Search:
Bhakti List Archives

abhinava dESika-Sri UttamUr Swamy Divya Charitham-21

From the Bhakti List Archives

Madhavakkannan V • January 27, 2002 


SrI:
Sri Padmavathi Sametha Srinivasa Parabrahmane Namaha.
Sri Perundhevi Sametha Devadhiraja Parabrahmane Namaha.
SrimathE Bhagavad Ramanujaya Namaha:
SrimathE Nigamantha Mahadesikaya namaha:
Srimate Rangaramanuja Maha Desikaya Namaha.
Srimate  Abhinava Desika Vatsya Satchakravarti Uttamur SRI
VIRARAGHAVARYA MAHA DESIKAYA NAMAHA

SrImAn venkatanAthAryaH kavitArkika kesarI |
vedAntAcArya-varyome sannidhattAm sadA hRdi ||

Thanian (Invocatory verse on Sri UttamUr swamy written by
Swamy's AchAryan Sri Kozhiyalam Swamy himself)

adbhutam yasya vikrAntam vEda vIthI ViSOdhanE |
aparam nigamAntAryam prapadyE vIrarAghavam ||

Let us continue with the divya charitham of Sri UttamUr Swamy.

[Article in Tamil by SrI PayyampADi VEnkatavaradAchArya SwAmi; English write 
up (based on Tamil) by SrI R.VenkatAchAri (SohattUr- Vankipuram -Oppiliappan 
Sannidhi), a disciple of SrI UtthamUr SwAmi. Appeared in the souvenir 
released during the SatAbhishEkam (80th birth anniversary) of SrI UtthamUr 
swAmi on 10th Feb, 1977]



DAILY ROUTINE OF OUR SWAMI:

One would be amazed at the heavy schedule Our Swami used to have every day.  
Getting up very early in the morning and after finishing the anushtana and 
Abhigamana Aradhana and also special mantra japa, he would be ready waiting, 
even before the arrival of the first sishya, for the morning Kalakshepa.  
None of the sishyas had even seen him coming late even on a single day.  
After the Kalakshepa, time will be devoted for proof correction and 
allotment of work for the press for the dayÂ’s composing work.  After that, 
Ijya and Aradhana, followed by proof correction of Bhava Prakasika.  Then he 
would go through the English translation of the books by Sri K.Bhashyam 
which he used to bring every day for scrutiny and suggestion, and after he 
had left, he would take up the Tamil translation.   Then he would go through 
many Advaita granthas, to continue the khandana grantha already started and 
correct proof of the above etc.

In the middle of Swadhyaya Kala, Kalakshepa of some other granthas which 
were permitted to be studied in the afternoon like Stotras etc. was done 
before evening Sandhyavandana and Upanyasas.  If he was free without 
Upanyasas he would devote the time for preparing manuscripts even after 
sunset for other books.  This would go on till about mid-night.  So far, 
nobody would have seen him doing any other thing except sitting with some 
book or other, opened before him, throughout the day.  Some times, some of 
the sishyas coming there for paying respects, would not be noticed by him as 
he would be so much immersed in the book.  By himself he never used to go to 
bed and sleep should embrace him near about midnight due to tiresomeness and 
overwork.

After the publication of Tiruppavai with the commentary, Raksha, it
used to be a regular feature of Our Swami being invited to preside
over the Tiruppavai Sadas wherever they were held.  Invitations for
Upanyasas were pouring in very day.  One notable invitation was from
Brahmasri K.Balasubramania Iyer, a renowned scholar in Sanskrit, when
he conducted a Sammelanam at Mylapore Sanskrit College on “Bhatti
Kavya”.  Our Swami’s erudite speech was very much appreciated both by
the scholars and the convener Brahmasri Iyer.  [This lecture helped
him at a later stage, which we would refer to later].

About this time Sri. U. Ve. Venkatadrivaram Venkataraghavachariar
Swami, (who had the good fortune to do Sri Bhashya Kalakshepa under
Our Swami) Chief Professor in Sanskrit at Vivekananda College, Madras, came 
to Our Swami with his colleagues, Sri Rajagopalan and Sri Subramanian, 
(Advaitins), to study “Vaiseshika Darsana”.  Our Swamy taught them his own 
commentaries called Rasayana on Vaiseshika Darsana which contained many 
ancient Sutras not published so far.  The Rasayana was only in the 
manuscript stage as there was no time for publication in the middle of so 
many important Vedanta Granthas.
After hearing Our SwamiÂ’s lectures on Rasayana, the Professor found
out that they had a treasure before them.

