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Fwd: [SEvA SwAmi attained Paramapadam !]

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M.S.HARI Madabhushi Sarangarajan Hari • Thu May 03 2001 - 12:35:02 PDT 


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: 

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