Trivikramanum - Swamy Deshikanum

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Swamy Deshikan Thiruvadigale Sharanam !!!

 

The term Deshika, in general refers to a preceptor. But, the term Deshika

attained perennial glorification due to its association with our acharya

saarvabhouma kavitaarkika simha thuppul kulamani Sriman Nigamantha Maha

Deshikan. Our Swamy who possessed exemplary prowess in Vedantha, was

embellished as 'Vedanthacharya' by Sriranganatha Himself. The term Deshika

does not have any limiting adjuncts associated with it. It is a nirupaadhika

vaachya shabdam. If Ramanuja re-established the sanaatana parama vaidika

srivaishnava sri sampradayam on a firm footing, Swamy Deshikan fortified and

strengthened this darshanam irrefutably.

 

Trivikraman is one of the ten avatarams of the Lord who came as a Vamana but

later grew to become a cosmic giant and conquered the entire brahmandam in

just three steps of his lotus feet. Having spoken thus, a question

immediately arises. How could a Lord with such vivid and gigantic looks be

compared to an acharya who is as humble and simple as our Vedantha Deshika?

But the truth is that Vedantha Deshika and Trivikrama have a very close

relationship with each other. We shall enjoy those in the following

passages.

 

The Lord incarnated on this earth on top of the hills of Thirumalai as

Thiruvengadamuaiyaan in the holy asterism of Shravana. The noble Ananthasuri

couple prayed at the lotus feet of this Lord for progeny and the Lord

acceeded to their plea and made his daily votary, Thirumani azhwan to be

born to this couple. This child was none other than our Swamy Deshika, who

incarnated on this earth in the same constellation of Shravana.

 

In due course, Deshika became adept in all the scriptures. He was blessed

with the divine epiphany (saakshaatkaaram) of Lord Lakshmi Hayagriva, who

chose to be throned perennially on the tongue tip of Swamy Deshika.

" jihvaagra simhaasanamaaruruksho: " of Hayagriva stotram may be referred

here. This Lord, Lakshmi Hayavadana was also born in the asterism of

Shravana.

 

Out of the many disciples of Swamy Deshika, prominent was Sri Brahmatantra

Swatantrar. This Swamy was also born in the asterism of Shravanam and even

shares the same month of Purattasi with Deshika. This Swamy, during his

lifetime was extoled by one and all as the Paduka of Swamy Deshika.

 

In all the above passages, it may be observed that there is a profound

influence of the asterism of Shravana on Swamy Deshika, be it the Lord in

His mind, or the disciple who is his padukas or his own birth star. The

asterism Shravana in fact has the supreme incarnate Trivikrama as its

governing deity or adhidevatai. It is perhaps due to this influence that

though Swamy Deshika looked like Vamana in stature, he yet, beamed as a

Trivikrama in terms of knowledge, austerity, inherent virtuousness,

refutation skills, poetic skills, intellectual prowess, steadfastness and

other noble virtues befitting preceptor decorum.

 

In the following passages we shall see as to how the avatara vaibhavams of

Swamy Deshika may be celebrated in comparision to that of Trivikrama.

 

The Lord in the guise of a brahmana went and asked Bali chakravarthi to give

him in charity, land measuring three paces with His feet. The Lord after

having won his request from Bali, assumed a gigantic cosmic form that

encompassed the entire universe. He measured the entire bhulokam in one

pace. With the second step He measured all the celestial worlds. This foot

that went to Satyalokam was offered prayers by Chaturmukha Brahma along with

his consort Sarasvathi Devi. When the Lord had no place to put the third

step, Bali bent down indicating it to be put on top of his head. The Lord,

with delight, blessed Bali Chakravarthi by placing His third feet on his

head.

 

This story of Trivikrama avataram may be, in every way celebrated analogous

to the avatara vaibhavam of our Swamy Deshika.

 

The Lord, though in the guise of a Brahmana asked for the fulfillment of a

material pursuit and that was the want of three measures of land. Our Swamy,

on the other hand, would never aspire for anything other than paramaartham.

He has no desires for material pursuits like power, wealth or popularity.

 

Our Swamy too, has taken three big measures of his lotus feet. Let us

celebrate that now.

 

It was a time when the sanatana parama vaidika sri vaishnava sri sampradayam

was deluged in the mire of myths, fallacies and mis-interpretations. This

was mainly due to the rise of veda bahya mathams like Jainam, Bouddham and

also due to the so called vaidika mathams of advaitha. These mathams bought

great disrepute to the pristine glory of the Vedas and its esoterical

purports. While the bahya mathams took the atheistic approach of denying the

existence of Parabrahman, the prachanna bouddhas or the advaitins went to

the extent of tainting Parabrahman itself with the slush of ajnanam.

 

Swamy by means of his works like Nyayasiddhanjanam, Nyayaparishuddhi,

Paramathabhangam, Shatadushani, Tattvamukta kalapam etc ended the

illegitimate desires of these mathams in trying to establish a sound

philosophical darshanam.

 

With the first measuring of his lotus foot, our Swamy deluged the veda bahya

mathams into oblivion. These include mathams like Bouddham, Jainam,

Charvakam, Sautrantika, Madhyamikam, Yogacharam, Vaibhashikam and also the

likes of Kanadam, Gurumatham, Bhaskara matham, Prabhakara matham and others.

The manifestation of this feat of our Swamy is the composition of the

magnificent work Paramatha Bhangam.