He immediately undertook to print and publish the same and the work was 
started immediately.  The release was arranged at a function in Sanskrit 
College, Mylapore. Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam Sri Sankaracharya Swamigal 
presided and said that he had never missed reading even one book of Our 
Swami, either in Sanskrit or Tamil.  He also said that during his lifetime 
he had not come across such an erudite scholar well versed in all shastras, 
other than Our Swami and praised his intuitive and analytical way of 
approach to the subject and wished him long life to continue the grantha 
nirmana work.   Brahmasri Anantakrishna Sastriar who was present, stood up 
and said that he had known Our Swami very much for a long time.  He recalled 
one incident when, knowing his genius, he offered to get him a good post in 
North India with a very high remuneration and Our Swami refused the offer 
saying that he preferred to serve Lord Tiruvengadamudaiyan for a less 
remuneration, as a Professor in HIS college.  He also said that many people 
did not know about Our SwamiÂ’s Vidvat.  He very sincerely said that if only 
Our Swami would have been known by others, they would do Kanakabhishekam.  
For such a great scholar, he expected that the Sadas would honour him with a 
  big purse but on the other hand he found out that the publisher did not 
get enough response from the public and that he had to go searching for even 
the printing cost of the book.   Brahmasri Shastriar said that he knew about 
our Swami writing a khandana grantha for his Sata Bhooshani and for that 
sake they, the Advaitns, should not hate him or show disrespect to him.

It was customary, he continued, that pandits usually used to praise their 
own Sidhanta only.  Because it helped the Hindu relegion to grow stronger.  
But the unique thing he found out by
reading Our SwamiÂ’s granthas, especially the khandana granthas, was
that he had established a healthy convention, which should be an
eye-opener to all future critics, who write khandana granthas on other 
Sidhantas to adopt Our SwamiÂ’s way of not attacking any personalities or 
offending anybody.  After reading Our SwamiÂ’s books, he said, that one would 
show more regard for him and would certainly get more enlightened on the 
subject.  Such was the greatness of Our Swami.

Sri Kanchi Sankaracharya Swami said in his concluding remarks that if
Hinduism should survive, we should get into the habit of contributing
mutual donations between Advaitins and Vishshtadvaitins.  He also
praised Our SwamiÂ’s integrity and his impartial way of criticizing the 
principles only and that his khandana granthas only brought him more regard 
from him and wished him all success.  At the end Sri
Venkataraghavachar Swami presented the entire copies of the grantha to our 
Swami saying: We worship God by offering materials created by
HIM: Like that I am worshipping my Revered Guru by offering the
granthas created by him?

Mentioning Brahmasri Ananthakrishna Sastriar, one more earlier
interesting meeting between him and Our Swami would be worth
narrating.  One day Brahmasri Sastriar came to Our SwamiÂ’s Asrama and
during the conversation, told him, that, only Our Swami would be
writing the khandana for his Sata Bhooshani and his guess got
confirmed when he heard that the title of Abhinava Desika was
conferred on him.  He said that Sri Desika should have entered Our
Swami to write the khandana for a grantha which criticized his Sata
Bhooshani.   Our Swami replied thus; It is true that many Vaishnavas
had already approached him to take up the khandana grantha.  I am
hesitating because I am afraid that this may result in spoiling our
friendship?   Brahmasri Sastriar said that only by writing more and
more books, our Hinduism would grow and whole heartedly assured Our
Swami that it would not disturb the friendship between them and urged
him to take up the work early as he would not like anybody else
writing the khandana.  He even went one step further and told him that if 
there was difficulty in finding finance for that, he would himself undertake 
the printing and publishing on behalf of Our Swami; and after that he would 
consider whether he could write one more reply to that.

He was very happy that Our Swami would write the khandana as he
was the only qualified person to do that, and that the criticism would be 
very fair, healthy and scholarly and without offending anybody, and the 
Advaitins would learn more about their own Sidhanta.
to be continued..
AchAryan ThiruvadigaLE saraNam
Regards
Namo Narayana
aDiyEn dAsan


_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp.



--------------------------------------------------------------
           - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
To Post a message, send it to:   bhakti-list@yahoogroups.com
Archives: http://ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/
 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/