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Azhagiya Singhar - MadurAntakam Swamigal

From the Bhakti List Archives

Vijayaraghavan Srinivasan • December 14, 1999 


Dear Bhaghavata UttamAs:

Recently, I was listening to the audio recording of a upanyAsam entitled 
"Desikarum avar Sooktigalum" by Prakrutam Srimad Azhagiya Singhar.  There is 
no parallel to that upanyAsam.  One can hear the same thing again and again 
and yet feel unsatiated.  The words spoken, backed-up as it were by Swami's 
age, wisdom, anushtAnam, his glorious position as one of the leading 
achAryAs of Hinduism
carry enormous import.  They pierce the inner core of one's very being.

In that upanyAsam, among other things, Swami speaks of the quintessence of 
our Sri Vaishnava sampradAyam viz. Bhaghavata and AchArya sEshatvam.  While 
explaining the essence of purushArthakAshtAdhikAram of RTS, Swami quotes a 
slOka from pAdukA sahasram [ajanita chiramAdO hanta dEhEndriyAni?..].  I 
would request
Shri Murali Rangaswamy to complete this slOka.  The main purport of the 
slOka as explained by Swami is:
We have spent many lives thinking that the body and atmA are one.  Then 
comes a stage where we are able to know that these two entities are 
different, the former perishable and the later eternal.  Making a little 
more progress, we then commit the folly of identifying this atmA with 
Isvara.  Making more progress, through Vedanta kalakshepams, we understand 
that the atmA is an eternal servant
of Sriya: pati.  Even then, we are still short of the ultimate goal.  Only 
by realizing Bhaghavata/AchArya dAsatvam can we hope to reach our supreme 
goal.  Swami Desika says: Hey pAdukE (satakopa muni) only after I sang your 
glories my janmA became fruitful (sAphalyam).

AchArya kaimkaryam is the supreme touchstone, the means and the goal for a 
Sri Vaishnava. MadurAntakam Veera RaghavachArya Swamigal was a lion among 
Sri Vaishnava achAryAs.  His forthcoming centenary celebration reminds us of 
the enormous gratitude that we owe him for his yeoman contributions to our 
sampradAyam.  As members of this net we have always been in the forefront in 
rising up to such occasions.  We cannot  take a back seat now at this 
glorious moment.

I appeal to all of you again to come forward and donate liberally to the 
centenary celebrations.  You can make your checks payable to SMSA and send 
the checks either to me or Shri Sadagopan or Muralidhar Rangaswamy or Mani 
Varadarajan or Shri Madhavakkannan.

Some of you have been kind enough to send in your contributions.  I will 
soon acknowledge in the Bhakti list.  As a special gesture the organisers 
are providing audio-cassettes of the upanyAsams recorded under the 
popularization of Vedanta Desika's project for those who contribute at the 
$100 or $150 level.  This includes the 'Yatiraja saptati' by Pondarikapuram 
swamigal.

S. Vijayaraghavan
Buffalo, NY
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