Vairagya Panchakam
This cannot be reckoned as a stotram in the same sense in which the other works in this book are. But of course like every work of this great poet of God, it has a divine flavour. Total absence of desire for worldly wealth, and all-absorbing desire for the Lord — that is the vairaagya, freedom from attachment, that is held out as the ideal here. Sage Vidyaranya sent an invitation to Desika to come to Vijayanagaram and take up an assignment under the king. It is in answer to it that these verses were written and sent. Desika’s contempt for kingship (1), his contentment (2), self-respect (3) and feeling of richness engendered by the possession of undying wealth in the shape of the Lord (4 and 6) are amply evident from these slokas. Sloka 5 repeats the sound “dhana” eleven times. Sloka 6 says in so many words:
I have no self-acquired property nor any obstructed heritage. I have however unobstructed heritage (apratibandhadayA) in the form of Lord Varadaraja atop the Elephant-hill, Hastigiri in Kanchi, which was acquired by my (pitaamaha) paternal grandfather (Brahma).
वक्ता, श्रोता, वचन-विशयः, प्रीयतां वेङ्कटेशः