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All our acharyas
are legendary in their vairAgyam and Desikar is no 
exception. However, Desikar in his compassion for those
coming behind, decided to express this in a beautiful 
shloka called Vairagya Panchakam, so that we can learn
not only from reading his life history but also reading
this work.

adiyEn will translate the commentary on this work by Sri
PBA Swami over a series of posts. The timing too is 
appropriate as we are coming upon Vedanata Desikar's 
thirunakshatram on Oct 5th.

adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan


--

Sri Vedanta Desikar's
Vairagya Panchakam

Commentary by Sri P.B. Annangaracharyar Swami

Introduction

Sri Vedanta Desikar who was born as the avatar of the
bell of Lord Srinivasa, possessed not only great 
knowledge ("gnAna bhUshaNam"), but also was possessor
of great inner strength and indifference to matters 
of this world ("vairAgya bhUshaNam"). So, just like
Sri Kooratthazhvan, he too took care of himself and
his family through the tradition of unja vrutti 
(collecting alms). With this itself, he was able to
take care of all his needs, perform daily prayers
to the Lord, teach ubhaya vedAnta to his disciples
and perform mangalahsasanams to Kanchi Varadaraja
Perumal.

Sri Vidhyaranya Swamigal was a great friend of Swami.
He was in the court of the king of Vijayanagar. There,
he was helping many vidwans get the favor of the court
and gain wealth.

He decided that he should help Swami also gain wealth
and so invited him to come to the court of the king.
Swami, feeling hurt that his friend, knowing his nature,
was offering such an invitation, sent him a shloka as
an answer turning down the offer. That shloka was

"na me pitrArjitam kincit na mayA kincitArjitam,
asti me hastishailAgre vastu paitAmaham dhanam"

Here Swami is stating that he has no wealth gathered by
his father; no wealth that he himself has gathered; the 
only wealth that he has is that which his grand father 
(ancestor) gathered, which is the Lord standing on top
of the Hastigiri hill.

This is a beautiful shloka. The wealth gathered by 
some one due to his great effort does not bring him
satisfaction as he had to struggle for it. Since his
father has full rights to distribute to anyone the 
wealth that he made, waiting for that wealth is also
not a fulfilling thing. The wealth gathered by his
grandfather is, however, guaranteed to him. Even if
his father begins to throw away that wealth, he could
go to court and stop that. Therefore, the wealth
gathered by the forefathers is the best form of
wealth.

Since that wealth is gathered on top of the hill and
is there for eternity ("karigirimEl ninRanaiththum
kAkkinRAnE", "malaimEl thAn ninRu en manaththuL
irundhAnai nilai pOkkalAgAmai niccithirundhEnE"), 
Swami says that he has no need to go ask for the 
ephemeral wealth of this world from the lowly
kings.

Here the word "paitAmaham" not only refers to a 
grand father, but also to Brahma. Since Brahma was
the one who did the yagna in which Kanchi PeraruLALan
appeared, the use of that word in this shloka is
most delightful.

Vidhyaranya Swamigal saw the shloka but in his anxiety
and affection for Desikar, sent him another offer to
come to the court. At this point, Swami wrote the 
divine set of shlokas called Vairagya Panchakam.

We will look at each of the shloka and its meanings
starting in the next post.

Vedanta Desikar Thiruvadigale Sharanam
Azhvar Emberumanar Jeeyar Thiruvadigale Sharanam






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