Experiencing Swami Desika - 66

[Guest guest]

SrI:

Shrimate Shri Lakshmi Nrusimha Parabrahmane Namaha:

Shrimate Shri Seetha Ramachandra Parabrahmane Namaha:

Shrimate Shri Ramanujaya Namaha:

Shrimate Nigamantha Maha Desikaya Namaha:

Shrimate Shrivan Satagopa Shri Narayana Yateendra Mahadesikaya Namaha:

 

" SrimAn VenaktanAthArya: kavithArkika kEsarI!

VedAnthAchArya varyO mE sannidhatthAM sadhA hrudhi " !!

 

We saw that Lord HayagrIva was pratyaksham to Swami Desika.

This was possible only because of Garuda. Shri Appular

initiated the vainateya mantra to Swami and advised him

to concentrate on the mantra and do dhyana on Lord Garuda

to acquire his grace.

 

Swami went to Aindai (Tiru-Ahindrapuram) to start the dhyanam.

Tiru-Ahindrapuram has the garuda nadhi and Oshadhadri hill. These

have been purified by the divine presence of garuda himself.

Swami meditated at the foot of Asvattha tree, on Garuda - the

deity who is Veda incarnate.

 

With in a short time, pleased with Swami, Garuda appeared and

initiated Lord Hayagriva mantra to him. Garuda having instructed

the mantra of Lord HayagrIva - the horse faced supreme god

presiding over all knowledge, advised Swami to propitiate to that

God by dhyana. So, Swami meditated as instructed by Garuda and thus

could have a dharshan of HayagrIva.

 

When we discussed the Kalyana gunas of Swami Desika, we discussed

that Swami was a 'krutagnya:'.One who does not forget the help

rendered is 'krutagnya:'. This being Swami's kalyAna guna, Swami

wanted to please Garuda who helped him to realise the Lord of learning.

Swami's indebtedness to Garuda has resulted in two stotras composed

by him garuda pancasat and garuda dandakam. Swami Desika's

garuda dandakam briefly describes the greatness of Garuda.

The name Garudadandakam was given by Swami Desika himself to this stotra.

 

Later Swami composed garuda Panchasat, the fifty on garuda

who is the vehicle of Bhagavan Narayana and also the king of all

birds. Here Garuda's greatness is dealt with, in greater detail

for the benefit of all.

 

From the last Sloka of garuda Panchasat we learn that Swami Desika

composed this hymn carrying out the command of Lord Garuda.

 

In every one of the four quarters of the hymn Swami pays respects

and salutations to Lord Garuda. From this Swami's devotion to

Lord Garuda is evident.

 

Swami had the realisation of Guruda and Hayagriva in Thiruvahindra puram.

This made Swami Desika continue his stay. In the due course, Swami

worshipped the presiding deity of the shrine - Lord Devanatha.

And that was the birth of all the works on Lord Devanatha which

we saw in our earlier postings.

 

Swami's poetic talents is evident in every Slouch of both these hymns.

For instance in Garuda pancaasat, instead of repeating the word

'Garuda' in every Sloka, thirty-five synonyms are used!

 

In every Sloka Swami makes a prayer to Garuda for protection. Both

these stotras on Garuda is the result of the love and devotion of

Swami Desika to Garuda!!

 

 

" Kavi Taarkika Simhaaya Kalyaana guna SaalinE!

SrimatE VenkateshAya VedAnta Gurave nama !! "

 

....To be continued!

 

 

dEsikan tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

 

Praveena nAmni Ramanuja dasi

10th Aug 1999

[Guest guest]

Sri:

 

Dearest Sisters and Brothers,

 

Smt Praveena's posts are simply great and simple as well. her kaimkaryam and

the efforts she undertakes to post everyday- phenomenal.

 

Her this post on GarudA- stimulates me to ask this question / doubt to

Bhagawathas. Why is that Swami Desikan mentions only a passing line (in

Raghuveera Gadyam) on SiRiya Thiruvadi, while he sand a dhaNdakam and a

Panchasat on Periya Thiruvadi?

 

I may be wrong or miss something somewhere.

 

Regards

 

Narayana Narayana

 

Narayana dAsan

 

 

____

[Guest guest]

Sri:

 

SrimatE Gopaladesika MahadesikAya Namaha,

 

Dear Sriman Madhavakkannan Swamin,

 

Periya Tiruvadi: Garuda occupies an elevated position in Our

sampradayam on account of his eternal Kaimkaryam to Lord Narayana.

