abhinava dESika-Sri UttamUr Swamy Divya Charitham-21

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SrI:

Sri Padmavathi Sametha Srinivasa Parabrahmane Namaha.

Sri Perundhevi Sametha Devadhiraja Parabrahmane Namaha.

SrimathE Bhagavad Ramanujaya Namaha:

SrimathE Nigamantha Mahadesikaya namaha:

Srimate Rangaramanuja Maha Desikaya Namaha.

Srimate Abhinava Desika Vatsya Satchakravarti Uttamur SRI

VIRARAGHAVARYA MAHA DESIKAYA NAMAHA

 

SrImAn venkatanAthAryaH kavitArkika kesarI |

vedAntAcArya-varyome sannidhattAm sadA hRdi ||

 

Thanian (Invocatory verse on Sri UttamUr swamy written by

Swamy's AchAryan Sri Kozhiyalam Swamy himself)

 

adbhutam yasya vikrAntam vEda vIthI ViSOdhanE |

aparam nigamAntAryam prapadyE vIrarAghavam ||

 

Let us continue with the divya charitham of Sri UttamUr Swamy.

 

[Article in Tamil by SrI PayyampADi VEnkatavaradAchArya SwAmi; English write

up (based on Tamil) by SrI R.VenkatAchAri (SohattUr- Vankipuram -Oppiliappan

Sannidhi), a disciple of SrI UtthamUr SwAmi. Appeared in the souvenir

released during the SatAbhishEkam (80th birth anniversary) of SrI UtthamUr

swAmi on 10th Feb, 1977]

 

 

 

DAILY ROUTINE OF OUR SWAMI:

 

One would be amazed at the heavy schedule Our Swami used to have every day.

Getting up very early in the morning and after finishing the anushtana and

Abhigamana Aradhana and also special mantra japa, he would be ready waiting,

even before the arrival of the first sishya, for the morning Kalakshepa.

None of the sishyas had even seen him coming late even on a single day.

After the Kalakshepa, time will be devoted for proof correction and

allotment of work for the press for the day’s composing work. After that,

Ijya and Aradhana, followed by proof correction of Bhava Prakasika. Then he

would go through the English translation of the books by Sri K.Bhashyam

which he used to bring every day for scrutiny and suggestion, and after he

had left, he would take up the Tamil translation. Then he would go through

many Advaita granthas, to continue the khandana grantha already started and

correct proof of the above etc.

 

In the middle of Swadhyaya Kala, Kalakshepa of some other granthas which

were permitted to be studied in the afternoon like Stotras etc. was done

before evening Sandhyavandana and Upanyasas. If he was free without

Upanyasas he would devote the time for preparing manuscripts even after

sunset for other books. This would go on till about mid-night. So far,

nobody would have seen him doing any other thing except sitting with some

book or other, opened before him, throughout the day. Some times, some of

the sishyas coming there for paying respects, would not be noticed by him as

he would be so much immersed in the book. By himself he never used to go to

bed and sleep should embrace him near about midnight due to tiresomeness and

overwork.

 

After the publication of Tiruppavai with the commentary, Raksha, it

used to be a regular feature of Our Swami being invited to preside

over the Tiruppavai Sadas wherever they were held. Invitations for

Upanyasas were pouring in very day. One notable invitation was from

Brahmasri K.Balasubramania Iyer, a renowned scholar in Sanskrit, when

he conducted a Sammelanam at Mylapore Sanskrit College on “Bhatti

Kavya”. Our Swami’s erudite speech was very much appreciated both by

the scholars and the convener Brahmasri Iyer. [This lecture helped

him at a later stage, which we would refer to later].

 

About this time Sri. U. Ve. Venkatadrivaram Venkataraghavachariar

Swami, (who had the good fortune to do Sri Bhashya Kalakshepa under

Our Swami) Chief Professor in Sanskrit at Vivekananda College, Madras, came

to Our Swami with his colleagues, Sri Rajagopalan and Sri Subramanian,

(Advaitins), to study “Vaiseshika Darsana”. Our Swamy taught them his own

commentaries called Rasayana on Vaiseshika Darsana which contained many

ancient Sutras not published so far. The Rasayana was only in the

manuscript stage as there was no time for publication in the middle of so

many important Vedanta Granthas.

