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A tribute to Swamy Desikan on this Vikrama PurattAsi SravaNam day : ChillaRai RahasyangaLs Of Swamy Desikan : Part I

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Sadagopan • October 8, 2000 


Purattasi SravaNam , Vikrama Vijaya Dasami Day 

Sri SrinivAsa ParabrahmaNE Nama:

Sri HayagrIva ParabrahmaNE Nama:

SrimathE RaamAnujAya Nama:

Taniyans for Swamy Desikan
****************************
RaamAnjua DayA Paathram Jn~Ana VairAgya BhUshaNam
Srimath VenkatanAthAryam VandhE VedAntha Desikam

--Sri Brahma Tantra Svatantra Swamy's salutation   

SrimAn VenkatanAthAryAya Nama:
Srimath kavi-thArkika Simha SwaminE nama:
Sri VedAnthAchArya Varya Prabhave Nama:

--From Sri KumAra NayinArAcchAr Swamy's Vandhanams

seeronRu ThUppuRRiruvenkatamudayAn 
 paaronRaic chonna pazhamozhiyuL--OronRu
taanE yamaiyOthO thaaraNiyil VazhvArkku 
 vaanERp pOmalavum Vaazhvu

--Sri PiLLai LokAcchAr's Tribute to Swamy Desikan

Dear BhakthAs :

Introductory remarks
*********************
On this sacred Vijaya dasami day , adiyEn is
starting on a major effort to compile a series 
of articles on Swamy Desikan's ChillaRai
Rahasyams , which are 28 MaNipravALa granthams
dealing with the essential Tatthvams and Rahasyams
of Sri VaishNava sampradhAyam .AdiyEn seeks 
the bleesings of of my AchAryan , HH Sri NaarAyaNa
YathIndhra MahA Desikan , 45th SimhAsanAdhipathi
Of AhObila Matam and great scholars
of Bhagavath RaamAnuja SiddhAntham in the spirit of
"MahAnthO anugrahNanthu " at the time of 
commencement of this effort.

Swamy Desikan's Life and His Kula Dhanams
*****************************************
Sri VedAntha Desika (1268-1369 C.E) is one of
the greatest Sri VaishNavite AchAryAs . He was
born in the hamlet of ThUppul near Kanchipuram .
His parents were Anantha Soori and TothAryAmbhA .
His Achaaryan was his maternal uncle , KadAmpi 
AppuLLAr or AathrEya RaamAnujA(1210-1310 C.E).

Swamy Desikan : The GhantAvathAran
*********************************** 
His name given at birth was VenkatanAthan , 
since he was born on the PurattAsi SravaNam day , 
the avathAra dinam of Lord SrinivAsA of
Thirumalai. Our VenkatanAthan is recognized 
as the avathAram of the Thiru MaNi or GhantA of 
ThiruvEnkatamudayAn. Even today , the small hand bell
( Thiru MaNi ) is not used in Thiruppathi in
PerumAL's kaimkaryam .

Swamy Desikan's Tutelage
*************************
VenakatanAthan learnt all the SaasthrAs , 
dhivya Prabhandham , Vedams , rahasyams before 
the age of Twenty from his achAryan, Kadampi
AppuLLAr . The great NadaadUr ammAL (1165-1275 C.E) 
was the AchAryan of Kadampi AppuLLAr and was 
103 years old at the time of birth of VenkatanAthan.
He (NadadUr ammAL) met VenkatanAthan as a five year old
child at Lord VaradarAjan's sannidhi during 
his KaalkshEpam and recognized immediately 
the divine lustre on the face of VenkatanAthan ;
He (NadAdUr ammAL )predicted that the child will become 
one of the greatest Sri VaishNavite AchAryAs and will
spread the glorious Bhagavath RaamAnuja SiddhAntham 
every where with immense distinction .
He asked his own disciple AppuLLAr to 
serve as the AchAryan for VenkatanAthan ,
since he (ammAL) was too old (108 years ) 
at that time to serve as a direct AchAryan 
to Venkatanathan . 

