Swamy Desikan-3 (Tamil pranbandhams)- Thoppul maNdapam kaimkaryam appeal

[Guest guest]

SrI:

SrImathe Ramanujaya namah:

SrImathe Nigamantha mahadesikaya namah:

 

SrImAn venkatanAthAryaH kavitArkika kesarI |

vedAntAcArya-varyo me sannidhattAm sadA hRdi ||

 

May the glorious Venkatanatha, the greatest of teachers of Vedanta, and the

lion among poets and debaters, reside forever in my heart.

 

Dearest Srivaishnavas,

 

I am continuing on my appeal and posts on Swamy Desikan.

 

Recently there was an appeal (sent by Sri VK Sudharshan) forwarded by Sri

Diwakar Kannan on Thoopul MaNdapam kaimkaryam by Smt Shantha Kalyanarangan

of Thoopul trust. Sri Lakshmi N. Srinivasa also has created a web site for

this trust and also for this special kaimkaryam for Thoopul Pillai.

 

URL: http://www.geocities.com/lsriniva/thoopulappeal.html

It is my humble request to please contribute your mite towards this

kaimkaryam, as remembering Acharyan, and talking alone will not suffice.

 

Sriman Nigamantha Mahadesikan composed 19 works in Tamil called Tamil

prabandhams.

 

Amrutha Ranjani- 39 verses in tamil. All of them occur at the beginning and

end of his 17 works written in maNipravALam (a blend of Sanskrit and

Tamil).

They are pleasing like amirtham (nectar) and hence the title.

 

Let us enjoy one sweet verse:

nin aruLaam gathiyinRi maRRonRillEn/ nedun~ kaalam pizhai seydha nilai

kazhindhEn/

un aruLukku inidhaana nilai pugundhEn/ un saraNE saraN ennum thuNivu

pooNdEn/

manniruLaay ninRa nilai enakku theertthu/ vaanavar magizcchi thara

varitthEn

unnai/

innaruLaay ini enakkOr bharamERRaamal en thirumaal adaikkalam koL ennai

neeyE

 

There is no other recourse except Your Grace. I am able to get rid of the

long accrued sins over the ages from time immemorial for so many births. I

am blessed to be the recipient of Your Grace. (Due to Your limitless

unbounded Grace) I have surrendered to take refuge at Your Feet. Much to

the

enjoyment of Nithyasooris and muktha JivAthmAs, I have placed you in my

heart, and been able to dispel the darkness and ignorance. Please do not

let

me bear any more burden (of further births) and please enslave me (by

accepting my SaraNAgathy).

 

A sweet Pasuram! (Please forgive me for my free translation!)

 

The second work is Adhikara sangraham, which contains 56 Tamil verses, all

in the form of summaries of the 32 chapters (called adikaram) of Swamy

Desikans magnum opus, Srimath Rahasyathraya saram.

 

The third work, AmrithaswAdhini, has 37 verses beginning with Saarasaara

and

munivaahana bhOgam that are written in maNipravaaLam.

 

Paramatha Bhangham (Refutation of other schools of thought)

 

In the Paramatha Bhangha Rahasya which is in twenty-four chapters Sri

Desika

has done a great service to the cause of VisishtAdvaita as propounded in

the

earlier scriptures by Sri Ramanuja and his AchAryAs.

 

In the first chapter of Paramatha Bhangam, the necessity to acquire correct

knowledge of philosophy and religion is described, the next 3 chapters

(2,3,

4) describe the tatva, Hita, and Purushaartha (Reals, means and Goal). The

next 15 chapters are devoted to an elaborate treatment of 15 systems of

philosophy as follows:

 

Lokaayatrika

Madhyamika

Yogacaara

Sautranika

Vaibhashika

(all the above five under Buddhisam)

Prachanna Bouddha (Advaita)

Jaina

Bhaskara

Vaiyakarana

VaishEshika

Naiyayika

Nireeswara meemAmsa

Nireeswara Sankhya

Paasupatha

 

The doctrines of these systems are faithfully described as propounded by

them, and then refuted on the basis of the authority of the scripture as

taught by the earlier AchAryAs and accepted by Swamy Desika. The validity

of

Bhagawath Saasthra is established as taught by Baradarayana and other

ancient sages. The next two chapters are devoted to the arguments in other

schools of thought in favor of the means and the goal as accepted by them

and then they are refuted. The last is conclusion.

