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RE: SrI UttamUr SwAmi - A Life Sketch

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Sadagopan • February 11, 2002 


SrI:
SrI abhinava dESika UttamUr VIrarAghavArya mahAdESikAya namaH

namO nArAyaNa!

Dear Sriman Anand:

What a beautiful, informative and deeply moving tribute to 
SrI abhinava dESika UttamUr VIrarAghava MahA Desikan !
I enjoyed it very much. After the reading of the extensive
write ups of Sri MadhavakkaNNan on the dhivya charitham of
abhinava dESikan , your posting is a lovely and all encompassing 
summary .

It is indeed a splendid summary of the many accomplishments of 
this avathAra purushan , whose SrI Sookthis  continue to 
illumine our paths daily . Many life times are needed to gain 
even a fractional appreciation of the great wealth 
left behind by this MahA Desikan .It is heartening to
know that the many of the samarpaNams created by
Him are being reprinted and released by the Centenary
Trust and made available for study by posterity .

With utter modesty , He devoted His entire life to
dip into the ocean of Veda VedAnthams and brought out
the gems and pearls and strung them together into
beautiful haarams and presented them to His kula dhaivam ,
SrI ThiruvEngadamudayAn.The nigama parimaLam of these 
SrI Sookthis are unmistakable. Those who honored Him 
with titles did indeed honor themselves.

The greatness of abhinava dESika Swamy reminds me of 
NadathUr ammAL's second slOkam of His Tatthva Saaram:

kva paTi vidhushAmEshA prouDi: prabhuNA SapE
maSakaSakanam mnyE maadhruk-prabhAva nirdharSanam
YATHIVARA-VACHAS-TEJA: pratyarTivarganirargalaksha--
paNanipuNam nithyam jaagarthi KEERTHIKARAM MAYI

Here, AmmAL salutes the power of EmperumAnAr and
YengaLAzhwAn ( His Own AchAryan) in grantha nirmANam 
among the vidhvath ghOshtis ;AmmAl goes on to state
that the enegy , power and the lustre of YathirAjar's 
assembly of words energized Him to blow away the viparItha
doctrines advocated by the other mathams effortlessly .
That is what you see ! I swear about this in the name of 
the Sriya: Pathi says the great AchAryan , who got 
the title of AmmaaL from the Lord of Hasthigiri Himself! 

abhinava DeSikan had the equal distinction of being
energized by the SrI sookthis of EmperumAnAr and
NigamAntha MahA Desikan ; this reminds me of the ancient
saying attributed to AchArya RaamAnujA " nallan yenRa
KaalamEgham nadukkAttil Varshitthathu". The nadukkAdu
to me is the modern day India and the  world , where the soil 
is thristing for such nourishing rains.

abhinava dEsikan's sthuthis are inspirational ones
for all BhakthAs of ThiruvEngadamudayAn . Reading
them is like enjoying the udhaya-asthamana sEvai at 
Thirumalai . One verse from the salutation of Lord
SrinivAsan captures my imagination:

sarvathra jagathi thishtan sarvasyApyAsSraya: Sriya:Kaantha:
NaarAyaNa SikhariSira: parishkruthiSSaraNamasthu dEvO na:
--SrI Hariguru sthavamAlA: SlOkam 337

The depth of meaning bound up in this single slOkam
dealing with VishNu VyApakathvam, His nidhAnam ,
Jagath aadarathvam, Sriya: Pathithvam ,
SarvASrayaNIyathvam and the sarva-rakshakathvam of 
the lOka vikrAntha Parisuddha Charanam is amazing.
Such a JagadhIsvaran is Our Lord concludes
this slOkam and His sacred Thiruvadi is 
sought here as refuge .

Your note reminding me of the deep and life long
sambhandham of abhinava dESikan to ThiruvEngadamudayAN 
has inspired me to write about the noble work of 
SrinivAsa KalyANam by abhinava dESikan so that
I can be blesse dwith the sEvai of ThriuvEngadamudayAn
and Sri Oppiliappan (DakshiNa VenkatAchalapathy).
This will be added to the ThiruvengadamudayAn 
Home pages that is still growing( http://

As a great AchAryan ,abhinava dESikan had great 
reverence for our AchArya paramaparai paid 
tribute to SrI SaakshAth Swamy's Sri Sookthi
(bruhadh-guruparampara-sArasvAdhini) dealing
with his commentary on the Prabhandha Saaram
of NigamAntha MahA dESikan.

Swamy Desikan in his salutation to the AzhwArs
in his Prabhandha Saaram described the fruits of 
study of their dhivya Prabhanndhams  this way :

" seyya Tamizh maalaikaL naamm teLiya Odhit-
  teLiyAtha MaRainilangaL teLihinROmE "

What SrI SaakshAth Swamy said in the VyAkyAnam
on Swamy DeSikan's above prabhnadham ( Bruhadh-
guruparamparA-sArAsvAdhini) is entirely applicable 
to abhinava dESikan, who restored it :

Swamy's VyAkyAnam for" TeLiyAtha" : "nyAyangaLAlum
rishi vachnangaLAlum samsaya kaalushya-rahithArTa 
niScchayam piRavAthavai aana ".( the nyAyams and
the statements of Rishis could not provide 
certainity about pramANams clearly).

"teLihinRom" VyAkyAnam :" "SankA-kaLanga-rahitha-
labhyaga-arTa-niscchaya -vishangalAha koLLa peRROm ".
(we have now realized the clear meanings of pramANams
without doubt from the study of AzhwAr's dhivya
prabhandhams).

As abhinava dESikan , UtthamUr Swamy did exactly 
the above service (Viz): teLiyAtha maRainilangal
teLiya vaitthAr. He instructed aasthikAs on
the clear meanings of Vedam, Upanishads, Tamizh
maRaikaL (arTa nirNayam seythAr) ." pramANa SaraNarAna 
namakku (for those of us who take refuge in pramANams), 
nyAyangaLil uLLa viruddha nyAyangaLum (the inconsistencies 
among the nyAyas), rishi vachanngaLil uLLa 
viruddha vachanangalum ( the inconsistencies among 
the various utterances of the Rishis) anjac-cheyyum 
(will make us fear). Following the samyak Jn~Ana 
sampradhYam (traditional divine Jn~Anam) born out of 
the maintenance of SampradhAya parisuddhi (blemishless
tradition )of poorvAchAryALs , abhinava dESikEndhran 
cleared away all these doubts and established in 
our mind that samyak Jn~Anam about Tatthva Thrayam 
( sentients-insentients and Isvaran)and the Three redeeming
rahasyams ( Moola Manthram , Dhvayam and Charama slOkam)
necessary for gaining MokshAnandham through SaraNAgathi 
at the feet of a SadAchAryan .

During the morning hours , abhinava dESikan's
SrI Sookthis are "PrAtha: SmaraNIyam " and parama
BhOgyam.

Tasmai avathAra PurushAya NamO Nama:
Srimath Azhagiya Singar Thiruvadi,
Daasan, Oppiliappan KoIl VaradAchAri SaThakOpan  

P.S : Those who wish to participate in supporting 
the future releases of the out of print SrI Sookthis of 
abhinava dESika UtthamUR Swamy are requested to get
in touch with Sriman K.K.Anand at the above address.
 



 

    

 





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