Sri Vedanta Desika's LokAchArya PanchAsat

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Sri:

 

Srimate rAmAnujAya nama:

 

My humble obeisances to all the vaishnavAs in this forum. As we all know, some

time back there was a small discussion on lOkachArya panchAsat. It is a authored

by Swami Desikan, consisting of 54 verses, each verse rife with the glories of

piLLai lOkachAryar. It is interesting to note that this work of Swami Desikan is

more common in places like ThiruNArAyanapuram and Srirangappattinam, but is yet

to get as much prominence in the Sri Vaishnava shrines in Tamil Nadu.

 

Adiyen had gone to India for a month and while looking around for books on our

sampradAya, I was lucky to find this book on lOkAchArya panchAsat with beautiful

translation and commentaries by Sri U.Ve. Dr. V. V. Ramanujan.

 

Since I am a novice in our sampradaya, I thought it would be a great service I

could render if I translate the meanings and commentaries to English.

 

I hope and pray all the adiyArs in this forum to kindly excuse me for any faults

in the translation.

 

Let us start with a short glimpse of piLLai lOkachAryar's vaibhavam.

 

PiLLai lOkAchAryAr vaibhavam

 

lOkAchAryAya guravE krshNapAdasya sUnavE

 

samsAribhOgi sandaSta jeevajeevAdave nama:

 

Tunnu pugazhk kandAdai tOzhappar (the grandson of MudaliAndAn), with out of

great love and excitement addressed nampiLLai as "enna ulagAriyAnO" (knower of

the world). Henceforth "ulagAriyAn" became one of the famous names of nampiLLai.

Vadakku thiruveedhip piLLai, the dear disciple of nampiLLai, by the grace and

blessings of his AchAryan had a beautiful (eldest) son, and had him named after

his AchAryan. The young boy was thus called ulagAriyAn - lOkAchAryan. nanjeeyar

who observed that his AchAryan Battar was fittingly glorious to be the son of

Sri kooraththAzhwAn, started addressing him as "PiLLai". Due to their vast

knowledge and jnAna, it became a tradition to address our AchAryas as "piLLai".

PiLLai lOkAchAryar appeared on the aippasi month, on the day of the thiruvOna

nakshatram - Poigai AzhwAr, the eldest of the AzhwArs had the same

thirunakshatram too. His younger brother was azhagiya perumAL nAyanAr. The

brothers with the complete grace and blessings of nampiLLai accepted

their own father as their AchAryan and later turned out to be the greatest

scholars.

 

It has been mentioned by ManavALa MAmunigaL in the introduction part of his

purport on Srivacana bhooshanam that Pillai lOkAchAryar was the incarnation of

kAnchi dEvarAjap perumAL. Swami PiLLai lOkAchAryar and his younger brother had

the greatest fortune of learning under great scholars and leaders like their own

father, Sri nampiLLai and the great PeriyavAchchAn PiLLai. It is indeed our

great fortune that these two brothers have blessed us with the wealth of their

knowledge in the forms of the granthAs that they had authored.

 

Pillai lOkAchAryar and nAyanAr remained celibate through out their lives. Out of

the many granthAs authored by Sri Pillai lOkAchAryar, the famous ones that we

know are the 18 rahasya granthAs collectively known as "ashTAdhacharasisyam" out

of which Rahasya-thraya vivaranam (also known as Mumukshuppadi ), thathva

thrayam and Srivachana bhooshanam are the three most important works. ManavAla

MAmunigal has written purports on all these three important granthAs. It is

indeed our great loss and misfortune that many of the granthAs authored by Swami

Pillai lOkAchAryar are lost.

 

Pillai lOkAchAryar had many disciples. Some of the famous of them were

koorakulOththama dAsar, ViLanchOlaipp Pillai and Thirumalai AzhwAr. This

Thirumalai AzhwAr was later gloriously called as "ThiruvAimozhippiLLai" and is

placed next to Pillai lOkAchAryar in the AchArya Parampara. ThiruvAimozhippiLLai

was the Guru of Sri ManvALa MAmunigaL.

