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From: Madhavakkannan V (srivaishnavan_at_hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Sep 14 2001 - 17:32:26 PDT
SrI:
SrImathe Ramanujaya namah:
SrImathe Nigamantha mahadesikaya namah:
SrImAn venkatanAthAryaH kavitArkika kesarI |
vedAntAcArya-varyome sannidhattAm sadA hRdi ||
May the glorious Sri Venkatanatha, the greatest of teachers of Vedanta, and
the lion among poets and debaters, reside forever in my heart.
Dearest Srivaishnavas,
I am continuing on my appeal and posts on Swamy Desikan and appeal for
Thuppul maNdapam kaimkaryam. URL:
http://www.geocities.com/lsriniva/thoopulappeal.html
It is my humble request to please contribute your mite towards this
kaimkaryam, as remembering Acharyan, and talking alone will not suffice.
Let us continue to enjoy Swamy’s GREAT works.
There are seven works, Swamy wrote in Sanskrit which form part of literature
about which we will start now.
I would like to firstly take up the work that I relish personally:
“SubhAshitha nIvi”. The Subhashitha nIvi is a didactic poem in 144 slokas
depicting the evil aspects of life in the first sections and the good
aspects in the second seven sections. The slokas are full of wit and humour
and many of them convey the same through double entendre. For example,
misfortune of the well-equipped and deserving persons is well represented
as: “I feel that eminent kinnaras should maintain silence in the world in
which the hum of the mosquitoes is treated as the twang of the lute J “
Sri L. Srinivasan writes in his translation of this great work:
Vedanta Desika, the eminent Srivaisnava Acarya, philosopher and poet, is
also the author of Subhasita Nivi, a book of didactic verses in a terse
style, which, unlike his other works, may be considered secular. It is,
however, one of his best works as it was born out of his rich experience
and ripe knowledge of men and matters. Out of his boundless compassion for
suffering humanity, he took a suitable opportunity to compose this
wholesome work to help mankind lead a life of peace and happiness.
Tradition has it that Singha Bhupala, the King of Rajamahendra, made a
request to the savant to visit his court and honour him. When it was
declined, he followed it up with a prayer to send him a code of conduct for
his guidance, and our poet obliged him through this composition. Colour is
lent to this version by the fact that the treatise contains a chapter on
the cardinal principles of statecraft which would be helpful only to a
king. Vaibhava Prakasika also confirms this and further states that Tattva
Sandesa and Rahasya Sandesa were similarly written for the benefit of the
same king by Sri Desika (sl. 128-129)
Significance of the Title
Subhasita means apposite saying or an apophthegm. Nivi is a knot or a
treasure-chest. The title may therefore, be taken to mean a Treasury of
Golden Sayings or Knotty Sayings in Fine Verses.Treasures used to be kept
in the olden days in a bag tied securely by knots and impressed with the
seal of the owner on it, so that only the lawful owner or one authorised by
him had the right to remove the seal, untie the knots and enjoy the
contents. Likewise, the treasure in the shape of various delightful
meanings of these slokas is not easy for all to come by. Only those who
have acquired the key to it through learning over a long period at the feet
of their acarya will have the capacity to unravel the knots and get at the
true and enjoyable meanings.
Thieves are called knot-looseners in Tamil because they used to loot
treasures kept in bags, untying the knots. The poet avers that they will
not succeed in appropriating the treasures inside this work because they
can only get at the literal meanings of the words and not their real
imports. In those days there was no printing and very few hand written
copies were available of a poet's compositions, and they were difficult to
come by, with the result that plagiarists could steal slokas from the poems
of others and parade them as their own. Vedanta Desika says in 1-2 that
since this work had been presented to the King by well-disposed scholars
and thus attained publicity and popularity, charlatans would not be able to
steal parts of it claiming them to be their own original work.
Nivi has also the significance of capital or principal amount which keeps
on earning interest if properly invested. So, the suggestion is that if
this work is properly studied, it will also keep on yielding ideas
endlessly for other works by competent scholars.
