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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00049 Jul 2001

 
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SrI:
SrImathe Ramanujaya namah:
SrImathe Nigamantha mahadesikaya namah:
SrImAn venkatanAthAryaH kavitArkika kesarI |
vedAntAcArya-varyome 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,

I am continuing on my appeal and posts on Swamy Desikan.

Thoopul MaNdapam kaimkaryam for Swamy Desikan by Smt Shantha Kalyanarangan
of Thoopul trust. Sri Lakshmi N. Srinivasa also has created a web site for
this trust and also for this special kaimkaryam for Thoopul Pillai.

URL: http://www.geocities.com/lsriniva/thoopulappeal.html
It is my humble request to please contribute your mite towards this
kaimkaryam, as remembering Acharyan, and talking alone will not suffice.

Last week we were enjoying the ParamapadasOpAnam (the flight of steps to
SrivaikuNtam). Let us continue further. The study of this grantha will
reveal that it is almost a very useful epitome of Rahasyatraya saram the
magnum opus of Swamy Desikan.

Structure of the text:

The text if made up of nine chapters. Chapters are called parvas meaning
steps keeping in line with the name stair case given for the work. The
nine steps are:
1. vivkea (Discrimination)
2. Nirveda (disgust)
3. Virakti (dispassion)
4. Bheethi (Sensitization)
5. Prasadana (Pleasing or Propitiation)
6. Utkiramana (Departure)
7. Archiradhi (the route starting
8. Reaching the divine region
9. Union with the Supreme

The nine steps can be grouped into three sets, say landings. The first four
steps (viveka to bheethi) make the soul qualified to try emancipation.
Hence, they are known as Adhikarana Petika. The fifth step forms one set
called Upaaya petika.

Steps sixth to ninth with the phala that is, the fruits enjoyed by the
soul,
in the process of emancipation and after it attains emancipation. These
steps can rightly form a box or petika that can be captioned Purushaartha
Petika.

The summary of the text:

A soul should gain analytical knowledge. This is the first step to be
climbed. This analytical knowledge enables him to discriminate the three
components of the universe i.e. the individual soul, the inanimate (achith)
and the supreme (Sriman Narayanan). The Properties and nature of each of
the
three should be understood. Once the seeker understands his limitations,
realizes that all other souls are as limited as he, appreciates the
bondages
created by his attachment to achith, and appreciates that only Sriman
Narayanan can protect and free him from the bondages, he becomes qualified
to climb the next step.

The seeker feels for having wasted all his time in pursuit of materialistic
prosperity and the consequent sins and the inevitable stay in hell. He is
disgusted with the past foolishness. This leads the seeker to the third
step
which brings in detachment from all the mundane pleasures and prosperity.

This takes him to the fourth step where he is highly sensitized. He is
scared of his future after this life is over. He has to do something to
ensure that he is liberated from his oscillations between heaven, hell and
earth , by pleasing the Lord.

Bhakti and Prapatti Yoga are means of such propitiation. Bhakti yoga needs
knowledge, capacity and qualification by birth, etc. It gives results only
in a leisurely manner; prapati has no such limitation. Fruits can be
achieved at the specified by the seeker. The seeker can choose between the
two. Adopting any of the two means forms the fifth step.

When such a seekers soul departs from the body, the departure can be either
in uttarayaNam or dhakshiNAyaNam. His puNyas and papas are distributed to
his friends and enemies respectively. The Lord provides him with memory of
His Feet while the soul departs from the body. The eleven organs and the
praana are all assimilated and converged in the subtle form at the soul.
The
soul with all these is amalgamated with the five basic elements in their
micro form. The soul with this group takes rest with the Lord residing in
the heart so that it gets relaxed. (I heard that there is tremendous pain
when these five elements are extracted from the neck bone and is mixed, the
Lord gently hugs the soul in order to lessen the suffering. How
compassionate is our Father!) Then the Lord in the heart the Haarda guides
the soul to the Exit sign from the body thorugh the sushumna naadi by
opening the Brahma Randhra (which is supposed to be in the center of the
top
of the head.)

Now the seventh step. The departed soul is offered homages enroute Parama
padham by the controlling deities of the Fire, The Day, the waxing cycle of
the Moon, the Uttarayana, the six months during which the Sun travels in
the
direction of north the Year and the wind. They receive the soul and guide
it
through their region with all respect. Then the soul pierces the Suns
orbit. It reaches the Moon, with its guidance the soul reaches the Amanavan
who takes the soul through the abode of Varuna, Indra, Prajapati. Amanava
accompanies the soul to Lord Sriman Narayanas eternal abode. The ones who
leave the mundane world this route will not be born again.

