Gopalarya Mahadesikan's 302nd Thirunakshatram

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Sri

Srimathe Rangaramanuja Mahadesikaya Namaha

Srimathe Gopalarya Mahadesikaya Namaha

Srimathe Nigamantha Mahadesikaya Namaha

Srimathe Bhagavathe Bhashyakaraya Mahadesikaya Namaha

Srimathe Ranganatha Divyamani Padukabhyam Namaha

 

Today (Wed, Sep 25 Purattasi-Pooradam) is Srimath Gopalarya

Mahadesikan's 302nd Thirunakshatram. Gopalarya Mahadesikan also called

Thirukudanthai Mahadesikan is the great acharya who established

Munithraya Sampradayam. Great Srivaishnava Acharya paramparais like

Srirangam Srimath Andavan Periyashramam, Srimath Poundarikapuram Andavan

Ashramam, Navalpakkam paramparai, Kedandipatti paramparai, Annayarya

Mahadesikan paramparai and many more hail from this Acharya's lineage.

Let us all recite this mahan's thaniyan on His thirunakshatram day.

 

Sri krishna dEsika padhaamBHuja brunga raajam

VEdaantha lakshmana muneendra krupaaththa bOdham

Thraiyantha dEsika yatheendra shaTaarimoorthim

GOpaala dEsika shikhaamaNi maasrayaamaha

 

dasan,

Shyamsundar Sreenivasan

 

PS: Here is an article by Sri V.N.Vedantha Desikan published in The

Hindu dated Sep 29, 2000 on the occasion of the 301st thirunakshatam of

this Acharya

------

 

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.