ThiruvahIndhrapuram RathnAngi Kaimkaryam: Part 101 , Desika Prabhandham : Part II/SrI V.V. SrinivAsa AyyangaR's Introductin Excerpts

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SrI:

 

Dear BhakthAs:

 

As the first of the three introductory essays on Swamy Desikan's Vaibhavam

and Desika Prabhandham , here are some excepts from SrIman V.V.S Swamy 's

article of 1941 that was part of the First edition of Vaikunta Vaasi , U.Ve. SrI

SrIramadEsikAcchAr Swamy's classic monograph on Desika Prabahndham .

 

1. Sri V.V.S Swamy's foreword on Desika Prabhandham

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" When the history and religious thought and evolution in South India

should come to be written in proper perspective , I have no doubt that

the great AchArya , SrI VedAnta Desika will be recognized and designated

as the apostle of redemption by renunciation or what is called Prapatti .

This doctrine is no doubt as old as the Upanishads. The Gita has proclaimed it

to be the final article of faith. But even though it was accepted by all Vedantins

more or less , even SrI Ramanuja did not seek to make a separate school of it

and it was reserved only for Sri Vedanta Desika to reduce almost to the form of

a science and to build up a whole system of Vedantic thought based on it.

 

In this respect, his compositions in Tamil are quite as valuable and significant

as his writings in Sanskrit. Contrasting and considering his works in Sanskrit and Tamil ,

the claim can not possisbly be regarded as extravagant that there is perhaps no important

pronouncement by him in Sanskrit , which has found its place in his Tamil works, though

one can not be so sure that the essence of every thing that he has written in Tamil finds

a place in his Sanskrit writings.

 

In a word , his contributions to SrI Vaishnavism and to SrI Ramanuja's school of religion

has been to reduce it to a proper logical system , and so to say enthrone it in a fortress

as it were , unassailable by any kind of opponents for all times and to acclaim and

reveal its true identity to be the doctrine systematized by him as Prapatti.

 

I am quite conscious that this doctrine of Prapatti constituted by him into what

seems almost a separate school of thought has not only failed to be properly

understood by many of his critics and opponents , but has been almost jeered

at as too childish and simple to be regarded as a means of salvation. When it

comes to be considered according to its requirements and conditions as promulgated

by the great Acharya , it will undoubtedly be realized that the doctrine established by

him did not and could not consist merely of a formal ceremony as understood by most

people today but is perhaps in its essential nature more difficult of accomplishment

than salvation by Jn~Ana, Bhakthi or Karma(yogas). It seems to me that in fact

and truth , the Prapatti as propounded by him is a synthesis of all the above three

means of salvation. The Prapatti yoga as expounded by him is theoretically and

practically (most) comprehensive of all other yogas.

 

If becoming one with the divine is the ultimate end and goal of the human self or jeevatma ,

then the union that is brought about by Jn~Ana or knowledge, Bhakthi or devotion, Karma

or action must each be relatively limited and an incomplete one. Such ideally perfect union

can be fulfilled only when the individual self becomes organically united with the Supreme

self so that it comes to live , move and have its being in the divine , thenceforward during

the remainder of earthly life or in the life beyond.

 

It has not often been recognized that the place which SrI Vedanta Desikan occupies

as a composer and poet in Tamil is indeed very high. There is not perhaps a single

mode of prosody , which SrI Vedanta Desikan has not used in his Tamil compositions.

Some of them are marvellous and whatever he adopted or used , he improved upon.

His Tamil was classical. In his choice of the apt words , he has had few equals.

 

The more one reads the Desika Prabandham , the more would be the wonder with

which the reader will come to regard SrI Vedanta Desikan as religious teacher,

philosopher , composer and poet in the Tamil language.It can almost be said

that all that is necessary to be learnt and known by a Srivaishnava , he has put into

Tamil and what he has not put into Tamil is not necessary to be learnt or known".

 

2. Excerpts from Honorable Justice K.S.Krishnaswamy Iyengar's forward ( 1944)

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" The century and half which passed after Acharya Rmanuja produced many

critics of his system , who brought to bear against it all the skill and learning

of which they were capable. Then there descended on this world the great Acharya,

SrI Vedanta Desikan (1268-1369 C.E) , the greatest among the Master intellects

which this country has ever produced. The gifts of natural talent , memory and

intelligence with which he endowed were of such high order that, by the age of

twenty , he attained mastery of all the Vidyas and thereby acquired an intellectual

equipment covering the entire range of the literary , ethical and religious wisdom

handed down from the past. Such was the superhuman preeminence to which

he quickly rose among the scholars of his age and that , in every field of knowledge ,

poetics and dialectics , religion and philosophy , that he was acclaimed and

accepted as an avatara-purusha by almost all of his contemproaries.

