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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00013 Sep 2002

 
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Dear friends,

Last Friday's "The Hindu" carried in its columns a very moving
tribute
by one Sri.R.Varadarajan to the memory of the 44th Azhagiyasingar
whose 107th "tirunakshatram" happens to fall today, 9th September'02.

It is interesting to see how the author gleans meaning and
significance into the numeral 44!

Today is a blessed day indeed for us who are able to remember the
great 'mahAn' who all his life strode as tall as the legacy he left
behind --- the magnificent 'rajagopuram' of the SriRangam temple. 

Regards,
dAsan,
Sudarshan

******************************


MY FIRST divine encounter with the 44th Jeeyar of the Ahobila Math,
reverentially known as Mukkur Azhagiyasingar was full of
significance. That was in August 1965, when I was planning to leave
for the U.S., California University, to be precise. I had an audience
with the Jeeyar in his native village Mukkur. The Jeeyar enquired
with keen interest my family background, education and the purpose of
my trip to America. As I prostrated before him, he showered plentiful
akshate on me and also gave a handful Phala Mantrakshate
prophetically saying, `Gettikaran, Uyarnda Padavikku Varuve' ? (smart
fellow, you will reach a high position). I progressed in my career,
never forgetting that all my achievements were on account of my
Aacharyan's Kataksham. In my retired life, I am now beholden to pay
homage to this seer of sagacious wisdom, indomitable courage and
spiritual eminence on the occasion of his 107th Tirunakshatram on
September 9.

Rangarajachar and Ranganayaki were the parents of Rajagopalachar as
this Jeeyar was known in his Grihastha Ashramam. The planets in his
horoscope were all in an elevated conjunction destining him to become
the most illustrious pontiff of the Ahobila Math in the 20th century.
In his 62nd year he assumed the mantle as the 44th Jeeyar in
Naimisaranyam in December 1957, in the auspicious Sravana Nakshatram,
in the Tamil month of Karthigai. Rajagopalachar in his Sanyasa
Ashramam was named Srivan Sadagopa Sri Vedanta Desikan after the
luminary Swami Desikan whose birth star was also Sravanam. Jeeyar
reigned supreme for 35 years ministering the religious and spiritual
services to his vast concourse of disciples.

Ever immersed in meditation on Malolan, the presiding deity of
Ahobila Math, Sriman Sadagopa Sri Vedanta Desikan realised his
oneness with Lakshmi Narashiman through his staunch Anushtanam. He
was ever pure of body, mind and soul. Graceful and majestic was his
gait even as that of the beautiful lion, Azhagiyasingar. In him the
world of Ahobila Math lived, moved and had its being. He had an
intuitive power to read into the hearts of his disciples and realise
for them their unspoken wishes even beyond their wildest
expectations. He had a watchful eye on the rights and duties of his
sishyas to assiduously preserve the sampradayam. To himself, he was a
strict task master, his daily life was but a silent example and an
unspoken lesson in its perfect discharge of the manifold and
complicated round of duties.

His grasp and mastery over Sri Bhashyam and Bhagavadvishayam was
unsurpassed and peerless. His exposition and elucidation in Vidwat
Sadas amazed the scholar and the layman alike. He had the memory
power to recall apt aphorisms to astound the audience. His logic was
clear and convincing. He was so keen and thorough in his discourses
that he was regarded as the quintessence of Azhwars and Ramanuja's
Bhakti and Gyana ? devotion and knowledge par excellence. `Abhinava
Vedanta Desika' was an honorific title he inhered for his incisive
and lucid commentaries on Tiruppavai, Sri Bhashyam, and Rahsaya Trya
Saram. The stotras he composed on Lakshmi Narashiman are recited
daily during the Abhigamana Aradhanam in the Ahobila Math. He
improvised the Madhurantakam Vishishtadwaita Research centre and the
Nrisimhapriya Journal started by his predecessors.

When some persons tried to scuttle the samprokshanam of the Srirangam
temple Rajagopuram in March 1987, he dared to go ahead with the
muhurtam already fixed by him, which put the State Government in a
fix. The then Vice-President, R. Venkataraman and the Tamil Nadu
Chief Minister, M.G. Ramachandran took charge of the situation and
the consecration was performed as scheduled. The Jeeyar lauded the
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister as `Em Jeeyar' meaning one who gave succour
in the hour of need. Among the masses he is known as Gopuram Swamy
for the numerous temple towers he built and dedicated. The poor and
the needy found in him an ever ready and large-hearted donor for
celebration of marriages, upanayanams and obsequies. His magnanimity
and generosity earned him the sobriquet `Dana Shoora Karna'.

Sri Anantha Narashimachar, a close confidant of the Jeeyar sums up
his eminence in an inimitable manner permutating the numeral 44. Four
plus four denotes the eight auspicious attributes of the liberated
soul ? the Jeevan Muktan. Four multiplied by four enumerates the 16
virtues ? Kalyana Gunangal ? of Sri Rama narrated by sage Narada to
Valmiki, which the Jeeyar donned on him most gracefully. Four minus
four points to the infinity zero ? Poojyam ? the state of immanence
in the Almighty as the Jeeyar was the very being of Lakshmi
Narasimha. Four to the power of four, 256 added together signifies
the 13 tiers of the Raja Gopuram of which he was the architect. Four
divided by four point to the one and only towering Jeeyar in the
annals of Ahobila Math.

Mukkur Azhagiyasingar radiates his divinity and spiritual brilliance
on his perennial flow of pilgrims passing through the Mottai Gopura
Vasal to worship Sri Ranganathar in Srirangam. He passed away on
August 16, 1992, at the age of 97. His body is interned adjacent to
his Acharyan, the 41st Jeeyar, Srivan Sadagopa Sri Lakshmi Narashima
Sadagopa Yateendra Maha Desikan's Brindavanam (tomb) near the
Dasavataram temple.

******* ********** *********

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