Swamy Desikan life and Dhivya mangaLa vigraha dhyAnam

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SrI:

SrImathE Nigamantha Mahadesikaya namah:

Dearest Srivaishnavas,

 

Acharyan is the dispeller of all sins. He removes the darkness from our

minds and removes ignorance. He gives us new birth (vidya janmam); He is the

Father and the manthram (which He initiates us with) is the Mother. This

birth places us on the path which meads us to an end to all future births

and deaths. He endows us with divine vision. He has infinite amount of

compassion towards us. He always is interested in our welfare. On account of

all of these, He is always to be worshipped as the Lord Himself. One should

never harbour any feeling that he is doing a good return for what Acharya

has done by paying few dollars. It is only as a token of our gratitude.

 

First let us look briefly at the life of Swamy Desikan on his

thirunakshathram today.

 

Born to Sri Anantasuri and Smt Totarambha at Thoopul, a locality of Kanchi,

he is believed to have been the very incarnation of Lord Srinivasa’s

GaNTAmani (temple Bell). He derived the name GaNTAvatharam in the taniyan

because of this. His intellectual brilliance was discernable even from his

childhood. Once as a child of five years, he was taken to the august

religious assembly- Kaalakshepa Goshti- of Sri Nadadur AmmAL by his maternal

uncle Sri Appullar, who was mainly responsible for his education in the

religious line. Sri Ammal and his disciples were so captivated by the divine

appearance of the little boy Desikan, they were diverted for sometime and

forgot what they were discussing to trace. It was the little Boy Desikan who

came to their rescue by pointing out the place of the discourse from where

their attention was diverted. They were all simply stupefied on seeing the

extraordinary intellect and brilliance of Swamy at that age and Sri Ammal

who was overwhelmed with joy, and admiration blessed him for a great future

where he would succeed in establishing the philosophy of Ramanuja and the

previous Acharyas in an unassailable position and in an unambiguous manner.

 

Another intellectual feat of Sri Vedantha Desika was his ability to revise

Sri Bashyam twenty times before he was twenty years of age.

 

His life was one of perfect austerity, vairagyam, and deep devotion

particularly to Archamoorthys enshrined in Divya Desams similar to

Thirumangai mannan. He had a special and abiding devotion to the Lord

Varadan of Kanchi. Just like Sri Ramanuja, his ArAdhya Devatha, the deity of

his daily worship was Sri PeraruLALan. He led a very simple life. He earned

his livelihood by taking alms from the devotees. The rice he gathered like

that was used for his food after offering to the Lord. One day his wife

found some gold coins in the rice he got from the philanthropic public.

Evidently, some well intentioned person wanted to help Swamy Desikan without

his knowledge. As soon as this was found out, Swamy Desikan threw the entire

collection of the day away on the street. This is an example of his

steadfast vairagya. Another instance of his strong determination

renunciation can be seen when Vidyaranyar, a royal vidwan at the court of

early Vijayanagar, once his class mate, hearing about Swamy desikan

languishing in penury and knowing his extraordinary skills and intellectual

talents sent a message to him inviting him and asking to come to the court

of Vijayanagar king where he would be fittingly honoured with riches. Swamy

Desikan refused to go, saying that he is not after wealth, adding that he

was already provided with the Greatest wealth bequeathed to him by his

grandfather (four faced Brahma), meaning the Lord Varadan (atthigiri

Varadan). This is conveyed to his friend in the form of five slokas called

Vairagya Panchakam:.

 

He spent a good part of his time at Tiruvaheendrapuram. Lord ayagrivan, the

Lord of knowledge and learning blessed him here. He composed “Hayagriva

sthOthram: here in praise of Lord Hayagrivan. He also composed Achutha

sathakam, in prakrit, Devanayaka panchasath, in Sanskrit, mummaNikkOvai,

Navarathnamaalai in Tamil on Lord Devanathan of this Divya Desam. “nin

vadivazhagu maRvaathaar piRavaadhaarE..” –says Swamy. He is said to have dug

a well, chiseled an idol of his and cone several wonders and miracles

justifying thereby his title “sarvathanthraswathanthrar”, during his stay

here. After sometime, he retunred to Kanchi and then later he proceeded to

Srirangam (when invited by Sri Pillailokchariar from Srirangam for debating

against Advaitins who had objected to recitation of Tamil hymns(4000) at

Srirangam temple). The titles of “Vedantacharya”, Kavitaarkika simham”, were

conferred on him by Lord Ranganathan and Periya Piraatti respectively at

Srirangam where there was occasion for him to refute theories and arguments

of Advaitins successfully and victoriously establishing the Parama vaidika

Visishtadvaita Srivaishnava sampradayam.

