SrI Lakshmi Sahasram : An overview of SrI Lakshmi Sahasram: Part 1

[Guest guest]

VaikAsi VisAkam , PourNami Tithi Kaancheepuram Garuda Sevai dinam

 

SrI PadmAvathi SamEta SrinivAsa

ParaBrahmaNae Nama:

 

SrImatE HayagrIvAya nama:

 

SrImatE RaamAnujAya nama:

 

SrImatE NigamAnta MahA DesikAya nama :

 

SrI VenaktAdhvari SvAminE nama:

SrI:On this Full Moon Day , when KaanchiVaradarAjan blesses us with His Garuda Sevai , adiyEn seeks His anugraham to commence the Kaimkaryam of a new web site named "HayagrIvan" to house the new set of108 ebooks

after poorthy of the Sundara Simham

and Ahobilavalli ebooks Kaimakryams .

 

adiyEn's sincere thanks to the Sundara

Simham and the Ahobilavalli Teams

for making ti possible to create 216

ebooks on our rich Ubhaya VedAntha

sampradhAyam .

The first ebook in the HayagrIvan

series will be SrI Lakshmi Sahasram

bequeathed to us by MahA Kavi ,ArasANippAlai SrI VenkatAdhvari .He belonged to the AtrEya gOtramand lived some 350 years ago . GreatAchAryans like KidAmbi AacchAn( MadapaLLI AcchAn , Acharya RaamAnujA's direct sishyar) , ApuLLAr (Swamy Desikan's AchAryan),AdhivANN SaThakOpa Jeeyar ,SaakshAth Swamy , ThirukkudanthaiDesikan ( Founder of Munithraya sampradhAyam ) belonged to this illustrious Vamsam according to ChEtlUr SrIvatsAngAcchAr Swamy.

 

ArasANippAlai Swamy had His

SrI BhAshya KaalkshEpam under

Thirukkudanthia Andavan and His

BharanyAsam under the sacred

feet of SrI SaakshAth Swamy .

 

ArasANippalai Swamy was one of the greatest poet and author of five champu KaavyAs, Kaavya NaatakAm ,StOtra grantams, KaNDana grantams ,AchArya PanchAsath on Swamy Desikan,VyAkarana and MeemAmsa grantams.All in all he has blessed us with 100SrI Sooktis .The magnum opus among all of his gifted compositions is SrI Lakshmi Sahasram. SrI Lakshmi Sahasram has 25 staBakams(chapters/flower bunches used to createa flower garland ) . The stOtram has 1021 slOkams . These 25 staBakams echo the thoughts of Swamy Desikan's SrI stuti housed in the form of 25 slOkams. Each of these staBakams start with anushtup meterand end mostly with AryA vruttham . Thisorganization follows that of Swamy Desikanin His SrI RanganAtha PaadhukA Sahasram .ArasANippAlai swamy was a "poet par excellence"with extraordinary skills to swim in the oceans ofVedAnta SaastrAs and poetry . His extraordinaryskills in the play with the words and syllables has earned him the birudhu of " SlEsha-Yamakachakravarty" . Here slEsha means use of words with hidden double meaning and Yamakam refers to " the use of words and syllables inthe same stanza or verse similar in sound butwith different meaning ".

 

Sri Lakshmi Sahasram arose as a prayer

from ArasANippAlai Swamy , when he lost

his eye sight suddenly . His prayer was to

TriucchAnUr PadmAsani ThAyAr in the form

of 1021 slOkams . Thanks to the adhbhutha

KaaruNyam of MahA Lakshmi ThAyAr ,

the poet's eye sight was restored . Even today,

people with eye problems recite SrI Lakshmi

Sahasram and seek Her karuNA kaDAksham

to cure them of their diseases .

 

Sri Krishna sabha of Mumbay released most

recently a beautiful book on SrI Lakshmi

Sahasram . U.Ve. ChetlUr SrIvatsankAcchAr

Swamy has provided a scholarly introduction

to each of the 25 chapters of this SrI sookthi

besides a general introduction . Sri PatrachAryAr

swami of SrI KrishNa Sabha has summarized

the general introduction of SrI Chetlur Swamy ;

adiyEn will use SrI PatrAcchAr Swamy's crisp

summary to introduce the 25 staBakams starting

from PrAramba staBakam to Phala staBakam .

adiyEn is thankful to Sri Veeraraghavan Swamy

of Chembur for sending a copy of this book .

 

Dr. NavalpAkkam KaNNan Swamy , who is

the Vice Chancellor of Federal University of

Hyderabad and winner of the prestigious

Ramanujam prize for Mathematics ,

continues to write every month

scholarly articles on the individual slOkams

of each staBakam in SrI Ranaganatha

PaadhukA of SrI Andavan Aasramam;

he has arrived now at chitra staBakam .

He has only three more staBakams

( sankeertana , NirvEdha and Phala

staBakams ) to conclude this Kaimkaryam .

Sriman KaNNan Swamy's writings have been an

eye opener to the great scholarship of

the NavalpAkkam AchArya Paramparai .

 

We have already covered the 17th chapter ,

" Naama Vaibhavam " in the Sundara Simham

ebook series ( 100th ebook ). It has 42 slOkams .

I have followed the writings of Sriman KaNNan

Swamy there and will continue to benefit from this great

Scholar's writings in covering SrI Lakshmi Sahasram .

 

Let us now have a synopsis of the 25 chapters of

SrI Lakshmi Sahasram based on SrIvatsAngAcchAr

Swamy's brilliant introduction . After that synopsis ,

adiyEn will take the slOkams of individual chapters

for annotated commentaries .

 

( To Be continued )

 

Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri Sadagopan