The Kaimkaryam of Anjaneya was limited to the Vibhava Avataram of

Lord Rama. The importance of Garuda in our Sampradayam rooted in

the Vedas can be understood from the Vedic association of Garuda.

 

Sthoman is the Saama Vedam passage dealing with Saaman. Sthoman forms

the Atma of Garuda. Garuda's eyes denote the Gayathri Saaman. His

head denotes the Trivruth Saaman. His body is formed of the Vaama Devya

Saaman. Garuda's wings denote the Bruhat Saaman and Radantara

Saaman respectively. Garuda's name is verily the Yajur Vedam.

Garuda's limbs form the Gayathri Chandas. Lord Krishna has declared

in the Bhagavad-Gita VedAnAm Saama VedOsmi. Consequently, due to

his Saama Vedam connection Garuda is extremely special to Lord Narayana and

perforce to Swami Desikan. The uniqueness of Saama

Vedam is that it extols Lord Narayana alone and none else. In

other Vedams, one may find mention of other deities (with the

implicit notion that the tribute is for their in-dweller-Lord

Narayana). Therefore, Saama Vedam occupies the pride of place

in connection with Lord Narayana. Nitya Suris in Sri Vaikuntam

please Lord Narayana through their constant rendition of the

Rks from Saama Vedam. U.Ve. Dr. A. Ananthanarasimhachariar Swamin

(Bangalore), Srikaryam Swami of Srimad Poundarikapuram Ashramam,

remarked in a private conversation with Adiyen that eloquent

testimony in support of the Veda Vakyam " Saama Veda PriyO VishNu: "

can be seen just as the Lord ascends Garuda. Swamin

said " The Lord places His lotus feet on Garuda's palms. Garuda

raises the Lord and seats Him on his back. The repeated raising of

the Lord by Garuda indicates: Behold the Lord of Saama Vedam!

(Thooki Thooki Kamikkarrar) " . Gayathri Saaman focusses exclusively on

the lotus feet of Lord Narayana. Due to its connection with the

Garuda Chakshush, Garuda embodies the VishNu Sooktam Rk " Tad VishNO:

Paramam Padam SadA Pashayanti Soorayaha " . Therefore, Veda-Swaroopi Garuda

begets a status worthy of great pride in our Sampradayam

(Perumai Mikka Stithi).

 

On the other hand, Anjaneya declined Moksham and hence a place in Sri

Vaikuntam. Instead, he preferred to hear the name of Lord Rama in

this Lokam. Since he is not a Nitya Soori he is not immersed in Nitya

Kaimkaryam for Lord Narayana. Due to his relatively smaller role

(in comparison to Garuda), Anjaneya is extolled by Swami Desikan

in a single salutation of the Mahaveera Vaibhavam, whereas Garuda's

Mahimai is extolled in two majestic Stuthis.

 

Adiyen invites other scholars in this forum to contribute their

inputs. Srimans Sadagopan Swamin, Rengarajan Swamin, Anbil Swamin,

Kalale Swamin, and Anand Swamin may have information to add to the above.

 

Namo Narayana,

 

SriMuralidhara Dasan

 

 

 

_____________

Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com

[Guest guest]

Sri:

 

Srimathe Gopaladesika Mahadesikaya Namah:

 

Dearest Sri Murali,

 

BravO! Great references! Lovely Vedic truths! Simple and superb post!

Saama vEdam, ThiruvEmkatam, Garudan, SudharsanaAhwAr, Lakshmi Narasimhan,

Gayathri, Hayagreevar- are all, I know are your favourites.

 

Great writing. Thoroughly enjoyed!

 

Thanks for sharing such sweet info.

 

Regards

 

Narayana Narayana

 

Narayana dAsan

 

 

____

Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

[Guest guest]

SrI:

Dear Shri Muralidhar

namO nArAyaNA.

 

Thanks for your excellent explanation.

 

You wrote

---------------------------

On the other hand, Anjaneya declined Moksham and hence a place in Sri

Vaikuntam. Instead, he preferred to hear the name of Lord Rama in

this Lokam. Since he is not a Nitya Soori he is not immersed in Nitya

Kaimkaryam for Lord Narayana.

----------------------------

 

In view of the above statement Adiyal has a few clarifications.

 

1. When Anjaneya has declined Moksham and is not even immersed in Nitya

Kaimkaryam for Lord Narayana, why is it that he has a separate sannidhi in

the temples? (Though he faces Lord Rama it is still a separate sannidhi).

 

2. We know the Anjaneya cannot be worshipped without Rama, when that be the

case

how is it how is it that we have Anjaneya appearing in the tiruman along

with

other nithyasoories - Peria tiruvadi, Sudarsana and panchacanja ?

