Fwd: A question on Swami Desikan's biography

[Guest guest]

tiruvengadam, "Sudarshan M.K." <sampathkumar_2000>

wrote:

 

Dear friends,

 

I have a question on the biography of Swami Desikan which perhaps

someone knowledgeable amongst you all may help clarify.

 

We know that a number of SwamiDesikan's 'grantha-s', 'kAvyA-s',

'stOtrA-s' and 'prabhandAm' were authored while he lived in

Kanchipuram, Tiruvaheendarapuram and SriRangam.

 

What are the works he authored while he lived in Satyakaalam?

According to standard biography, he lived there for more than a

decade. A decade is a pretty long time and a creative artist like

Swami Desikan could not have remained barren for that long. But I have

not heard of any work of his that was composed while he lived in

Satyakaalam.

 

Could the period he spent in Satyakaalam be regarded as a relatively

infertile phase in his life when his otherwise prodigious capacity to

turn out creative output shifted to a lower gear?

 

I will be grateful if some scholar in this group can throw light.

Thanks and regards,

dAsan,

Sudarshan

--- End forwarded message ---

[Guest guest]

Dear Swamins,

During the period of his stay in Satyakalam, to my knowledge on authority, Swami

Desika has given us Abheetistavam, a stotra that prays to God to remove the

fear, not only the fear caused by the wanton destruction and death caused by

infedels in Srirangam but also the fear of man in seeking liberation.

'Abheetistavam' is a beautiful Samskrit poem which with its meaning was

published in the early issues of "Sri Nrisimha Priya" of North America edited

by Sri Dileepan of Tennesse. Swami Desika, it may be recalled, chose

Satyakaalam by chance. When he fled from the attacks of infedels, he entered

the forest area and upon coming to Satyakalam, when he sighted a temple of

Varadaraja right on the banks of the river Kaveri, he was reminded of

Kanchipuram on the banks of the river Vegavathi and that instantly decided his

stay in Satyakalam. That he spent the time there in meditation and in earnest

prayer for the liberation of Srirangam from marauders, can be seen even today,

where there is a quite and peaceful platform under a huge tree right on the

steps of Kaveri where Desika is said to have meditated and in the adjacent

Varadaraja temple, there is the idol of Swami Desika in an unique standing

posture, Nowhere else, I think, Desika is found standing. It is said this

indicates Desika's anxiety to return to Srirangam and anxiously awaiting good

tidings; ready to depart towards Srirangam at a moment's notice.- Dasan

Devanathan.

>"Sudarshan M.K."

> > Fwd: A question on

Swami Desikan's biography >Sat, 24 Nov 2001 07:23:29 -0000 > >--- In

tiruvengadam, "Sudarshan M.K."

>wrote: > >Dear friends, > >I have a question on the biography of Swami Desikan

which perhaps >someone knowledgeable amongst you all may help clarify. > >We

know that a number of SwamiDesikan's 'grantha-s', 'kAvyA-s', >'stOtrA-s' and

'prabhandAm' were authored while he lived in >Kanchipuram, Tiruvaheendarapuram

and SriRangam. > >What are the works he authored while he lived in Satyakaalam?

>According to standard biography, he lived there for more than a >decade. A

decade is a pretty long time and a creative artist like >Swami Desikan could

not have remained barren for that long. But I have >not heard of any work of

his that was composed while he lived in >Satyakaalam. > >Could the period he

spent in Satyakaalam be regarded as a relatively >infertile phase in his life

when his otherwise prodigious capacity to >turn out creative output shifted to

a lower gear? > >I will be grateful if some scholar in this group can throw

light. >Thanks and regards, >dAsan, >Sudarshan >--- End forwarded message --- >

> > Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

[Guest guest]

color:navy">Dear Members,

font-family:"Courier New";color:navy;mso-color-alt:windowtext">

 

>Could the period he spent in

Satyakaalam be regarded as a relatively

>infertile phase in his life when his

otherwise prodigious capacity to

>turn out creative output shifted to a

lower gear?

windowtext">

color:navy">

12.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:navy;mso-color-alt:windowtext">

color:navy">Interesting question.

mso-bidi-font-family:"Courier New"">Although it appears he did not compose (m)any

openly, I guess he probably continued his works secretly to avoid unnecessary attention

from the marauding Muslim forces. Sri AbheetiSthavam might be just one such.

font-family:"Courier New"">

font-family:"Courier New"">Therefore, my take is it was a tactical decision by

Swami Desikan to temporarily limit ‘publishing’ and maintain a low profile, while

contemplating/researching for his later works, planning for setting- up Sri

ParaKala Matam, bringing up Sri Sudarasana Suri’s sons, etc.

font-family:"Courier New"">

font-family:"Courier New"">Respectfully,

font-family:"Courier New"">Sriram

font-family:"Courier New"">

yes">

mso-color-alt:windowtext">

[Guest guest]

Shrimathey Ramanujaaya namaha

Shrimathey Nigamaantha Maha Deshikaaya namaha

 

Dear all,

It is absolutely impossible for the great Acharya to

have been idle during any point in his long life. We

all know that it was during his 100th year that he

wrote the magnum opus of his life viz., Srimad

Rahasyatrayasaaram. Subsequently, he also strengthened

the foundation of our system to the maximum posssible

extent by writing the Virodha pariharam where he asks

questions that could be asked in future (though most

of them have still not been asked) against Sri

Vaishnavam and Visishtadvaita and answers all of them

very easily and convincingly. To our knowledge this

was his last work. Such a great person, inspite of

various other activities would never have lied low. We

all know that some of his works like Aesal, oosal etc.

have been lost. These works were apparently done at

Thiruvaheendrapuram. There are many scholars who

firmly believe that we don't even know exactly how

many works of his are lost. Even the greatest scholar

of the previous century and the greatest since Swami

Desika himself Shri Uttamur Swami Abhinava Desikar it

is heard was not in a position to know which and how

many works of Swami Desika were lost. Hence we can

only safely conclude or assume in the least that all

his works done at Satyakaalam were lost in bulk save

except Abheetistavam which he may have taught others

for them to get rid of their fear. Otherwise a great

savant who needed just 3 hours to compose the Paduka

Sahasram could never have been idle for almost a

decade.

 

Swami Deshikar Thiruvadigaley Sharanam

 

V.K.Vasudevan