Sri HayagrIva SaakshAthkAram at Oushada Giri
**********************************************   
ApuLLAr had thus the bhAgyam to be VenkatanAthan's 
AchAryan and prepared VenkatanAthan to ascend 
the throne of a great Sri VaishNavite AchAryan .
AppuLLAr initiated VenakatanAthan with Garuda
manthram , their family treasure .Garuda BhagavAn 
in turn initiated venkatanAthan into Sri HayagrIva
Manthram at Thiruvahindra Puram . Lord HayagrIVan
appeared before VenkatanAthan and blessed him
to start his life's journey as one of the greatest
Sri VaishNavite AchAryan . Lord HyaagrIvan 
also agreed to VenkatanAthan's prayer to sit 
on his tongue in all debates with para matha
Vaadhins to establish the unrivalled supermacy 
of Sri VaishNavam as the darsanam in total
conformity with Sruthis and Brahma Soothrams .

Swamy Desikan's life as an AchAryan
************************************* 
Swamy Desikan led a simple life of Unchivrutthi and 
was totally devoted to Bhagavath-BhAgavatha-AchArya
Kaimkaryams all his life . He lived most of his life at 
Kaanchi , ThiruvahIndhrapuram and Srirangam .
He is a genius par excellence and has blessed us
with 130 works in Sanskrit , Tamil , MaNipravALam
and PrAkrutham. Lord RanganAthA and His dhivya 
Mahishi Sri RanganAyaki ThAyAr conferred on 
Sri VenkatanAthan the titles of , " VedAnthAchAryan " 
and Sarva Tantra Svatantran " respectively. 

Swamy Desikan's Tamil and MaNipravALa granthams
************************************************
Swamy Desikan's magnum opus is Srimath
Rahasya Thraya Saaram ,  a ManipravALa Grantham
dealing with Tattva-Hitha-PurushArhtam as well as
the detailed meanings of the three rahasyams
(AshtAksharam , Dhvayam and Charama SlOkam ).

A clear understanding of the Tattva-Hitha-PurushArtham
concepts is fundamental to all Sri VaishNavAs .The three
rahasyams deal with them . Sri Abhinava Desika 
UtthamUr Swamy has summed these concepts brilliantly
this way as stated by Sri Ananad KaraLapAkkam :

Tattvam :    Sriman NaarAyaNan << as Dhivya Dampathi >>
Hitham  :    Sriman NaarAyaNan << as SaraNya Dhampathis>>
PurushArtham:Sriman NaarAyaNan << as Seshi Dampathis>>

Swamy Desikan's life is all about establishing 
these primordial concepts as attested by the eternal 
VedAs , Brahma Soothram and Dhivya prabhandhams . 

Swamy Desikan created Srimath Rahasya Thraya Saaram (RTS)
very late in his life .He had already given kaalakshEpam
on Bhagavath RaamAnujA's Sri BhAshyam thirty times
to his disciples . RTS is thus the fruit of ripe
Jn~Anam of a great AchAryan ; he followed it (RTS)up 
with a companion grantham known as VirOdha parihAram 
to remove any lingering doubts and uncertainities 
about Tatthva Thrayam and the three rahasyams
that one may come across during the study of RTS .

Desika Prabhandham and ChiLLaRai Rahasyams
********************************************
Swamy Desikan had prepared himself all his life
to bless us with RTS . As a part of his preparation 
for this magnum opus (RTS), he blessed us further 
with Tamil and MaNiPravALa Prabhandhams revered
as the Desika Prabhandhams and ChillaRai Rahasyams.
Jewels like "Saara Saaram , Abhaya PradhAna Saaram ,
PradhAna sathakam " and other Sri Sookthis  arose
as chandrOdhayam from the Ocean of Swamy Desikan's
Jn~Anam. Desika prabhandham followed .The first Sri Sookthi
of Desika Prabhandham is Amrutha Ranjani , which is
a compilation of the paasurams from the 17 chillari
rahasyams .Srimath Rahasya Thraya Saaram was
the ultimate glorious present of our ParamAchAryan,
Swamy Desikan 

Desika Prabhandhams are 19 in number and consists of
405 Paasurams set in different VeNN Paa , Aasiriyap Paa
and Kalip Paa Tamil metres. The subject matter of 
these prabhandhams deal with the illustrious Praaptthi
Yogam for Moksham , the greatness of AzhwArs and AchAryAs , 
artha panchakam , Tatthvams , rahasyams , UpAyam ,
Phalan and SampradhAyam including aahaara niyamam .

Postings underway on Desika Prabhandham
****************************************
Sriman Hari of Singapore who has performed sampradhAyic 
KaalkshEpam under the current AchAryAs has begun writing 
in detail about the individual Desika Prabhandhams in 
the Malolan net. These are in depth articles .Please contact 
him , if You are not already receiving them (mshari@usa.net).

AdiyEn is joining with the welcome effort of Sriman Hari
to summarize the high points of ChillaRai RahasyangaL 
for the benefit of the overseas Sri VaishNavite 
community .Ideally ,these Tamil prabhnadhams 
as well as other traditonal granthms have to be
learnt thru direct kaalakshEpam route at the feet
of one's own AchAryan .

Complimentary Postings on ChillaRai RahasyangaLs
*************************************************
ChillaRai RahasyangaL  are 28 in number and one of them 
known as "Saara DhIpam " is no longer available to us.
The first part of Chillarai Rahasyams have 17 Sri Sookthams.
The second part has four chillaRai Rahasyams.The third
and final part has  seven more Sri Sookthis including 
MunivAhana BhOgam and concludes with Parama Padha 
sOpAnam . 

ChillaRai RahasyangaLs are not minor rahasyangal or
miscellaneous rahasyangaLsas the title may suggest .
They deal with Tattva -Hitha-PurushArthams and 
the major three RahasyngaLs.They contain topics , 
which are not found in Swamy Desikan's Magnum opus , 
Srimath Rahasya Thraya Saaram .

The extraordinary Contributions of
*********************************** 
late U.Ve.SrirAma DesikAchAr Swamy
************************************
Parama Padha Vaasi Sri Oppiliappan Koil 
U.Ve. V.N.Srirama DesikAcchAr Swamy has 
devoted his whole life to writing commentaries 
on Swamy Desikan's SthOthra granthams , 
Srimath Rahasya Thraya Saaram , Desika 
Prabhandhams and ChillaRai Rahasyangal 
along with AzhwAr's aruLiccheyalkaLs .
With great lucidity and depth , SrirAma-
DesikAcchAr Swamy has blessed us with 
rare editions of scholarly work that lights
our way in the darkness of this samsArAm . 

Swamy Srirama DesikAcchAr has consulted 
with other great scholars of his time
such as Parama Padha Vaasis  like 
ThirukkOshtiyUr Swamy , PudukkOttai
U.Ve. A.SrinivAsAcchAr Swamy , ChEtlUr
Swamy ,U.Ve. MadhurAnthakam E. VeeraraghavAcchAr
Swamy and others to verify the texts of
the Sri Kosams and vyAkhyAnams prior to
releasing Desika Prabhandham and the three
volumes of Chillarai Rahasyams.

adiyEn will lean heavily on the noble monographs of 
Srirama DesikAchAryAr's for bringing the essence of 
these ChillaRai Rahasyams for the benefit of
first Introductions , which we hope will
lead to direct participations in kaalakshepams
at a later date. Any and all errors in adiyEn's
postings are mine and adiyEn seeks the blessings
of asmath AchAryan , Prakrutham Srimath Azhagiya
Singar to commence this Kaimkaryam .

Subhamasthu,
Swamy Desikan ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam 
Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SatakOpan   

  



  
 
 
 




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