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8/14/2009
Published on behalf of Muscat Srivaishnavas
After the appeal to his hands, SrI KulaSEkhara Azhwar turns his attention to his ears.
He asks them to hear (SrOtradvaya tvam acyuta kathA: SrNu!) stories about Acchutan .
The name Acchutan symbolizes His total resolve to come to prapannas' rescue without
fail.Mukundan or Acchutan both naamas mean Lord who will rescue his Prapannas
come what may. By invoking Acchutan Sri Kulashekara Azhwar wants his ears to hear
the Saranagati Vratam of Perumal.
“SrI KulaSEkharar next calls on his pair of eyes to enjoy the beauty of SrI Ranganaatha
in His avatAra as SrI kRshNa. His appeal is:
"kRshNam lOkaya lOcana-dvaya:" To witness and enjoy the beauty of SrI kRshNa
bhagavAn, he asks his
legs to go to temples
where His archa-
morthys are
enshrined. The AzhvAr
advises his legs as
follows :
"anghriyugma harE:
Alayam gaccha".
AzhvAr then asks his
nose to smell the
sweet perfume of tulasi leaves that
Kulasekahara Alwar and Karunakara perumal, Masi Punarvasu
adorned the holy feet of SrI kRshNa - "hE kRshNa, mukunda-pAda-tulasIm jighra".
Finally, he asks his head to bend and offer its namaskAram-s to Lord Ranganaatha - "hE
mUdhan adhOkshajam nama".VERSE
After praising the incomparable beauty of SrI kRshNa, KulaSEkharAzhvAr now
turns to the holy SrI-kRshNa-mantram. He explains the significance of the mantram and
the many blessings it confers on those who chant it repeatedly.
"SrI-kRshNa-mantram janma-sAphalya-mantram satatam japa" is the AzhvAr's
recommendation. He asks us to recite the kRshNa-mantram which gives meaning and
"vivEkam" or spiritual wisdom i.e. the power of discrimination, the first among 9 steps,
is said to be the steepest and most difficult to climb. It is difficult because it represents
Man's single most
grievous and
biggest failing in
life. It is a failing
that makes him,
for the most part
in his lifetime,
unable to
differentiate
between:
a) what
is truth
("satyam") and
what is false
("anartham")
b) what
is good ("sat")
and what is evil
("a-sat")
c) what
Mangala Harathi to Swami Desikan and Sri. Madhava Bhattar, Chengalpattu promotes spiritual progress
and what retards it
d) what is the real purpose ('summum-bonum') of human existence on earth
and what merely appears so.
Rare is the person born with innate power of discrimination --'vivEkam'. A Prahlada or
Dhruva are rarities of creation. For the general mass of men true discrimination is never
achieved in life. Even those who attain it to some extent are, however, unable to retain
it constantly unto the end of their lives. It is this lack of "vivEkam" that is the source of
endless "vikAram" (tragedies and infirmities) in Man's life.
True "vivEkam" makes a man also realize that if Joy or 'ananda' is the true purpose of
human existence, then that purpose is
never going to be served by the
evanescence of worldly means. There is a
greater 'ananda' to be attained beyond this
world. Such a Joy transcends all those of
this world (survival, perpetuation, social
proliferation, self-fulfillment or
gratification). It transcends Time and
Space. And such transcendent Bliss
('parama-anandam') is real and worthy of
pursuing.
The story of the great "vivEki", the child Dhruva, is told in the Srimadh BhAgavatham.
Dhruva one day saw his step-brother, little Uttama seated on the lap of their father
King UttAnapAda. The King and his favorite Queen, Surichi, were both fondling the
child. Dhruva, being a little child himself, also wanted to be seated on his father,
UttAnapAda's lap and so went up to the King and asked for the same affection shown
to his step-brother, Uttama. But Queen Surichi, Dhruva's stepmother would have
nothing of it. She shoved Dhruva aside saying, "You shall have a place on neither your
father's lap now nor on his throne later! Now get out!"
Dhruva's mother, Suniti, was a great 'vivEki' herself. She took Dhruva in her arms and
consoled him saying, "Do not worry, my
child! Go into the forest and begin
worshipping Sriman NarAyana. He will take
you upon His lap... It is the seat that will
give you happiness a thousand times
greater than your father's! Go my child, go
seek the Love of God!".
In the 'parama-pada-sOpAnam' when Swami Desikan explains all the above concepts it
seems all so facile and self-evident. However, if we deeply reflect on the subject we will
be unable to deny to ourselves that our day-to-day lives are, indeed, in many ways
hopelessly far removed from Desikan's concept of "vivEkam". On the other hand, our
lives would be perfect examples of the very antithesis of the 'vEdAntAchAryA's'
definition of 'vivEkam'.
Once a man has attained 'vivEkam', he is ready to step onto the next plane on the
stairway viz. "nirvEdam".
(to be continued)
dAsan,
Sudarshan
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,
Vedanthi among Vedanthins; Vidwan among Vidwans; Poet among poets; Acharya
among Acharyas Devotee among devotees; Rasika among Rasikas Literary genius
among writers avathAra purusha among them; A great Tamilian among Tamilians (who
enjoyed every letter and spirit of Alwars? 4000) Saviour among saviours Most detached
among detached (Parama vairAghi and virakthar) Equal to Rishis; Equal to even Alwars-
in terms of their anubhavams (and the only Acharya to have had naayika bhAvam
identical to Alwars] Utthamar (most virtuous) Sulabhar (easily accessible by one and all-
even today in his archA avathar) Saanthar A MAHAAN..
How can we end this search for the answer for who is Desika?
