SEvA SwAmi attained Paramapadam !

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SrI:

SrImatE rAmAnujAya namaH

SrImatE nigamAnta mahAdESikAya namaH

 

namO nArAyaNa!

 

Dear all,

 

Its a sad day for all SrI VaishNavas, for we have lost

one of the great mahAns of our sampradAyam, quite

unexpectadly. SrI SrInivAsa-RAghavAchArya SwAmi,

very popularly known as " SEvA SwAmi " has attained his

AchArya-thiruvaDi (ie.paramapadam) today. Though SwAmi will

be relishing now with Bhagavad-anubhavam and kai~nkaryams

at SrI-VaikuNTham, we have lost the association of this

great mahAn - who had much more to give for us through

his publications.

 

SwAmi was acclaimed as " DESika Bhakta RatNa " and

SwAmi made himself be addressed as " DESika SEva "

and not by his actual name - Such was his great devotion

to SwAmi DESikan. SwAmi was born in the lineage of the

AppuLLAr, the AchArya of SwAmi VEdAnta DESika.

Throughout his life, SwAmi spent writing and delivering

kAlakshEpams and upanyAsams related to " SwAmi DESika "

and SwAmi DESika's divine works. The topic for either writing

or speaking might be on PerumAL Or AzhwArs Or any of the

AchAryas Or any issue in SAstra - SwAmi always handled

them in connection with only SwAmi DESika. Like how

NammAzhwAr declared that anything and everything for him

is only kaNNan {perumAL} - be it food,water etc, for SwAmi,

anything and everything was only " SwAmi DESikan " . SwAmi once

mentioned in an upanyAsam with great regret that while the

" Bhagavad " Sabda is used for Sage VyAsa, Sage VAlmIki, ALavandAr

and EmperumAnAr, scholars hesitate somehow to use it for

SwAmi DESikan - Ironically according to him, its SwAmi DESikan -

the avatAra of Lord SrInivAsa of Thirumala - wherein the

avatAra paripUrNatvam took place and " Bhagavad " Sabda is

most appropriate to only SwAmi DESikan. During one of the recent

conversations, SwAmi said that while it was Bhagavad RAmAnuja

who " saved " the Bramhan-SrIman NArAyana- from the philosophers of

various other systems of thought {in presenting the Ultimate Reality

SrIman NArAyaNa to the world with various fallacies and wrong

notions} - as stated by SwAmi DESikan in YatirAja Saptati -, it is

only Bhagavad VEdAnta DESika, who " saved " " Bhagavad RAmAnuja " by

completly safeguarding BhAshyakAra's divine works from extranious

attacks and mis-interpretations. SwAmi then remarked that but for

SwAmi DESikan, our sampradAyam would have reminded as a

" Daddhi-aNNam sampradAyam " (Curd-Rice sampradAyam) ie. sampradAyam

with mere celebration of festivals and eating prasAdam, without

sound knowledge of Tattva-Hita-PurushArthas.

 

SwAmi was a recipient of the prestigious " President's Award "

for scholarship in Sanskrit. SwAmi was an immensely gifted

poet. The numerous stotras composed by swAmi stands

as testimony.

 

SwAmi's stotra compositions are :

 

* SrI Lakshmi-Hayavadana Pan~chAsat (51 verses)

* SrI HayagrIva Pan~chAsat (52)

* Halahalana mAlika (13)

* HayagrIva GAyatri VarNamAlAstavam (32)

* HayagrIva Nakshatra MAlika (27)

* SrI Lakshmi-Nrusimha Pan~chAsat (51)

* Lakshmi-Nrusimha-AnudhyAnam (101)

* KOdaNDarAma Pan~chAsat (52)

* SrI Lakshmi Pan~chAsat (53)

* SrI Lakshmi-NArAyaNa Stotram

* SrI GhaTikAchalastavam

* Akshaya AarAdhanam (61)

* DAmOdara SuprabAdam

* Divya-DEsa-anubhUti Sahasram (1000+)

* Hanumat Pan~chAsat (53)

 

Three months back, Swami blessed aDiyEn with his latest

composition on ANDAL viz. " GOdA-Stotram " with 36 + 2 verses.

 

SwAmi has translated many Divya-Prabandhams into

Sanskrit - notably ThiruppAvai (in 60 verses), NAcchiyAr

Thirumozhi, KaNNin^uNsiRutthAmbu, ThirukuRun^dANDakam,

ThirumAlai and ThiruvAimozhi.

