Swamy Desikan-1 (Thoopul maNdapam kaimkaryam appeal)

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SrI:

SrImathe Ramanujaya namah:

SrImathe Nigamantha mahadesikaya namah:

SrImAn venkatanAthAryaH kavitArkika kesarI |

vedAntAcArya-varyo me sannidhattAm sadA hRdi ||

 

May the glorious Venkatanatha, the greatest of teachers of Vedanta, and the

lion among poets and debaters, reside forever in my heart.

 

Dearest Srivaishnavas,

 

Recently there was an appeal (sent by Sri VK Sudharshan) forwarded by Sri

Diwakar Kannan on Thoopul MaNdapam kaimkaryam by Smt Shantha Kalyanarangan

of Thoopul trust. Sri Lakshmi N. Srinivasa also has created a web site for

this trust and also for this special kaimkaryam for Thoopul Pillai.

 

URL: http://www.geocities.com/lsriniva/thoopulappeal.html

It is my humble request to please contribute your mite towards this

kaimkaryam, as remembering Acharyan, and talking alone will not suffice.

 

AsmadhAcharyan Srimad PaRavaakkOttai Andavan Swamy also has Blessed this

kaimkaryam with His SrImukham, wherein He mentions that Sri

Brahmathanthraswathanthrar, the direct disciple of Swamy Deskan used to

prostrate even the residence of Swamy Desikan, as Swamy himself. That is in

a dilapidated condition and Smt Santha is taking all efforts to refurbish.

 

It is our duty to talk in praise of and contemplate on the glories and

greatness of our Acharya. More so, if He is Acharya saarva bhouman

Kavithaarkika simham, Sarvathanthra swathanthran, Vedanta Acharyan Swamy

Desikan.

 

AdiyEn will post on the glories and greatness of Swamy Desikan’s works and

continue to appeal as usual every Friday for maNdapam until perhaps

Purattassi SravaNam (Swamy Desikan’s hirunakshathram). AdiyEn will write

briefly about Swamy Desikan’s each work (based on the book written by Prof.

A. Sri Srinivasaraghavachariar). I will not write about sthOthrams (28 in

number) as Bhagawathas of the list are already aware of them. It is adiyEn’s

desire to mainly introduce to this groups of srivaishnavas, (especially

youth and ignoramuses like myself), about our great Acharya and his works

briefly so that this creates an interest in the present day srivaishnavas in

AchArya saarvabouman’s works for taking up further to learn at the feet of

their respective Acharyas’ and other vdiwAns and scholars as available at

their places of residence.

 

Acharyan is the dispeller of all sins. He removes the darkness from our

minds and removes ignorance. He gives us new birth (vidya janmam); He is the

Father and the manthram (which He initiates us with) is the Mother. This

birth places us on the path which meads us to an end to all future births

and deaths. He endows us with divine vision. He has infinite amount of

compassion towards us. He always is interested in our welfare. On account of

all of these, He is always to be worshipped as the Lord Himself. One should

never harbour any feeling that he is doing a good return for what Acharya

has done by paying few dollars. It is only as a token of our gratitude.

 

First let us look briefly at the life of Swamy Desikan.

 

Born to Sri Anantasuri and Smt Totarambha at Thoopul, a locality of Kanchi,

he is believed to have been the very incarnation of Lord Srinivasa’s

GaNTAmani (temple Bell). He derived the name GaNTAvatharam in the taniyan

because of this. His intellectual brilliance was discernable even from his

childhood. Once as a child of five years, he was taken to the august

religious assembly- Kaalakshepa Goshti- of Sri Nadadur AmmAL by his maternal

uncle Sri Appullar, who was mainly responsible for his education in the

religious line. Sri Ammal and his disciples were so captivated by the divine

appearance of the little boy Desikan, they were diverted for sometime and

forgot what they were discussing to trace. It was the little Boy Desikan who

came to their rescue by pointing out the place of the discourse from where

their attention was diverted. They were all simply stupefied on seeing the

extraordinary intellect and brilliance of Swamy at that age and Sri Ammal

who was overwhelmed with joy, and admiration blessed him for a great future

where he would succeed in establishing the philosophy of Ramanuja and the

previous Acharyas in an unassailable position and in an unambiguous manner.

 

Another intellectual feat of Sri Vedantha Desika was his ability to revise

Sri Bashyam twenty times before he was twenty years of age.

 

His life was one of perfect austerity, vairagyam, and deep devotion

particularly to Archamoorthys enshrined in Divya Desams similar to

Thirumangai mannan. He had a special and abiding devotion to the Lord

Varadan of Kanchi. Just like Sri Ramanuja, his ArAdhya Devatha, the deity of

his daily worship was Sri PeraruLALan. He led a very simple life. He earned

his livelihood by taking alms from the devotees. The rice he gathered like

that was used for his food after offering to the Lord. One day his wife

found some gold coins in the rice he got from the philanthropic public.

