Fwd: [SEvA SwAmi attained Paramapadam !]
From the Bhakti List Archives
• May 3, 2001
Dear Members, Please find the message from SrI Anand K Karalapakkam forwarded as follows. It is difficult to digest the sad news; but it is SaraNyan's tiru-vuLLam. Thanks & Regards M.S.HARI rAmAnuja dAsan (mshari@usa.net) ============================================================= SrI: SrImatE rAmAnujAya namaH SrImatE nigamAnta mahAdESikAya namaH namO nArAyaNa! Dear all, Its a sad day for all SrI VaishNavas, for we have lost one of the great mahAns of our sampradAyam, quite unexpectadly. SrI SrInivAsa-RAghavAchArya SwAmi, very popularly known as "SEvA SwAmi" has attained his AchArya-thiruvaDi (ie.paramapadam) today. Though SwAmi will be relishing now with Bhagavad-anubhavam and kai~nkaryams at SrI-VaikuNTham, we have lost the association of this great mahAn - who had much more to give for us through his publications. SwAmi was acclaimed as "DESika Bhakta RatNa" and SwAmi made himself be addressed as "DESika SEva" and not by his actual name - Such was his great devotion to SwAmi DESikan. SwAmi was born in the lineage of the AppuLLAr, the AchArya of SwAmi VEdAnta DESika. Throughout his life, SwAmi spent writing and delivering kAlakshEpams and upanyAsams related to "SwAmi DESika" and SwAmi DESika's divine works. The topic for either writing or speaking might be on PerumAL Or AzhwArs Or any of the AchAryas Or any issue in SAstra - SwAmi always handled them in connection with only SwAmi DESika. Like how NammAzhwAr declared that anything and everything for him is only kaNNan {perumAL} - be it food,water etc, for SwAmi, anything and everything was only "SwAmi DESikan". SwAmi once mentioned in an upanyAsam with great regret that while the "Bhagavad" Sabda is used for Sage VyAsa, Sage VAlmIki, ALavandAr and EmperumAnAr, scholars hesitate somehow to use it for SwAmi DESikan - Ironically according to him, its SwAmi DESikan - the avatAra of Lord SrInivAsa of Thirumala - wherein the avatAra paripUrNatvam took place and "Bhagavad" Sabda is most appropriate to only SwAmi DESikan. During one of the recent conversations, SwAmi said that while it was Bhagavad RAmAnuja who "saved" the Bramhan-SrIman NArAyana- from the philosophers of various other systems of thought {in presenting the Ultimate Reality SrIman NArAyaNa to the world with various fallacies and wrong notions} - as stated by SwAmi DESikan in YatirAja Saptati -, it is only Bhagavad VEdAnta DESika, who "saved" "Bhagavad RAmAnuja" by completly safeguarding BhAshyakAra's divine works from extranious attacks and mis-interpretations. SwAmi then remarked that but for SwAmi DESikan, our sampradAyam would have reminded as a "Daddhi-aNNam sampradAyam" (Curd-Rice sampradAyam) ie. sampradAyam with mere celebration of festivals and eating prasAdam, without sound knowledge of Tattva-Hita-PurushArthas. SwAmi was a recipient of the prestigious "President's Award" for scholarship in Sanskrit. SwAmi was an immensely gifted poet. The numerous stotras composed by swAmi stands as testimony. SwAmi's stotra compositions are : * SrI Lakshmi-Hayavadana Pan~chAsat (51 verses) * SrI HayagrIva Pan~chAsat (52) * Halahalana mAlika (13) * HayagrIva GAyatri VarNamAlAstavam (32) * HayagrIva Nakshatra MAlika (27) * SrI Lakshmi-Nrusimha Pan~chAsat (51) * Lakshmi-Nrusimha-AnudhyAnam (101) * KOdaNDarAma Pan~chAsat (52) * SrI Lakshmi Pan~chAsat (53) * SrI Lakshmi-NArAyaNa Stotram * SrI GhaTikAchalastavam * Akshaya AarAdhanam (61) * DAmOdara SuprabAdam * Divya-DEsa-anubhUti Sahasram (1000+) * Hanumat Pan~chAsat (53) Three months back, Swami blessed aDiyEn with his latest composition on ANDAL viz. "GOdA-Stotram" with 36 + 2 verses. SwAmi has translated many Divya-Prabandhams into Sanskrit - notably ThiruppAvai (in 60 verses), NAcchiyAr Thirumozhi, KaNNin^uNsiRutthAmbu, ThirukuRun^dANDakam, ThirumAlai and ThiruvAimozhi. SwAmi's kAvyam "SrI VE~nkaTanAtheeyam" is a master-piece, consisting of 1008 verses. Its a treasure esp. for the devotees of Lord ThiruvE~nkaTamuDayAn of Thirumalai. The descriptions of various vAhanams/uttsavams is one of the outstanding features of this great kAvya. aDiyEn