Swamy Desikan's work on Thiruppaanaazhwaar

[Guest guest]

Respected learned scholars of th list ,

 

Adiyen heard that swamy desikan has composed a work on

Thiruppaanaazhwaar called "Munivaahana vijayam". Adiyen is not sure

whether the name is correct. Pl. correct me. Does anyone have this

work as an electronic copy. If so pl. help adiyen be sending it.

 

 

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasan

 

Narayanan

[Guest guest]

At 01:49 PM 9/25/01 -0000, you wrote:

>

>Respected learned scholars of the list ,

>

>Adiyen heard that swamy desikan has composed a work on

>Thiruppaanaazhwaar called "Munivaahana vijayam". Adiyen is not sure

>whether the name is correct. Pl. correct me. Does anyone have this

>work as an electronic copy. If so pl. help adiyen be sending it.

>

>

>Adiyen Ramanuja Dasan

>

>Narayanan

 

Dear Sri Narayanan:

 

You are referring to the classical commentary of

Swamy Desikan on AmalanAdhipirAn , the dhivya prabhandham of

ThiruppANAzhwAr , where he enjoyed the dhivya

Soundharyam and DhivyAthma GuNams of Lord RanganAthA

after travelling on the back of Loka Saaranga Muni

at the command of the Lord . Swamy Desikan's reverence for

ThiruppANar led to his salutation of this AzhwAr as

PaaNN PerumAL. This is a MaNipravALa Grantham and is

considered as the 28th rahasya Grantham of Swamy Desikan.

He saluted elsewhere in this grantham , ThiruppANar

as 'YENN PAANAN" (My PaaNan ).He described there

as to who this PaaNan , the object of his adoration is:

 

" Aadhi MaRai yena Ongum ArangatthuLLE

AruL Aarum Kadalaik kaNdavan Yenn PaaNan "

 

Here Swamy Desikan refers to ThiruppANar as

the One , who saw and enjoyed the krupA Saagaram

(Ocean of Mercy) , Lord RanganAthan inside the

primordial PraNavAkAra VimAnam at Srirangam.

 

With great pride , Swamy Desikan identified

ThiruppAnar as " my PaaNan ". He sums up the import of

ThiruppANa Nathan's Prbhandham as the seed of of all

fruits of VedAntham elaborated by Vedic scholars

( Vediyar viritthu uraikkum ViLaivukkellAm ithu

Vidhai aahum ).

 

At the beginning of this Rahasya grantham ,

Swamy Desikan expresses his desire to comment on

the AmalanAdhipiran with great control of senses

for the benefit of BhaagavathOtthamAs:

 

vyachikhyAsathi BhakthyA Viraktha-thOshayA VenaktEsa Kavi:

Mudhitha Mukundha vilOkana MunivAhana Sukavi sookthim imAm

 

(Meaning): The poet with the name of VenkatEsan wishes to

comment with indhriya nigraham ( with Rigorous control over

his sense organs) on the Sri Sookthi of the great poet

ThiruppANar , who travelled on the back of Loka Saaranga

Muni as his vaahanam and who was eager to enjoy

the soundharyam of the Lord of Srirangam , whose heart

delights in seeing His Bhakthan.

 

In a companion Taniyan celebrating his BhAgyam , Swamy

Desikan comments that he is rid of all sins by understanding

the inner meaning of AmalanAdhipirAn :

 

PaavaLarum Tanmizh maRayin PayanE KaNDu

PaaNN PerumAL PaadiyathOr paadal patthil

Kaavalanum KaNavanumaai kalanthu ninRa

KaraNanaik KarutthuRa naam kaNDa pinpu

kOvalanum kOmAnum aanavannAL

Kuravi puNar kOviyar tamm kuRippE kONDu

sEvaludan piriyAtha pEdai pOl sErnthu

thee vinayOr tanimai yellAm thIrnthOm naamE

 

(Meaning): ThiruppAnar's dhivya Prabhandham

in the form of Tamizh Vedam has the quintessence of

ancient Vedams. This Prabhandham is the one sung by

PaaNa Naathan and is revered as AmalanAdhipirAn .

The ten paasurams of this Prabhandham are matchless

in their glory. We have studied and etched their meanings

in our mind and comprehended the Lord as the Sarva Rakshakan ,

Loka Naayakan and Sarva KaaraNan . After that delectable

experience ,we have the matchless status of the Gopis ,

who were united with Lord KrishNa during RaasakrIdai

and felt as the female bird that never leaves the side of

its male companion .

 

Towards the end of the Muni Vaahana BhOgam , Swamy Desikan

pays tribute his AchAryAs and performs Saathvika Thyagam :

 

KaaNpanavum uraippanavum maRRu onRu inRik-

KaNNanayE kaNDuraithtu kadiya kaathal

PaNN PerumAL aruL seytha paadal patthum

Pazha MaRayin poruLenRu paravuhinrOm

veeNN periya viri thirai neer vyatthuLLE

VedAntha Vaariyan yenRu iyampa ninROm

NaaNN periyOm allOm Naam nanRum theethum

NamakkuraippAr uLar yenRu naaduvOmE

 

(Meaning): ThiruppANar is the One , who saw

KaNNan in every thing and in every thing

he heard and sang about KaNNan with great

love in his ten paasurams and bequeathed them

to us . We celebrate those ten paasurams

of PaaNa Naathan as the essence of the timeless

Vedams .In this wide world girdled by the Oceans

with broad waves and loved by one and all , we have

been blessed to be praised by Lord RanganAthan as

the VedAntha AchAryan .We have no ego (ahankaaram )

and we will always seek the Thiruvadi of AchAryAs ,

who instruct us on the good (nallavai)and bad (thIyavai).

