SrI:
Dear BhakthAs:
As the first of the three introductory essays on
Swamy Desikan's Vaibhavam
and Desika Prabhandham , here are some
excepts from SrIman V.V.S Swamy 's
article of 1941 that was part of the Firstedition
of Vaikunta Vaasi , U.Ve. SrI
SrIramadEsikAcchAr Swamy's classic monograph
on Desika Prabahndham .
1. Sri V.V.S Swamy's foreword on Desika
Prabhandham
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" When the history and religious thought and
evolution in South India
should come to be written in proper perspective , I
have no doubt that
the great AchArya , SrI VedAnta Desika will
be recognized and designated
as the apostle of redemption by renunciation
or what is called Prapatti .
This doctrine is no
doubt as old as the Upanishads. The Gita has proclaimed it
to be the final article of faith. But even though it was accepted by all Vedantins
more or less , even
SrI Ramanuja did not seek to make a separate school of it
and it was reserved only for Sri Vedanta Desika to reduce almost to the form of
a science and to build up a whole system of Vedantic thought based on it.
In this respect, his compositions in Tamilare
quite as valuable and significant
as his writings in Sanskrit. Contrasting and
considering his works in Sanskrit and Tamil ,
the claim can not possisbly be regarded as
extravagant that there is perhaps no important
pronouncement by him in Sanskrit , which has found
its place in his Tamil works, though
one can not be so sure that the essence ofevery
thing that he has written in Tamil finds
a place in his Sanskrit writings.
In a word , his contributions to SrI Vaishnavism
and to SrI Ramanuja's school of religion
has been to reduce it to a proper logical system ,
and so to say enthrone it in a fortress
as it were , unassailable by any kind of opponents
for all times and to acclaim and
reveal its true identity to be the doctrine
systematized by him as Prapatti.
I am quite conscious that this doctrine ofPrapatti
constituted by him into what
seems almost a separate school of thought has
not only failed to be properly
understood by many of his critics and opponents ,
but has been almost jeered
at as too childish and simple to be regarded as a
means of salvation. When it
comes to be considered according to its
requirements and conditions as promulgated
by the great Acharya , it will undoubtedlybe
realized that the doctrine established by
him did not and could not consist merely of a
formal ceremony as understood by most
people today but is perhaps in its essential nature
more difficult of accomplishment
than salvation by Jn~Ana, Bhakthi or Karma(yogas).
It seems to me that in fact
and truth , the Prapatti as propounded by him is a
synthesis of all the above three
means of salvation. The Prapatti yoga as expounded
by him is theoretically and
practically (most) comprehensive of all other
yogas.
If becoming one with the divine is the ultimate end
and goal of the human self or jeevatma ,
then the union that is brought about by Jn~Ana or
knowledge, Bhakthi or devotion, Karma
or action must each be relatively limited and an
incomplete one. Such ideally perfect union
can be fulfilled only when the individual self
becomes organically united with the Supreme
self so that it comes to live , move and have
its being in the divine , thenceforward during
the remainder of earthly life or in the
life beyond.
It has not often been recognized that the place
which SrI Vedanta Desikan occupies
as a composer and poet in Tamil is indeed
very high. There is not perhaps a single
mode of prosody , which SrI Vedanta Desikan has not
used in his Tamil compositions.
Some of them are marvellous and whatever he adopted
or used , he improved upon.
His Tamil was classical. In his choice of the apt
words , he has had few equals.
The more one reads the Desika Prabandham ,the more
would be the wonder with
which the reader will come to regard SrI Vedanta
Desikan as religious teacher,
philosopher , composer and poet in the Tamil
language.It can almost be said
that all that is necessary to be learnt and known
by a Srivaishnava , he has put into
Tamil and what he has not put into Tamil is not
necessary to be learnt or known".
2. Excerpts from Honorable Justice K.S.Krishnaswamy
Iyengar's forward ( 1944)
********************************************************************************************
" The century and half which passed after Acharya
Rmanuja produced many
critics of his system , who brought to bear against
it all the skill and learning
of which they were capable. Then
there descended on this world the great Acharya,
SrI Vedanta Desikan (1268-1369 C.E) , the greatest
among the Master intellects
which this country has ever produced. The gifts of
natural talent , memory and
intelligence with which he endowed were ofsuch
high order that, by the age of
twenty , he attained mastery of all the Vidyas and
thereby acquired an intellectual
equipment covering the entire range of theliterary
, ethical and religious wisdom
handed down from the past. Such was the superhuman
preeminence to which
he quickly rose among the scholars of his age
and that , in every field of knowledge ,
poetics and dialectics , religion and philosophy ,
that he was acclaimed and
accepted as an avatara-purusha by almost all of his
contemproaries.
His extraordinary many-sided interests and
aptitudes , his expert versatality
in the many domains of knowledge and art earned him
the title of Sarvatantra
Svatantrar , the gift , it is said of SrI
Ranganayaki Nachiyar of Srirangam .
