Appaya Dixit

[Guest guest]

Namaste,

 

One of the foremost advaitic writers, Appaya Dixit (17th cent.),

has not been discussed much, if at all, in this group. Would any of

the readers familiar with his writings kindly post something from his

works? (especially his views on yoga). Thanks.

 

 

Regards,

 

Sunder

[Guest guest]

Namaste Sunderji.

 

Sw. Sivanandaji has written about Appaya Dikshitar at:

 

http://www.sivanandadlshq.org/saints/appayya.htm

 

A name search on yields additional information on the saint.

 

PraNAms.

 

Madathil Nair

________________

 

advaitin, "Sunder Hattangadi" <sunderh>

wrote:

>

> One of the foremost advaitic writers, Appaya Dixit (17th

cent.),

> has not been discussed much, if at all, in this group. Would any of

> the readers familiar with his writings kindly post something from

his

> works? (especially his views on yoga). Thanks.

[Guest guest]

advaitin, "Madathil Rajendran Nair"

<madathilnair> wrote:

>

> Sw. Sivanandaji has written about Appaya Dikshitar at:

>

> http://www.sivanandadlshq.org/saints/appayya.htm

 

Namaste Madathilji,

 

Thank you for the link. I would like to see some translated

passages from his writings, with particular reference to Yoga.

 

Regards,

 

Sunder

[Guest guest]

Appaya Dixit was favorably disposed towards the Bhamati school of advaita

and placed great emphasis on yogic samadhi etc. However, in his work

SiddhAntalESasamgraha he treats the rival doctrines in a straightforward and

objective manner. Translation of his works by S.S.Suryanarayan Shastri

(1935) is available from Madras University Press.

 

Sanjay Srivastava

9074, Pickwick Village Ter

Silver Spring, MD-20901, U.S.A.

 

_______________

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[Guest guest]

I recall having read a story about apaaya diixita who was a well

known proponent of advaita. He was also a param shivabhakta.

 

One of his well known student, bhaTojii diixita (who is know for his

contributions to grammer, "siddhaanta kaumudi) was a hard-core

viShNavaa, but their personal integrity, devotion to their

relationship was extremely loving and tender. His respect to appayaa

was second to none.

 

appaya use to say -

muraarau ca puraarau ca na bheda: paaramaarthika: |

tathaa.api maamakii bhaktiscandracuuDe pradhaavati ||

 

Meaning - There is no bheda between the paramaartha of viShNuu and

shiva, but my devotion is always run towards shiva.

 

Dr. Yadu

[Guest guest]

advaitin, "Sunder Hattangadi" <sunderh>

wrote:

>

> advaitin, "Madathil Rajendran Nair"

> <madathilnair> wrote:

> >

> > Sw. Sivanandaji has written about Appaya Dikshitar at:

> >

> > http://www.sivanandadlshq.org/saints/appayya.htm

>

> Namaste Madathilji,

>

> Thank you for the link. I would like to see some

translated

> passages from his writings, with particular reference to Yoga.

>

> Regards,

>

> Sunder

 

Namaste all.

 

I recently came across a 150-pagebook titled "Sri Appayya Dikshita"

by Dr N. Ramesan, published in 1972 by Srimad Appayya Dikshitendra

Granthavaliu Prakashana Samithi, Hyderabad. Here are some extracts

that I think may give the readers a glimpse of the personality of

Appayya Dikshitar:

>From the sapta rishis downward, there have been great (i.e.,

spiritually great) householders in the Indian tradition. One such

was Shri Appayya Dikshidar (1520 – 1593 A.D.) As the true advaitin

that he was, he saw no differences in the different manifestations

of the Supreme Absolute. Stemming the tide of Vaishnavite attacks on

Saivism during the one century prior to his times, one of his

missions in life turned out to be a reconciliation of creeds, cults

and philosophy. He did not think that rival interpretations of the

vedas and puranas were entirely in the wrong. He says: ` na sUtrANAm

arthAntaram-api bhavad-varyam-ucitaM' (Who can prevent different

interpretations when the sUtras themselves are capable of different

meanings?). Such was his tolerance in religious beliefs and his

ardent desire for the reconciliation of philosophic thoughts. He

wrote the `Chatur-mata-sara' to illustrate the philosophical

thoughts of the four prominent schools of interpretation of

Brahmasutras. The `Naya-manjari' deals with advaita, the `Naya-mani-

mala' with Srikanta mata, the `Naya-mayukha-malika' with Ramanuja's

philosophy and the `Naya-muktavali' with Madhva's philosophy. His

remarkable catholicity of outlook, his thoroughness in writing, his

impartiality, his unerring sense of values and his passionate search

for truth are all so evident in these writings that the Vaishnavas

have adopted the `Naya-Mayukha-Malika' as their manual for their

careful and reverent study and the Madhvas the `Naya-Muktavali'.

