Thiruvaheendhrapuram RathnAngi Kaimkaryam series: Posting 240/Desika Prabhandham :GeethArTa Sangraham : Part 1

[Guest guest]

SrI:

 

Dear BhakthAs of Lord PaarthasArathy :

 

Today , we will commence the study of Swamy Desikan's

Tamil Prabhandham entitled GeethArTa Sangraham .

 

Originally Swamy AaLavanthAr blessed us with the SrI Sookthi known as

" GeethArtha Sangraham " in Sanskrit .That contains the essence of Lord

PaarthasArathy's upadEsam to us using ArjunA as a vyAjam at KurukshEthram .

 

AchArya RaamAnuja wrote a commentary for that SrI Sookthi ( SrI GeehtA

BhAshyam) in Sanskrit to make sure that the meanings housed in Swamy

AaLavanthAr's SrI Sookthi are preserved without any distortions.

 

Swamy Desikan followed the foot steps of AchArya RaamAnuja

and blessed us with his detailed commentary on GeethA BhAshyam

named " Taathparya Chandrikai " . Swamy Desikan rejected

the vipareetha vyAkyAnams for GeethA by resting his commentary on

AchArya RaamAnujuA's BhAshyam . Swamy Desikan went further and

created a short commentary on GeethArTa Sangraham named GeethArTa

Sangraha Rakshai in Sanskrit . Finally , out of his infinite compassion for

us , Swamy Desikan blessed us with a Tamil Prabhandham called

GeethArTa Sangraham for us to become conversant about

the quintessence of SrImath Bhagavath GeethA . All the Tamil Paasurams

of GeethArTa Sangraham are set in KattaLai KalitthuRai metre.

 

There are two benedictory verses ( Taniyans) for Swamy Desikan's

Tamil Prabhandham .One is set in the metre of nErisai veNNpaa and

the other is set in the shorter KuRaL VeNNpaa .

 

Taniyan 1: nErisai VeNNpaa

***********************

katta poruL virittha kAsiniyil nAnn maRayin

ittap-poruL iyampum inn poruLaic-chittar thozhum

VedAntha Desikanai mEvuvAr tangaL Thirup-

paadhAmbhuyam adiyEn paRRu

 

( Meaning): The lotus feet of Swamy VedAntha Desikan ,

who is worshipped by pious scholars with bhakthi are my refuge.

He is delectable to us through the anubhavam of His SrI

Sookthis. He gave us the inner meanings of the difficult

passages of the four Vedams for the residents of this world

through His dhivya Sookthis .

 

Taniyan 2: KuRaL VeNNpaa

***********************

Geethai mozhintharuLum VedAntha DesikanAr

paadhAra vinthamalar paRRu

 

(Meaning) : The lotus feet of Swamy VedAntha Desikan

who blessed us with the divine prabhandham of GeethArTa

sangraham ( the essence of SrImath Bhagavath GeethA)

are the refuge for us all .

 

General Introduction

****************

The parama rahasyam of Charama slOkam was covered

in the last set of postings. Through that charama slOkam ,

Bhagavan performed upadEsam for us through use of

Arjunan as an excuse (vyAjam) . This charama slOkam

containing the method to observe Prapatthi is easy to practise

for gaining the Moksha Phalan . The SaraNAgathy Saasthram

is housed in the charama slOkam of Bhagavath Geethai ,

which is the essence of Upanishads . Geethai was blessed to us

directly from the lips of BhagavAn Himself for our ujjevanam.

All of our PoorvAchAryAs have therefore helped us to understand

the true meaning of GeethA with their comprehensive commentaries.

Swamy AlavanthAr was the first among our PoorvAchAryAs to

open our spiritual eyes with his SrI Sookthi of GeethArTa Sangraham .

With His incisive intellect , Swamy AlavanthAr captured the essence of

GeethA Saasthram in 32 SlOkams and opened the doors for other

VaishNavite AchAryAs to elaborare on the most important Bhagavath

Saasthram . .

 

Swamy Desikan with his superb genius captured the essence of

the 32 Sanskrit slOkams of Swamy AlavanthAr in 21 Tamil

Paasurams including the Phala sruthi .

 

There are 18 chapters in SrImath Bhagavath Geethai.

Our PoorvAchAryAs divided these 18 chapters in to

three subsets consisting of six chapters ( ShaDkams ) .

The first set of six deal with Karma and Jn~Ana yOgams .