He possessd an
astonishing faculty of literary _expression_ his literary output
was almost unbounded, covering, as it did , an
enormous range of subject matter.
His unique gifts of poetics and dialecticsearned
for him the name of
Kavitarkika simha ; his soverignity in the
field of Vedanta , the title of
Vedantacharya , accorded to him by Lord Sri
Ranganatha Himself.
He marshalled all his varied powers born out of his
penetrative intellect ,
comprehensive knowledge and deep eruditionto
establish SrI Ramanuja's
system , on firm, secure foundations ,
rendering it forever impregnable to
adverse attacks. To this end, he laboured all
through his long life , as its
unwearied champion , its ready defender and
persistent advocate. He was
ever ready for action and fight and ever
ready to deal blows on all sides.
He had such a complete command of all
the weapons needed for successful
conflict--nimbleness and intrepidity
, ridicule and irony , brilliant diction and
acute dialectics--that those who hadthe
temerity to meet him in controversy
were vanquished quickly and finally.The
skilled arguments of this resourceful
controversialist in attack as in defense ,
are in some measure reflected in his
Satadhushani in Sanskrit and Paramatabhanga
in Tamil. His service to posterity
may in some degree be gauged by the numerous
works over a hundred in number,
in Sanskrit and Tamil and in every known form of
literature , that he has left behind.
In the field of Kavya , he entered the lists with
his Yadhavabhudhaya and Hamsa
sandesa , the counterparts of Raghuvamsa and
Mega sandesa of Kalidasa,
scarcely inferior to them in imagery of description
, flight of fancy or literary diction.
Indeed it would seem according to unbiassed critics
that Swamy Desikan has
in some places even outclassed his prototype. His
philosophic works such as
Nyaya Siddhanjana , Nyaya Parisuddhi ,
Seswarameemamsa and Tatthva Mukta
Kalapa were written for the purpose of directing
fruitful inquiry along the right
channels of thought and reasoning. The essence of
Sri Bhashya intrepretations
were rendered into beautiful verses of surpassing excellence in his
Adhikarana
Saravali. The Tatthvatika in vigorous, manly
prose deals more or lesswith
the same topic. The essence of the teachings
contained in Nammalwar's
prabhandha was versified in two other works in
Sanskrit , viz.,
the Dramidopanishad Saara and Taatparya rathnavali.
In the domain of religion and practise , to which
the Desika Prabhanda itself
belongs , his magnum opus in Manipravala is the
Rahasya thraya saara though
he has also written several other
minor rahasyas with the object of explaining
truths about the Tatthvas, the esoteric meanings
and practices connected with
the Tirumantra , Dhvaya and Charamsloka, stressing
their value as laying down
the royal road to Moksha by means of Prapatti ,
more easy in performance and
more potent in effect than the other and more
difficult to approach through bhakti.
Besides these, his numerous stotras--the most
notable among them being
Dayasataka on Divine Mercy , and thePaadhuka
Sahasra on the saving power
of the holy sandals at the Lord's feet , poems
of surpassing lyrical beauty --
are devoted to a delineation of the personality ,
qualities and attributes of
the Divine. To those who have lingering doubts of
Sri Desika's birth as
an avatara-purusha or of the inspired character of
his writings , convincing
proof will be afforded by a study of Paadhuka
Sahasra of a thousand superb
verses in varying metres composed according to tradition in the course of
some three hours , in immediate response to a
challenger at Srirangam
temple.These and the allegorical drama called the
Sankalpa Sooryodhayam
are standing monuments to his greatness and
his service to the Srivaishnava
faith and
philosophy.
The dizzy eminence he reached in the domain of
philosophy and dialectics
is only matched by the brilliance of his
intellectual energy exhibited in
every one of his writings. It is no exaggeration to
say that the moral and
intellectual forces that radiated from thelong
line of great Acharyas of
the Visishtadvaitha school were more genuinely and
actively embodied
in him than in any other religious teacherknown to
history. The powerful
influence that he exercised , as much during his
life as after, is in no small
measure due to the fascination of his great and
attractive personality , which
was an embodiment of uprightness , nobility ,
simplicity and wisdom.
No framework in which we may try in words to
enclose this towering
personality , can do justice to the variedpower of
his intellect , the wide
range of his knowledge or the burning faith of his
simple life . No wonder
that eminent scholars even divergent
philosophic and religious thought joined
in paying their unstinting homage to his greatness
as a thinker, writer and
controversialist. "
In the subsequent postings , adiyEn will cover
the " Desika Darsana Saara
Sangraham" ( The essence of Desika Darsanam)
as covered by Desika Prabhandam
in the words of Vaikunta Vaasi SrI
SrIramadesikacchaar Swamy of Oppilappan
KOil.
SrimathE NigamAntha MahA DesikAya
Nama:
Srimath Azhagiya Singar ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam
Daasan , Oppilappan Koil VaradAchAri Sadagopan
.
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