Panduranga, as many of us are aware, is a form of Vishnu,
as he appeared before Pundalikan, who made him wait to
complete his service to aged parents. Vishnu who came as
a boy, waited patiently, on a brick ["seat" as given by
Pundalika]. The boy remained as god, in Pandaripuram,
he is called Vittal because he stood on the brick, vit = in
Marathi. He came to be called as Pandurnga. From this
Pandaripur, many great lives of nama-sankirtan marga
[the path of chanting Vishnu's names] sprang up. The
movement started with Jnaneswar and his siblings. The
great children are Nivrutti Natha, Jnaneswar, Sophan Nath (?),
and their only sister Muktabai. While Nivrutti Natha is
considered as Siva, Jnaneswar, Vishnu, Sophan Nath, Brahma
and Muktai Bai as Uma. Jnaneswar was for pure bhakti [devotion through nama sankirtan], and Jnana. Many of
us know only his Jnaeswari, the commentary on Srimad
Bhagavad Gita, but he has also written a pure advaita work,
called Amritanubhava. Both are available in print. He has
also written some poems as replies to one Changdev Vatiswar,
a great Raja Yogi, describing Jnana.
Panduranga, a discourser said, is a combination of all these
four divine forms. One can see in his idol, on the skull,
a small cavity, where there is a Siva linga, with the base called
avadai, which represents Uma. He is said to have Brahma
on the belly bottom, and Saraswati in his tongue and Lakshmi
in his heart. He does not have chakra and sangh [conch shell]
which are marks of Vishnu, on his hands. On the other hand,
he is keeping his two hands on his waist, as if to show that his devotees, have to cross the ocean of samsara which would only be waist-deep and they need not be afraid to be drowned by the ocean of worldly life. Sri Mahabhakta Vijayam, originally in Marathi, now available in all Indian languages, is the stories
of devotees, who had experienced different types of miracles done in their lives by Panduranga.
The followers of nama-sankirtan marga, say Hari Ramakrishna Hari, as the chanting name but they are not Vaishnavites. The devotees wear the marks of an advaiti [vibhuti], or Sri Churanam [Vaishanavites] or simply sandal paste like dvaitis, but without the homa paste in black colour. In fact, the disourser, Sri Venkatakrishna Bhagavatar who is telling stories from Bhagavatam, profusely quote Bhagavan Ramana's words and conversations and miracles.
(Source: From a discourse in Sri Sankara TV)
Arunachala Siva.
