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Re: Digest bhakti.v003.n356

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V.Srimahavishnu • July 4, 1999 


SrI varavaramunayE namah.

Dear BhAgavatas,

                namO namah.

On Mon, 3 May 1999 Sri Mani wrote:
> 
> Sri Mohan Sagar wrote:
> > 1.BhagavadgItA sarvasvam with Telugu translation
> > to MaNavALa MAmunigaL's
> >   sanskrit commentary.
> 
> Sri Manavala Maamunigal's commentary on the Gita, if he
> did at all write one, is not extant today.  In his edition
> of Maamunigal's works, Sri Kanchi P.B. Annangarachariar 
> Swami mentions the possible existence of this work at one 
> point in time, but that it is not extant today. He also
> mentions that some people have published something that
> that they say is Maamunigal's commentary, but after extensive
> research, he has concluded that it is clearly not the work
> of Manavala Maamunigal.
> 
> Just FYI.
> 
> Mani
> 

        Following is the essence of the letter written to me by 
SrImAn u vE
nadAdUr V L N Ramanujacharya swami, secretary, ubhaya vEdAnta sabhA,
Pentapadu, W G Dist (A.P.).

   ViSada vAk SikhAmaNi SrImadh varavaramuni blessed us with "gItArtha
sangraha dIpikA", commentary on SrimadbhagavadgitA.
 However, many people (not SrI PBA) do not know this. Though a few know
this (again not SrI PBA)
, they doubt whether SrI JIyar was the author, as the author
wrote the following mangaLAcharaNa SlOkam:

sajayati gOvindAryah Samadama karuNAdi sadguNaika nidhih
yasyAhamatra janmani charaNau samSritya labdha sattAkah

 
The normal traditon is to salute the author's own AchArya. So a few opine
that SrI JIyar didn't write it 
as SrI Jiyar's AchAryar is SrI
ThiruvAimozhippiLLai and not "gOvindAryar". But it is not right.

While it is not well-known why SrI periya
 JIyar salutes gOvindAryar
instead of SrI SrISailESar, gOvinadAryar is the sanskrit name of his
father "ThirunAvIrudaiyapirAn thAtharaNar"
where thirunAvIrudaiyapirAn literally means "vAgmI"
(how to translate?!). However, gOvindArya is also yuktam as "gO" Sabdam
means "vAk". Sri gOvinadAryar did brahmOpadEsam to Periya jIyar and thus
is his upakArakAchAryar, while SrI SrISailESar did rahasya mantrOpadESam
and thus is considered tobe his uttArakar (though he is none other than
SEsha). thus it is cent percent right to salute SrI gOvindAryar.SrI Jiyar
might also have written this work before approaching SrI
ThiruvAimozhippiLLai.


"yatIndra pravaNa prAbhavam"  says "Ittukku pramaNathirattu
sangrahattaruLiyum, gItaikku tAtparya dIpamenRu oru vyAkhyAnamum" while
listing the works of SrI periya JIyar. "PaLanadai viLakkam" also
recoginses this work to have been authored by SrI JIyar.

This book was first published by u vE mahA vidwAn kAnchI prativAdi
bhayankaram anantAchArya swAmI, as 25th book in the series "SAstra
muktAvaLi granthamAlA", in 1906.

iN 1945, JagadAchArya simhAsanAdhISar
 SrImath P B aNNangarAchArya swAmi blessed us with "SrI varavaramuni
daNdaka stuti", in which, in the fifth daNdakam he says

SatAntAdi sadgrantha nirmANa chAturya vikhyAta kIrtih
sugItArtha dIpAbhida grantha dAtA

and thus salutes SrI ramya jAmAtru munIndrar for blessing us with 
ThiruvAimozhi nUtthandhAdhi, and GitArtha saangraha dIpikA.

So it is obvious that Sri P B A is referring to some other work on gItA
 claimed to
have been authored by SrI JIyar.

Justlike BhagavadrAmAnuja blessed us with vEdArtha sangraham and vEdAnta
sAram to enable us to undertsand his work on brahmasUtras
known as SrIbhAshyam,
emberumAnAr in his next incarnation as maNavALa mAmunigaL blessed us with 
this gItArtha sangraha dIpikA  to summarize his gItAbhAshyam.
SrimaNavALamAunigaL thus blessed us with the essence of nammAzhvAr's 
thiruvAimozhi in "ThiruvAimozhi nUtthandhAdhi" and with the essence of 
SrIrAmAnuja's work "gItAbhAshaym" in the form of
 this gItArtha sangraha
dIpikA.

Also if one carefully reads both yatirAja vimSati and this work, one
can easily judge that both are works of thesame author, as the wording
is quite similar and style is same.

All mistakes are solely mine
ne and credit goes to SrI NVLN swAmi for this
insightful posting on SrI Jiyar's work.
Now I would like to request all telugu knowing bhAgvatas to buy a copy of
this book and other books being publisheed/marketed by ubhayavEdAnta
sabhA, Pentapadu. This sabhA needs BhAgavata Alambanam.
Its secretary SrI NVLN swAmi is very mjuch enthusiastic to do as mcuh
kainkaryam as possible. That is his life's mission. We should support his
kainkaryams.

As we know, nowadays we don't have much SV literature available in
Telugu in AP, though Sri PBA swAmi, T K gOpAlaswAmi et al. blessed us with
many excellent works in past. nowadays, many are relying on BhagavadgItA
as tranlated/ commented on by advaitins or ISKCON AchAryas thinking that
something is better than nothing. Why shouldn't we buy a copy of a work by
SrI JIyar, who is none other than BhagavadrAmAnuja?

I would also like to mention that this book was pubilshed by gOdA grantha
mAlA, Musunuru, Krishna Dist. well-known for publishing authentic works of
our sampradAyam. this organization is almost defundt now and a few copies
of this book are with SrI NVLN. Telugu translation is given by SrI NVLN's
brother SrI KS Ramanujacharya swami, in the book publihsed by gOdA
granthamAlA itself.

SrimAn Mohan Sagar has kindly volunteered to make copies of books of
ubhaya
vEdAnta sabhA available to bHAgavatas in US. Copies can also be had from

SrImAn NVLN Ramanujacharyulu.
       Secretary,
       Ubhaya Vedanta Sabha,
       Pentapadu,
       West Godavari Dist (AP)
       India-534166

AlwAr emebrumAnAr JIyar ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam
                                              
                                                    dAsan
                                             Vinjamuri Srimahavishnu

 PS: If bhAgavatas have any queires reg. this work, please send copies of
your mail to v.murali@iitk.ac.in and s.vinjamuri@mailcity.com as I don't
know when I may stop operating on this email.