Division of the Work
There is symmetry in the arrangement of the poem. It contains twelve
chapters each containing twelve slokas making a total of 144 stanzas. The
last two verses of each paddhati use longer metres. It is divisible into
two broad heads-matters to be avoided (the first five chapters) and
qualities to be cultivated (the next seven chapters). There are more
chapters on the good and less on the bad, as it is useless to waste more
time on the latter. Further, bad qualities have been dealt with in the
beginning because we must first realize the pitfalls to be avoided or the
shortcomings to be eschewed before knowing the qualities to be emulated or
cultivated, as this is the proper way of improving oneself by stages and in
an orderly manner. A reversal of the present order would not serve the
purpose.
Swamy Desikan starts off the work as:
I bow with mind, speech and body to that great Lord, who is the best among
all persons, who approaches others of His own accord without waiting for
them to take the initiative because of His innate goodness and agreeable
nature, as also to myself who is chief among the wicked and who harms
others without reason, there being one thing in common to us both, viz.,
that the good or evil done to us once has the effect of wiping off all the
good and or evil done before. If what God, in His wisdom, thinks is good,
though not really good, has been done to Him even once by a person, all the
wrongs committed by him earlier is forgiven by Him. Therefore, I bow to
Him. In my case, if once what I consider wrong, which may not really be so,
is done to me by someone, all the good done by him to me till then is
completely forgotten by me. Fie upon me! Ingratitude being the basest of
vices, it has been mentioned at the very beginning.
Subhasita Nivi is unique in many respects, including the naming of its
chapters. Unlike other compositions of its kind, it does not deal merely
with aesthetics, but is highly psychological in its insight into the
various facets of human character. Being an outstanding Acharya of
Visistadvaita, whose basic tenet is that none is so fallen that he cannot
be redeemed, his work is a practical guide even to a reprobate and retrace
his steps, while indicating at the same time to others the pitfalls and
short comings that they should avoid. It is this context that his stress on
good association becomes important and relevant, since man's potentialities
for good and bad evolve according to the company he keeps.
The slokas are composed in sweet and simple words, containing at the same
time high potential qualities, being full of figures of speech of both
sense and sound, alankaras etc. There is both clarity of thought and depth
of meaning. The skill with which slesa is used is to be marvelled at,
making it a kavya of dhwani. The poet employs humour, satire and anyapadesa
appropriately. The piece is compact and capable of being got by heart. In
the latter part of the poem dealing with good men, there is an
undercurrent of Vedanta running all through, on the lines of the Gita,
which comes to the surface where they are compared to God Himself, as He is
the ideal towards which they strive all along. Altogether, the work is a
rare treat of the versatile talents and genius of the master. When we come
across a perfect double entendre giving two meanings for the same set of
words, we admire the capacity of the author. Here, when we find that each
sloka is capable of a dozen or more meanings, we are simply staggered
astounded. Probably there is no similar work in world literature. It has
been well and truly said that the poem was composed by as arvajna (Vedanta
Desika) for the benefit of a sarvajna (Singha Bhupala) and that it is
indeed only a sarvajna (an omniscient person) who can find out all that is
intended to be conveyed by the author in this extraordinarily deep piece of
literature.
(The above is an extract from Sri L Srinivasan’s article.)
Please donate according to your shakthi. The money can be sent to "Thuppul
Trust" and the address is:
Thuppul Trust
Old No.20, New No.24, Thiruvengadam Street
West Mambalam, Chennai-600033, India
Phone No: 91-44-4741559 / 91-44-3715771
Please contact Sri. V.K. Sudharshan at vksudarsh@vsnl.com or Sri Lakshmi N
Srinivasa lsriniva@hotmail.com (He can collect and send it as single amount
in USA).
The address:
Lakshminarasimhan Srinivasa
3 Old Towne Road, #212
Ayer, MA-01432
For those in the South East Asia, please contact me at
srivaishnavan@hotmail.com . Please pass on this kaimkaryam to as many people
as possible in order to complete the same.
kavi-tArkika-simhAya kalyANa-guNa-SAline |
Srimate venkateSAya vedAntagurave namaH ||
Salutations to Sri Venkatesa, in whom all perfection resides, who is the
teacher of Vedanta and the lion among poets and debaters!
Swamy Desikan ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam
Regards
Narayana Narayana
NarayaNa dAsan madhavakkannan
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