 

SwAmi's kAvyam " SrI VE~nkaTanAtheeyam " is a master-piece,

consisting of 1008 verses. Its a treasure esp. for the

devotees of Lord ThiruvE~nkaTamuDayAn of Thirumalai. The

descriptions of various vAhanams/uttsavams is one of the

outstanding features of this great kAvya. aDiyEn was spellbound

when swAmi explained one verse from this kAvya on Chandra-Prabha

vAhana sEvai, during his upanyAsam on the eve of SrI UtthamUr

SwAmi's Thirunakshatram celebrations. SwAmi's great rAsikyam and

poetic thoughts soaked with devotion has made a great impact upon

me. SwAmi's other excellent kAvyam is " SrI Varada-abhidAna

Sahasram " , a 1008 verse composition on Lord VaradarAja of KAn~chi.

 

SwAmi has published many chapters of SwAmi DESikan's mahA-kAvya

YAdavAbhyudaya with his commentary. SwAmi's monthly magazine

" SrI DESika SEVa " which has been run for some decades is

quite popular. Under the umbrella of " SrI VEdAnta DESika Research

Centre " , SwAmi has initiated lots of projects and succesfully

completed many. SwAmi published most of SwAmi DESikan's stotras

with his sweet commentary in Tamil, which were all distributed free

of cost, since SwAmi felt that fixing up of a price for the

invaluable and " priceless " divine works of SwAmi DESikan, would

be an insult to them - Priceless divine works were made " priceless " .

SwAmi also made many of SwAmi DESikan's stotras be commented upon

by appropriate scholars in English,Hindi, Telugu, Oriya and other

such Indian Languages and distributed them free of cost. SwAmi's

" DESika SampradAya PATha Thittam " - graded lessons for children has

been very useful for even the parents to teach their children on

various aspects of our sampradAyam. SwAmi's " SEvA Diary " - a

sampradAyam based Diary, will almost be with every devout

SrI VaishNava's house.

 

SwAmi maintained MaNi ManTapam with Lord HayagrIva as the AarAdhana

mUrti,which is understandable since AppuLLAr's aarAdhana mUrti

was also Lord HayagrIva, which was passed on to SrI VEdAnta DESika.

SwAmi was deeply devoted to " Abhinava DESika " UtthamUr SwAmi too

with an additional bondage as a disciple in NyAya SAstra. SwAmi

performed kAlakshEpam under the illustrious NAvalpAkkam SrI AyyA

DEvanAtha TathAchArya SwAmi. SwAmi was like humility incarnate,

which would be evident even in his upanyAsams. Even while presenting

the " GOdA-Stotram " Swami said " SwAmi DESikan has already performed

a befitting unmatchable stuti to ANDAL. This is aDiyEn's blaberrings

within the scope of my dull-intellect. Didn't SwAmi DESikan say that

ANDAL's kalyANa guNas puts an end to his silence ? " .

 

SwAmi had mercifully graced aDiyEn's upanayanam ceremony and

performed an upanyAsam also by releasing his commentary to

" SrI Ki~ngruhESa-Stuti " on EvvuL-KiDanthAn (Lord VIrarAghava

of thiru-evvuLUr) which was requested so by aDiyEn's father

SrI K.G.KrishNan (KGK). aDiyEn's Vaidika sraddha - whatever be

it- must be due to SwAmi's blessings during the upanayanam.

This 18+1 verse stotra (SrI Ki~ngruhESa-Stuti) is a disputed

composition by SwAmi DESikan - as made so by some in the past.

Its actually by one of the Azhagiyasi~ngars of SrI Ahobila Muth,

as clarified in the Sannidhi Guruparampara. aDiyEn is a rasika

of SwAmi's commentaries and his unique-styled upanyAsams.

 

SwAmi's message for all of us can be summarized as follows :

 

BhagavAn VEdAnta DESika is the unparalleled AchArya in whole

history of Earth. Bhagavad VEdAnta DESika's divine works are the

brightest guiding light for the entire world - be it in attainment

of either material or spiritual prospects. Spreading the divine

works of Bhagavad VEdAnta DESika to the entire world is the topmost

service for the humanity and most loved by pUrvAchAryas like

Bhagavad RAmAnuja and the Divya-Dampati.

 

Let us take an oath to act in fulfilment of these objectives

in whatever way possible within our limits and remind ourselves

daily about the same - which would be most pleasing to this

great mahAn.

 

aDiyEn requests SrI-VaishNavas to dedicate sometime in their

next immediete gathering (like NAMA events) for paying their

homage to SrI SEvA SwAmi.

 

VAzhi DESika Bhakta-RatNa " SrI DESika SEvA " SwAmi !

VAzhi ThUppul VEdAntAchArya and his SrI-SUktIs !

 

aDiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,

anantapadmanAbhan.