Sri Vedanta Desikar's Vairagyam

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All our acharyas

are legendary in their vairAgyam and Desikar is no

exception. However, Desikar in his compassion for those

coming behind, decided to express this in a beautiful

shloka called Vairagya Panchakam, so that we can learn

not only from reading his life history but also reading

this work.

 

adiyEn will translate the commentary on this work by Sri

PBA Swami over a series of posts. The timing too is

appropriate as we are coming upon Vedanata Desikar's

thirunakshatram on Oct 5th.

 

adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan

 

 

--

 

Sri Vedanta Desikar's

Vairagya Panchakam

 

Commentary by Sri P.B. Annangaracharyar Swami

 

Introduction

 

Sri Vedanta Desikar who was born as the avatar of the

bell of Lord Srinivasa, possessed not only great

knowledge ("gnAna bhUshaNam"), but also was possessor

of great inner strength and indifference to matters

of this world ("vairAgya bhUshaNam"). So, just like

Sri Kooratthazhvan, he too took care of himself and

his family through the tradition of unja vrutti

(collecting alms). With this itself, he was able to

take care of all his needs, perform daily prayers

to the Lord, teach ubhaya vedAnta to his disciples

and perform mangalahsasanams to Kanchi Varadaraja

Perumal.

 

Sri Vidhyaranya Swamigal was a great friend of Swami.

He was in the court of the king of Vijayanagar. There,

he was helping many vidwans get the favor of the court

and gain wealth.

 

He decided that he should help Swami also gain wealth

and so invited him to come to the court of the king.

Swami, feeling hurt that his friend, knowing his nature,

was offering such an invitation, sent him a shloka as

an answer turning down the offer. That shloka was

 

"na me pitrArjitam kincit na mayA kincitArjitam,

asti me hastishailAgre vastu paitAmaham dhanam"

 

Here Swami is stating that he has no wealth gathered by

his father; no wealth that he himself has gathered; the

only wealth that he has is that which his grand father

(ancestor) gathered, which is the Lord standing on top

of the Hastigiri hill.

 

This is a beautiful shloka. The wealth gathered by

some one due to his great effort does not bring him

satisfaction as he had to struggle for it. Since his

father has full rights to distribute to anyone the

wealth that he made, waiting for that wealth is also

not a fulfilling thing. The wealth gathered by his

grandfather is, however, guaranteed to him. Even if

his father begins to throw away that wealth, he could

go to court and stop that. Therefore, the wealth

gathered by the forefathers is the best form of

wealth.

 

Since that wealth is gathered on top of the hill and

is there for eternity ("karigirimEl ninRanaiththum

kAkkinRAnE", "malaimEl thAn ninRu en manaththuL

irundhAnai nilai pOkkalAgAmai niccithirundhEnE"),

Swami says that he has no need to go ask for the

ephemeral wealth of this world from the lowly

kings.

 

Here the word "paitAmaham" not only refers to a

grand father, but also to Brahma. Since Brahma was

the one who did the yagna in which Kanchi PeraruLALan

appeared, the use of that word in this shloka is

most delightful.

 

Vidhyaranya Swamigal saw the shloka but in his anxiety

and affection for Desikar, sent him another offer to

come to the court. At this point, Swami wrote the

divine set of shlokas called Vairagya Panchakam.

 

We will look at each of the shloka and its meanings

starting in the next post.

 

Vedanta Desikar Thiruvadigale Sharanam

Azhvar Emberumanar Jeeyar Thiruvadigale Sharanam