Poundarikapuram Swamy Thirunakshatram Celebrations - 1 - Swamy De shikan as an incarnation of Sri Bhashyakara

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Swamy Deshikan Thiruvadigale Sharanam !!!

 

This series is to celebrate the coming Thirunakshatram of

Paravakkottai Srimad Gopala Deshika Maha Deshikan and HH's 20th year of

asecendence on to the acharya peetam. Srimad Poundarikapuram Swamy's

Thirunaklshatram will be celebrated on the 20th of March. His twentieth year

of ascendence to acharya peetam will be celebrated from 6th March to 8th.

 

Our poorvacharyas have celebrated Swamy Deshika also as an

incarnation of Sri Bhagavad Bhashyakara. In this regard, the 36th shlokam of

Yatiraja Saptati is very important as per poorvacharyas. Acharyas have

celebrated this shlokam as a double entendre. One that conveys the purport

of Ramanuja's Srisooktis being the maid-servant of Veda matha, the queen.

Secondly the hidden import is the avataram of Bhagavad Bhashyakara as Swamy

Deshikan. Let us take up this 36th shlokam of Yatiraja Saptati and look into

it from the perspective of Swamy Deshikan as an avataram of Sri Bhagavad

Bhashyakara. Asmad Swamy Srimad Gopala Deshika Maha Deshikan extols this

shlokam very beautifully in his commentary on Yatiraja Saptati of Swamy

Deshika.

 

The line from this shlokam that qualifies for the double entendre is

the following -

" chirantana sarasvatI chikurabandha sairandhrikA "

 

Bhashyakara had a huge ocean of disciples. It seems during the last

days of Ramanuja, his disciples became very worried about their future

acharya. They began to speculate as to who could possibly have the capacity

to ascend to the peetam of SriVaishnavaSri darshanam and continue the

propagation of siddhantam after Ramanuja. Ramanuja one day happened to

listen to one such conversation. He immediately summoned those disciples and

said " Go to the abode of my disciple Kongu Piratti and express your

concern.You shall get an answer " . The disciples faithfully left the ashramam

to meet Kongu Piraatti. They reached her house. Being Ramanuja's disciples,

they were given a warm welcome. They then expressed their concern to her.

 

Kongu Piratti without speaking a word, went inside and brought some

fragrant hair oil, a comb, a saffron ribbon, a white ribbon and sat infront

of them. She first applied fragrant oil to her hair and sorted out all the

tresses in her beshevelled hair. After this she combed her hair well without

leaving any hair locks. She then firmly tied the saffron ribbon on to one

end of her hair. She then relaxed a while and finally tied the white ribbon

firmly at the other end of her hair. After doing so, she bid farewell to her

guests and sent them back to Ramanuja.

 

The totally confused band of disciples came back to Ramanuja.

Ramanuja then enquired as to what had happened. To this, one of the

disciples replied that though they expressed their concern to Kongu

Piraatti, they could not get any verbal answer from her, except for a very

peculiar mono act. The disciples told him all that had happened. Ramanuja

then smiled and said, " She has spoken the truth " . He then began to explain

the meaning of this act by Kongu Piratti.

 

Ramanuja said " Forget the fact that this Kongu Piratti is one among

my disciples. Think of her as the very representation of Veda. She has

become my disciple after having seen the establishment of the true purports

of Vedanta, by the removal of the mutually conflicting arguments of bheda

(differential) and abheda (non-differential) passages, saguna (attributive)

and nirguna (attributeless) passages (shrutis), using the concording

passages or the ghataka shruti of the Vedas " .

 

He continued saying, " Her hair represents the passages of the

Upanishats. Her act of making the tresses initially to wither away, shows

the disrepute attached to the Vedic interpretations by derisive arguments of

wrong philosophers. Her act of applying fragrant oil depicts the

commencement of establishing the true purports of Vedanta using the

antaryami shruti. The removal of tresses in her beshevelled hair and

subsequent combing depicts the refutation of adverse interpretations. It

also depicts the harmony of thoughts expressed by the Vedic passages. The

tying of one end of her hair with a saffron ribbon denotes me, who adorns

the sacred kashayam (ochre robe). It also shows the establshment of

SriVaishnava siddhantam, in an irrefutable way by means of works like

SriBhashyam. The relaxed posture after that depicts her union with her Lord

Veda-vedyan Sriman Narayanan " .

 

The disciples immediately ask him, " What about the white ribbon she used? "

 

To this Ramanuja replies, " We shall come back again in Thuppul after some

time. That time, we shall stay throughout in Grihasthashramam, as it is one

order where more good things can be done to every one. Wearing spotless

white, we shall again propagate and fortify our siddhantam by means of

preaching and writing. We shall uphold the greatness of SriVaishnava

siddhantam and vanquish the debates of other philosophers and make them

extinct " . So saying, Ramanuja himself is believed to have hinted that he

would come back again as Swamy Deshikan.

 

It is for this reason, in Deshika Mangalam, we sing -

 

vEnkatEshAvatAroyam tadghaNTAMshothavA bhavEth |

yatIndrAM shothavEtyEvam vitarkyAyAstu mangaLam ||

 

" He who is held as the incarnation of Lord Srinivasa or His Bell Ghanta or

Sri Bhagavad Ramanuja, Glory unto Him. Glory to the great Venkatanatha !!! " .

 

The views expressed here are in-line with the preachings of poorvacharyas.

adiyEn takes responsibility for all mistakes.

 

vAzhi vyAkhyAmuddirak kai !!!

vedAntasUri charaNau sharaNam prapadye !!!