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SrI:
SrImathE Gopalaarya mahadesikaya nama:
Dearest all,

Today (Oct 1st Purattasi-Pooradam) is Srimath
Gopalarya Mahadesikan's 306th Thirunakshatram.
Gopalarya Mahadesikan also called Thirukudanthai
Mahadesikan is the great acharya who established
Munithraya Sampradayam. Great Srivaishnava Acharya
paramparais like Srirangam Srimath Andavan
Periyashramam, Srimath Poundarikapuram Andavan
Ashramam, Navalpakkam paramparai, Kedandipatti
paramparai, Annayarya Mahadesikan paramparai and many
more hail from this Acharya's lineage.
Let us all recite this mahan's thaniyan on His
thirunakshatram day.

 Sri krishna dEsika padhaamBHuja brunga raajam
 VEdaantha lakshmana muneendra krupaaththa bOdham
 Thraiyantha dEsika yatheendra shaTaarimoorthim
 GOpaala dEsika shikhaamaNi maasrayaamaha

dasan,


PS: Here is an article by Sri V.N.Vedantha Desikan
published in The Hindu dated Sep 29, 2000 on the
occasion of the 301st thirunakshatam of this Acharya
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------

A GREAT luminary in the spiritual firmament of South
India was born in
1700  A.D. in a hamlet called Royampettai, in
Thanjavur district, on the
northern  bank of the Cauvery, near Thiruvaiyaru. He
was born in the
year Vikrama  (corresponding to 1700 A.D.), in the
month of Purattasi,
under the star Pooradam, to Krishnadesika. The child
was named
Gopaladesika.

The boy learnt, from his father, the Vedas,
Divyaprabandha, Sanskrit
and  Tamil grammar, rhetoric and Sastras. Even when he
was in his teens,
he was  sent to Srirangam to learn the
``Grantha-Chatushtayam'
(Rahasyatraya-saram, Sri Bhashyam, Gita- Bhashyam and
Bhagavad-Vishayam)
from the great Vedanta acharya, Ramanuja Muni.

Young Gopaladesika was advised to settle down in
Kumbakonam after he
completed his course. He first undertook an extensive
pilgrimage to the
holy shrines in South India and then settled down in a
hermitage in the
Aravamuthan temple premises, at Kumbakonam.

Gopaladesika lived a simple life, sustained by daily
alms. Though such a
way of life is not necessary for the householder, one
like Vedantadesika
or Gopaladesika, who had no need for money or savings
or material
acquisitions, would naturally, and instinctively,
adopt this mode of
life.

Three ascetics were attending on him, with implicit
reverence, doing his
personal chores - a very unusual phenomenon. They had
been drawn from
and near: one was from Watrap, who was devoted to
solitude and
meditation; the second was from Seyyanam (in
Tirunelveli district), a
prototype of Yamunamuni (or Alavandar), who had a few
disciples only;
the third was from Vazhuthoor near Ayyampettai.

He was indeed a second Vedanta Ramanuja Muni, whose
service helped the
school reach a pre-eminent status. The particular
ascetic, referred to
as Vazhuthoor Swami, Vazhuthoor Andavan, and Srirangam
Swami, was the
real torch-bearer of Gopaladesika's mission from about
1750 A.D.

The reverence Gopaladesika commanded from the society
then, is reflected
in his being addressed as ``Thirukkudanthai Desikan''.
He is
acknowledged as the patriarch of the school (or
sampradaya, as it is
generally termed), referred to as Munitraya, since it
is suppose to have
been carried forward by his three ascetic disciples.
The tradition is
essentially the same as that of Vedantadesika; it
marks no departure
from the path; nor it is a branch since it was only
continuing in the
same direction. If it is referred to as the Munitraya
tradition or
Thirukkudanthai Desikan tradition, it is only for
convenience and for
conveying the regard that he was held in by a large
mass of the
religious community.

In the context of Indian spiritualism, we find two
kinds of leaders; one
might be a great author but no great orator; another
may be good at
discourses or instructions but may not have a flair
for writing works
for posterity. Gopaladesika combined both faculties in
happy harmony. He
was a `watershed acharya' in the genealogy of
Vaishnavite preceptors. He
inherited Vedantadesika's spiritual legacy totally and
from him
different streams can be recognised today. Among
these, two are well
organised: they are the Srirangam Periasramam Andavan
tradition and the
Poundarikapuram Andavan tradition.

There are a number of others, such as the
Kethandapatti tradition, the
Annayaryamahadesikan tradition composed of many
Tatacharyas (descendants
of Nathamuni) and Acharya-Purushas, the Denkanikottai
stream and so on.
One could make an estimate that some 40 per cent of
the Desikasampradaya
adherents today would acknowledge Thirukkudanthai
Desikan as their
patriarch.

As an author, his reputation stands simply
unassilable: an original work
on ``Prapatti'' (``Nikshepatchintamani''), a
commentary on
Rahasyatrayasara of Vedantadesika, commentaries on two
works from
Divyaprabandham, a commentary on Tattvatika of
Vedantadesika, a terse
Sahasranama-stotra on Vedantadesika; an Anhika work
which is a valuable
guide on rituals of daily routine for pious men to
followl and a unique
work called ``Sri- Jayantyadi-Nirnaya'', where he
codifies the criteria
for fixing the dates of such holy fests as Sri Krishna
Jayanthi.

His devotion for the local deity, Aravamuthan, can be
gleaned from two
short hymns he has composed.It was he who built the
present shrine, with
the tower, for Vedantadesika, almost opposite to his
hermitage, within
the
temple premises.

He was a model of true humility. He used an
unostentatious colophon in
his works, that read somewhat like this: ``written by
Gopaladasa, son of
Krishnasoori and receiver of Vedanta knowledge from
Sakshat Swami''. It
is said that his grand-uncle Venkatadhwari was so much
impressed by his
stature, that he sought to become Gopaladesika's
disciple. But
Gopaladesika would not allow it! He commended the
grand old man to his
own Acharya, Sakshat Swami.

However, he appears to have suffered the misfortune of
begetting a
misfit son, for whom he could only plead with God. The
son died young.
Gopaladesika had a scholarly nephew, Venkatacharya and
a grandson,
Vedantacharya (of Elayavalli line), who became his
`sons' by adoption.
They did much to perpetuate his glorious memory.

At 82, he took sanyasa and died within a couple of
days, in the Tamil
Plava year (corresponding to 1782 A.D.), in Karthigai
month on a Krishna
Shashti. Just before he passed away, his loving
admirers made an idol of
his in iron, which he approved and blessed with his
touch. This deity is
now worshipped in the Vedantadesika shrine (in East
Uttara Street,
Srirangam) which is under the management of the
Poundarikapuram Swami
Asramam.



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