 

3. Similarly, in the Aradanam we see that when food is divided into 6 parts

it is

offered to Perumal, ThAyar ... VisvaksenA ...other nithyasoories....

Anjaneya?

When Anjaneya is not a nithya soori and is not in Srivaikundam how is it

that

bojyAsanam is offered to him along with others residing in Srivaikundam?

 

Looking forward for clarifications.

 

Sita Rama Jayam

Praveena nAMni RAmanuja dasi

[Guest guest]

SrI:

SrI Lakshminrusimha ParabrahmaNE namaha

SrI Lakshminrusimha divya pAdukA sEvaka SrIvaN-

SatakOpa SrI nArAyaNa yateendra mahAdESikAya namaha

 

Dear Smt Praveena,

namO nArAyaNA.

 

Extremly sorry for a very belated reply. For past

few weeks adiyEn was not able to catch up with the

e-mails.

 

Smt Praveena wrote :

 

>1. When Anjaneya has declined Moksham and is not even immersed in Nitya

> Kaimkaryam for Lord Narayana, why is it that he has a separate sannidhi

>in

>the temples? (Though he faces Lord Rama it is still a separate sannidhi).

 

 

The practise of constructing separate sannidhis for

aanjanEyar ( addressed with reverence in sampradAyam as

" siRiya thiruvadi " ) is a recent one and it is not

traditional.

 

If we perform pratishta according to aagamAs, the

existing idol/image made of prakruti (materialistic

elements) transforms into archA avatAram

in the case of PerumAL, pirAtti, Nitya sUris (like

AdisEsha, vishwaksEna, Garuda and others), AzhwArs

and SrI Vaishnava AchAryAs, since out of their unbounded

mercy, they make their divine presence in that idol/image

with divine suddha-sattva body (*). The acceptance of

archA avatAram by PerumAL and others is marked by the

presence of their suddha sattva thirumEni and they mercifuly

take this avatAram to please their devotees who wants to

have loving reciprocation and worship them.

 

But, archA thirumEni can be made up of suddha sattvam,

only for those who are free of karma and thus are at SrI

VaikuNTam serving the divya dampati. Thus for the vigraha

of annjanEyar, the suddha sattvam thirumEni is not possible,

since he is serving PerumAL here itself and has not obtained

moksham yet. This is the reason for not having separate

sannidhis to aanjanEyar, sages like vyAsar and others

who are still in this materialistic world, though they

are exalted souls.

 

Thus, one can have separate sannidhis for Garudan (

addressed with reverence as " PeRiya thiruvadi " in

sampradAyam), SudarsanAzhwAr (Chakra / discus of PerumAL),

Bhagavad RAmAnuja, SwAmi dESikan, AthivaNN SatakOpa Jeeyar

and others because, all of them are free of karma and are

at SrI VaikuNTam (**).

 

While separate sannidhis for Brahma, Siva, aanjanEyar and

others can't be had, they can be present as bhAgavathAs

worshipping an archA avatAram of PerumAL. Thus, we see

in temples Brahma from nAbhi kamalam of PerumAL, aanjanEyar

alongwith Lord rAmA etc and can be worshipped.

 

>

>2. We know the Anjaneya cannot be worshipped without Rama, when that be the

>case

>how is it how is it that we have Anjaneya appearing in the tiruman along

>with

>other nithyasoories - Peria tiruvadi, Sudarsana and panchacanja ?

 

 

There is a difference between " Worshipping " and showing

reverence. Worship is performed in accordance with aagamAs.

We know about PerumAL, Garuda, aanjanEyar and others through

scriptures and we have to also worship them according

to scriptures. Thus, we can't worship aanjanEyar in a

separate sannidhi. But aanjanEyar, is addressed

with great reverence as " siRiya thiruvadi " in our

sampradAyam for the very great kainkaryams he performed

to Lord Rama and sItA pirAtti. Thus, aanjanEyar being a

great devotee is also present alongwith others as

mentioned by you.

 

>

>3. Similarly, in the Aradanam we see that when food is divided into 6 parts

>it is

>offered to Perumal, ThAyar ... VisvaksenA ...other nithyasoories....

>Anjaneya?

>When Anjaneya is not a nithya soori and is not in Srivaikundam how is it

>that

>bojyAsanam is offered to him along with others residing in Srivaikundam?

 

First of all, adiyEn has not received such an upadEsam

of splitting a part of prasAdam to aanjanEyar. It is

not present in the aahnIkam commentry " SrI Vaishnava

SadAchAra nirnaya " by current Villivalam Azhagiyasingar.

