Azhagiya Singhar - MadurAntakam Swamigal

[Guest guest]

Dear Bhaghavata UttamAs:

 

Recently, I was listening to the audio recording of a upanyAsam entitled

"Desikarum avar Sooktigalum" by Prakrutam Srimad Azhagiya Singhar. There is

no parallel to that upanyAsam. One can hear the same thing again and again

and yet feel unsatiated. The words spoken, backed-up as it were by Swami's

age, wisdom, anushtAnam, his glorious position as one of the leading

achAryAs of Hinduism

carry enormous import. They pierce the inner core of one's very being.

 

In that upanyAsam, among other things, Swami speaks of the quintessence of

our Sri Vaishnava sampradAyam viz. Bhaghavata and AchArya sEshatvam. While

explaining the essence of purushArthakAshtAdhikAram of RTS, Swami quotes a

slOka from pAdukA sahasram [ajanita chiramAdO hanta dEhEndriyAni?..]. I

would request

Shri Murali Rangaswamy to complete this slOka. The main purport of the

slOka as explained by Swami is:

We have spent many lives thinking that the body and atmA are one. Then

comes a stage where we are able to know that these two entities are

different, the former perishable and the later eternal. Making a little

more progress, we then commit the folly of identifying this atmA with

Isvara. Making more progress, through Vedanta kalakshepams, we understand

that the atmA is an eternal servant

of Sriya: pati. Even then, we are still short of the ultimate goal. Only

by realizing Bhaghavata/AchArya dAsatvam can we hope to reach our supreme

goal. Swami Desika says: Hey pAdukE (satakopa muni) only after I sang your

glories my janmA became fruitful (sAphalyam).

 

AchArya kaimkaryam is the supreme touchstone, the means and the goal for a

Sri Vaishnava. MadurAntakam Veera RaghavachArya Swamigal was a lion among

Sri Vaishnava achAryAs. His forthcoming centenary celebration reminds us of

the enormous gratitude that we owe him for his yeoman contributions to our

sampradAyam. As members of this net we have always been in the forefront in

rising up to such occasions. We cannot take a back seat now at this

glorious moment.

 

I appeal to all of you again to come forward and donate liberally to the

centenary celebrations. You can make your checks payable to SMSA and send

the checks either to me or Shri Sadagopan or Muralidhar Rangaswamy or Mani

Varadarajan or Shri Madhavakkannan.

 

Some of you have been kind enough to send in your contributions. I will

soon acknowledge in the Bhakti list. As a special gesture the organisers

are providing audio-cassettes of the upanyAsams recorded under the

popularization of Vedanta Desika's project for those who contribute at the

$100 or $150 level. This includes the 'Yatiraja saptati' by Pondarikapuram

swamigal.

 

S. Vijayaraghavan

Buffalo, NY

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