Evidently, some well intentioned person wanted to help Swamy Desikan without

his knowledge. As soon as this was found out, Swamy Desikan threw the entire

collection of the day away on the street. This is an example of his

steadfast vairagya. Another instance of his strong determination

/renunciation can be seen when Vidyaranyar, a royal vidwan at the court of

early Vijayanagar, once his class mate, hearing about Swamy desikan

languishing in penury and knowing his extraordinary skills and intellectual

talents sent a message to him inviting him and asking to come to the court

of Vijayanagar king where he would be fittingly honoured with riches. Swamy

Desikan refused to go, saying that he is not after wealth, adding that he

was already provided with the Greatest wealth bequeathed to him by his

grandfather (four faced Brahma), meaning the Lord Varadan (atthigiri

Varadan). This is conveyed to his friend in the form of five slokas called

“Vairagya Panchakam:.

 

He spent a good part of his time at Tiruvaheendrapuram. Lord Hayagrivan, the

Lord of knowledge and learning blessed him here. He composed “Hayagriva

sthOthram: here in praise of Lord Hayagrivan. He also composed Achutha

sathakam, in prakrit, Devanayaka panchasath, in Sanskrit, mummaNikkOvai,

Navarathnamaalai in Tamil on Lord Devanathan of this Divya Desam. “nin

vadivazhagu maRvaathaar piRavaadhaarE..” –says Swamy. He is said to have dug

a well, chiseled an idol of his and cone several wonders and miracles

justifying thereby his title “sarvathanthraswathanthrar”, during his stay

here. After sometime, he retunred to Kanchi and then later he proceeded to

Srirangam (when invited by Sri Pillailokchariar from Srirangam for debating

against Advaitins who had objected to recitation of Tamil hymns(4000) at

Srirangam temple). The titles of “Vedantacharya”, Kavitaarkika simham”, were

conferred on him by Lord Ranganathan and Periya Piraatti respectively at

Srirangam where there was occasion for him to refute theories and arguments

of Advaitins successfully and victoriously establishing the Parama vaidika

Visishtadvaita Srivaishnava sampradayam.

 

Padhuka sahasram is yet another masterpiece of work containing one thousand

eight slokas eulogizing the Padhukas (sandals) of Lord Ranganathan of

Srirangam. He completed the whole 1008 slokas in one yaamam (about 3 hours),

latter part of night. It is said that this piece of extraordinary work was

composed by him (when challenged).

>From Srirangam, he flew to Satyakalam, a place at Karnataka fearing the

muslims depredations. “abheeti sthvam” on Lord Ranganathan, containing 29

slokas was brought out here to ward off the fear and evil caused by the

muslim maruders. After the terror had subsided, he returned to Srirangam to

spend his last days. He attained the lotus feet of Acharya on Karthigai day.

His yadhavabhyudhayam, a maha kaavyam on Lord Krishna was admired very much

by the renowned advaita philosopher Appayya DhIkshithar in the 16th century

A.D. He wrote a commentary also on this mahaakaavya as a mark of

appreciation. (but could not write more than four slokas, as that itself

immersed him and drowned him with such a beauty and marvel, that he was

simply flabbergasted with its literary nicetry and stopped after four slokas

of this kaavyam, whose commentary itself ran to pages..

 

In fact, it is simply a foolhardy experiment to attempt to give a

comprehensive picture on the life of this AchArya saarvabhouman in this

small post. Excuse is therefore sought for omissions and lapses. Let us see

the list of all his works in the next post.

 

Isn't it appropriate to refurbish the maNdapam of The Greatest Acharya

saarvabhouman ThUppul Pillai? Please contribute your mite.

 

Please donate according to your shakthi. The money can be sent to "Thuppul

Trust" and the address is :

 

Thuppul Trust

Old No.20, New No.24, Thiruvengadam Street

West Mambalam, Chennai-600033, India

Phone No: 91-44-4741559 / 91-44-3715771

 

Please contact Sri. V.K. Sudharshan at vksudarsh or Sri Lakshmi N

Srinivasa lsriniva (He can collect and send it as single amount

in USA).

 

The address:

 

Lakshminarasimhan Srinivasa

3 Old Towne Road, #212

Ayer, MA-01432

 

For those in the South East Asia, please send to me at

srivaishnavan .Please pass on this kaimkaryam to as many people

as possible in order to complete the same.

kavi-tArkika-simhAya kalyANa-guNa-SAline |

Srimate venkateSAya vedAntagurave namaH ||

 

Salutations to Sri Venkatesa, in whom all perfection resides, who is the

teacher of Vedanta and the lion among poets and debaters!

 

Swamy Desikan ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam

Regards

Narayana Narayana

adiyEn Narayana dAsan madhavakkannan

 

 

 

 

 

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