This splitting of prasAdam into six parts is not in the

tradition of munitraya sampradAyam which is based upon SrI

GOpAladESikan's aahnikam. adiyEn would like to know if some

AchArya parampara follows such a tradition of splitting

the prasAdam and keeping a portion for nivEdanam to

aanjanEyar.

 

According to the tradition followed in SrI Ahobila Mutt,

(from the commentry by Azhagiyasingar), after performing

nivEdanam to PerumAL, the prasAdam is split into the

following six parts :

 

1. For performing vaisvadEvam by gruhastAs.

 

2. For performing nivEdanam to SrI dEvi (ie. Lakshmi

alias " pERiya pirAtti " ), followed by nivEdanam

to SrI VishwaksEnar, NammAzhwAr and aachAryAs of

the guruparampara downto one's direct aachArya.

 

3. For nivEdanam to BhUmi dEvi and nILA dEvi.

 

4. For nivEdanam to aadisEshan.

 

5. For nivEdanam to Garudan.

 

6. For nivEdanam to " divya booshana - divya aayuda -

pAdukA parijana - paricchadangaL " (ie. for divine

nitya sUris serving as divine ornaments, weapons,

sandal and other assistants/servitors).

 

This anyway doesn't mean that we disrespect aanjanEyar's

exaltedness as a great bhAgavathA (as discussed

above).

 

------

 

 

(*) : SwAmi dESikan by quoting from pAn~carAtra texts,

explains that just as how excess milk (eg: 10 litres)

when mixed with little water (eg: 1 litre), is still

milk ( of 11 litres), the archA thirumEni (divine

body) of archA avatArams of PerumAL and others

are made up of suddha sattvam (excess amount) though

prakruti (small amount) is present. Thus, one should

never ever look at archA thirumEnis as if it is

something materialistic.

 

(**) : PerumAL and pirAtti are vibhu ie. all pervading.

So, they are also present personally in the

archA avatAram they take and through that, they

accept various forms of worship as indicated

in sAstrAs. But nitya sUrIs like Garuda are

jIvAtmAs which are " aNu " and thus can be at

only one place. Thus, while they are at SrI

VaikuNTam , they make their divine presence in

the archA avatAram through their fully expanded

dharmabhUta jn~Anam (attributive knowledge).

Thus, though they may not be physically present

in each of their archA avatArams, they accept

the worship of the devotees through their

dharmabhUta jn~Anam which is fully expanded to

comprehend everything and bless the devotees

accordingly.

 

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan

ananthapadmanAbha dAsan

krishNArpaNAm

 

 

_____________

Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com

[Guest guest]

SrI:

Dear Shri Anand

namO nArAyaNA.

 

Thanks a lot for the excellent explanations relating to siriya Thiruvadi.

Extremely sorry for the belated response.

 

Shri Anand Karalapakkam wrote:

----------------------------

While separate sannidhis for Brahma, Siva, aanjanEyar and

others can't be had, they can be present as bhAgavathAs

worshipping an archA avatAram of PerumAL. Thus, we see

in temples Brahma from nAbhi kamalam of PerumAL, aanjanEyar

alongwith Lord rAmA etc and can be worshipped.

 

(**) : PerumAL and pirAtti are vibhu ie. all pervading.

So, they are also present personally in the

archA avatAram they take and through that, they

accept various forms of worship as indicated

in sAstrAs. But nitya sUrIs like Garuda are

jIvAtmAs which are " aNu " and thus can be at

only one place. Thus, while they are at SrI

VaikuNTam , they make their divine presence in

the archA avatAram through their fully expanded

dharmabhUta jn~Anam (attributive knowledge).

Thus, though they may not be physically present

in each of their archA avatArams, they accept

the worship of the devotees through their

dharmabhUta jn~Anam which is fully expanded to

comprehend everything and bless the devotees

accordingly.

 

----------------------------

 

AdiyEn needs one more clarification.

 

Brahma, Siva, aanjanEyar and other's are Jivatmas. They

are aNu. So, even if they are placed in seperate sannidhi's do

we really believe that they are be present there? Can they

know the happenings every where?

 

AdiyEn also wants to know the proper meaning of " yatra

yatra raghunAtha keerthanam... " . How can Shri AnjanEyar

who is in this materialistic world be present where ever rAma

nAmam is recited? Does he have expanded Dharma

bhootha gjnanam or sth like that?

 

Acharyan ThiruvadigalE saranam

Praveena nAmni Ramanuja dasi