Para Matha Bhangam

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Dear BhakthAs :

 

The hilarious typo relating to "Para Matha Bhangam "

generated a query about what is " Para Matha Bhangam ".

The word "Madham " should also be replaced by "Matham ".

madham means intoxicated , where as Matham means

creed or religious belief.

 

Here are some background Notes on "Para Matha Nhagam ":

 

*** Para Matha Bhangam (PMB) is a rahasya grantham

composed by Swamy Desikan on the fifth day of Thai moonth,

when he accompanied Uthsavar of Lord DevanAthan to

an Uthsavam in a village on the banks of PeNNai river.

Many Tamil Scholars belonging to the Jain faith

were in this and other neighboring villages ;they they were

jealous of the scholarship of Swamy Desikan .These

jealous souls joined together with members of other mathams ,

(Para Mathams) which were intolerant of VisishtAdvaitham

and invited Swamy Desikan to debate with them about

the supermacy of VisisshtAdvaitham over their own faiths.

 

Swamy Desikan debated the scholars of other faiths

and defeated them resoundingly by pointing out

the indisputable dhOshams (defects , fallacies )

in the other mathams and their philososophical

assumptions. This debate took place in front of

Lord DhaivanAyakan. The rahasya grantham of

Para Matha Bhangam is the summary of that debate in

MaNipravALam .There are 54 Paasurams in this grantham.

 

At the outset, Swamy Desikan salutes Sudarshana Bhagavaan

to bless Him with His anugraham to engage in this

debate and succeed . At the end , Swamy Desikan

thanks Sudarashana BhagavAn as the embodiment of

the JyOthi of Sri RanganAtha and recognizes the 16 hands of

Sudarshanan as providing Abhaya PradhAnam to BhakthAs

seeking His refuge.

 

In the body of the Para Matha Bhangam , Swamy Desikan

criticizes the defects of the four kinds of Buddhism ,

Advaitham , Jainism , BhAskara-Yaadhava Matham ,

VyAkarana matham , KaNAtha Matham, Gouthama Matham ,

MeemAmsaka Matham , Saankya matham , Yoga matham

and Paasupatha Matham . He upholds the glories of

PaancharAthra Saasthram and SaraNAgathi Dhramam and

its svarUpam as well as Phalan. He sums up his

arguments with the statement that the ancient way

shown by our poorvAchAryAs is the best way .

 

The ever so modest Swami Desikan explains in the tenth

Paasuram as to why he as an AchAryan has the duty to

criticize the deficiencies of other mathams as follows:

 

Our PoorvAchAryAs have the clearest understanding of

the SvarUpam and the SvabhAvams of the Lord , who wears

the fragrant ThuLasi garland (Sriman NaarAyaNan ).They

are not inclined to accuse any one of even the smallest

offense. Inspite of their well known humility ,they

had an obligation to critique Veda baahya Mathams

( the mathams that do not accept Vedic doctrines)

and those which wrongly intrepret the very same

Vedic doctrines . The reason for their criticism

was to save the ones , who may not be familiar with

our siddhAntham (SaadhAraNa adhikArigaL) , from

falling into the nets of the other mathams with

dhOshams.It is verily their mercy towards those

SaadhAraNa adhikArigaLs ,who may be easily deluded

due to their own insufficient knowledge of

about our siddhAntham vis a vis with the Para Mathams .

 

In this Sri Sookthi , Swamy Desikan identifies

the sukham (comfort)and soukaryam (ease) of performing

Prapathti at the feet of Sriman NaarAyaNan with

the help of a SadAchAryan .

 

Swamy Desikan's defence of VisishtAdvaithA doctrines

vis a vis with other diverse systems of philosophy

has been elaborated further by him in his monumental work,

TattvamukthakalApA and it commentary , SarvAtha Siddhi.

These are later elaborations of the debate that he

won on the banks of PeNNai River on the fifth day of

Thai Maasam in front of Lord DhiavanAyakan.

 

Swamy Desikan ThiruvadigaLE saraNam ,

Daasan, Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SadagOpan