This takes the soul to the eighth step. The river viraja flows between the
mundane (prakritha) region and the eternal region (aprAkritha), the Parama
Padham. The soul crosses the river bi its will and reaches the Parama
Padham. Here the soul enjoys the scenery of celestial ladies throng to
receive the soul and decorate the soul. The soul now is full of Divine
odour
and splendor. It sees the Lord seated on Adi seshan.

The final step is the union with the Lord. The soul enjoys the Lord from
His
top to toe. The Lord crowns the soul with His Feet. Clinging to His Feet
the
soul climbs the Divine seat of the Lord. There takes place a conversation
between the Lord and the emancipated soul. The soul narrates to the Lord
all
the blessings he had received from him and prays to the Lord to accept his
service. The soul gets the divine grace of the divine couple and is full of
Para Bhakti, ParajnAnam, and Parama Bhakti. He becomes as close as the
shadow of the lord performs all types of services at all times as
Adhiseshan, Garudan, Vishvaksenar et al. perform.

This work thus is a history of the Travel of the soul. This work like any
other work of Swamy Desikan is a well planned and beautifully presented
one.
Each of the parvas starts with a Tamil verse and concludes with a Tamil
verse that serves as a synopsis of the Parva.
The main objective of the work is to teach us the taste of Lords physical
form and His abode. Swamy Desikan composed a Sopanam The Bhagath DhyAna
Sopanam in Sanksirt on Lord Ranaganathan, for easy meditataion of Lord
Rangans form.

But Paramapadha sopanam, where enjoying the Lord in Parama padha is
described, is a blend of Sanskrit and Tamil verses mostly with the phrases
of AzhwArs. This goes well with the declaration of Swamy Desikan that the
language of communication of emancipated souls in Vaikunta (where medium of
communication is needed only for the mere pleasure of communication as the
emancipated do not need any medium of communication, because of their fully
blossomed state of Dharma bhUtha jnAnam) is only Tamil. J

In this work he sings that in Parama Padham, we will sing only Pallandu.

The Great Acharyas of Kanchi have been so fascinated by the description of
Lord in Paraapti Parva in this text, that they have prepared a moving
Thirumanjana Ghattiyam for Lord Varadan borrowing literally from this work,
which is recited before Lord Varadan during abhishekam. No doubt Swamy
Desikan himself declares this work as Swabhava chithram- very beautiful by
nature, in the final sloka of Parama padha sopanam.

One of the thaniyans of text says that in the pretext of Parama padha
sopanam, Swamy Dseikan brought out all the Gems of Vedantha Saasthra. Any
reader of the text will understand that this is not a flattery; BUT TRUTH.

A study of this text will reveal that it is almost a very useful epitome of
Rahasyatrayasaram the Magnum Opus of Swamy.

Adaikkalappatthu

The seventh work, is in eleven verses. It gives a clear exposition of the
doctrine of Sranagathy (surrender) associating the name of God at Kanchi
with each stanza. This is suggestive of the authors Saranagathy at the feet
of this Archa mUrthy (Sri Stakopan has written a translation for
Adaikaalapaathu and is available in http://swamydesika.tripod.com

The eighth work is Arthapanchakam which details in eleven verses, the five
well known topics which are vital to the philosophy of Vaishnavam. The five
topics or truths are prApyam, the Lords nature which is to be attained,
prApta, the nature of the soul who is to attain the Lord, UpAyam the means
for attaining the Lord, prAptivirOdham, the obstacles that lie in the path
of attainment and prApti, the Goal, namely the attainment. The name of the
deity at Kanchi is associated with the last line in each stanza.

Sri Vaishnava Dinasari, the ninth work, is in 10 stanzas describing the
routine life of a Srivaishnava. The treatment is based on the five fold
division routine as laid down in Pancharathra Agamam. (Again this
translation written by SrI Satakopan Swamy is available in Swamy Desikan
web
page)

The tenth work is Thirucchinna maalai, in 11 stanzas. The author speaks of
the glory of tabor sounded in the temple of Varadan at Kanchipuram.
Incidentally, these stanzas are shown to convey the sense of three rahasyas
Moolamanthra, Dwayam and Charama slokam.