 

In the respective chapters on each school of thought, their doctrine is

given first. Then it is stated how they are against Vedas and other

scriptural texts and so they can not be taken as authoritative. At the end

of the final view according to VisishtAdaita is given.

 

PARAMAPADA SOPAANAM (article on this was written by Sri U Ve VS Karunakaran

swamy for Sri Poundarikapuram Srimad Andavan151st Jayanthi malar )

 

Paramapada sopanam is one of Rahasya Granthas of Swamy Desikan. Rahasya

granthas mean Secret texts, which are meant to be studied at the feet of a

qualified preceptor by disciplined students with devotion. Swamy Desikan

used maNipravALam medium here.

 

Title: According to Srutha prakAsika, the word Parama Pada mean:

 

i) Supreme Lord Sriman narayanan

ii) His eternal abode that can be inhabited only by the emancipated soul.

 

Sopanam in Sanskrit means stair case. So the title Paramapadha sopanam

means

Stair case to reach the Parama padham.

 

Sources of Inspiration:

 

Tradition has it that Sri Ramanuja once stated that a winding stair case

could have been erected for all souls to climb to the eternal abode of the

Lord if only he and his paramacharya Alavandhar had had the opportunity to

live together for some time. There is another anecdote attributing Bhattar

as having stated that only if he could live for some more time, he would

have erected a winding stair case to the Parama padham. In Vajapeya

sacrifice, it is prescribed that the sacrificer climbs the Yupasthamba with

the help of a ladder and chants manthras with both hands up saying I

reached the heavenly abode. Swamy Desikan might have blended the anecdotes

with this act prescribed in Vajapeya sacrifice and built this concept of

stair case to Parama Padham. One may incidentally note that the rahasya

called archiraadhi of Pillai Lokacharya and Paramapadha sopanam of Swamy

desika complement each other.

 

Structure of the text:

 

The text if made up of nine chapters. Chapters are called parvas meaning

steps keeping in line with the name stair case given for the work. The

nine steps are:

1.vivkea (Discrimination)

2.Nirveda (disgust)

3.Virakti (dispassion)

4.Bheethi (Sensitization)

5.Prasadana (Pleasing or Propitiation)

6.Utkiramana (Departure)

7.Archiradhi (the route starting)

8.Reaching the divine region

9.Union with the Supreme

 

We will continue with this in next post

 

Please donate according to your shakthi. The money can be sent to "Thuppul

Trust" and the address is:

 

Thuppul Trust

Old No.20, New No.24, Thiruvengadam Street

West Mambalam, Chennai-600033, India

Phone No: 91-44-4741559 / 91-44-3715771

 

Please contact Sri. V.K. Sudharshan at vksudarsh or Sri Lakshmi N

Srinivasa lsriniva (He can collect and send it as single

amount

in USA).

 

The address:

 

Lakshminarasimhan Srinivasa

3 Old Towne Road, #212

Ayer, MA-01432

 

For those in the South East Asia, please contact me at

srivaishnavan . Please pass on this kaimkaryam to as many

people

as possible in order to complete the same.

kavi-tArkika-simhAya kalyANa-guNa-SAline |

Srimate venkateSAya vedAntagurave namaH ||

 

Salutations to Sri Venkatesa, in whom all perfection resides, who is the

teacher of Vedanta and the lion among poets and debaters!

 

Swamy Desikan ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam

Regards

Narayana Narayana

adiyEn Narayana dAsan madhavakkannan