 

Swamy Desikna concludes this Rahasya Grantham

with the following mangaLa SlOkam :

 

Muni Vaahana BhOgOyam mukthaiswarya rasOpama:

krupayA RanganAthasya krutArTayathu na: sadhA

 

(Meaning): This Rahasya grantham Of Muni Vaahana BhOgam

is equivalent to the BrahmAnandham enjoyed by the Muktha

Jeevans in Sri Vaikuntam. May study of this rahasya grantham

make us kruthArtaas ( the ones who have achieved the purpose

of their lives) always with the ThiruvaruL of Lord RanganAthan.

 

Sri RanganAthO Jayathi

AzhwAr , Swamy Desikan ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam,

Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SatakOpan

[Guest guest]

Dear Bhagavathas

The name of the work is called "Munivahana bogam". This book is available in

Tamil. I have seen one written

by Sri. R. Kannan along with vyakyanam for Amalanadipiran. I have also seen this

as anubandam to Sillarai

Rahasyangal published by Srimad Andavan Poundarikapuram Asramam, Srirangam,

Tiruchy.

 

regards

 

govindarajan.

 

narayankv wrote:

>

> Respected learned scholars of th list ,

>

> Adiyen heard that swamy desikan has composed a work on

> Thiruppaanaazhwaar called "Munivaahana vijayam". Adiyen is not sure

> whether the name is correct. Pl. correct me. Does anyone have this

> work as an electronic copy. If so pl. help adiyen be sending it.

>

> Adiyen Ramanuja Dasan

>

> Narayanan

>

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri Narayanan,

 

Swami Desika's 'munivAhana-bhOgam' stands unique among

all of the acharya's works. It is his only extant

maNipravALa commentary on a poem of the Divya Prabandham.

It is unique in that it is also considered a 'rahasya-

grantha', or a work concerning a discussion of the

meaning of the esoteric mantras of the Vaishnava faith,

because Sri Desika elaborates on the meaning of the praNava

(Om-kAra), holy tirumantra, etc., in the course of the

commentary.

 

Sri Sadagopan has kindly supplied us with the benedictory

Sanskrit slokas and Tamil verses that grace the beginning

and end of this work. I would humbly like to offer

a correction to the translation of one of them:

 

Sri Sadagopan wrote:

 

At the beginning of this Rahasya grantham ,

Swamy Desikan expresses his desire to comment on

the AmalanAdhipiran with great control of senses

for the benefit of BhaagavathOtthamAs:

 

(Meaning): The poet with the name of VenkatEsan wishes to

comment with indhriya nigraham ( with Rigorous control over

his sense organs) on the Sri Sookthi of the great poet

ThiruppANar , who travelled on the back of Loka Saaranga

Muni as his vaahanam and who was eager to enjoy

the soundharyam of the Lord of Srirangam , whose heart

delights in seeing His Bhakthan.

 

[the verse itself]

 

vyAcikhyAsati bhaktyA virakta-tOshAya venkateSa-kavi: |

mudita-mukunda-vilOkana-munivAhana-sukavi-sUktim imAm ||

 

Here 'virakta-tOshAya' is in the dative case and means

"for the sake of the dispassionate". I feel the sloka

should be translated as:

 

For the sake of the dispassionate and with profound love,

poet Venkatesa wishes to elaborate on this divine utterance of

that great poet Munivahana, composed upon the [long-awaited]

vision of an overjoyed Lord Mukunda.

 

"Venkatesa" is an alternate form of Venkatanatha,

Swami Desika's given name. Munivahana means

"one for whom a sage served as a vehicle" and refers to

the well-known story of Tiruppan Alvar's being carried

by Lokasaranga Muni to see Lord Ranganatha.

 

The "dispassionate one" referred to by the phrase

'virakta-tOshAya' is seen by some as a reference

to Sri Periya-vaaccaan Pillai, the great commentator

on all the Alvars' verses. The belief is that Swami Desika

composed this commentary at the request of the

vyAkhyAna-cakravartI. In any case, there is no doubt

that this is a truly inspired work, wherein the acharya

provides several unique thoughts not expressed in

his other works.

 

 

'munivAhana-bhOgam' has been published by several people

in recent times. There is the edition by Sri R. Kannan Swami

mentioned by someone else earlier. This edition contains

the commentaries of both Sri Periyavaaccaan Pillai and

Sri Alagiya Manavala Perumaal Nayanar. Unfortunately,

this printing suffers from the lack of usage of subscripts

to distinguish mahaprANa-s and alpapraNA-s, as well as

voiced and unvoiced syllables, making the maNipravALa

quite difficult to read. There is also an earlier edition

published by Sri Puttur Srinivasa Iyengar, which uses

granthAkshara in places. This has been recently republished

by his son Sri Puttur Krishnaswamy Iyengar.

 

There is also the edition of Sri Uttamur Viraraghavacharya

Swami, published along with his 'prabandha-rakshA' urai.

This edition was republished during Sri Uttamur Swami's

centenary celebration and contains a combination of devanAgari

and Tamil letters, which many people may not be comfortable

reading.

 

aDiyEn pAN perumAL dAsan

Mani