You are here: SriPedia - Oppiliappan - Archives - Nov 2003

Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00008 Nov 2003

 
Nov 2003 Indexes ( Date | Thread | Author )
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]


SrI:
SrImathE Nigamantha Mahadesikaya namah:
SrImAn venkatanAthAryaH kavitArkika kesarI |
vedAntAcArya-varyo me sannidhattAm sadA hRdi ||

May the glorious Venkatanatha, the greatest of teachers of Vedanta, and the 
lion among poets and debaters, reside forever in my heart.

Dearest Srivaishnavas,
Let us begin to enjoy the sthOthra granthas of Swamy Desikan [in 
alphabetical order]
Sri Hayagriva Stotram

Hymn on the Horse-faced Lord

    This is Hymn in thirty two slokas on Hayagriva, the Supreme God of 
learning in Vaishnava Sampradaya. About this incarnation of Bhagavan, the 
purana narrates that a demon took away all the Vedas from four-faced Brahma 
and Bhagavan as Hayagriva killed him and gave them back to Brahma. God 
Dakshina-murti, Saraswati and sages like Vyasa shine with the knowledge 
bestowed to them by Hayagriva and are worshipped by others for attaining 
knowledge. The tradition about Sri Vedanta Desika is that he meditated on 
Hayagriva on the Hill Oshadhadri on the banks of River Garuda repeating the 
Mantra. The Lord appeared before him and blessed him with all knowledge. 
Thus Sri Desika became the master of all sciences and 
arts-?Sarva-tantra-svatantra?. All words were before him so that he could 
choose and use them as he wanted. The devotion of Sri Desika to Hayagriva 
was so great that hayagriva-stotra is the first of his lyrics. His prayer to 
the Lord Hayagriva that He must always shine in his heart and take His sear 
on the throne of the tip of his tongue so that his words will always be 
graceful, successful and pleasing.

     The penultimate sloka gives a beautiful description of Lord Hayagriva 
as realized by him-

      Lord Hayagriva is seated on a full-blown white lotus (pundareeka) 
sparkling like a newly dissected marble-slab. He holds the discus and the 
conch on the higher arms. The lower right hand shines with the symbol of 
instruction as though He is teaching the Vedas to Brahma. There is also a 
garland of rosary beads in it which is compared by Sri Desika to a 
ghatee-yantra(seesaw) which by its movements raises the knowledge from the 
deep like the machine which raises water from a deep well for the benefit of 
all. The lower left hand has a book as though it is an evidence for the 
recovery of the Vedas carried away by an Asura from the four-faced Brahma.

     The last sloka (31) Sri Desika advises all to read the Stotra with 
devotion for the attainment of mastery over words and their import 
(vaagartha-siddhi). The words ?Vaagartha? remind us of the words 
?Vaagathaaviva? used by the poet Kalidasa in the opening verse of his famous 
Kavya ?Raghu-vamsa?. In sloka 25, Sri Desika prayed to Sri Hayagriva to take 
His seat on the tip of his tongue as on a throne so that in the assembly of 
learned scholars, he might defeat in disputation poets and logicians who 
might be great in their fields (Kavi-taarkika-indraan). In the last sloka, 
the same words are repeated as though Sri Hayagriva, has conferred on Sri 
Desika the title ?Kavitaarkika-kesaree? (the lion among poets and 
logicians.)
[From the Life and works of Sri Nigamantha Mahadesikan- by  Prof Sri A 
Srinivasaraghavan]

Swamy Desikan ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam
Regards
Namo narayana
dAsan
kavi-tArkika-simhAya kalyANa-guNa-SAline |
Srimate venkateSAya vedAntagurave namaH ||

Salutations to Sri Venkatesa, in whom all perfections reside, who is the 
teacher of Vedanta and the lion among poets and debaters

_________________________________________________________________
Get 10mb of inbox space with MSN Hotmail Extra Storage 
http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-sg



------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada.
http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/XUWolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
Oppiliappan-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ 



[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index ] [Thread Index ] [Author Index ]
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia
oppiliappan-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To subscribe to the list