आमुक्तमाल्यदा (विजयनगर सम्राट् श्रीकृष्णदेवराय - गोदा देवी आण्डाल भक्ति एवं साम्राज्य-नीति)

58 Goda's Garland of Devotion
symbol to suggest the readiness of the human vessel to receive the
Divine Afflatus. Artists and poets have lavished their imagination
fondly on this union of the human and the divine in a blaze of
spiritual ecstasy. The Divya Prabhandham has some unique sec-
tions that bring out the best of this bhava, as in Tirumangai Alwar's
Peria Tirumadal and Nammalwar's Tiruviruttam.
Celebrating Goda Kalyanam in the images stationed in temples
or in poetry as in Āmukta Mālyada assures us that an answering
grace will meet our one-pointed aspiration leading to a spiritual
union. Again, celebrating the kalyana of Ranganatha with Goda
Devi ensures loka kalyana, the good of the world. The divine union
symbolises the coming together of Power and Compassion or Grace
in the adventure of human consciousness to reach the Divine. It is
for this reason, perhaps, that the Andhra Vishnu commanded the
King on a battle trail to get involved with the story of Goda Kal-
yanam. The sublime Telugu accents in Āmukta Mālyada form the
real victory for Emperor Krishnadeva Raya who reenacted in
his evocative poesy the drama divine:
The wedding of the eternal Lord and Spouse
Took place again on earth in human forms:
In a new act of the drama of the world
The united Two began a greater age.¹
1 Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 1954 edition, p 465.