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Re: ayudha pooja

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Sadagopan • October 20, 1999 


Dear Sri SampathkumAran :
 
Your recitation of Sri ShOdasAyudha 
SthOthram of Swami Desikan on "Aayudha 
Poojai " day is really a very appropriate
practise indeed .

As you have rightfully pointed out ,
the plough, Ulakkai ,knife are indeed some of
the aayudhams used in the life of a farmer ,
house wife and soldier respectively .

Beyond the mundane use of these aayudhams in 
daily life , there are a lot of tattvArthams behind these 
weapons in Sri Vaishnava sampradhAyam . For instance ,
the gadhai ( GoumEdhaki ) , one of the panchAyudhams 
of the Lord is the tattvam known as MahAn (mahath) 
among the triad of doctrines, Prakruthi-MahAn-ahankAram .
Thus the Aayudhams have the ability to destroy 
the aj~nAnam and ViparItha Jn~Anam as well .

The direct connection to Sri SudarsanAzhwAr and 
Aayudhams is given by Swami Desikan himself in 
the 18th slOkam of ShOdasAyudha SthOthram :

asthra grAmasya kruthsnasya 
  prasUthim yam prachakshyathE 
sOvyAth SudarsanO visvam
  Aayudhai: ShOdasAyudha:

(meaning): The SaasthrAs state that all the aayudhams 
of the world recognize Sri Sudarsanar as the reason
for their existence(origin,birth) . May Lord SudarsnA 
adorning these sixteen AayudhAs protect the beings of 
the world with them ! 

here Swami Desikan clearly points out that every weapon 
in usage originated from Sri Sudarsana BhagavAn . Hence 
your observance of the recitation of this beautiful sthuthi 
is very appropriate. I will only suggest that , 
Sri SudarsanAshtakam recitation goes together with 
the ShOdasAyudha SthOthram , since both were composed
at the same time at Thirupputkkuzhi to banish the 
visha juram that gripped the people of this
Dhivya Desam . Sri Rangaswamuy , a devout 
worshipper of Sri Sudarsana -Narasimhar has
written extensively on the other tattvams
behind the Sudarsana Chakram earlier.

Best wishes,
V.Sadagopan     


At 11:35 PM 10/19/99 -0700, you wrote:
>
>I don't know whether appropriate or not but on
>ayudha-puja day I make it point to recite Desikan's
>"shodashAyudha-stotram". This is beautiful stotra with
>19 verses. Swami sang it praising Sudarshana-alwar
>extolling 16 different "ayudhA-s". Each of them can be
>symbolic of some tool or other we use in daily life or
>work in our profession.
>
>Nobody explained whether stotra is apprpriate for
>ayudha pooja day but adiyen simply blindly following
>this practice because I am thinking if Swami composed
>on so many "ayudhA-s" then there must be some meaning
>to it. So why not recite it on ayudha-pooja day?
>
>Maybe someone knowledgeable like Sadagopan swami or
>Anbil swami or Mani varadaraja swamin can clarify.
>
>Sampathkumaran
>