Thirukkudanthai Desikan TN [Purattaasi Pooraadam]- October 1st

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SrI:

SrImathE Gopalaarya mahadesikaya nama:

Dearest all,

 

Today (Oct 1st Purattasi-Pooradam) is Srimath

Gopalarya Mahadesikan's 306th Thirunakshatram.

Gopalarya Mahadesikan also called Thirukudanthai

Mahadesikan is the great acharya who established

Munithraya Sampradayam. Great Srivaishnava Acharya

paramparais like Srirangam Srimath Andavan

Periyashramam, Srimath Poundarikapuram Andavan

Ashramam, Navalpakkam paramparai, Kedandipatti

paramparai, Annayarya Mahadesikan paramparai and many

more hail from this Acharya's lineage.

Let us all recite this mahan's thaniyan on His

thirunakshatram day.

 

Sri krishna dEsika padhaamBHuja brunga raajam

VEdaantha lakshmana muneendra krupaaththa bOdham

Thraiyantha dEsika yatheendra shaTaarimoorthim

GOpaala dEsika shikhaamaNi maasrayaamaha

 

dasan,

 

 

PS: Here is an article by Sri V.N.Vedantha Desikan

published in The Hindu dated Sep 29, 2000 on the

occasion of the 301st thirunakshatam of this Acharya

 

------

 

A GREAT luminary in the spiritual firmament of South

India was born in

1700 A.D. in a hamlet called Royampettai, in

Thanjavur district, on the

northern bank of the Cauvery, near Thiruvaiyaru. He

was born in the

year Vikrama (corresponding to 1700 A.D.), in the

month of Purattasi,

under the star Pooradam, to Krishnadesika. The child

was named

Gopaladesika.

 

The boy learnt, from his father, the Vedas,

Divyaprabandha, Sanskrit

and Tamil grammar, rhetoric and Sastras. Even when he

was in his teens,

he was sent to Srirangam to learn the

``Grantha-Chatushtayam'

(Rahasyatraya-saram, Sri Bhashyam, Gita- Bhashyam and

Bhagavad-Vishayam)

from the great Vedanta acharya, Ramanuja Muni.

 

Young Gopaladesika was advised to settle down in

Kumbakonam after he

completed his course. He first undertook an extensive

pilgrimage to the

holy shrines in South India and then settled down in a

hermitage in the

Aravamuthan temple premises, at Kumbakonam.

 

Gopaladesika lived a simple life, sustained by daily

alms. Though such a

way of life is not necessary for the householder, one

like Vedantadesika

or Gopaladesika, who had no need for money or savings

or material

acquisitions, would naturally, and instinctively,

adopt this mode of

life.

 

Three ascetics were attending on him, with implicit

reverence, doing his

personal chores - a very unusual phenomenon. They had

been drawn from

and near: one was from Watrap, who was devoted to

solitude and

meditation; the second was from Seyyanam (in

Tirunelveli district), a

prototype of Yamunamuni (or Alavandar), who had a few

disciples only;

the third was from Vazhuthoor near Ayyampettai.

 

He was indeed a second Vedanta Ramanuja Muni, whose

service helped the

school reach a pre-eminent status. The particular

ascetic, referred to

as Vazhuthoor Swami, Vazhuthoor Andavan, and Srirangam

Swami, was the

real torch-bearer of Gopaladesika's mission from about

1750 A.D.

 

The reverence Gopaladesika commanded from the society

then, is reflected

in his being addressed as ``Thirukkudanthai Desikan''.

He is

acknowledged as the patriarch of the school (or

sampradaya, as it is

generally termed), referred to as Munitraya, since it

is suppose to have

been carried forward by his three ascetic disciples.

The tradition is

essentially the same as that of Vedantadesika; it

marks no departure

from the path; nor it is a branch since it was only

continuing in the

same direction. If it is referred to as the Munitraya

tradition or

Thirukkudanthai Desikan tradition, it is only for

convenience and for

conveying the regard that he was held in by a large

mass of the

religious community.

 

In the context of Indian spiritualism, we find two

kinds of leaders; one

might be a great author but no great orator; another

may be good at

discourses or instructions but may not have a flair

for writing works

for posterity. Gopaladesika combined both faculties in

happy harmony. He

was a `watershed acharya' in the genealogy of

Vaishnavite preceptors. He

inherited Vedantadesika's spiritual legacy totally and

from him

different streams can be recognised today. Among

these, two are well

organised: they are the Srirangam Periasramam Andavan

tradition and the

Poundarikapuram Andavan tradition.

 

There are a number of others, such as the

Kethandapatti tradition, the

Annayaryamahadesikan tradition composed of many

Tatacharyas (descendants

of Nathamuni) and Acharya-Purushas, the Denkanikottai

stream and so on.

One could make an estimate that some 40 per cent of

the Desikasampradaya

adherents today would acknowledge Thirukkudanthai

Desikan as their

patriarch.

 

As an author, his reputation stands simply

unassilable: an original work

on ``Prapatti'' (``Nikshepatchintamani''), a

commentary on

Rahasyatrayasara of Vedantadesika, commentaries on two

works from

Divyaprabandham, a commentary on Tattvatika of

Vedantadesika, a terse

Sahasranama-stotra on Vedantadesika; an Anhika work

which is a valuable

guide on rituals of daily routine for pious men to

followl and a unique

work called ``Sri- Jayantyadi-Nirnaya'', where he

codifies the criteria

for fixing the dates of such holy fests as Sri Krishna

Jayanthi.

 

His devotion for the local deity, Aravamuthan, can be

gleaned from two

short hymns he has composed.It was he who built the

present shrine, with

the tower, for Vedantadesika, almost opposite to his

hermitage, within

the

temple premises.

 

He was a model of true humility. He used an

unostentatious colophon in

his works, that read somewhat like this: ``written by

Gopaladasa, son of

Krishnasoori and receiver of Vedanta knowledge from

Sakshat Swami''. It

is said that his grand-uncle Venkatadhwari was so much

impressed by his

stature, that he sought to become Gopaladesika's

disciple. But

Gopaladesika would not allow it! He commended the

grand old man to his

own Acharya, Sakshat Swami.

 

However, he appears to have suffered the misfortune of

begetting a

misfit son, for whom he could only plead with God. The

son died young.

Gopaladesika had a scholarly nephew, Venkatacharya and

a grandson,

Vedantacharya (of Elayavalli line), who became his

`sons' by adoption.

They did much to perpetuate his glorious memory.

 

At 82, he took sanyasa and died within a couple of

days, in the Tamil

Plava year (corresponding to 1782 A.D.), in Karthigai

month on a Krishna

Shashti. Just before he passed away, his loving

admirers made an idol of

his in iron, which he approved and blessed with his

touch. This deity is

now worshipped in the Vedantadesika shrine (in East

Uttara Street,

Srirangam) which is under the management of the

Poundarikapuram Swami

Asramam.