A tribute to Swamy Desikan on this Vikrama PurattAsi SravaNam day : ChillaRai RahasyangaLs Of Swamy Desikan : Part I

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Purattasi SravaNam , Vikrama Vijaya Dasami Day

 

Sri SrinivAsa ParabrahmaNE Nama:

 

Sri HayagrIva ParabrahmaNE Nama:

 

SrimathE RaamAnujAya Nama:

 

Taniyans for Swamy Desikan

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RaamAnjua DayA Paathram Jn~Ana VairAgya BhUshaNam

Srimath VenkatanAthAryam VandhE VedAntha Desikam

 

--Sri Brahma Tantra Svatantra Swamy's salutation

 

SrimAn VenkatanAthAryAya Nama:

Srimath kavi-thArkika Simha SwaminE nama:

Sri VedAnthAchArya Varya Prabhave Nama:

 

--From Sri KumAra NayinArAcchAr Swamy's Vandhanams

 

seeronRu ThUppuRRiruvenkatamudayAn

paaronRaic chonna pazhamozhiyuL--OronRu

taanE yamaiyOthO thaaraNiyil VazhvArkku

vaanERp pOmalavum Vaazhvu

 

--Sri PiLLai LokAcchAr's Tribute to Swamy Desikan

 

Dear BhakthAs :

 

Introductory remarks

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On this sacred Vijaya dasami day , adiyEn is

starting on a major effort to compile a series

of articles on Swamy Desikan's ChillaRai

Rahasyams , which are 28 MaNipravALa granthams

dealing with the essential Tatthvams and Rahasyams

of Sri VaishNava sampradhAyam .AdiyEn seeks

the bleesings of of my AchAryan , HH Sri NaarAyaNa

YathIndhra MahA Desikan , 45th SimhAsanAdhipathi

Of AhObila Matam and great scholars

of Bhagavath RaamAnuja SiddhAntham in the spirit of

"MahAnthO anugrahNanthu " at the time of

commencement of this effort.

 

Swamy Desikan's Life and His Kula Dhanams

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Sri VedAntha Desika (1268-1369 C.E) is one of

the greatest Sri VaishNavite AchAryAs . He was

born in the hamlet of ThUppul near Kanchipuram .

His parents were Anantha Soori and TothAryAmbhA .

His Achaaryan was his maternal uncle , KadAmpi

AppuLLAr or AathrEya RaamAnujA(1210-1310 C.E).

 

Swamy Desikan : The GhantAvathAran

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His name given at birth was VenkatanAthan ,

since he was born on the PurattAsi SravaNam day ,

the avathAra dinam of Lord SrinivAsA of

Thirumalai. Our VenkatanAthan is recognized

as the avathAram of the Thiru MaNi or GhantA of

ThiruvEnkatamudayAn. Even today , the small hand bell

( Thiru MaNi ) is not used in Thiruppathi in

PerumAL's kaimkaryam .

 

Swamy Desikan's Tutelage

*************************

VenakatanAthan learnt all the SaasthrAs ,

dhivya Prabhandham , Vedams , rahasyams before

the age of Twenty from his achAryan, Kadampi

AppuLLAr . The great NadaadUr ammAL (1165-1275 C.E)

was the AchAryan of Kadampi AppuLLAr and was

103 years old at the time of birth of VenkatanAthan.

He (NadadUr ammAL) met VenkatanAthan as a five year old

child at Lord VaradarAjan's sannidhi during

his KaalkshEpam and recognized immediately

the divine lustre on the face of VenkatanAthan ;

He (NadAdUr ammAL )predicted that the child will become

one of the greatest Sri VaishNavite AchAryAs and will

spread the glorious Bhagavath RaamAnuja SiddhAntham

every where with immense distinction .

He asked his own disciple AppuLLAr to

serve as the AchAryan for VenkatanAthan ,

since he (ammAL) was too old (108 years )

at that time to serve as a direct AchAryan

to Venkatanathan .

 

Sri HayagrIva SaakshAthkAram at Oushada Giri

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ApuLLAr had thus the bhAgyam to be VenkatanAthan's

AchAryan and prepared VenkatanAthan to ascend

the throne of a great Sri VaishNavite AchAryan .

AppuLLAr initiated VenakatanAthan with Garuda

manthram , their family treasure .Garuda BhagavAn

in turn initiated venkatanAthan into Sri HayagrIva

Manthram at Thiruvahindra Puram . Lord HayagrIVan

appeared before VenkatanAthan and blessed him

to start his life's journey as one of the greatest

Sri VaishNavite AchAryan . Lord HyaagrIvan

also agreed to VenkatanAthan's prayer to sit

on his tongue in all debates with para matha

Vaadhins to establish the unrivalled supermacy

of Sri VaishNavam as the darsanam in total

conformity with Sruthis and Brahma Soothrams .

 

Swamy Desikan's life as an AchAryan

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Swamy Desikan led a simple life of Unchivrutthi and

was totally devoted to Bhagavath-BhAgavatha-AchArya

Kaimkaryams all his life . He lived most of his life at

Kaanchi , ThiruvahIndhrapuram and Srirangam .

He is a genius par excellence and has blessed us

with 130 works in Sanskrit , Tamil , MaNipravALam

and PrAkrutham. Lord RanganAthA and His dhivya

Mahishi Sri RanganAyaki ThAyAr conferred on

Sri VenkatanAthan the titles of , " VedAnthAchAryan "

and Sarva Tantra Svatantran " respectively.

 

Swamy Desikan's Tamil and MaNipravALa granthams

************************************************

Swamy Desikan's magnum opus is Srimath

Rahasya Thraya Saaram , a ManipravALa Grantham

dealing with Tattva-Hitha-PurushArhtam as well as

the detailed meanings of the three rahasyams

(AshtAksharam , Dhvayam and Charama SlOkam ).

 

A clear understanding of the Tattva-Hitha-PurushArtham

concepts is fundamental to all Sri VaishNavAs .The three

rahasyams deal with them . Sri Abhinava Desika

UtthamUr Swamy has summed these concepts brilliantly

this way as stated by Sri Ananad KaraLapAkkam :

 

Tattvam : Sriman NaarAyaNan << as Dhivya Dampathi >>

Hitham : Sriman NaarAyaNan << as SaraNya Dhampathis>>

PurushArtham:Sriman NaarAyaNan << as Seshi Dampathis>>

 

Swamy Desikan's life is all about establishing

these primordial concepts as attested by the eternal

VedAs , Brahma Soothram and Dhivya prabhandhams .

 

Swamy Desikan created Srimath Rahasya Thraya Saaram (RTS)

very late in his life .He had already given kaalakshEpam

on Bhagavath RaamAnujA's Sri BhAshyam thirty times

to his disciples . RTS is thus the fruit of ripe

Jn~Anam of a great AchAryan ; he followed it (RTS)up

with a companion grantham known as VirOdha parihAram

to remove any lingering doubts and uncertainities

about Tatthva Thrayam and the three rahasyams

that one may come across during the study of RTS .

 

Desika Prabhandham and ChiLLaRai Rahasyams

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Swamy Desikan had prepared himself all his life

to bless us with RTS . As a part of his preparation

for this magnum opus (RTS), he blessed us further

with Tamil and MaNiPravALa Prabhandhams revered

as the Desika Prabhandhams and ChillaRai Rahasyams.

Jewels like "Saara Saaram , Abhaya PradhAna Saaram ,

PradhAna sathakam " and other Sri Sookthis arose

as chandrOdhayam from the Ocean of Swamy Desikan's

Jn~Anam. Desika prabhandham followed .The first Sri Sookthi

of Desika Prabhandham is Amrutha Ranjani , which is

a compilation of the paasurams from the 17 chillari

rahasyams .Srimath Rahasya Thraya Saaram was

the ultimate glorious present of our ParamAchAryan,

Swamy Desikan

 

Desika Prabhandhams are 19 in number and consists of

405 Paasurams set in different VeNN Paa , Aasiriyap Paa

and Kalip Paa Tamil metres. The subject matter of

these prabhandhams deal with the illustrious Praaptthi

Yogam for Moksham , the greatness of AzhwArs and AchAryAs ,

artha panchakam , Tatthvams , rahasyams , UpAyam ,

Phalan and SampradhAyam including aahaara niyamam .

 

Postings underway on Desika Prabhandham

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Sriman Hari of Singapore who has performed sampradhAyic

KaalkshEpam under the current AchAryAs has begun writing

in detail about the individual Desika Prabhandhams in

the Malolan net. These are in depth articles .Please contact

him , if You are not already receiving them (mshari).

 

AdiyEn is joining with the welcome effort of Sriman Hari

to summarize the high points of ChillaRai RahasyangaL

for the benefit of the overseas Sri VaishNavite

community .Ideally ,these Tamil prabhnadhams

as well as other traditonal granthms have to be

learnt thru direct kaalakshEpam route at the feet

of one's own AchAryan .

 

Complimentary Postings on ChillaRai RahasyangaLs

*************************************************

ChillaRai RahasyangaL are 28 in number and one of them

known as "Saara DhIpam " is no longer available to us.

The first part of Chillarai Rahasyams have 17 Sri Sookthams.

The second part has four chillaRai Rahasyams.The third

and final part has seven more Sri Sookthis including

MunivAhana BhOgam and concludes with Parama Padha

sOpAnam .

 

ChillaRai RahasyangaLs are not minor rahasyangal or

miscellaneous rahasyangaLsas the title may suggest .

They deal with Tattva -Hitha-PurushArthams and

the major three RahasyngaLs.They contain topics ,

which are not found in Swamy Desikan's Magnum opus ,

Srimath Rahasya Thraya Saaram .

 

The extraordinary Contributions of

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late U.Ve.SrirAma DesikAchAr Swamy

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Parama Padha Vaasi Sri Oppiliappan Koil

U.Ve. V.N.Srirama DesikAcchAr Swamy has

devoted his whole life to writing commentaries

on Swamy Desikan's SthOthra granthams ,

Srimath Rahasya Thraya Saaram , Desika

Prabhandhams and ChillaRai Rahasyangal

along with AzhwAr's aruLiccheyalkaLs .

With great lucidity and depth , SrirAma-

DesikAcchAr Swamy has blessed us with

rare editions of scholarly work that lights

our way in the darkness of this samsArAm .

 

Swamy Srirama DesikAcchAr has consulted

with other great scholars of his time

such as Parama Padha Vaasis like

ThirukkOshtiyUr Swamy , PudukkOttai

U.Ve. A.SrinivAsAcchAr Swamy , ChEtlUr

Swamy ,U.Ve. MadhurAnthakam E. VeeraraghavAcchAr

Swamy and others to verify the texts of

the Sri Kosams and vyAkhyAnams prior to

releasing Desika Prabhandham and the three

volumes of Chillarai Rahasyams.

 

adiyEn will lean heavily on the noble monographs of

Srirama DesikAchAryAr's for bringing the essence of

these ChillaRai Rahasyams for the benefit of

first Introductions , which we hope will

lead to direct participations in kaalakshepams

at a later date. Any and all errors in adiyEn's

postings are mine and adiyEn seeks the blessings

of asmath AchAryan , Prakrutham Srimath Azhagiya

Singar to commence this Kaimkaryam .

 

Subhamasthu,

Swamy Desikan ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam

Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SatakOpan