The Begiuning-9

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Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya Nama:

 

 

 

The Beginning-9

 

 

 

The UpOdhghAtAdhikAam is summarised by Swami Desikan in the form of a Tamizh

pAsuram and a kArikA in Sankrit.

 

'Thiru udan vanda chezhu maNi pOl ThirumAl idayam

 

maruvidam enna malaradi choodum vagai peru nAm

 

karuvudan vanda kaduvinai Attril vizhundu ozhugAdu

 

aruvudan iyndarivAr aruL seyya amaindanarE "

 

 

 

Swami Desikan pays generous tribute to the Acharyas, who invoke in us the

realisation of our exalted stature as the Lord's own beings, dear to His heart,

and prevent us from being swept away endlessly in the raging river of Karma.

This the Acharyas achieve by imparting to us the uplifting knowledge of the

arttha panchakam. Each word of the aforesaid pasuram has a message to convey.

The beauty of Swami Desikan's compositions is that not a single word is employed

wastefully, each and every one of them being pregnant with purport.

 

 

 

The rightful place of the individual soul is the Lord's heart, similar to the

gem " Kousthubha " , which adorns His chest. Being so close to the Lord, we are

entitled to the immeasurable good fortune of adorning our heads with His lotus

feet.

 

The lines " Thiru udan vanda chezhumaNi pOl ThirumAl idayam maru idam " tell us

many things. The " chezhu maNi " or Kousthubham was a product of the ocean when it

was churned by the Devas and asuras seeking amritam. As ThirumagaL too emerged

from the waters at the same time, the Kousthubham is indeed honoured by being

born with Piratti. It is thus as dear to the Lord and occupies a pride of place

on the Lord's chest, as does Piratti. We jeevatmas are as dear to the Lord as is

Kousthubham and are entitled to a place in His heart, as His inalienable sons,

servants and slaves. It is therefore our birthright to adorn our heads with the

lotus feet of the Lord, to be of eternal service to Him.

 

However, the accumulated baggage of Karma that we inherit at birth ( " Karu udan

vanda kadu vinai Aru " ) sweeps us off our feet, making us forget our real nature.

When we are about to be swept away by the swirling waters of Karma, Acharyas

extend us a timely and helping hand and pull us out of the raging waters through

their upadEsam.

 

This upadesam takes the form of instruction in the five great truths- " arttha

panchakam " , which are 1) the nature of the Supreme Being ( " PrApyasya BrahmaNO

roopam " 2) the nature of the individual soul ( " PrAptuscha pratyak Atmana: " )3)

the strategy to be adopted for Liberation ( " prApti upAyam " ) 4) what is in store

for us when we attain Liberation ( " Phalam " ) and 5) what prevents us from

adopting a suitable upAya and attaining Moksha ( " PrApti virOdhi " ).

 

 

 

Winding up the UpOdhghAtAdhikAram, Swami Desikan refers to the common belief

among votaries of all faiths, that there comes a decisive moment in the chain of

births of every Jeevatma , when its Karma has reached a balance. It is at this

critical stage that the Jeevatma develops a taste for liberation and distaste

for continued suffering in this world. The Lord patiently waits for such a

moment in the life of every individual soul and favours it with His benevolent

and merciful attention. It is this purifying attention and merciful look from

the Lord's lotus eyes ( " Isvarasya SouhArdam " ) that make the Jeevatma engage

wittingly or unwittingly in meritorious deeds ( " YadricchA Sukritam " ), develop

the positive trait of benevolence towards the Lord and the negative one of not

opposing His efforts to emancipate us ( " Abhimukhyam " and " advEsham " ) and

delighting in the company of the pure-hearted. These six steps (detailed in " The

Beginning-7 " ), one leading to the other, inculcate in the Jeeva a yearning for

Moksha, and, by engaging it in Bhakti or Prapatthi, ensure that the soul

overcomes its mundane shackles and ascends to Sri Vaikuntam , to reap the rich

reward of uninterrupted and eternal service to the Lord. Here is the beautiful

kArika, which, along with the Tamizh pasuram cited above, form a succinct

summary of the concepts detailed in the foregoing chapter-

 

" Karma avidyAdi chakrE prati pursham iha anAdi chithra pravAhE

 

tat tat kAlE vipakti: bhavati hi vividhA sarva siddhAnta siddhA

 

tat labdha sva avakAsa Prathama Guru kripA grihyamANa: kadAchit

 

muktha iysvaryAnta sampat nidhirapi bhavitA kaschit ittham vipaschit "

 

 

 

This sloka holds out for every single soul suffering in this samsara, the hope

that it would become eligible for redemption some time or the other, in this

birth or others, in this millennium or another. This is in accordance with Sri

Nammazhwar's dictum that it is the birthright of every inhabitant of the world

to reach Sri Vaikuntam- " Vaikuntam puguvadu maNNavar vidhiyE " . The time of

deliverance may differ from one soul to another, but the destination is assured.

It is this generosity and impartiality inherent in the VisishtAdvaita Sampradaya

that distinguishes it from other philosophies, which speak of a class of people

eternally cursed to rot in the mundane morass, without any hope of redemption

now or ever.

 

 

 

Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Naayana

Yatindra Mahadesikaya Nama:

 

Dasan, sadagopan.