Simple living, high thinking - Tirukudanthai Desikan

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Sri:

Srimathe Gopaladesika Mahadesikaya nama:

Dear Bhagavathas:

 

Dasoham.

AdiyEn attached the following article from The Hindu. Sri Ramanuja mission of

USA Inc and Sishyas of Poundarikapuram Ashramam will be celebrating Sri. Vedanta

Desikar and Tirukudanthai Desikan Tirunakshatrams in Boston on Oct 8, 2000.

 

dasan

 

govindarajan

--------------

 

 

Artice from The Hindu dt. Sept 29, 2000

(URL:http://www.the-hindu.com/2000/09/29/stories/13291364.htm)

 

A GREAT luminary in the spiritual firmament of South India was born in 1700

A.D. in a hamlet called Royampettai, in Thanjavur district, on the northern bank

of the Cauvery, near Thiruvaiyaru. He was born in the year Vikrama

(corresponding to 1700 A.D.), in the month of Purattasi, under the star

Pooradam, to Krishnadesika. The child was named Gopaladesika.

 

The boy learnt, from his father, the Vedas, Divyaprabandha, Sanskrit and Tamil

grammar, rhetoric and Sastras. Even when he was in his teens, he was sent to

Srirangam to learn the ``Grantha-Chatushtayam' (Rahasyatraya-saram, Sri

Bhashyam, Gita- Bhashyam and Bhagavad-Vishayam) from the great Vedanta acharya,

Ramanuja Muni.

 

Young Gopaladesika was advised to settle down in Kumbakonam after he completed

his course. He first undertook an extensive pilgrimage to the holy shrines in

South India and then settled down in a hermitage in the Aravamuthan temple

premises, at Kumbakonam.

 

Gopaladesika lived a simple life, sustained by daily alms. Though such a way of

life is not necessary for the householder, one like Vedantadesika or

Gopaladesika, who had no need for money or savings or material acquisitions,

would naturally, and instinctively, adopt this mode of life.

 

Three ascetics were attending on him, with implicit reverence, doing his

personal chores - a very unusual phenomenon. They had been drawn from and near:

one was from Watrap, who was devoted to solitude and meditation; the second was

from Seyyanam (in Tirunelveli district), a prototype of Yamunamuni (or

Alavandar), who had a few disciples only; the third was from Vazhuthoor near

Ayyampettai.

 

He was indeed a second Vedanta Ramanuja Muni, whose service helped the school

reach a

pre-eminent status. The particular ascetic, referred to as Vazhuthoor Swami,

Vazhuthoor Andavan, and Srirangam Swami, was the real torch-bearer of

Gopaladesika's mission from about 1750 A.D.

 

The reverence Gopaladesika commanded from the society then, is reflected in his

being addressed as ``Thirukkudanthai Desikan''. He is acknowledged as the

patriarch of the school (or sampradaya, as it is generally termed), referred to

as Munitraya, since it is suppose to have been carried forward by his three

ascetic disciples. The tradition is essentially the same as that of

Vedantadesika; it marks no departure from the path; nor it is a branch since it

was only continuing in the same direction. If it is referred to as

the Munitraya tradition or Thirukkudanthai Desikan tradition, it is only for

convenience and for conveying the regard that he was held in by a large mass of

the religious community.

 

In the context of Indian spiritualism, we find two kinds of leaders; one might

be a great author but no great orator; another may be good at discourses or

instructions but may not have a flair for writing works for posterity.

Gopaladesika combined both faculties in happy harmony. He was a `watershed

acharya' in the genealogy of Vaishnavite preceptors. He inherited

Vedantadesika's spiritual legacy totally and from him different streams can be

recognised today. Among these, two are well organised: they are the Srirangam

Periasramam Andavan tradition and the Poundarikapuram Andavan tradition.

 

There are a number of others, such as the Kethandapatti tradition, the

Annayaryamahadesikan tradition composed of many Tatacharyas (descendants of

Nathamuni) and Acharya-Purushas, the Denkanikottai stream and so on. One could

make an estimate that some 40 per cent of the Desikasampradaya adherents today

would acknowledge Thirukkudanthai Desikan as their patriarch.

 

As an author, his reputation stands simply unassilable: an original work on

``Prapatti''

(``Nikshepatchintamani''), a commentary on Rahasyatrayasara of Vedantadesika,

commentaries on two works from Divyaprabandham, a commentary on Tattvatika of

Vedantadesika, a terse

Sahasranama-stotra on Vedantadesika; an Anhika work which is a valuable guide on

rituals of daily routine for pious men to followl and a unique work called

``Sri- Jayantyadi-Nirnaya'', where he codifies the criteria for fixing the dates

of such holy fests as Sri Krishna Jayanthi.

 

His devotion for the local deity, Aravamuthan, can be gleaned from two short

hymns he has composed.It was he who built the present shrine, with the tower,

for Vedantadesika, almost opposite to his hermitage, within the temple premises.

 

He was a model of true humility. He used an unostentatious colophon in his

works, that read somewhat like this: ``written by Gopaladasa, son of

Krishnasoori and receiver of Vedanta knowledge from Sakshat Swami''. It is said

that his grand-uncle Venkatadhwari was so much impressed by his stature, that he

sought to become Gopaladesika's disciple. But Gopaladesika would not allow it!

He commended the grand old man to his own Acharya, Sakshat Swami.

 

However, he appears to have suffered the misfortune of begetting a misfit son,

for whom he could only plead with God. The son died young. Gopaladesika had a

scholarly nephew, Venkatacharya and a grandson, Vedantacharya (of Elayavalli

line), who became his `sons' by adoption. They did much to perpetuate his

glorious memory.

 

At 82, he took sanyasa and died within a couple of days, in the Tamil Plava year

(corresponding to 1782 A.D.), in Karthigai month on a Krishna Shashti. Just

before he passed away, his loving admirers made an idol of his in iron, which he

approved and blessed with his touch.

 

This idol is now worshipped in the Vedantadesika shrine (in East Uttara Street,

Srirangam) which is under the management of the Poundarikapuram Swami Asramam.

 

A three-day tercentenary function is to be held at this shrine from October 5,

under the guidance of the present pontiff of this asramam, Sri Paravakkottai

Andavan.

 

A commemorative volume is to be released on the occasion.

 

V. N. VEDANTA DESIKAN

 

 

- SrImate rAmAnujAya namaha -

Let noble thoughts come to us from every side-Rg veda

 

namAmi nArAyana pAdha pankajam

karOmi nArAyana pujanam sadhA |

 

vadhAmi nArAyana nAma nirmalam

smarAmi nArAyana thathvam avyayam ||

 

Seyya Thamizh mAlaigaL nAm TheLiya Odhi

TheLiyAtha MaRai nilangaL TheLikindROmE.

 

En amudhanai kanda kangaL maRRonRinai kAnAvE.

 

NAMO NARAYANAYA

SARVAM SRI KRUSHNARPANAMASTU

 

 

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