Ayyaval – a quality only seen in great sages and not ordinary mortals.

 

Sri Sridhara Ayyaval (a great Shiva upasaka) and Sri Bodhendra Swamigal (a great Rama nama upasaka) were contemporaries in the 17th century. Sri Bodhendra Swamigal was an Acharya of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam. They were great friends in Thiruvisanallur near Kumbakonam.  Sridhara Ayyaval has composed several stotras of which Gangasathakam is very famous. It is believed that once when the whole village was suffering from drought, Sri Ayyaval composed this Gangasathakam. On completion of this slokas, the water in his well rose up and started flowing like river. This particular incident of water rising its level is even witnessed today and people believe that it is Ganga water.

 

Sridhara Ayyaval composed a grantha called – "Bhagavannama Bhushanam" a sastra grantha in which he highlighted the relevance of Bhakti sadhana through Nama japa. Sri Bhodendra Swamigal reviewed the text line by line and approved the text and he even quoted this in his works. Those days in Thiruvassanallur there were many practitioners of purva mimamsa who believe in karma kanda of vedas and were against bhakti sadhana. Even though they could not find fault with the grantha, they got jealous of Sridhara Ayyaval and cast aspersions on him as stupid, unlearned, dull headed, etc. Purva mimamsins exceeded their limit and burnt the manuscript of the text. Sishyas of Sri Ayyaval got angry with this act and wanted to meet the Tanjore king to seek redressal.

 

Sridhara Ayyaval, stopped all of them and bowed to all those who spoke against him. He then wrote an exemplary hymn called Dosha Pariharashtakam – instead of blaming the purva mimamsis for their act, he highlights his own (perceived) imperfections and prays to Lord Shiva to cure his own doshas, when he had absolutely none. It was mainly to convey to the people like us to find their own short comings before finding faults with others. It was an extreme show of piety and self-effacing nature. Only great sages show such rare breed of divinity and maturity. By blaming himself, he wants all of us to look at ourselves before finding faults with others.

 

What type of doshas in us are we talking about ?. There is no end to the list of doshas or defects that we all have. But the author has highlighted one major dosha and that is pointing out or finding doshas in others, in other people's weaknesses/vices, dwelling upon them, insulting them, enjoying their propagation and free distribution.

 

How to avoid finding fault with others and to look at our own self to remove the doshas that we all possess in abundance? The eight verses talk about as to how I can avoid finding Doshas in others. If we follow the advice given, it is definitely life changing and we grow in our maturity.

 

We will post one verse every day for next eight days. Hope members will read them carefully and find it useful in their lives.

OM