was spellbound when swAmi explained one verse from this kAvya on Chandra-Prabha vAhana sEvai, during his upanyAsam on the eve of SrI UtthamUr SwAmi's Thirunakshatram celebrations. SwAmi's great rAsikyam and poetic thoughts soaked with devotion has made a great impact upon me. SwAmi's other excellent kAvyam is "SrI Varada-abhidAna Sahasram", a 1008 verse composition on Lord VaradarAja of KAn~chi. SwAmi has published many chapters of SwAmi DESikan's mahA-kAvya YAdavAbhyudaya with his commentary. SwAmi's monthly magazine "SrI DESika SEVa" which has been run for some decades is quite popular. Under the umbrella of "SrI VEdAnta DESika Research Centre", SwAmi has initiated lots of projects and succesfully completed many. SwAmi published most of SwAmi DESikan's stotras with his sweet commentary in Tamil, which were all distributed free of cost, since SwAmi felt that fixing up of a price for the invaluable and "priceless" divine works of SwAmi DESikan, would be an insult to them - Priceless divine works were made "priceless". SwAmi also made many of SwAmi DESikan's stotras be commented upon by appropriate scholars in English,Hindi, Telugu, Oriya and other such Indian Languages and distributed them free of cost. SwAmi's "DESika SampradAya PATha Thittam" - graded lessons for children has been very useful for even the parents to teach their children on various aspects of our sampradAyam. SwAmi's "SEvA Diary" - a sampradAyam based Diary, will almost be with every devout SrI VaishNava's house. SwAmi maintained MaNi ManTapam with Lord HayagrIva as the AarAdhana mUrti,which is understandable since AppuLLAr's aarAdhana mUrti was also Lord HayagrIva, which was passed on to SrI VEdAnta DESika. SwAmi was deeply devoted to "Abhinava DESika" UtthamUr SwAmi too with an additional bondage as a disciple in NyAya SAstra. SwAmi performed kAlakshEpam under the illustrious NAvalpAkkam SrI AyyA DEvanAtha TathAchArya SwAmi. SwAmi was like humility incarnate, which would be evident even in his upanyAsams. Even while presenting the "GOdA-Stotram" Swami said "SwAmi DESikan has already performed a befitting unmatchable stuti to ANDAL. This is aDiyEn's blaberrings within the scope of my dull-intellect. Didn't SwAmi DESikan say that ANDAL's kalyANa guNas puts an end to his silence ?". SwAmi had mercifully graced aDiyEn's upanayanam ceremony and performed an upanyAsam also by releasing his commentary to "SrI Ki~ngruhESa-Stuti" on EvvuL-KiDanthAn (Lord VIrarAghava of thiru-evvuLUr) which was requested so by aDiyEn's father SrI K.G.KrishNan (KGK). aDiyEn's Vaidika sraddha - whatever be it- must be due to SwAmi's blessings during the upanayanam. This 18+1 verse stotra (SrI Ki~ngruhESa-Stuti) is a disputed composition by SwAmi DESikan - as made so by some in the past. Its actually by one of the Azhagiyasi~ngars of SrI Ahobila Muth, as clarified in the Sannidhi Guruparampara. aDiyEn is a rasika of SwAmi's commentaries and his unique-styled upanyAsams. SwAmi's message for all of us can be summarized as follows : BhagavAn VEdAnta DESika is the unparalleled AchArya in whole history of Earth. Bhagavad VEdAnta DESika's divine works are the brightest guiding light for the entire world - be it in attainment of either material or spiritual prospects. Spreading the divine works of Bhagavad VEdAnta DESika to the entire world is the topmost service for the humanity and most loved by pUrvAchAryas like Bhagavad RAmAnuja and the Divya-Dampati. Let us take an oath to act in fulfilment of these objectives in whatever way possible within our limits and remind ourselves daily about the same - which would be most pleasing to this great mahAn. aDiyEn requests SrI-VaishNavas to dedicate sometime in their next immediete gathering (like NAMA events) for paying their homage to SrI SEvA SwAmi. VAzhi DESika Bhakta-RatNa "SrI DESika SEvA" SwAmi ! VAzhi ThUppul VEdAntAchArya and his SrI-SUktIs ! aDiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan, anantapadmanAbhan. Srimate Sri Laksminrisimha Divya Paduka Sevaka Srivan Satakopa Sri Narayana Yatindra Mahadesikaya Nama: Your use of Yahoo! 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