 

Pillai lOkAchAryar in his last days was carrying the Deity of namperumAL (the

procession deity of Srirangam) when Srirangam was attacked by the muslims.

Robbers attacked and looted most of the possessions, but Pillai lOkAchAryar made

arrangements for namperumAL to be safe. He left his body for Vaikuntha in a town

called jyOthishkudi.

 

A detailed version of his vaibhavam can be found in the work called

YatheendhrapravaNa prabhAvam authored by piLLailOkam Jeeyar.

 

AzhwAr emperumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saranam.

 

Dasan,

 

Kidambi Soundararajan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The New Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.

 

 

[Guest guest]

Sri:

Srimathe Ramanujaya nama:

Srimad Vara Vara Munaye nama:

 

Dear Soundar,

Your posting was very informative and good. On behalf of

all the members of this forum I pray that thAyAr and PerumAL and saha

bhAgavthAs bless this young and recently married couple(Sow Krithika

and Sri Kidambi Soundararajan/soundar)with great health,wealth,

happiness and everything and above all a great service to

emperumAnAr's SriVaiShNava sampradAyam.

 

Wish you a very very very happy married life and I'm proud of having

an association with a great bhAgavatha like you and you're

undoubtedly an asset to our SV tradition.

 

AzhvAr emperumAnAr jIyar thiruvadigaLE sharaNam

NC Nappinnai

[Guest guest]

Sri:

Srimathe Ramanujaya Nama:

 

Dear Sri Kidambi Soundararajan,

 

adiyEn is glad to hear that you wish to translate the

Lokacharya Panchasat and its meanings in this forum.

The contribution of Pillai Lokacharyar to our

sampradhayam is unmatched - both through his works in

setting the philosophy in the right path (although

most people would associate Manavala Mamnuigal first

when thinking of the Thenkalai sampradhayam, it is

to Pillai Lokacharyar who we should look first in

this); and in protecting Namperumal vigraham from

the invading hordes at a ripe old age. So, your

effort is very important.

 

You have mentioned in your introduction that Manavala

Mamunigal states that Pillai Lokacharyar is the

incarnation of Kanchi dEva-p-perumAL. The story behind

this is worth re-visting. So, adiyEn will paraphrase

that portion of Pillai Lokacharyar's vaibhavam here.

 

--

 

One time Kanchi Devaraja Perumal, out of His nirhEduka

krpa, selected one Manarpakkam Nambi, and appearing in

his dream taught him some special rahasya meanings. He also

advised him to go live in Srirangam and wait for

Him there, where He would teach him in further detail

those meanings.

 

Manarpakkam Nambi then moved to Srirangam, built a

small temple and quietly lived there worshipping Him

and keeping the meanings revealed by Him to himself.

One day, Pillai Lokacharyar came to that temple with

his close disciples and seeing the quiet nature of

the place began teaching his disciples the meanings

of rahasyas.

 

Nambi listening from inside noted that these meanings

were the same as taught by Lord Varadaraja to him. He

then came out and bowing at Pillai Lokacharyar's feet,

asked him "AvarO nIr?" (Are you the one? (the same as

Lord Devaraja) ).

 

Pillai Lokacharyar replied "Yes, and why do you ask?".

Manarpakkam Nambi then explained his dream to him.

This is the avatara rahasyam of Pillai Lokacharyar.

 

Pillai Lokacharyar then took Nambi as his disciple and

taught him the meanings of the rahasyas. Nambi then

told him that Lord Varadaraja had asked him to request

Pillai Lokacharya to collect these meanings as a

book. The book thus written is Sri Vacana Bhushanam.

 

--

 

AzhvAR emperumAnAr jIyar thiruvadigaLE sharaNam

 

adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan