The numeral "44" and Mukkur Azhagiyasingar !!

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

 

Last Friday's "The Hindu" carried in its columns a very moving

tribute

by one Sri.R.Varadarajan to the memory of the 44th Azhagiyasingar

whose 107th "tirunakshatram" happens to fall today, 9th September'02.

 

It is interesting to see how the author gleans meaning and

significance into the numeral 44!

 

Today is a blessed day indeed for us who are able to remember the

great 'mahAn' who all his life strode as tall as the legacy he left

behind --- the magnificent 'rajagopuram' of the SriRangam temple.

 

Regards,

dAsan,

Sudarshan

 

******************************

 

 

MY FIRST divine encounter with the 44th Jeeyar of the Ahobila Math,

reverentially known as Mukkur Azhagiyasingar was full of

significance. That was in August 1965, when I was planning to leave

for the U.S., California University, to be precise. I had an audience

with the Jeeyar in his native village Mukkur. The Jeeyar enquired

with keen interest my family background, education and the purpose of

my trip to America. As I prostrated before him, he showered plentiful

akshate on me and also gave a handful Phala Mantrakshate

prophetically saying, `Gettikaran, Uyarnda Padavikku Varuve' — (smart

fellow, you will reach a high position). I progressed in my career,

never forgetting that all my achievements were on account of my

Aacharyan's Kataksham. In my retired life, I am now beholden to pay

homage to this seer of sagacious wisdom, indomitable courage and

spiritual eminence on the occasion of his 107th Tirunakshatram on

September 9.

 

Rangarajachar and Ranganayaki were the parents of Rajagopalachar as

this Jeeyar was known in his Grihastha Ashramam. The planets in his

horoscope were all in an elevated conjunction destining him to become

the most illustrious pontiff of the Ahobila Math in the 20th century.

In his 62nd year he assumed the mantle as the 44th Jeeyar in

Naimisaranyam in December 1957, in the auspicious Sravana Nakshatram,

in the Tamil month of Karthigai. Rajagopalachar in his Sanyasa

Ashramam was named Srivan Sadagopa Sri Vedanta Desikan after the

luminary Swami Desikan whose birth star was also Sravanam. Jeeyar

reigned supreme for 35 years ministering the religious and spiritual

services to his vast concourse of disciples.

 

Ever immersed in meditation on Malolan, the presiding deity of

Ahobila Math, Sriman Sadagopa Sri Vedanta Desikan realised his

oneness with Lakshmi Narashiman through his staunch Anushtanam. He

was ever pure of body, mind and soul. Graceful and majestic was his

gait even as that of the beautiful lion, Azhagiyasingar. In him the

world of Ahobila Math lived, moved and had its being. He had an

intuitive power to read into the hearts of his disciples and realise

for them their unspoken wishes even beyond their wildest

expectations. He had a watchful eye on the rights and duties of his

sishyas to assiduously preserve the sampradayam. To himself, he was a

strict task master, his daily life was but a silent example and an

unspoken lesson in its perfect discharge of the manifold and

complicated round of duties.

 

His grasp and mastery over Sri Bhashyam and Bhagavadvishayam was

unsurpassed and peerless. His exposition and elucidation in Vidwat

Sadas amazed the scholar and the layman alike. He had the memory

power to recall apt aphorisms to astound the audience. His logic was

clear and convincing. He was so keen and thorough in his discourses

that he was regarded as the quintessence of Azhwars and Ramanuja's

Bhakti and Gyana — devotion and knowledge par excellence. `Abhinava

Vedanta Desika' was an honorific title he inhered for his incisive

and lucid commentaries on Tiruppavai, Sri Bhashyam, and Rahsaya Trya

Saram. The stotras he composed on Lakshmi Narashiman are recited

daily during the Abhigamana Aradhanam in the Ahobila Math. He

improvised the Madhurantakam Vishishtadwaita Research centre and the

Nrisimhapriya Journal started by his predecessors.

 

When some persons tried to scuttle the samprokshanam of the Srirangam

temple Rajagopuram in March 1987, he dared to go ahead with the

muhurtam already fixed by him, which put the State Government in a

fix. The then Vice-President, R. Venkataraman and the Tamil Nadu

Chief Minister, M.G. Ramachandran took charge of the situation and

the consecration was performed as scheduled. The Jeeyar lauded the

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister as `Em Jeeyar' meaning one who gave succour

in the hour of need. Among the masses he is known as Gopuram Swamy

for the numerous temple towers he built and dedicated. The poor and

the needy found in him an ever ready and large-hearted donor for

celebration of marriages, upanayanams and obsequies. His magnanimity

and generosity earned him the sobriquet `Dana Shoora Karna'.

 

Sri Anantha Narashimachar, a close confidant of the Jeeyar sums up

his eminence in an inimitable manner permutating the numeral 44. Four

plus four denotes the eight auspicious attributes of the liberated

soul — the Jeevan Muktan. Four multiplied by four enumerates the 16

virtues — Kalyana Gunangal — of Sri Rama narrated by sage Narada to

Valmiki, which the Jeeyar donned on him most gracefully. Four minus

four points to the infinity zero — Poojyam — the state of immanence

in the Almighty as the Jeeyar was the very being of Lakshmi

Narasimha. Four to the power of four, 256 added together signifies

the 13 tiers of the Raja Gopuram of which he was the architect. Four

divided by four point to the one and only towering Jeeyar in the

annals of Ahobila Math.

 

Mukkur Azhagiyasingar radiates his divinity and spiritual brilliance

on his perennial flow of pilgrims passing through the Mottai Gopura

Vasal to worship Sri Ranganathar in Srirangam. He passed away on

August 16, 1992, at the age of 97. His body is interned adjacent to

his Acharyan, the 41st Jeeyar, Srivan Sadagopa Sri Lakshmi Narashima

Sadagopa Yateendra Maha Desikan's Brindavanam (tomb) near the

Dasavataram temple.

 

******* ********** *********

 

 

 

Finance - Get real-time stock quotes

http://finance.