 

He was well read in every branch of Samskrit learning and wrote as

many as 104 works, large and and small. Only 60 of these works are

extant now. These include works on Vedanta, Siva-advaita, Mimamsa,

Vyakarana, Kavya vyakhyana, Alankara and Devotional poetry. By

conviction he was an advaitin and true worship of Lord Siva was the

religion of his heart. Though the followers of the Siva-advaita

school claim him as belonging to their school, it is not so easy to

determine whether he was more inclined to Sivadavaita or advaita.

Sivadvaita is very much akin to vishishhtadvaita of Ramanuja, except

for the role of Vishnu being taken by Shiva.

 

Among the Vedantic works of Appayya Dikshitar, the `Siddhanta-lesha-

sangraha' is most famous. In this elaborate and original treatise,

he brings together in one place, all different dialectical thinking

belonging to the advaitic school. Traditional students of Vedanta

begin their study of Bhashyas only after studying this Siddhanta

Lesha sangraha. All the different views of different subschools of

advaita, like those of `eka-jiva-vada', `nana-jiva-vada', `bimba-

pratibimba vada' `sakshitva-vada' etc. are all discussed and the

contrary views properly explained in this work with Appayya

Dikshidar's masterly touch. And in his characteristic eclectic

style, he answers the question "How can there be contradictory views

among the advaita acharyas themselves on the same point?" He says:

All the acharyas agree in affirming the unity of the soul and the

unreality of the phenomenal world. For the world of fiction

different explanations are given according to the ingenuity of each

acharya. What if different explanations are given for a mere

fiction? !

 

Another famous Vedantic work of Appayya Dikshitar is the commentary

known as the `Parimala'. It is an extremely readable commentary on

the very difficult commentary called Kalpataru by an advaitic

teacher named Amalananda. That Kalpataru is itself a commentary on

Bhamati by Sri Vacaspati Misra which in turn is the famous

commentary on the Sutra-Bhashya of Sri Sankara.

 

While the Parimala follows the advaitic approach, Appayya Dikshidar

has written another commentary `Sivaarka-mani-deepika' on the

Brahmasutras. But this is written from the point of view of Siva-

visishtadvaita.. These two works – Sivaarka-mani-deepika and

Parimala – are his magnum opus both in bulk and importance. Though

both are commentaries on the Brahma sutra, Parimala aligns itself

to the advaitic interpretation while the other work expounds the

Sivadvaita philosophy of Srikanta-acharya. Appayya Dikshidar's

patron, King Chinna Bomma Nayak of Vellore made endowments for the

maintenance of a college of 500 scholars who studied Sivaarka mani

Dipika under Sri Dikshidar himself, thus equipping themselves for

the Saivite propaganda work, which had been organised with a view to

stemming the tide of Vaishnavite attacks and encroachments.

 

Dikshidar threw himself heart and soul into this mission for several

years and often had to face grave personal danger, which he did with

courage and faith. He preached, organised and wrote incessantly,

enlisting the cooperation of several enlightened monarchs. He

undertook frequent travels and challenged his adversaries to open

disputation, as was the custom of those days. He brought to bear on

his widespread activities, his resourceful personality and created

an atmosphere of tolerance and goodwill, in the place of the

prevailing antipathies and narrow-mindedness.

 

Dikshidar graphically describes dvaita as the lowest step,

vishishtadvaita as the middle step and sivadvaita and advaita which

are very close to each other as the highest steps. He makes it clear

in his work that Srikantha-Bhashya on the Brahmasutra has been

written in very close approximation to the trend of thought of Sri

Sankara in his own bhashya. Srikanta, according to Dikshidar,

propagated his cult on the understanding that sagunopasana is only

the first step to nirgunopasana, and that it was the real intention

of Srikanta that the final truth lies only in Shuddhadvaita.

Dikshidar's great dialectical skill is fully reflected in the work

called Anandalahari chandrika, where he tries to narrow down the

differences between the apparently divergent schools of thought and

tries to show that the advaita of Sankara is the real eternal truth

to which all others try to approximate.

 

In addition to his poetic skills and achievements on the

philosophical propagations and Saivite missionary work, Dikshidar

was a great Siddha-yogi. One of his yogic experiments was as great

as it was thrilling. In the later years of his life, he was subject

to attacks of colic pain. He was convinced that it was due to his

Prarabdha and past karma. Whenever he wanted to meditate deeply or

worship the Almighty, he made a bundle of his towel and put it in

front of him. By his yogic power he transferred his melody to the

towel and sat in meditation. His disciples watched the towel jumping

about the place. To them he explained later that he transferred his

ailment which was in the form of an evil spirit to the cloth and

then took it back soon after his meditation was over!

