Search:
Bhakti List Archives

Sri HyaagrIva SthOthram : Part XXII-->SlOkmas 26-29

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sadagopan • October 4, 2000 


SriamthE RaamAnujAya Nama:

Dear BhakthAs:

>From SlOkams 26-29 , Swamy Desikan enjoys the integrated
essence of the beauty ( samudhAya ShObhai ) of the Lord ,
who shines in front of him as a just-blossomed white Lotus
and prays to Him for the conferral of boons of Veda Vaak
(Sarasvathi) , which will help him defeat the disputants
from other avaidhika and kudhrushti mathams and establish
the glory of Bhagavath RaamAnuja SiddhAntham .Swamy Desikan
appeals to the Lord to enthrone Himself on the tip of his
tongue during these intricate vaadhams with disputants. 

SlOkam 26 : Prayer for Visualization of the Lord 
*************************************************

tamAmsi bhithvA visadhair mayUkai:
  sampreeNayantham vidhushas-chakOrAn
nisAmayE thvAm nava PuNDarIkE 
  sarath ghanE chandramiva sphurantham 

(meaning): Oh Lord HayagrIvA! You gladden the hearts 
of all scholars (VidhvAns) and destroy the darkness of
aj~nAnam with the spotless , white rays emanating
from You , while being seated on a newly blossomed ,
radiant white lotus . When we have the blessings of 
darsanam of this ThirumEni of Yours , we are reminded of 
the spotless white hue of the sarath-kaala Chandran 
(autumn Moon ) removing the darkness of the night and
making the chakOra birds happy with His rays (moon beams),
which is their only food. 

Here , the VidvAns(Vidhusha:) are equated with 
the proverbial chakOrA birds who anxiously await 
chandrOdhayam to sustain themselves with the Moon Beams , 
which are their sole source of nourishment .The Lord 
is compared to the autumn full Moon seated  on a 
freshly blossomed white lotus radiating blemishless 
white beams of light from His ThirumEni. The VidvAns
are sustained by these white rays of light originating
from the Lord . The nescience of the worldis is also
destroyed by those white rays ( visadhai: 
mayUkai:tamaamsi bhithvA). Lord HayagrIvan is like
the spotless white , autumn Moon (sarath ghanE
chandramiva sphurantham ) seated on a freshly blossomed 
white lotus ( nava puNDarIkE sphurantham ). Swamy 
Desikan states that he visulaizes the Lord in
this lovely form through his mental eye (thvAm nisAmayE). 

SlOkam 27 : Prayer for the blessings of the Power of speech
***********************************************************

disanthu mE Deva ! sadhA thvadhIyA:
  dayA tarangAnucharA: katAkshA :
srOthrEshu pumsAm amrutham ksharanthIm
  SarsavathIm samsritha KaamadhEnum 

(Meaning ): Oh Lord ! May Your dhivya KatAkshams 
(divine glances) imbued with Your limitless dayA
bless me with the powers of eulogizing You !
May those sthOthrams serve as nectar for the ears
of the listeners ! May Those Sri Sookthis confer
all auspiciousness on those , who recite them !
May adiyEn be blessed with the powers of speech
to compose such poems through Your divine grace !

This slOkam is the first of the five slOkams ,
where Swamy Desikan prays for the Lord's anugraham
to prepare him for the debates ahead in defense
of Bhagavath RaamAnuja SiddhAntham.He prays 
to the Lord for the gifts of Veda Vaak that 
would empower him to debate the contestants 
from other mathams with clarity and strength.

The wealth requested by Swamy Desikan is
the Vaak-Sampath and that is gained by 
the daya-laden glances of Lord HayagrIvan 
falling on His UpAsakAs. Swamy Desikan 
prays for the Vaak-Sampath that would generate 
nectar in the ears of the listeners ( PumsAm srOthrEshu
amrutham ksharanthIm ) and also bless them 
to realize all their longings like the wish-granting
divine KaamdhEnu ( Samsritha KaamadhEnum SarsvathIm
sadhA mE disanthu).

