ThiruvahIndhrapuram RathnAngi Kaimkaryam 108: Desika Prabhandham II

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SrI:

 

NamO VenkatEsAya !

 

Dear Swamy Desika BhakthAs:

 

Today is Mahaa Navami and Sarasvathi Pooja dinam.

Today is Sukra Vaaram , where the Lord of Sapthagiri

and AlarmEl Mangai ThAyAr enjoy their Thirumanjanam.

It is an auspicious day to start the postings on Desika

Prabhandham. May Lord HayagrIvan bless this effort from

the top of His abode on Oushada Giri at Thiruvaheendhrapuram !

 

AdiyEn's humble salutations to asmath AchAryan ,

HH SrI NaarAyaNa YathIndhra Mahaa Desikan of

AObila Matam at the start of this kaimkaryam. My

praNAmams to Vaikunta Vaasi SrI SrIrama DesikAcchAr

Swamy of Oppiliappan KOil, whose magnificent text

that adiyEn will be following for this entire kaimakryam.

He is my First AchAryan as a native son of Oppiliappan

KOil .

 

NaarAyaNa ! NaarAyaNa! NaarAyaNa!

 

RaamAnuja DayApAthram Jn~Ana VairAgya BhUshaNam

Srimadh VEnkatanATAryam VandhE VedAntha Desikam

 

Desika Prabhandham : Types of Tamil Poems

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Swamy Desikan used three kinds of poetic forms for His

405 Paasurams of His Prabhandham. These are:

 

1) VeNN Paa (2) Aasiryappaa (3) Kalippaa

 

Eighteen of the 405 Paasurams are set in VeNN Paa (4.4%) .

One hundred and sixty eight of the 405 ( 41.5%) are set in Aasiriyappaa format.

Majority of them ( 219) however are set in Kalippa form (54.1%) .

 

The genius of Swamy Desikan as a Tamil poet and a great AchAryan

is abundantly evident in these treasures of Paasurams .It would be our

good fortune to study and reflect on them.

 

Introduction to Desika Prabahndham

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SrIman Venkataraghavn of Bahrain has given a succinct introduction to

Desika Prabhandhams that would be valuable to refer to along with

the darsana soubhAgyam of Swamy Desikan in His RathnAngi:

 

http://www.srivaishnavam.com/desikaprabhandham/dp_introduction.htm

 

There are 19 individual prabhandhams that house the 405 Paasurams.

The first of them is Amrutha Ranjani with 39 paasurams.

 

Amrutha Ranjani: The First Desika Prabhandham

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Swamy Desikan took a lot of effort to remove the many confusions

created by other philosophies ---based on Vedic doctrines or otherwise---

in people's minds by composing a series of SrI Sookthis revered as

ChillaRai Rahasyams . They are written in MaNipravALa Format (Sanskritized

Tamil) . The first part of these ChillaRai Rahasyams contains 17 rahasyams

(esoteric upadEsams in contrast to Sadhasyams, which are taught in public )

starting from SampradhAya Parisuddhi to Saara DhIpam.The purpose of these

SrI Sookthis is for us to gain a clear comprehension of the three Tatthvams

and three Rahasyams and to lead a blessed life devoted to the service to

SrIman NaarAyaNan , the AchAryAs empowered by Him and His BhaagavathAs ,

who are very dear to Him..

 

In each of these 17 rahasyams , Swamy Desikan in his typicaly brilliant and

perceptive manner condenses the essence of each rahasyam/Tatthvam at the beginning

and at the end in the form of a Paasuram . The beginning and the end Paasurams

of these 17 rahasyams are assembled together in the first of the Desika Prabhandham

revered by us as Amrutha Ranjani . Swamy Desikan gave this name to this Prabhandham

because He believed that this would delight the heart of the SrI VaishNavan who

reflects on it more than Amrutham (divine nectar ) would . Here, Swamy refers to the spiritual

upliftment that He recieved from His AchAryAs ; He expands on the three Tatthvams

( ChEthanam , achEthanam and Iswaran) and reveals the true meanings of the three

Rahasyams( AshtAksharam , Dhvayam and Charama SlOkam ).