Pannirunaamam

Eleventh work containing 13 stanzas describing the twelve urdhvapuNdras,
with the names of deities presiding over each and the parts of the body
where one wears Urdhva puNdram. Each stanza has the name of God at
Kanchipuram included in it. (Urdhva- vertical; puNrdam- mark.) This refers
to the ornamental mark made on the forehead with white vertical lines drawn
with sacred mud and a streak in between them made vertically with a read
ochre or turmeric powder. The white lines are joined between the eye brows.

The twelfth work is Thirumanthracchurukku, written in ten stanzas conveying
very briefly, as the name curukku in the title indicates, the substance of
Thirumanthram, also called Moola manthram or Ashtaakshara manthram.

The thirteenth work, Dwayacchurukku offers similarly in 12 verses, the
substance of the Dwaya manthram. The fourteenth work Charamaslokacchurukku
in 11 verses is on similar line on the charamaslokam.

GitArtha samgarha, which is 15th work, contains 21 verses. It offers
briefly
the substance of each of 18 chapters of the Bhagawath GitA.

MummaNikkOvai is the 16th work, in praise of the Lord of
Thiruvahindrapuram.
This work is held to have included mummaNikkOvai, pandhu, ammanai, kazhal.
Oosal, Esal, and NavamaNimaalai. Except for the first and the last all
others are lost. Akaval, veNpaa, kattaLaitthuRai are the three meters in
which this mummaNikkoVai is said to have been composed. Hence the title.
However, the ten verses in akaval alone are available to us in which the
author depicts the relationship of the husband (Bhagawaan) and Wife (Jivan)
in Nayaka Nayaki bhAvam.

The Navarathina maalai is treated as independent work (17th in number) has
ten verses all in praise of SrI Devanathan at Thiruvahindrapuram. It is
said in the sixth stanza that those who do not forget the Divine Beauty of
Sri Devanathan will not have rebirth. nin vadivazhaghu maRvaathaar
piRavaadhaarE.. The author mentions in the tenth stanza the work which,
though lost, are part of mummaNikkOvai and states that these were composed
after the achuthasathakam a praakritha sthOthram in 100 slokas before which
he mentions that Devanayaka panchasath was composed by him.

The 18th work is Prabandha saaram, in 18 verses, devoted to the
glorification of all AzhwArs. The day, month and Thirunakshathram (star) of
each AzhwAr, their names, the number of poems composed by each of them are
given. Each verse is inestimable value as it gives us what all we have to
learn about the AzhwArs described therein.

Ahaara niyamam is the 19th work in 8 verses on the nature of food a
vaishnava should comsume. The ingredients for preparing the food and kinds
of food one has to avoid are alld escribed briefly and carefully so as to
avoid ambiguity in the choice of ingredients.

There has never been a writer like Swamy Vedantha Desikan whose life was
spent purposefully and usefully for the uplift of humanity. The 19 works
noted above are in PURE TAMIL. Intention of Swamy Desikan was to make the
Vaishnava tenets attractive and acceptable as well as understandable even
to
those who knew only Tamil Language. Philosophy, Prappti, Rahasyas, routine
life, and all other aspects of Srivaishnavam have received treatments here.
Of course, the introductory and concluding verses in some of his other
works
are separately put in the form of compositions and treated as separate
work.

Please donate according to your shakthi. The money can be sent to "Thuppul
Trust" and the address is:

Thuppul Trust
Old No.20, New No.24, Thiruvengadam Street
West Mambalam, Chennai-600033, India
Phone No: 91-44-4741559 / 91-44-3715771

Please contact Sri. V.K. Sudharshan at vksudarsh@xxxx or Sri Lakshmi N
Srinivasa lsriniva@xxxx (He can collect and send it as single
amount
in USA).

The address:

Lakshminarasimhan Srinivasa
3 Old Towne Road, #212
Ayer, MA-01432

For those in the South East Asia, please contact me at
srivaishnavan@xxxx . Please pass on this kaimkaryam to as many
people
as possible in order to complete the same.

kavi-tArkika-simhAya kalyANa-guNa-SAline |
Srimate venkateSAya vedAntagurave namaH ||

Salutations to Sri Venkatesa, in whom all perfection resides, who is the
teacher of Vedanta and the lion among poets and debaters!

Swamy Desikan ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam
Regards
Narayana Narayana
adiyEn Narayana dAsan madhavakkannan





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