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SrI:
SrImathE Ramanujaya nama:
SrImathE Nigamantha Mahadesikaya nama:

Dearest all

Today is the most auspicious day.. Purattaasi
ThiruvONam

Thirunakshathram (Birthday) of Swami Desikan? Swami
Desikan ? Acharya saarvabhouman- The peerless
preceptor (1268 CE- 1369 CE)Let us meditate on His
lotus feet today enjoying the glories of Swami to a
little extent.  

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 Srinivasa?s 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 Tiruvahindrapuram.
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. Swamy
Desikan wrote original works on Sanskrit and also
commented upon the works of Ramanuja and Yamuna. He
wrote poems, religious works. He wrote 28 sthothrams.
A mere reading of the list of his works is
breathtaking. He wrote 18 works in Tamil, 29 works in
MaNipravALam ( a great mix of Tamil and Sanskrit). He
also wrote naataka grantham, rahasyagrantham etc.

His aim in writing is more than one.

Dr. V Varadachari says:

Firstly, the system of unparalleled Great
VisishtAdvaita Srivaishnava SrI should be kept on a
firm basis and stronger footing.

Secondly, the Nyaya tatvam of Sriman Nathamuni which
deals with the topics of Nyaya, Vaisheshika,
Meemaamsa, and treated in a manner to interpret the
doctrines in the light of the Vedantha system.

Thirdly, Ramanuja's concepts and theories were
attacked by opponents relentlessly. The refutations
need to be answered, counter attacked and dismissed
then and there.

Fourthly, the writers after SrI Ramanuja were not in a
position to evolve the metaphysical, logical theories
consistent with the teachings of Ramanuja. They
required to be given shape in the light of
Emperumaanaar's teachings.

Fifthly, some of the Acharyas after Ramanuja did
excellent service to Srivaishnavam by their
expositions of Tamil 4000 Divya prabhandham of
AzhwArs, but could not establish their position in an
unshakable foundation.

It only Swamy Vedantha Desikan who not only
established SrI Ramanuja sampradayam on firm footing
with his various works; also He repulsed the attacks
on the importance of Naalaayira Divya prabandham and
placed them on par with Vedas, as the fountain source
for the Vedantha system.

SrI Vedantha Desika is the author of 120 works. His
style is inimitable for its depth of ideas, sweetness,
simplicity and ease; it is majestic, 
sometimes tough. He was a great admirer of Adhikavi
Vaalmeeki and Kalidasa. His poetic work Hamsa
sandhEsam, though similar to Kalidasa?s mEgasandhEsam,
is original in many respects. (we will see them in
detail later). Daya sathakam is a unique composition
wherein he personifies grace (Divine grace- daya),
without which Lord?s other qualities are of little
value and help to suffering mankind- Swamy says.
AbhIthi sthavam is an invocation for the Lord?s
protection from evil forces from both within and
without. His GodhA sthuthi is a piece of place of
great lyric beauty and merit and talks of Sri GodhA?s
influence with the Lord through love and Desikan?s
surrender to Her compassion.

SthOthra granthas:
===============
Hayagriva stOtram
dasaavataara stOtram
Bhagavath dhyaana sOpAnam
dayA sathakam
abheethi sthavam
vairAgya panchakam
Devanaayaka panchAsath
Gopala vimsathy
SrI Sthuthi
BhU sththi
GodhA sthuthi
nyAsa dhasakam
nyAsa vimsathy
nyAsa thilakam
saraNAgathi DIpikA
Achutha sayayam (achutha sathakam)
varadarAja panchAsath
ashtabhujaashtakam
kAmAsikaashtakam
vEgAsEthu sthOthram
paramartha sththi
dhEhaleesa sththi
Raguveera Gadyuam (mahA veera vaibhavam)
sudarsanaashtakam 
shodasAyudha stOtram
Garuda dhaNdakam
Garuda panchAsath
yatirAja sapthati

Tamil Prabandams
================
amrutha ranjani
adhikAra sangraham
amrutha swAdhini
paramapada sOpAnam
paramatha bhangam
mei viradha mAnmiyam
adaikkalappatthu
artha panchakam
SrI vaishNava dinasari
Thirucchinna maalai
panniru nAmam
thiru manthiracchurukku
dwayachurukku
charama sloka cchurukku
Gitaartha sangraham
mummaNikkOvai
nava maNi mAlai
pandhu (lost)
kazhal (lost)
ammAnai (lost)
oosal (lost)
Esal (lost)
Prabandha sAram
AhAra niyamam.

VedAnta granthas
================
mImAmsA pAdukA
sEsvara mImAmsa
satha dhUshaNi
adhikaraNa sArAvaLi
tatva tIkA
nyAya parisuddhi
nyAya siddhAnjanam
tatvamuktha kalApam
nikshepa rakshA
sachcharitra rakshA
srI pAncharAthra rakshA
vAditraya kandanam
dramidOpanishad tAtparya rathnAvaLi
dramidOpanishad sAram

BhAshya granthas (Commentaries)
==========================
chatus slokI Bhashyam
SthOthra rathna Bhashyam
Rahasya rakshA
GitArtha sangraha rakshA
tAtparya chandrikA
IsAvAsyOpanishad BhAshyam
sarvArtha siddhi
adhikAraNa dharpaNam (lost)

KAvya grantas:
==============
hamsa sandesam
subhAshita nIvi
yAdhavAbyudayam
pAdukA sahasram (1008 verses)

Rahasya granthas:
================
sampradAya parisuddhi
tatva-padhavi
rahasya padhavi
tatva navanItham
rahasya navanItham
tatva mAtruka
rahasya mAtruka
tatva sandEsam
rahasya sandEsam
rahasya sandEsa vivaraNam
tatva rathnAvaLi
tatva rathnAvali pratipAdya sangraham
rahasya rathnAvaLi
rahasya rathnAvaLi hrudayam
tatva traya suLakam
rahasya traya suLakam
abhaya pradAna sAram
rahasya sikAmaNi
anjali vaibhavam
pradhAna satakam
upakAra sangraham
sAra sangraham
munivAhana bhogam
madurakavi hrudayam (lost)
paramapada sOpAnam
paramatha bhangam
hasthigiri mAhAthmyam
SrImath Rahasya Traya Saram (MAGNUM OPUS)
SarA sAram
VirOdha parihAram
NigamaparimaLam (lost)
Tirumudiadaivu (lost)

nAtaka grantam (Drama)
==============
Sankalpa SooryOdhayam

anushtAna grantams
=================
Bhagavath-AarAdhana vidhi

Even to read the above list will take so much time.
Swamy alone can compose so many works in one lifetime.
When we see /enjoy later these works individually
later, we will realize that what sweetness, depths,
literary values, rhythms, grammars, variety of
meanings they contain! How true are those words and
fully in accordance with Sri Ramanuja?s works and
Vedas and saasthrAs! We will have to read to believe
it!

Thoopul PiLLai ThiruvaDigaLE SaraNam
Regards
Acharya paadhaangri rENu:
narayanadAsan madhavakkannan



       
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