 

AMRUTHA RANJANI

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1. AchAryan's irreplacable help (UpakAram)

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The First and second Paasurams of Amrutha Ranjani belong to

SampradhAya Parisuddhi Prabhandham , the First ChillaRai Rahasyam .

 

Our AchaaryAs out of their limitless compassion for us and Jn~Anam

took upon themselves the responsibility to uplift us ( the suffering jeevans)

from the dangerous ocean of SamsAram . They instructed us on the deep

meanings of Tatthvams so that our minds will no longer be agitated by

any thing .They helped us to perform Prapatthi , which delights the heart of

the Lord and thereby banished rebirth for us in SamsAric world.We have become

now fortunate through the links to our SampradhAyam established by AchAryAs

at the behest of SrIman NaarAyaNan and are blessed to enjoy the bliss of

MokshAnandham.We thus have recieved the loftiest of blessings of the Lord (Moksha

Sukham) by observing an easy to perform upAyam (SaraNAgathy) that takes

very little time (KshaNa Karthavyam) to practise .

 

2. Following the Path travelled by our AchAryAs

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This Paasuram is also from SampradhAya Parisuddhi.

 

A very long time ago, our Lord churned the milky ocean and blessed

the DevAs with the nectar that He brought out. Our AchAryAs blessed us

with some thing that is even more enjoyable (bhOgyam) than the nectar

(amrutham ) itself (viz)., the Lord's Sacred Feet ( Thiruvadi) as the means

for our resurrection .We are deeply engaged and committed to that sacred

anushtAnams of our AchAryAs and consider them as the most revered way.

 

3. The Indispensability of the Jn~Anam about the three Tatthvams

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This Paasuram is from the ChillaRai Rahasyam of Tatthva Padhavi.

 

Oh Sentient Being ! The direct reason (kAraNam) for Moksham is

the blessing and grace (aruL) of our Lord.To become qualified for that

grace, You should gain a clear understanding of the three Tathtvams

( ChEthanam , achEthanam and Iswaran) and through that knowledge

practise one of the two upAyams for Moksham(Prapatthi or Bhakthi yOgam) .

 

4. The path to banish the sorrows caused by SamsAram

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This Paasuram is from the ChillaRai Rahasyam of Rahasya Padhavi

 

Oh ChEthanam ! We can chase away the sorrows and fears of SamsAram

when we understand the three rahasyams ( Moola Mathram, Dhvayam and

Charama SlOkam ) with their meanings and then perform the UpAyam for

Moksha Siddhi.

 

5. The glories of SrI Sookthis of AchAryAs

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This Paasuram is from the ChillaRai Rahasyam of Tatthva Navaneetham.

 

The sentients and the insentients are the body (sarIram) for the Lord.

He stays in there as the indweller (antharyAmi ) . During the time of

the great deluge (praLaya kaalam) , He swallows the entire Prapancham

and keeps it inside a small portion of His stomach just as He swallowed

curd and VeNNai during His incarnation as Lord KrishNa. Just as removing weeds

for the well being of the crops , He destroys the evil-minded ones , who cause

harm to His devotees. On the wrists of this glorious Lord are the Sri Sookthis

(Blessed works) of our AchAryAs shining like brillinat bangles or like the conch

in His hand. They are like an aabharaNams on His wrists to signify that they are

trophies resulting from the victory over other mathams . They also shine like

the divine conch because these SrI Sookthis grow one's Jn~Anam.

 

6. The greatness of BhaagavathAs

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This Paasuram is also from the ChillaRai Rahasyam of Tatthva Navaneetham.

 

Gifted poets compare the Lord saluted by the apourushEya VedAnthams

( the VedAnthams and VedAs not created by human beings ) as :

 

Waveless ocean of nectar , the nourishing rain-laden cloud that has

absorbed the vast ocean , priceless indhra neela mountain (blue gem),

the brightness of an unusual day resulting from the combined lustre of

the Sunshine and the radiance of the Moon and all such asambhAvitha

( lofty and difficult to imagine ) meanings . There is however those ,

who have arrived at the Lord's sacred feet (HIs BhaagavathAs) that are

even loftier than the Lord Himself.There is nothing that the greatest poet

can concieve as comparison for their glories. Therefore BhaagavathAs are

greater in their Mahimai than the Lord (as He Himself admits many times).

