23-09-2007. Purattasi Thiruvonam. Vedantha Desikan's incarnation day. HH the 45th jeer of Shri Ahobila math graced the occasion at the Desikan sannidhi in Srirangam temple. Huge crowd made the celebrations memorable. HH gave a talk at the Dasavatara sannidhi after the pujas there. He was moved to tears. His voice was quivering and all the listeners were affected by His "wet" voice, so to say. He recapitulated Desikan's greatness and uniqeness. He quoted Appaya Dikshitar's eulogy on Desikan. He highlighted Desikan's prolific output and the sustained quality of each of his works. HH mentioned that Dikshitar who was an accomplished poet himself, gave up when asked to comment on Desikan's Yadavabhyudayam. He said each line is so replete with meanings that all he can do is stand back in awe. Desikan had a soft corner for Srirangam and the ruling deities there. Inspite of his well known attachment to both Varadan and Deivanayakan he was moved into writing many stotras by Ranganatha and Ranganayaki. His services to deities at Srirangam are numerous and he was Periya Piratti's favourite. "Vedantacharya" "sarvatantra swatantra" "kavi tharkika simham" were some of the titles he got from the Divya Dampathi. Many are the works he dedicated to Periya Perumal. He safe guarded the Tamil tradition at the temple which was under threat.HH was moved to tears as He recounted Desikan's many services at the Srirangam temple. Desikan had himself taught us that we should walk fearlessly on the heads of those who belittle Sri Ramanuja's darshana. HH mentioned Sahadeva's behaviour in Mahabharatha. The occasion was Yudishtara's rajasuya yagna and the question was who was worthy of being accorded the "first offering" "mudal mariyadai." Sahadeva, the youngest one, stood up boldly and declared only Krishna deserved it and he would place his left foot on the heads of those who opposed him. Desikan says that I will bear on my head, the feet of the devotees of Sri Ramanuja but will place my feet on the heads of those who opposed him. HH said that we must resist and not give in when injustice was done to our religion, the unparallaled Srivaishnava sampradaya. HH detailed the birth of Desikan's magnum opus Paaduka sahasram. Desikan was challenged to compose a thousand verses on the Almighty's lotus feet in one night. Desikan demurred citing his inaptitude to accomplish such a huge feat.Such was his innate humility. HH said that the archaka, who knew his man, placed Ranganatha's "satari" on Desikan's head and said that he would remove it only if Desikan agreed to write the miliad. Considering it the Lord's command Desikan acquiesced. After completing his daily routine he went to bed, unflappable as usual whereas his challenger was burning the midnight oil. Desikan's acolytes had to wake him up about two hours before dawn and remind him about the challenge. Desikan calmly sat down and composed the thousand verses on the footwear of Ranganatha, the gems encrusted paadukas. HH said that this feat of Desika was superhuman and was accomplished because Desikan and Hayagriva are one and the same. The feat was mindboggling because of the scope of the opus, its grandeur, the profundity of thoughts expressed and the standard of the language. HH was moved to tears once again and declared that Desikan is nonpareil and one can't find his equal not only in our country but throughout the world, for all ages. His challenger could finish only three hundred. Such was Desikan's humility and lack of pride that he is reported to have said that the three hundred was better than his thousand. Desikan's "Paaduka sahasram" is the crown jewel of Desikan's prolific multilingual output. Lord Nrsimha's descent and slaying of Hiranyakasipu,Krishna's exposition of the Bhagvad Gita on the battlefield, Rama's annihilation of 14,000 rakshasas and Desikan's composition of thousand verses on Paadukas can be considered equal as all were accomplished in a very short space of time. HH recounted another instance of a ShriVaishnava who had disparaged Desikan. Desikan did not respond in any way and left. That gentleman was to suffer heavily and then came to realisation about his vile act of calumny against Desikan. He offered sincere apology and partook Desikan's "sripada theertham" and was blessed immediately. In gratitude he named his son "theertha pillai". HH concluded by saying that it gave Him great pleasure to participate in a function on Desikan's asterism, his station as the grand master of Bhagvath Ramanuja's Sampradaya was assured for eternity. Swamy Desikan Thiruvadigale SaraNam Regards Dr.S.Sundar Rajan MS ortho Trichy-620005; Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SriRangaSri/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SriRangaSri/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:SriRangaSri-digest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx mailto:SriRangaSri-fullfeatured@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: SriRangaSri-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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