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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00146 Oct 2003

 
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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,

Lord Devanatha is taken during festivals to several places in the outskirts 
of Thiruvaheendrapuram for the worship of people living there. Sri Vedanta 
Desika used to go occasionally to such places sanctified by the Lord as 
though on pilgrimage. Once it so happened that he used to stay in one of 
those places at night. As usual he worshipped his ArAdhana deity Lord 
Hayagriva whom he always used to yELLa pannufy [carry] with him. The worship 
was conducted at night and by chance there was nothing with him that he 
could offer as NivEdana. With a sad heart he went to take rest.

At mid night, he was awakened by the farmer of the village and reported that 
a milk white horse, which was new to their village- never seen before- was 
grazing the green corps of the field and it must belong to the new comer- 
i.e. Swamy Desikan. Swamy Desikan smiled and congratulated the farmer that 
he has been blessed by Lord Hayagriva by setting foot on his fields. The 
next morning the farmer was glad to see that the corps were fresh and green. 
He fell at the feet of Swamy for having brought the Lord?s blessing to him 
so unexpectedly.

Sri Vedantha Desika is popularly known as the author of treatise on house 
building, silpa saasthra. But such a manuscript is not available now. At the 
same tradition records that there is a well constructed by Swamy at 
Thiruvaheendrapuram which exists even today and Lord Devanathan is taken 
every year on a particular day to that place.

The well was constructed by Swamy Desikan in all perfection even though the 
materials used were not up to the mark. The bricks were ill formed and clay 
mixed with some kind of salt was the joining material since there was no 
cement those days.  A pilgrim to Thiruvaheendrapuram always goes to that 
well and uses a handful of water with greatest respect. It seems he built 
this well- when challenged by a builder as to his title on Sarvathanthra 
swathanthrar and he was asked to prove by building a well with such ill 
formed bricks and clay mixture. Swamy as usual won the challenge. There is 
also a dhivya mangaLa vigraham of Swamy?s which was sculpted by Swamy 
himself when challenged by someone else on a different occasion.

It is said that once Sri Vedantha Desika left Thiruvaheendrapuram to go to 
Srirangam and other centres. After traveling for a day, he took rest in a 
place for the night when Lord Devanatha appeared in his dream and asked him 
to return. Swamy went back being blessed by the Lord with love and devotion. 
Then he wrote several literary works there praising the Lord: 
achuyhtasathakam, Devanatha panchaasath mummaNikkOvai, navamanimalai and 
others . The Lord is his lover and he- His heroine. Lord is his saviour, 
hero, deity for worship and the giver of all desirable things in this world 
and in the Paramapadham as well.

The goal of life for Sri Desika was devotion and worship of the Supreme 
Lord. He did not want to serve anyone to earn his livelihood. To lead his 
daily life, he would go round the streets of the city singing hymns of 
Alwars and sthOthras composed by acharyas and by him. He never asked anybody 
to give him any material, but accepted raw rice offered with respect by 
residents of the city. He prepared food from that rice and offered the food 
to the Lord and then took as prasAddham.

When Swamy was at Kanchi, one day a bachelor came to him and requested him 
to give some material in order to conduct his wedding. Swamy was moved by 
his request and advised him to worship Goddess Sri PerundhEvi Thaayaar. Then 
he led the Brahmachaari Boy to Her sannidhi and taught him the sthOthra Sri 
Sthuthi. He went around the sannidhi reciting that sthOthra with the lotus 
feet of divine consort in his mind. There was huge roar of shower of gold 
coins. In fact wherever her glances fall, there is flood of desirable 
wealth- says Swamy Desika. Such was Swamy?s power to amass wealth. But never 
chose to earn that way? [as against our running amuck after wealth and only 
that as the main objective? rest all is not all a priority.. Especially 
Bhagavdh vishayam ? not now.. Only after retirement..  .  vetkam? vetkam? 
ashamed of even calling myself a Desika bhakthan..]

yasyaam yasyaam disi viharathE Devi dhrushta tvadheeya
tasyaam tashyaam AHAM AHAM ikaam thanvathE samadhOgaa:

Oh Goddess! In whichever directions Your glances fall, in all those places 
leaps of wealth flow competing themselves to be the first to bless the 
recipient of your mercy.

thEshaam bhoomeh dhanapathi grhaat ambaraat ambudhEr vaa
dhaaraa niryanti adhikam adhikam vanchithaanaam vasonaam

To those persons, who begin to meditate unpolluted in their minds there will 
be flow of all desirable wealth before them immediately either from the 
earth, or the place  of Kubera or from the vast sky or from deep ocean

Such is the result of the worship of Periya PiraaTTi Sri Mahalakshmi.

The skill of Sri Vedanta Desika in the composition of literary works in 
prose and poetry, epic and drama is equally miraculous. All this is done 
without a desire for praise or for remuneration.

If Kalidasa had written Khandakava, Megha Sandhesa, Swamy Desika has 
composed the Hamsa sandhEsa sent by Sri Rama to Sri Sita in Ashokavana in 
Lanka.

Again, Yadhavaabhyudhaya in twenty four chapters written by Swamy Desika is 
equal if not better in merit to Raghuvamsa of Kalidasa.

When PrabhOdha ChandrOdhaya was shown to Swamy Desika, he was inspired to 
write Sankalpa suryodhaya, an allegorical drama. Viveka ? discretion- is the 
hero; Sumathi- correct wisdom is the heroine. All the qualities, good and 
bad, are the various characters in the drama. Viveka and Vishnu bhakthi come 
together. A comparative study of this drama and abhignana Sakunthala of 
Kalidasa will be really interesting and show the skill of Swamy Desika as a 
dramatist.

Padhuka sahasra is yet another miracle performed by Swamy- one thousand 
verses on Sandals of the Lord ? is said to have been composed by Swamy 
Desika in the course of one night [that too for three hours] as against 
padha kamalasahasra which was composed ? about 300 verses completed.. in one 
night by the person who had challenged Swamy.

Then in the year Sowmya when the sun had reached the Vricchika month, on the 
day of Kritthiga asterism, the best of Acharyas, Acharya Saarvabhouman Swamy 
Nigamantha Mahadesikan gave up his body and attained Acharyan ThiruvaDi- the 
eternal abode.

sreedhee yOgyE SakE ShuklE udhabhUth vEnkatEswara: |
labdhaprAyE SakE prAyAth sowmyE sa param padham ||

Acharya Sri Venkatesa appeared in this world in the year Sukla. After having 
lived for hundred years, he attained the permanent abode- Sri Paramapadham- 
in year Sowmya. It may be noted Swamy Desikan appeared in the star of 
ThiruvONam- same as that of the first Azhwar- when Poigai AzhwAr appeared 
and attained Acharya ThiruvaDi in the star of Kritthigai- the star when the 
last AzhwAr Thirumangai AzhwAr appeared. Thus he is verify the 
personification of 12 AzhwArs themselves- one may say.

Much more has to be written about Swamy Desikan the literary Giant, but we 
stop here since we cannot complete the list of his works in one life time.
Let us enjoy his 28 sthOthras and then  his other granthas in summary form 
in subsequent days.

[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

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