 

About his mystic devotion,there is another thrilling story that is

related to his work called Atmarpana-stuti. In this small work of

fifty stanzas he makes the inner self melt as it were by his

exquisite mystic poetry. We can see here the profound maturity of

true devotion to the Supreme. It reflects the inner mental state of

a great devotee, in whom the ego has become fully distinct. There is

a traditional account of how this work came to be written. It

appears once he wanted to test the maturity of his own devotion to

the Lord. Hence he swallowed the juice of the `datura' fruit, which

introduces intoxication, and told his disciples that they should

write down whatever he says, during the stage when his consciousness

was disturbed. In the stage of inebriation generally all suppressed

ideas would find release and come out into the open. And in his case

it was the Atmarpana-stuti that came out! It is therefore also

called `Unmatta-panchasati'.

 

Dikshidar is said to have travelled widely in the manner of those

days, entering into philosophical disputations and controversaries

in many centres of learning. He had the rare good fortune of being

revered and patronised in his own life-time by kings of Vellore,

Tanjore, Vijayanagar and Venkatagiri. A mighty intellect and

peerless sage, he led a life of karma, bhakti and jnana – a model

for posterity to follow.

 

PraNams to Shri Appayya Dikshitar and all advaitins

profvk

[Guest guest]

Namaste All.

 

This refers to my earlier post 25851 in which I gave Sw.

Shivanandaji's link to Appayya Diskhitar.

 

That link has this story:

 

QUOTE

 

Ratna Kheta Srinivasa Dikshitar, an erudite scholar in Sanskrit, a

devotee of Kamakshi Devi, Kancheepuram, was the Chief Pundit of the

Court in the Chola kingdom. The Chola king asked the Pundit, "O

Pundit, what is the day today?" The Pundit replied, "Today is Full

Moon day". But, really, it was New Moon day. Everybody laughed.

Srinivasa Dikshitar felt greatly mortified. He was a true devotee of

Kamakshi Devi. Her grace was fully upon him. Srinivasa prayed to Her.

The Devi appeared before Srinivasa, gave him one of Her earrings and

asked him to throw it in the sky. Srinivasa acted accordingly. The

earring attained the form of a full moon and shone brilliantly. The

king, the ministers and other people witnessed this marvellous scene

and were struck with amazement. The king made Srinivasa sit on the

golden throne, adorned him with jewels and honoured him highly.

 

UNQUOTE

 

I have seen this story enacted beautifully in an old Tamil

mythological of the 1950s or 1960s with a little difference. In the

film, Dikshitar is made to stand on a wooden platform hung from the

roof over a raging fire with the royal court standing witness around

him. If the Moon fails to rise, the platform will be severed from

the roof and he will be burnt. Lo, Dikshitar sings to his Devi right

from the platform: "CholledI, AbhirAmI" (Ye AbhirAmI, ye say!). It

is a beautiful song and it is not a prayer. The first line sounds

more like a command. It is a teasing poser, the spirit of which is

impossible for me to capture in English. Dikshitar sings to Her as

though he would to his girlfriend and concludes the song with a more

teasing poser: "This test of fire is not for me. Isn't it indeed

meant for You!". It is then that the Devi appears and throws one of

Her earrings in the sky, which transforms itself into Full Moon.

 

Last night, as I dozed off fitfully having swallowed some

antihistamine for an allergic cold, our Abhirami woke me up with some

teasing posers. Was Dikshitar afraid of the punishment? Being a

vedAntin, he couldn't be. He would have seen his AbhirAmi in the

fire and taken to Her bosom most happily as a son would to his

mother's. Did he really want the Moon to materialize through the

power of his prayer? Again, he couldn't have been bothered about the

result of his actions. What difference to a reaslized soul does New

Moon or Full Moon make? Did he hope to have a darshan of his

ishtadevata? I don't think he did because for a person of his

stature everything around is ishtadevata. A special darshan couldn't

simply have any special significance for him.

 

The uncertain platform is life and the fire raging below its

privations and miseries. A vedantin sings to Consciousness – his

inseparable girlfriend. I can't be bothered about this heat and

suffering because they are all verily You. Come what may, I will

keep singing and teasing You because I know You will keep ticking me

for ever. You have no choice. How can You ever stop manifesting

before my eyes all the time as all that I see? This is a test for

You and not for me. I am thoroughly enjoying it.

 

May She grant us all the capacity to stand erect on the platform of

life and tease Her in an eternal song!

 

PraNAms.

 

Madathil Nair