The second shaDkam covers Bhakthi yOgam . The first

half of the third Shadkam deals with the Svaroopams and

SvabhAvams of ChEthanam , achEthanam and the Prapancham

resulting from their union as well as the true state (nija nilai)

of SarvEswaran . The second half of the third Shadkam covers

the ways to observe Karma , Jn~Ana , Bhakthi yOgams and

the dependence on SaashtrAs for a chEthanam like Arjunan

to understand clearly that SrIman NaarAyaNan is the Para Brahmam

celebrated in VedAnthams .

 

Swamy AlavanthAr's summary of the above meanings relating to

the entire GeethA Saasthram has taken the form of the first slOkam:

 

svadharama-jn~Ana -VairAgya saadhya-bhakthyEka gOchara:

NaarAyaNa : Param Brahma GeethAsAsthrE Sameeritha:

 

Swamy Desikan's First Paasuram of GeethArTa Sangraham

is a wonderful echo of the above summary of Swamy ALavanthAr .

 

326. The Essence of the Meaning (SaarArTam) of GeethA Saasthram

******************************************************

karumamum Jn~Amum koNDu yezhum kAthalukku ohr ilakku yenRu

aru maRai ucchiyuL aadharitthu othum arum biramam

ThirumahaLODu varum ThirumAl yenRu ThAnn uraitthAn

dharumam uhantha Dhananjayanukkavan SaaraTiyE (1)

 

(meaning): After anushtAnam of Karma yOgam to control

one's mind , Jn~Ana yOgam has to be practised for aathma

SaakshAthkAram to pave the way for the anushtAnam of

Bhakthi yOgam .The entire assembly of VedAnthAs declare

that the target of this Bahkthi yOgam is the Parabrahmam

celebrated asSrIman NaarAyaNan .For Arjunan rooted in

dharmam , KaNNan revealed that He is indeed that

Parabrahmam .

 

In this paasuram , the progression of Karma , Jn~Ana , Bhakthi

yOgams referred to by Swamy AlavanthAr is covered with

the following references :

 

1. " Karumamum Jn~Anamum koNdu " = based on Karma and Jn~Ana yogams

which are covered in the First ShaDkam .

 

2. " yezhum Kaathalukku " = Bhakthi yogam , the topic of the second

shaDkam is dealt with here .

 

3. " arum Brahmam " = the Brahmam , which is distinctly different

from chEthana and achEthana vargams is the topic of the first

half of the third ShaDkam .This Brahmam is the One celebrated

in Upanishads ( " aru MaRai ucchiyuL aadaritthu Odhum arum

Brahmam " ). This Brahmam is SrIman NaarAyaNan appearing

with MahA Lakshmi ( " ThirumahaLODu varum ThirumAl " ).

 

4. " Dharumam uhantha " = to be bound by the SaasthrAs is hinted here.

This covers the second half of the third ShaDkam .

 

5. To that Arjunan (Dhananjayan) rooted in Dharmam ( dharumam

uhantha Dhananjayan) , Lord PaarTasAraty revealed that

SrIman NaarAyaNan is none other than Himself ( " arum Biramam

ThirumahaLODu varum ThirumAl yenRu ThAnn uraitthAn " ).

 

6. Lord revealed that He is indeed the lakshyam(gOchara: ) of

that bhakthi yOgam ( " yezhum kaathalukku ohr ilakku yenRu uraitthAn " ) .

 

For additional literature on GeethArTa Sangraham , please refer to

the following earlier postings and recordings:

 

Swamy AlavanthAr's GeethArtha Sangraham has been covered by adiyEn

and has been archived in four postings of Bhakthi list ( Novemebr 7,11and

23 , 1995.) :

 

http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/srchives/index.html

 

The text of GeethArtha Sangraham is available at :

 

http://ramanuja.org/desika/geetha15.txt

 

The recitation of GeethArtha Sangraha by SevilimEdu Swamy

lasting 7 minutes is available at :

 

http://www.ahobilamutt.org/dpaudio.html

 

Swamy Desikan ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam ,

 

NaarAyaNa , NaarAyaNa , NaarAyaNa

Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil VaradachAri Sadagopan

 

SrimathE SrI Lakshminrusimha Dhivya PaadhukA Sevaka

SrIvaNN SaThakOpa SrI NaarAyaNa YathIndhra MahA DesikAya Nama: