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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00001 Jul 2001

 
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SrI:
SrImathe Ramanujaya namah:
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,

Recently there was an appeal (sent by Sri VK Sudharshan) forwarded by Sri
Diwakar Kannan on Thoopul MaNdapam kaimkaryam by Smt Shantha Kalyanarangan
of Thoopul trust. Sri Lakshmi N. Srinivasa also has created a web site for
this trust and also for this special kaimkaryam for Thoopul Pillai.

URL: http://www.geocities.com/lsriniva/thoopulappeal.html
It is my humble request to please contribute your mite towards this
kaimkaryam, as remembering Acharyan, and talking alone will not suffice.

AsmadhAcharyan Srimad PaRavaakkOttai Andavan Swamy also has Blessed this
kaimkaryam with His SrImukham, wherein He mentions that Sri
Brahmathanthraswathanthrar, the direct disciple of Swamy Deskan used to
prostrate even the residence of Swamy Desikan, as Swamy himself. That is in
a dilapidated condition and Smt Santha is taking all efforts to refurbish.

It is our duty to talk in praise of and contemplate on the glories and
greatness of our Acharya. More so, if He is Acharya saarva bhouman
Kavithaarkika simham, Sarvathanthra swathanthran, Vedanta Acharyan Swamy
Desikan.

AdiyEn will post on the glories and greatness of Swamy Desikans works and
continue to appeal as usual every Friday for maNdapam until perhaps
Purattassi SravaNam (Swamy Desikans hirunakshathram). AdiyEn will write
briefly about Swamy Desikans each work (based on the book written by Prof.
A. Sri Srinivasaraghavachariar). I will not write about sthOthrams (28 in
number) as Bhagawathas of the list are already aware of them. It is adiyEns
desire to mainly introduce to this groups of srivaishnavas, (especially
youth and ignoramuses like myself), about our great Acharya and his works
briefly so that this creates an interest in the present day srivaishnavas
in
AchArya saarvaboumans works for taking up further to learn at the feet of
their respective Acharyas and other vdiwAns and scholars as available at
their places of residence.

Acharyan is the dispeller of all sins. He removes the darkness from our
minds and removes ignorance. He gives us new birth (vidya janmam); He is
the
Father and the manthram (which He initiates us with) is the Mother. This
birth places us on the path which meads us to an end to all future births
and deaths. He endows us with divine vision. He has infinite amount of
compassion towards us. He always is interested in our welfare. On account
of
all of these, He is always to be worshipped as the Lord Himself. One should
never harbour any feeling that he is doing a good return for what Acharya
has done by paying few dollars. It is only as a token of our gratitude.

First let us look briefly at the life of Swamy Desikan.

Born to Sri Anantasuri and Smt Totarambha at Thoopul, a locality of Kanchi,
he is believed to have been the very incarnation of Lord Srinivasas
GaNTAmani (temple Bell). He derived the name GaNTAvatharam in the taniyan
because of this. His intellectual brilliance was discernable even from his
childhood. Once as a child of five years, he was taken to the august
religious assembly- Kaalakshepa Goshti- of Sri Nadadur AmmAL by his
maternal
uncle Sri Appullar, who was mainly responsible for his education in the
religious line. Sri Ammal and his disciples were so captivated by the
divine
appearance of the little boy Desikan, they were diverted for sometime and
forgot what they were discussing to trace. It was the little Boy Desikan
who
came to their rescue by pointing out the place of the discourse from where
their attention was diverted. They were all simply stupefied on seeing the
extraordinary intellect and brilliance of Swamy at that age and Sri Ammal
who was overwhelmed with joy, and admiration blessed him for a great future
where he would succeed in establishing the philosophy of Ramanuja and the
previous Acharyas in an unassailable position and in an unambiguous manner.

Another intellectual feat of Sri Vedantha Desika was his ability to revise
Sri Bashyam twenty times before he was twenty years of age.

His life was one of perfect austerity, vairagyam, and deep devotion
particularly to Archamoorthys enshrined in Divya Desams similar to
Thirumangai mannan. He had a special and abiding devotion to the Lord
Varadan of Kanchi. Just like Sri Ramanuja, his ArAdhya Devatha, the deity
of
his daily worship was Sri PeraruLALan. He led a very simple life. He earned
his livelihood by taking alms from the devotees. The rice he gathered like
that was used for his food after offering to the Lord. One day his wife
found some gold coins in the rice he got from the philanthropic public.
Evidently, some well intentioned person wanted to help Swamy Desikan
without
his knowledge. As soon as this was found out, Swamy Desikan threw the
entire
collection of the day away on the street. This is an example of his
steadfast vairagya. Another instance of his strong determination
/renunciation can be seen when Vidyaranyar, a royal vidwan at the court of
early Vijayanagar, once his class mate, hearing about Swamy desikan
languishing in penury and knowing his extraordinary skills and intellectual
talents sent a message to him inviting him and asking to come to the court
of Vijayanagar king where he would be fittingly honoured with riches. Swamy
Desikan refused to go, saying that he is not after wealth, adding that he
was already provided with the Greatest wealth bequeathed to him by his
grandfather (four faced Brahma), meaning the Lord Varadan (atthigiri
Varadan). This is conveyed to his friend in the form of five slokas called
Vairagya Panchakam:.

He spent a good part of his time at Tiruvaheendrapuram. Lord Hayagrivan,
the
Lord of knowledge and learning blessed him here. He composed Hayagriva
sthOthram: here in praise of Lord Hayagrivan. He also composed Achutha
sathakam, in prakrit, Devanayaka panchasath, in Sanskrit, mummaNikkOvai,
Navarathnamaalai in Tamil on Lord Devanathan of this Divya Desam. nin
vadivazhagu maRvaathaar piRavaadhaarE.. says Swamy. He is said to have dug
a well, chiseled an idol of his and cone several wonders and miracles
justifying thereby his title sarvathanthraswathanthrar, during his stay
here. After sometime, he retunred to Kanchi and then later he proceeded to
Srirangam (when invited by Sri Pillailokchariar from Srirangam for debating
against Advaitins who had objected to recitation of Tamil hymns(4000) at
Srirangam temple). The titles of Vedantacharya, Kavitaarkika simham, were
conferred on him by Lord Ranganathan and Periya Piraatti respectively at
Srirangam where there was occasion for him to refute theories and arguments
of Advaitins successfully and victoriously establishing the Parama vaidika
Visishtadvaita Srivaishnava sampradayam.

Padhuka sahasram is yet another masterpiece of work containing one thousand
eight slokas eulogizing the Padhukas (sandals) of Lord Ranganathan of
Srirangam. He completed the whole 1008 slokas in one yaamam (about 3
hours),
latter part of night. It is said that this piece of extraordinary work was
composed by him (when challenged).

>From Srirangam, he flew to Satyakalam, a place at Karnataka fearing the
muslims depredations. abheeti sthvam on Lord Ranganathan, containing 29
slokas was brought out here to ward off the fear and evil caused by the
muslim maruders. After the terror had subsided, he returned to Srirangam to
spend his last days. He attained the lotus feet of Acharya on Karthigai
day.
His yadhavabhyudhayam, a maha kaavyam on Lord Krishna was admired very much
by the renowned advaita philosopher Appayya DhIkshithar in the 16th century
A.D. He wrote a commentary also on this mahaakaavya as a mark of
appreciation. (but could not write more than four slokas, as that itself
immersed him and drowned him with such a beauty and marvel, that he was
simply flabbergasted with its literary nicetry and stopped after four
slokas
of this kaavyam, whose commentary itself ran to pages..

In fact, it is simply a foolhardy experiment to attempt to give a
comprehensive picture on the life of this AchArya saarvabhouman in this
small post. Excuse is therefore sought for omissions and lapses. Let us see
the list of all his works in the next post.

Isn't it appropriate to refurbish the maNdapam of The Greatest Acharya
saarvabhouman ThUppul Pillai? Please contribute your mite.

Please donate according to your shakthi. The money can be sent to "Thuppul
Trust" and the address is :

Thuppul Trust
Old No.20, New No.24, Thiruvengadam Street
West Mambalam, Chennai-600033, India
Phone No: 91-44-4741559 / 91-44-3715771

Please contact Sri. V.K. Sudharshan at vksudarsh@xxxx or Sri Lakshmi N
Srinivasa lsriniva@xxxx (He can collect and send it as single
amount
in USA).

The address:

Lakshminarasimhan Srinivasa
3 Old Towne Road, #212
Ayer, MA-01432

For those in the South East Asia, please send to me at
srivaishnavan@xxxx .Please pass on this kaimkaryam to as many
people
as possible in order to complete the same.
kavi-tArkika-simhAya kalyANa-guNa-SAline |
Srimate venkateSAya vedAntagurave namaH ||

Salutations to Sri Venkatesa, in whom all perfection resides, who is the
teacher of Vedanta and the lion among poets and debaters!

Swamy Desikan ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam
Regards
Narayana Narayana
adiyEn Narayana dAsan madhavakkannan





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