His extraordinary many-sided interests and aptitudes , his expert versatality

in the many domains of knowledge and art earned him the title of Sarvatantra

Svatantrar , the gift , it is said of SrI Ranganayaki Nachiyar of Srirangam .

He possessd an astonishing faculty of literary expression his literary output

was almost unbounded, covering, as it did , an enormous range of subject matter.

His unique gifts of poetics and dialectics earned for him the name of

Kavitarkika simha ; his soverignity in the field of Vedanta , the title of

Vedantacharya , accorded to him by Lord Sri Ranganatha Himself.

 

He marshalled all his varied powers born out of his penetrative intellect ,

comprehensive knowledge and deep erudition to establish SrI Ramanuja's

system , on firm, secure foundations , rendering it forever impregnable to

adverse attacks. To this end, he laboured all through his long life , as its

unwearied champion , its ready defender and persistent advocate. He was

ever ready for action and fight and ever ready to deal blows on all sides.

He had such a complete command of all the weapons needed for successful

conflict--nimbleness and intrepidity , ridicule and irony , brilliant diction and

acute dialectics--that those who had the temerity to meet him in controversy

were vanquished quickly and finally. The skilled arguments of this resourceful

controversialist in attack as in defense , are in some measure reflected in his

Satadhushani in Sanskrit and Paramatabhanga in Tamil. His service to posterity

may in some degree be gauged by the numerous works over a hundred in number,

in Sanskrit and Tamil and in every known form of literature , that he has left behind.

In the field of Kavya , he entered the lists with his Yadhavabhudhaya and Hamsa

sandesa , the counterparts of Raghuvamsa and Mega sandesa of Kalidasa,

scarcely inferior to them in imagery of description , flight of fancy or literary diction.

Indeed it would seem according to unbiassed critics that Swamy Desikan has

in some places even outclassed his prototype. His philosophic works such as

Nyaya Siddhanjana , Nyaya Parisuddhi , Seswarameemamsa and Tatthva Mukta

Kalapa were written for the purpose of directing fruitful inquiry along the right

channels of thought and reasoning. The essence of Sri Bhashya intrepretations

were rendered into beautiful verses of surpassing excellence in his Adhikarana

Saravali. The Tatthvatika in vigorous, manly prose deals more or less with

the same topic. The essence of the teachings contained in Nammalwar's

prabhandha was versified in two other works in Sanskrit , viz.,

the Dramidopanishad Saara and Taatparya rathnavali.

 

In the domain of religion and practise , to which the Desika Prabhanda itself

belongs , his magnum opus in Manipravala is the Rahasya thraya saara though

he has also written several other minor rahasyas with the object of explaining

truths about the Tatthvas, the esoteric meanings and practices connected with

the Tirumantra , Dhvaya and Charamsloka, stressing their value as laying down

the royal road to Moksha by means of Prapatti , more easy in performance and

more potent in effect than the other and more difficult to approach through bhakti.

Besides these, his numerous stotras--the most notable among them being

Dayasataka on Divine Mercy , and the Paadhuka Sahasra on the saving power

of the holy sandals at the Lord's feet , poems of surpassing lyrical beauty --

are devoted to a delineation of the personality , qualities and attributes of

the Divine. To those who have lingering doubts of Sri Desika's birth as

an avatara-purusha or of the inspired character of his writings , convincing

proof will be afforded by a study of Paadhuka Sahasra of a thousand superb

verses in varying metres composed according to tradition in the course of

some three hours , in immediate response to a challenger at Srirangam

temple.These and the allegorical drama called the Sankalpa Sooryodhayam

are standing monuments to his greatness and his service to the Srivaishnava

faith and philosophy.

 

The dizzy eminence he reached in the domain of philosophy and dialectics

is only matched by the brilliance of his intellectual energy exhibited in

every one of his writings. It is no exaggeration to say that the moral and

intellectual forces that radiated from the long line of great Acharyas of

the Visishtadvaitha school were more genuinely and actively embodied

in him than in any other religious teacher known to history. The powerful

influence that he exercised , as much during his life as after, is in no small

measure due to the fascination of his great and attractive personality , which

was an embodiment of uprightness , nobility , simplicity and wisdom.

No framework in which we may try in words to enclose this towering

personality , can do justice to the varied power of his intellect , the wide

range of his knowledge or the burning faith of his simple life . No wonder

that eminent scholars even divergent philosophic and religious thought joined

in paying their unstinting homage to his greatness as a thinker, writer and

controversialist. "

 

In the subsequent postings , adiyEn will cover the " Desika Darsana Saara

Sangraham" ( The essence of Desika Darsanam) as covered by Desika Prabhandam

in the words of Vaikunta Vaasi SrI SrIramadesikacchaar Swamy of Oppilappan KOil.

 

SrimathE NigamAntha MahA DesikAya Nama:

Srimath Azhagiya Singar ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam

Daasan , Oppilappan Koil VaradAchAri Sadagopan

..