 

With the second measuring of his lotus foot, he impaired and pulled down the

so-called vaidika matham of Advaitham or Prachanna bouddham with irrevokable

damage. Advaitham though having accepted the authority of the Vedas, brings

a great amount of disrepute to it by quoting totally derisive

interpretations to the Vedic lore. The manifestation of this magnificent

feat of refutal is immortalised in the works of our Swamy like Shatadushani,

Tattvamukta kalapam and others.

 

Now comes a question. When Trivikrama had taken the second measure, his

lotus foot reached Satyalokam. It was here that Lord Brahma offered

prostrative ablutions to his feet. Does Swamy Deshika have any such glories?

Yes he does.

 

Swamy Deshika's lotus feet always enjoyed the prostrative ablutions of his

disciples like Bramatantra Swatantra Jeeyar. This Jeeyar is held analogous

to Brahma. This is true and the substantiation is as below -

 

Swamy Brahmatantra Swatantrar's taniyan reads as -

" paryAya bhAshyakArAya praNatArtim vidhUnvate | brahmatantraswatantrAya

dvitIya brahmaNE nama: "

 

Swamy GhatikAshatam Ammal who composed this taniyan extols Sri Brahmatantra

Swatantra Jeeyar as Chaturmukha Brahma re-incarnate. The following are the

substantiations for this.

 

Brahma is lotus-born. A sadacharya is also extolled as the Lotus born as he

is blessed with the acquaintance of the lotus like feet of his acharya.

Sri Brahmatantra Swatantrar remained always in the company of erudition

similar to Brahma who remains ever in the company of Devi Sarasvathi.

If Brahma created a world of Jeevathmas, Sri Brahmatantra Swatantrar created

a world of Deshika bhaktas who are mumukshus seeking deliverance.

Just as how Brahma always keeps singing the praises of Lord Hayavadana, the

Lord of Speech, Sri Brahmatantra Swatantrar always kept sinigng the praises

of Swamy Deshika who is also extolled as the Lord of Speech and dwells

always at Deshika's lotus feet offering ablutions.

 

In this way similar to Brahma performing sevai to Sriman Narayana, Swamy

Brahmatantra Swatantrar performed sevai to Swamy Deshika. Moreover, the work

Shatadushani that depicts the second measuring done by our Swamy in order to

refute and eliminate the philosophy of Advaitha, was actually scribed by Sri

Brahmatantra Swatantra Jeeyar.

 

Now comes the last foot. Lord Trivikrama had a question as to where should

he take the third measure and finally upon the behest of Bali, He took the

third measure on Bali's head. Our Swamy out of his boundless compassion,

places his third foot on the head of his disciples who come to him with a

beseech for knowledge thereby making them intellectual giants. He showers

his munificent benedictions on them by means of this and makes them

prapannas fit to embellish the goshti of liberated ones at paramapadam.

 

Recieving the holy lotus feet of our Swamy on our crowns would make us free

from all blemishes. They would instigate us to adopt the means of prapatti

and would relieve us from all our accumulated sins.

 

Swamy Deshika has celebrated Trivikraman in his Dehalisha stuti. In the next

passages we shall see as to how these psalms befit our Swamy Deshika too.

 

Deshika says " Trivikrama initially had the celestial stars as a pearl

studded roofing. But as he took the first measure it became a beautiful

pearl necklace. When he took the second measure it became a charming

ornament worn around the waiste. By the time he took the third measure, the

entire galaxy of stars adorned his lotus feet as anklets " .

 

Let us see how this glorification befits our Thuppul vallal. In case of the

Lord, it were the same stars that adorned as his roof, later as his

necklace, then as his ornament and finally as his anklet. But with respect

to our Swamy, it is different.

 

Our Deshika, when young, was under the shade of great stars like Anantasuri,

Appullar, Ammal, Achchan, Pillan, Sudarshana Suri and others while Ramanuja

himself beamed as the Sun. Their works were like gleaming light and his

entire youth was spent under the shade of this galaxy of stars.

 

As he grew by age and mind, he authored magnum works that established the

siddhantam of Ramanuja on an irrefutable footing. These works bejeweled

Deshika manifesting as beautiful necklaces and waiste ornaments of choicest

gems enmeshed in the base metal of Ramanuja srisookti. Works like

Shatadushani were like the quiver of arrows and bow that embellished the

hands of Deshika. Even Trivikrama did not have bow and arrows !!!

 

His disciples who were replete with atma gunams and jnanam stuck to his feet

like anklets. These anklets were indeed blessed for they had the greatest

fortune of studying directly under the great Swamy Deshika. It is customary

to tie small jingles to the end of Bells after all. The Bell is none other

than our Swamy Deshika while the jingles are his disciples. Over the years

disciples and apostles continue to embellish his feet as anklets while many

win to be the dust under his holy lotus feet.

 

The Ganga owes its origin to the Lord also known as maatha (measurer) and

flows down the himalayas. Our Swamy's divine work Srimath

Rahasyatrayasaaram owes its origin to the pramaatha (knower) Swamy Deshika

and flows down from this mahimaalayam in nectareous streams.

 

The torch of surrender (adaikkala viLakku) was lit by the mudal Azhwars, who

extoled Trivikrama with their anthaadis. Our Swamy with the oil of his

divine works has set this lamp to glow perennially with luster and

effulgence.

 

Do we need more substantiations to set our Swamy Deshika at par with the

Supreme Lord Sriman Narayana?

 

AchAryAdiha daivatAM samadhikAM anyAM na manyAmahe

 

vAzhi vyAkhyAmuddirak kai !!!

vedAnthasUri charaNau sharaNam prapadye !!!