You are here: SriPedia - ebooks - Vedanta Desikan - Experiencing Swami Desikan

Index - Articles: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108

Experiencing Swamy Desika -- #63


SrI:
Shrimate Shri Lakshmi Nrusimha Parabrahmane Namaha:
Shrimate Shri Seetha Ramachandra Parabrahmane Namaha:
Shrimate Shri Ramanujaya Namaha:
Shrimate Nigamantha Maha Desikaya Namaha:
Shrimate Shrivan Satagopa Shri Narayana Yateendra Mahadesikaya Namaha:

"SrimAn VenaktanAthArya: kavithArkika kEsarI!
VedAnthAchArya varyO mE sannidhatthAM sadhA hrudhi"!!

In Adiyal's yesterdays posting [#62], we saw Swami's
anubhavam as a nAyaki who enjoyed the Lord -
Paadaadhi kEsam.

Swami Desika has sung about many deities. Of these
Lord Devanatha is the only deity who has been praised
in three Languages!

When we read the sundara thamiz paasurams of Swami on
Lord Devanatha, we realise that Swami has transformed
into / assumed the role of nAyaki - as a lady in love
with the Lord.  Swami expresses complete love in the
thoughts, words and action and these are full of
emotions. Swami uses the role of a mother, friend and
a maiden - to explain the emotions and feel of
separation from the Lord Devanatha. There are seven
Tamil paasurams composed to portray various emotions.

In the navamaNimaalai, Swami Desika describes the divine
nature of the feet of Lord Devanatha and his incarnation,
his auspicious qualities and supreme prayer.
The festival of sea-bath is referred here. It is a popular
festival in which Lord Devanatha is taken to the sea on
the Magha asterism day in the Tamil month of mAsi for sea bath.

The concluding verse of navamaNimaalai, has a special
significance since it gives us the names of all the
works on Devanatha by Swami Desika in the serial order.
In this, we yet again, see the talent of our Swami to
crisply summarise a lot of information.

"anthamil seerayinthai nagaramarntha naatha
 nadiyiNaimEl adiyuraiyaalaimpathEththich
sinthaikavar piraakirutha nooRu kooRich
 sezhunthamizh mummaNikkOvai seRiyach sErththum
panthu kazhalammaanai yoosalEsal
 paravu navamaNi maalaiyivaiyunchonnEn
munthaimaRai mozhiya vazhimozhi neeyenRu
 mukunthanaruL thantha payan peRREn naanE."

-- navamaNimaalai

"Lord Devanatha, possessed of countless auspicious qualities
has chosen tiru-ahindrapura (ayindai) as his pleasing abode
and remains there. As an offering at his lotus feet I
composed the hymn Devanayaka panchasat consisting of fifty
verses in the ancient classical language (i.e Sanskrit) I
sang a hundred songs in the heart captivating prakrit
language (under the name of Acyuta sataka) I placed at
his feet in a fitting manner the poem mummani-k-kovai in the
sweet tamil language. I also sang the poetical composition Pandu
kazal, AMmanai, usal, esal and the navamaNimaalai praised by all.
Thus have I realised the front of the mercy bestowed on me
by Lord Mukunda, who in a tone of command said - "go on,
compose works in the wake of the language of the ancient
holy Vedas." ( translation by Shri A. Srinivasaraghavan)

Swami has composed all the above mentioned work on
Lord Devanatha - Swami's lover! Swami not only enjoys the
Lord from the Lover's perspective, but takes love into being
a Divine Love, i.e., kAmA into BhagavatkAmA as desired and
shown by our Alvars.

"Kavi Taarkika Simhaaya Kalyaana guna SaalinE!
SrimatE VenkateshAya VedAnta Gurave nama !!"

...To be continued!

dEsikan tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

Praveena nAmni Ramanuja dasi