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;
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