 

Padhuka sahasram is yet another masterpiece of work containing one thousand

eight slokas eulogizing the Padhukas (sandals) of Lord Ranganathan of

Srirangam. He completed the whole 1008 slokas in one yaamam (about 3 hours),

atter part of night. It is said that this piece of extraordinary work was

composed by him (when challenged).

 

From Srirangam, he flew to Satyakalam, a place at Karnataka fearing the

muslims depredations. “abheeti sthvam” on Lord Ranganathan, containing 29

slokas was brought out here to ward off the fear and evil caused by the

muslim maruders. After the terror had subsided, he returned to Srirangam to

spend his last days. He attained the lotus feet of Acharya on Karthigai day.

His yadhavabhyudhayam, a maha kaavyam on Lord Krishna was admired very much

by the renowned advaita philosopher Appayya DhIkshithar in the 16th century

A.D. He wrote a commentary also on this mahaakaavya as a mark of

appreciation. (but could not write more than four slokas, as that itself

immersed him and drowned him with such a beauty and marvel, that he was

simply flabbergasted with its literary nicetry and stopped after four slokas

of this kaavyam, whose commentary itself ran to pages..

 

In fact, it is simply a foolhardy experiment to attempt to give a

comprehensive picture on the life of this AchArya saarvabhouman in this

small post. Excuse is therefore sought for omissions and lapses.

 

Let us pay our obeisance to Acharya saarvabhouman Swamy Desikan on his

Thirunakshathram today by dwelling on his ThirumEni azhagu

(Beauty of His Divya mangaLa vigraham). (The tamil translation was released

by sri C. Seshadri of Chennai under Project Popularsiation of Swamy Desika's

works). Any credit in adiyEn's post is due to the original translation. All

errors, mistakes are only mine. Please forgive me for the same.

 

Kumara Varadhacharyar (son of Swamy Desikan), who does not know any God

except Swamy Desikan, composed 15 slokas descrbing the beauty of Swamy

Desikan’s ThirumEni and then prays for the Divya mangaLa vigraham of AchArya

saarvabhouman to be in his heart at all times.

 

1. May my mind, as a bouquet of flowers, enchant my master Sri

VenkatanAthan- Sarvathanthra swanthrar; and a parathanthrar for Srivaishnava

Bahagawathas.

 

2. Oh mind! Always think and meditate on Sri Venakesa, the benevolent

acharya, the most beautiful One, who considers the lotus feet of AppuLLaar,

Kidambi Kulapathi as God Himself.

 

3. The most beautiful form of Thooppul ThiruvEmkata Guru, whose colour is

like the shining Sun- may it appear always in adiyEn’s eyes crystal clear.

 

4. Swamy Desikan has the most blissful, great Lotus feet, which conquers

even the freshly bloosomed Lotus flowers. He dispels the darkness from the

minds of those who meditate on him, with his shining moon ray-like nails.

 

5. On the broad beautiful forehead, which is like the ashtami chandran,

(crescent moon, ever shining white Urdhva puNdram and there is white long

beard on his face. He appears as if he is another mUrthi of NammAzhwAr

Himself.

 

6. Swamy Desikan has the broad chest that shines due to rays coming from the

long white beard, and the neck adorned with white upaveedham, garlands made

of thuLasi and lotus beads.

 

7. Swamy Desikan has the most beautiful pair of ankles that win even

manmathan’s golden arrow bags. The knees are like strong humps of bull.

 

8. Swamy Desikan’s thighs effortlessly conquer the banana trunks (which are

proud of their beauty). He wears the spotless white cloth around his waist.

 

9. His navel is like the beautiful swirling water curl. He has broad chest.

His long hands starting from those round strong shoulders touch the knees.

His round neck hides those neck bones and shoulder bones.

 

10. His neck wins over the beautiful conch shell. He has unparalleled ears

and ever smiling lips with affection, like the tender leaves of mango tree.

 

11. His milk white teeth are like the spotless row of pearls and his

aquiline nose wins over the sesame seed flower. (eLLu poo naasi).

 

12. His lotus feet, ankles, knees, thighs, white cloth around the waits, the

navel, strong broad chest, neck, the two long hands, beautiful soft cheeks,

nose, the beautiful lotus bead garland and thuLasi garland around the neck-

h mind! Think of AchArya saarvabhouman always in this charming form. (This

slokam describes the beauty from the lotus feet to Head)

 

13. May Sri Venkatanathan- adiyEn’s acharyan- who wears the Sanghu, Chakra

on His shoulders, and beautiful ThirumaN kaappu on his forehead, thuLasi and

lotus bead garlands around his neck, the ever smiling face with cool glances

of daya, shine in adiyEn’s mind always.

 

14. Those who recite this sthOthra composed by Varadacharya, will be blessed

with mOkshAnandham here itself.

 

Swamy Desikan ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam

Sri Kumara Varadacharya ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam

Regards

namoNarayana

adiyEn

 

 

 

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