 

The meanings of Rahasyams blessed to us by the AchAryAs

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This Paasuram is from the chillaRai rahasyam of Rahasya Navaneetham.

 

The SadAchAryAs fully conversant with the inner meanings of the Lord

(who grants us Moksham and who is saluted by the VedAs) instructed

us on the nine meanings associated with the three rahasyams :

 

a) the THREE meanings of Thirumanthiram ( AshtAksharam/Moola Manthram) are:

 

i) Presentation/offering of our Svaroopam (SamarpaNam ) to the Lord

ii) Offering of the burden and duty of protecting us

iii) Offering of the fruits of our protection to Him.

 

b) The THREE meanings of Dhvayam are:

 

i) UpAyam (ii) Phalan (iii) the destruction of the enemy of avidhyA/ajn~Anam

 

c) The THREE meanings of the Charama SlOkam are:

 

i) The act to be performed by the one performing SaraNAgathy(Prapannan)

ii) The act performed by the Lord on behalf of the SaraNAgathan

iii) The way of life to be observed by SaraNAgathan after performing SaraNAgathy

 

8. The VaikunthA Life right here on earth

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This Paasuram is also from the ChillaRai Rahasyam of Rahasya Navaneetham.

 

We are now freed from the vipareetha ( inauspicious and erroneous ) jn~Anam

of believing that I am my own Master (Swamy) , the responsibilities of

protecting me are my own and the fruits of such protective actions belong

to me. Fully understanding that all of these belong to our Lord , we have

placed the duties and fruits of our protection at the sacred feet of the Lord,

who is our unquestioned Lord. We have taken our Lord's sacred feet as

our UpAyam and Phalan.We have performed the UpAyam of Prapathi taught

by the Lord to Arjuna . We have now recieved all the boons granted by the Lord

to us as PrapannAs.We are staying on this earth reflecting on the great happiness

of traveling by the path of light (archirAdhi maargam ) to arrive at SrI Vaikuntam

to perform nithya Kaimkaryam to the Lord and enjoy there ParipoorNa BrahmAnubhavam.

All our worries (klEsams) are removed now.Our existence on His earth ( LeelA

VibhUthi) from here on is equivalent to that of the lives of the eternally liberated

souls (Nithya sooris) at SrI Vaikuntam (Nithya VibhUthi).

 

9.The Essence of AchAryA's UpadEsams

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This Paasuram is from the ChillaRai Rahasyam of Tatthva Maathrukai.

 

The quinessence of the UpadEsams of our AchAryAs is the instruction on

the Svaroopams ( Uniqueness/Dharmi ) and SvabhAvams ( the nirubhAdhikams)

of the three Tatthvams by our SadAchAryAs. The sacred feet of our SadAchAryAs

that revealed this MOkshOpAyam (Means for Moksham) is the refuge for us in this

world and the fruits enjoyed in the other world (SrI Vaikuntam).

 

10. The act of those with discriminating knowledge (VivEkis)

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This Paasuram is also from the chillaRai rahasyam of Tatthva Maathrukai.

 

The VivEkis learn the Svaroopams and SvabhAvams of the three Tathtvams

(ChEthanam , achEthanam and Iswaran) from their SadAchAryans at the time

when their good fotunes ripen . They also learn and hold dear the meanings of

AshtAksharam that they learnt from their revered AchAryans and as a result

are totally engaged in their ujjeevanam ( upliftment) without any distraction

whatsoever.

 

11. The Tatthvams revealed by SadaAchAryans

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This is the third paasuram from the chillaRai rahasyam of Tatthva Maathrukai.

 

The indwelling Lord who protects us is the cause of every thing (Jagath KaaraNan) .

He shines with His Divine consort as SarvEswaran and rains the nectar of His

DayA as the most merciful dark rainy cloud ( KaaLa Megam). The Jeevans , who

are His body have the duty and privelege of competing with each other to perform

Kaimkaryams to Him in SrI Vaikuntam without let. The achEthana doctrines like

Moola Prakruthi, Kaalam and Suddha Sathvam exist in gross form (SthUla roopam)

as His body as well.We are sharing these Subtle meanings about the Tatthvams

as revealed to us by our poorvAchAryAs.

 

(To Be continued).

 

Swamy Desikan ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam

Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri Sadagopan