To refer to books?
pEsuvaar ? those who talk- how long will they be able to sustain? Till their ability.. but
one can never complete
their quest for an answer as
HE IS ineffable. pEsiRRE
pEsalallaal perumai onRu
uNaral aagaathu..
(v) Ivainaalaayiramum aDiyOngaL vaazhvE.. {These 4000 of Alwars- are our life itself]
(viii) NaaraNanai
naanmaRaiyaal thaan
kaNdEnE.. [I have seen
Lord Sriya: Pathi Sriman
Narayanan- SarvEshwaran-
the Supreme Lordship- only
based on Vedas- and its
affirmative declaration
about His Parathvam and
the way and the goal being
his Lotus Feet. [based on
saasthra yOnithvaath-
sUthram..]
Swamy Desikan says: Achaarya should be worshipped as God if not better and none
else should be considered equal to Acharyan.
Why should we feel shy to call our Swamy Bhagawath Nigamantha Desikan. Our
Acharya saarabhouman is the Lord Thiruvenkatamudaiyaan himself who appeared as
the Thuppul Thiruvenkatanathan.. why should we not call him Bhagawadh Nigamantha
Desikan. He is verily Bhagawaan’s avatar.
"I chose a good AcArya who could instruct me on how to get out of the whirl of
samsAra, and had his divya kaTAksha. Because of the AcArya's teachings, I obtained
the knowledge that could help me analyze and understand the difficulty of bhakti yoga
and the realization that prapatti is the only recourse open to me, which I could perform
easily, and attain the desired
moksham by performing it
once and only once. I learnt
the facts about prapatti and so
had no doubt whatsoever
about its efficacy. I sought
refuge of peraruLALan with
pirATTi as the sole refuge who
could protect me. I
surrendered all responsibility
for my protection at the feet of
peraruLALan and performed
prapatti at His feet. Since I am
now living the life of a
prapanna, I feel completely
relieved of all responsibility for
my self from that point. Since
all my acts from that point on
have been directed to only
kaimkaryam for bhagavAn,
there is nothing more to fear
about any accumulation of
karma. So I continue to lead a
life of nishkAmya kaimkaryam
to bhagavAn while spending
the rest of my life in this world,
and deriving infinite happiness
from it". [translation by Sri N
Krishnamachari]
It may please be noted that though there are two sects (namely Vadakalai and
thenkalai) in srivaishnavam, they are only different on very few subtle issues and both
Salutations to Sri Venkatesa, in whom all perfections reside, who is the teacher of
Vedanta and the lion among poets and debaters
This is the third stotram being covered in this series. The intent of this writeup, as in
the previous ones in this sequence, is to give a very broad view of the stotram with the
desire that it will give the motivation to go deeper
into the stotram as the next step.
When I read Sri Rama Desikachariar Swami's interpretations on some of the sloka-s in
this stotram, I was reminded of the Alvars who imagine themselves as a friend of the
Lord, or as a mother, or as a consort, etc., when they express their experience
(anubhavam) of Bhagavan in the form of their compositions. In composing the
Bhagavad Dhyana Sopanam, Swami Desikan's mind seems to have been in the state of
a young girl in deep love with Lord Ranganatha. Thus when he describes the Lord's
hands in sloka 7, he describes his mind as a she-elephant which is enjoying a tight
embrace by the Lord's beautifully decorated hands. In sloka 10, where he summarizes
his anubhavam of the Lord, Sri Rama Desikachariar Swami interprets Swami Desikan's
thoughts as that of a young girl who is in love with the Lord and who is having this
great anubhavam of the Lord first by touching His delicate feet with both her hands,
There are a total of 12 sloka-s in the stotram. The poet in Swami Desikan is evident
throughout the stotra. In the sloka where he describes the Lord's ankles, he points out
that by worshipping those ankles which helped the Lord "go" fast as a messenger to the
Pandavas, we can get rid of the need to "go" in the cycle of birth and death. When
Describing His nabhI-kamalam (lotus navel), Sri Desikan compares it to the deep vortex
formed during the pralaya which can hide the whole Universe in it, and where the
pollen dust from the lotus flowers have settled, leading to new lotus flowers bearing
new brahma-s in each kalpa. It is also like the big vortex formed from the flooding
beauty of the Lord. When he describes the Lord's vaksha-sthalam, he loses himself
totally in Lord Ranganatha's beauty. This vaksha-sthalam is decorated by the beautiful
white Srivatsam mole, blessed naturally by the sacred touch of the lotus feet of
Mahalakshmi since She resides on His vaksha-sthala, and is shining at the same time
red because of the kaustubha gem, green and other different colors because of the
After the description of his anubhava of the Lord in detail, Swami Desikan summarizes
his feelings of the darsanam of the moolavar and utsava-moorti in the penultimate two
sloka-s. The last sloka is the phala-Sruti. This overall organization is similar to what we
saw in the Dasavatara Stotram we visited last week. Just as we had one sloka in the
Dasavatara stotram that summarized the ten incarnations, here we have two sloka-s
that summarize the Lord's beauty. I am
including these two "summary" sloka-s
with their brief meanings.
This great Lord Ranganatha who is resting on Adi-Sesha, and whose hands are
beautiful, bestow all that is wished for by the devotees, has the imprint of the bangles
as well as the mark of the bow-string left by bearing the bow in the process of carrying
In the last sloka, the phala-Sruti, the great acharya pleads to the Lord on our behalf to
confer on us eternal and unswerving bhakti to help us "ascend" with ease to the level of
what the great yogi-s accomplish only by intense effort.
-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan
Ranganathan Moolavar in Vennai kappu, Madhya Rangam where swami desikan spent 12
years exile life after malik gafoor’s invation on Sri Ranganatha Temple, Srirangam (near
Sathyakalam)