After hearing Our Swami’s lectures on Rasayana, the Professor found

out that they had a treasure before them.

 

He immediately undertook to print and publish the same and the work was

started immediately. The release was arranged at a function in Sanskrit

College, Mylapore. Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam Sri Sankaracharya Swamigal

presided and said that he had never missed reading even one book of Our

Swami, either in Sanskrit or Tamil. He also said that during his lifetime

he had not come across such an erudite scholar well versed in all shastras,

other than Our Swami and praised his intuitive and analytical way of

approach to the subject and wished him long life to continue the grantha

nirmana work. Brahmasri Anantakrishna Sastriar who was present, stood up

and said that he had known Our Swami very much for a long time. He recalled

one incident when, knowing his genius, he offered to get him a good post in

North India with a very high remuneration and Our Swami refused the offer

saying that he preferred to serve Lord Tiruvengadamudaiyan for a less

remuneration, as a Professor in HIS college. He also said that many people

did not know about Our Swami’s Vidvat. He very sincerely said that if only

Our Swami would have been known by others, they would do Kanakabhishekam.

For such a great scholar, he expected that the Sadas would honour him with a

big purse but on the other hand he found out that the publisher did not

get enough response from the public and that he had to go searching for even

the printing cost of the book. Brahmasri Shastriar said that he knew about

our Swami writing a khandana grantha for his Sata Bhooshani and for that

sake they, the Advaitns, should not hate him or show disrespect to him.

 

It was customary, he continued, that pandits usually used to praise their

own Sidhanta only. Because it helped the Hindu relegion to grow stronger.

But the unique thing he found out by

reading Our Swami’s granthas, especially the khandana granthas, was

that he had established a healthy convention, which should be an

eye-opener to all future critics, who write khandana granthas on other

Sidhantas to adopt Our Swami’s way of not attacking any personalities or

offending anybody. After reading Our Swami’s books, he said, that one would

show more regard for him and would certainly get more enlightened on the

subject. Such was the greatness of Our Swami.

 

Sri Kanchi Sankaracharya Swami said in his concluding remarks that if

Hinduism should survive, we should get into the habit of contributing

mutual donations between Advaitins and Vishshtadvaitins. He also

praised Our Swami’s integrity and his impartial way of criticizing the

principles only and that his khandana granthas only brought him more regard

from him and wished him all success. At the end Sri

Venkataraghavachar Swami presented the entire copies of the grantha to our

Swami saying: We worship God by offering materials created by

HIM: Like that I am worshipping my Revered Guru by offering the

granthas created by him?

 

Mentioning Brahmasri Ananthakrishna Sastriar, one more earlier

interesting meeting between him and Our Swami would be worth

narrating. One day Brahmasri Sastriar came to Our Swami’s Asrama and

during the conversation, told him, that, only Our Swami would be

writing the khandana for his Sata Bhooshani and his guess got

confirmed when he heard that the title of Abhinava Desika was

conferred on him. He said that Sri Desika should have entered Our

Swami to write the khandana for a grantha which criticized his Sata

Bhooshani. Our Swami replied thus; It is true that many Vaishnavas

had already approached him to take up the khandana grantha. I am

hesitating because I am afraid that this may result in spoiling our

friendship? Brahmasri Sastriar said that only by writing more and

more books, our Hinduism would grow and whole heartedly assured Our

Swami that it would not disturb the friendship between them and urged

him to take up the work early as he would not like anybody else

writing the khandana. He even went one step further and told him that if

there was difficulty in finding finance for that, he would himself undertake

the printing and publishing on behalf of Our Swami; and after that he would

consider whether he could write one more reply to that.

 

He was very happy that Our Swami would write the khandana as he

was the only qualified person to do that, and that the criticism would be

very fair, healthy and scholarly and without offending anybody, and the

Advaitins would learn more about their own Sidhanta.

to be continued..

AchAryan ThiruvadigaLE saraNam

Regards

Namo Narayana

aDiyEn dAsan

 

 

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