daya and its synonyms

[Guest guest]

SrimathE Sri LakshmiNrsumha ParabrahmanE Namaha

Sri Vedanta Desika GuravE namaha

 

 

Many weeks ago I had posed a query on my posting on Swami Desikan's Daya

Satakam.It was with regard to the use of the word "daya" and its synonyms

"karuna", "krupakshamA" etc. I had also quizzed "bhAgavatOttama-s"(if

they recollect) on which verses in the "satakam" do not contain "daya" or

its synonyms.

 

I was very happy to hear from Sriman Vijay Srinivasan on this subject. He

pointed out to me that I had failed to consider one other lovely synonym

"anukampa" and hence even the very first verse could qualify as an answer to

my question. How true ! The quiz master was caught on the wrong foot, as it

happens often !

 

Now if one takes "anukampa" too into account then the distribution of

synonyms employed by Swami Desikan in the Daya Satakam falls into the

following table:

 

Daya --- 57 verses

Karuna -- 27 "

Krupa -- 11 "

Anukampa-- 11 "

 

Total 106 verses

 

"kshama" seems to me more as having the flavour of "forgivance" than pure

unalloyed "mercy" which the other synonyms connote.So I am leaving it out.

 

Two verses, No.8 and No.46, do not seem to contain any synonym.

 

Can someone in this group please confirm ? If true, then the arithmetic of

Sriman Vijay Srinivasan(who felt that there are 3 verses in the Satakam

which do not contain the synonyms)is more fallible then mine and in that

case the quiz-master has had his vengeance !

 

Jokes apart, can someone in this group help me with some Sanskrit (mine is

very very wobbly)? The word "anukampa", as I read it in a translation, could

be taken to mean an emotion of overwhelming compassion that causes one to

literally "shiver". "kampa" means, they say, "trembling/shivering/convulsing

in a state of acute distress" and the prefix "anu" denotes such a state of

feeling brought about by melting compassion. Swami Desikan, the literary

collossus he is said to have been in Sanskrit, employs such superlative

adjectives to describe the mercy of the Lord.

 

It appears to me then that "anukampa" simply outshadows the other synonyms

on the basis of the degree of superlativeness invoked.

 

Such extreme distress caused by compassion seems to have been exhibited by

the Lord, in my opinion, only in the events related to Gajendra and Prahlada

where the most dramatic appearances of Sriman Narayana in Hindu faith were

made, in my opinion.The Lord LakshmiNrusumhan was driven to paroxysms of

divine rage and yet,can you imagine? how ironic it was caused by an emotion

that was the very antithesis of "rage" i.e. compassion to the "n-th" degree

that Prahalada could command !

 

On a ten point scale thus I would give "anukampa" a score of perfect 10.

 

The other synonyms in my opinion like daya,karuna or krupa or even kshama

seem wooden in comparison to anukampa. These would befit the emotions,

perhaps, the Lord felt when granting asylum to Vibheeshana or forgiving

Kakasuran or blessing Ahalya or protecting the Pandavas or bestowing favours

on His "buddy" (you Americans have nice expressions, indeed!) Sri Kuchela.

Anyone disagrees?

 

This week's quiz now for "bhagavatOttamas" is :

 

On 10-point scale how would "bhAgavatOttamas" rate the other synonyms and why ?

 

Give sound reasons based on "vedic" scriptures, "puranas or itihasas" only

and not on a deep reading of the Oxford or Websters dictionaries.

 

 

SrimathE Srivan Sri Narayana Yathindra mahadesikaya namaha

 

 

Sudarshan

[Guest guest]

Concerning anukampa:

 

It certainly does have a colorful and evocative surface

meaning. But to see how Desikan actually intended the

word to be meant, we need to see how anukampa is used

in religious and secular Sanskrit literature before him.

Does one of the Sanskrit literateurs among us have any

ideas?

 

It seems that the most literal translation of anukampa

would be sympathy.

 

Mani