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From: Mani Varadarajan (mani_at_be.com)
Date: Mon Jul 12 1999 - 13:16:10 PDT
Dear Sudarshan, Thank you for a very insightful and thought-provoking reply. I have one question, which is not directly related to this topic. You write: > [Desika] was not a happy man while he lived in Kanchipuram, being > endlessly teased and oppressed by his peers there who never lost an > opportunity to scathingly run him and his work down. In Tiruvaheendrapuram > where he retired for 14 long years in a sort of "vanavAsam", he was often > the butt of his rivals' unkindness, jealousy, pettiness and vicious > mischief. In Sri Rangam where he spent the prime of his life, he was again > constantly pilloried by adversarial colleagues. The political turmoil of his > times shunned him to SatyakAlam where again he lived the life of a lonely > exile for more than two decades. Where do these stories of Desika harrassment come from? I have read them in some recent secondary literature, but in the oldest works, and amidst Desika's own words, I can find nothing but contentment. In fact, in the bhagavad-dhyAna sopAnam dedicated to Lord Ranganatha, Desika prays that he may forever live in Srirangam, where great rasikas live: "rangAsthAne rasika-mahite ranjitA seshacitte..." Is there solid evidence to the contrary (not rumor or traditional stories which are part of oral tradition -- I have heard of those)? >From all the ancient authorities, I only read of a Desika who lived happily among fellow bhAgavatas. Mani