Thuppul PiLLai- 4- Hayagriva sthOthram- Hymn on the Horse faced Lord

[Guest guest]

SrI:

SrImathE Nigamantha Mahadesikaya namah:

SrImAn venkatanAthAryaH kavitArkika kesarI |

vedAntAcArya-varyo me sannidhattAm sadA hRdi ||

 

May the glorious Venkatanatha, the greatest of teachers of Vedanta, and the

lion among poets and debaters, reside forever in my heart.

 

Dearest Srivaishnavas,

Let us begin to enjoy the sthOthra granthas of Swamy Desikan [in

alphabetical order]

Sri Hayagriva Stotram

 

Hymn on the Horse-faced Lord

 

This is Hymn in thirty two slokas on Hayagriva, the Supreme God of

learning in Vaishnava Sampradaya. About this incarnation of Bhagavan, the

purana narrates that a demon took away all the Vedas from four-faced Brahma

and Bhagavan as Hayagriva killed him and gave them back to Brahma. God

Dakshina-murti, Saraswati and sages like Vyasa shine with the knowledge

bestowed to them by Hayagriva and are worshipped by others for attaining

knowledge. The tradition about Sri Vedanta Desika is that he meditated on

Hayagriva on the Hill Oshadhadri on the banks of River Garuda repeating the

Mantra. The Lord appeared before him and blessed him with all knowledge.

Thus Sri Desika became the master of all sciences and

arts-“Sarva-tantra-svatantra”. All words were before him so that he could

choose and use them as he wanted. The devotion of Sri Desika to Hayagriva

was so great that hayagriva-stotra is the first of his lyrics. His prayer to

the Lord Hayagriva that He must always shine in his heart and take His sear

on the throne of the tip of his tongue so that his words will always be

graceful, successful and pleasing.

 

The penultimate sloka gives a beautiful description of Lord Hayagriva

as realized by him-

 

Lord Hayagriva is seated on a full-blown white lotus (pundareeka)

sparkling like a newly dissected marble-slab. He holds the discus and the

conch on the higher arms. The lower right hand shines with the symbol of

instruction as though He is teaching the Vedas to Brahma. There is also a

garland of rosary beads in it which is compared by Sri Desika to a

ghatee-yantra(seesaw) which by its movements raises the knowledge from the

deep like the machine which raises water from a deep well for the benefit of

all. The lower left hand has a book as though it is an evidence for the

recovery of the Vedas carried away by an Asura from the four-faced Brahma.

 

The last sloka (31) Sri Desika advises all to read the Stotra with

devotion for the attainment of mastery over words and their import

(vaagartha-siddhi). The words ‘Vaagartha’ remind us of the words

‘Vaagathaaviva’ used by the poet Kalidasa in the opening verse of his famous

Kavya ‘Raghu-vamsa’. In sloka 25, Sri Desika prayed to Sri Hayagriva to take

His seat on the tip of his tongue as on a throne so that in the assembly of

learned scholars, he might defeat in disputation poets and logicians who

might be great in their fields (Kavi-taarkika-indraan). In the last sloka,

the same words are repeated as though Sri Hayagriva, has conferred on Sri

Desika the title ‘Kavitaarkika-kesaree’ (the lion among poets and

logicians.)

[From the Life and works of Sri Nigamantha Mahadesikan- by Prof Sri A

Srinivasaraghavan]

 

Swamy Desikan ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam

Regards

Namo narayana

dAsan

kavi-tArkika-simhAya kalyANa-guNa-SAline |

Srimate venkateSAya vedAntagurave namaH ||

 

Salutations to Sri Venkatesa, in whom all perfections reside, who is the

teacher of Vedanta and the lion among poets and debaters

 

_______________

Get 10mb of inbox space with MSN Hotmail Extra Storage

http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-sg