SlOkam 28: Prayers for Victory over the poets & logicians
**********************************************************
visEshavith paarishadhEshu Naatha
  vidagdha ghOshtI SamarAnganEshu
jigIshathO mE kavitArkikEndhrAn
 JIHVAAGRA SIMHAASANAM ABHYUPEYAA:

(Meaning): Oh Lord HayagrIvA ! Please bless me to join
the mighty battle fields of contests , where very
learned vidvAns serve as mediators (madhyasthars)
of debate between contestants!Please bless me to 
win over those who belong to para mathams , who use
their tricks (yukthis) to advance their points !
Please bless me with the power of Veda Vaak to 
establish the truth ! Oh Lord ! You must grant me
this boon of Veda Vaak to be used in Your service ! 
To succeed in my efforts to defend and protect our 
siddhAntham (Parama Vaidhika Matham ) , Thou should 
occupy the tip of my tongue as Your throne !

In the previous slOkam , Swamy Desikan 
prayed for the boon of mastery over sweet 
words in his speech ; here , he prays for
the power in his speech to win in debates
with master poets and logicians (kavi Taarkika
IndrAn).

Sri Dindukkal Ramaswamy Iyengar mentions that 
many speakers at public assembly recite this
and previous slOkams prior to their speeches
and debates to secure Lord HayagrIvan's grace.
The power to succeed in VaakyArthA debates 
with rival siddhAnthins is the prayer  here .
For such success, Swamy Desikan realizes that
the presence of Lord HayagrIva on the tip
of his tongue is essential and therefore he
invites the Lord to sit on a throne that he
sets up for Him there ( JihvAgra SimhAsanam
abhyupEyA:).

SlOkam 29 :The effect of Lord's sitting on JihvAgram
*****************************************************

thvAm chinthayan thvanmayathAm Prapanna:
  thvAmudhgruNan sabdhamayEna DhAmnA
SvAmin! samAjEshu sumEdhisheeya
  Svacchandha vaadhAvaha bhaddha Soora:

(Meaning): Oh Lord HayagrIvA ! May adiyEn meditate 
always on Your dhivya ThirumEni (SubhAsrayam )! 
May I thereby imbibe Your auspicious attributes 
and achieve a state of oneness with You ! May adiyEn
perform japam of Your sacred manthram and through 
that power become a renowned warrior in the battle 
fields of debate , where rival siddhAnthins take
part ! May adiyEn rise victorious with Your anugraham
in these debater's assemblies and argue with
unabated strength to gain victory !

This slOkam is a description of what happens
after Lord HayagrIvan occupies the throne at
the tip of Swamy Desikan's tongue. Three things
happen in quick succession : 

(1) Swamy Desikan meditates deeply on the Lord 
and reaches a state of Tanmayathvam ( a state of 
Oneness with the Lord).

(2) Swamy Desikan performs Sri HayagrIva manthra
Japam and offers his salutations

(3) At the end of the japam , he prays to the Lord
for the anugraham to rise victorious in the debates
with rival siddhAnthins through command over 
their arguments with the power of Veda Vaak.

Sri D.Ramaswamy Iyengar points out that it is
Lord HayagrIvA , who really wins in these contests
by using Swamy Desikan as His instrument.Two instances
where Swamy Desikan acknowledges his kaimkaryam as
a mere instrument in the hands of the Lord to defeat
para matha Vaadhins are found at the end of 
AdhikaraNa SaarAvaLi and DayA sathakam(slOkam 104).
These are Saathvika ThyAgams at the end of 
these two monumental works.

AdhikaraNa SaarAvaLi is a metrical commentary on
Sri BhAshyam of AchArya RaamAnujA , a summary of 
the VyAkhyAnam of BhAshyakArar on each of the chapters
of the Brahma SoothrAs . After completing this 
monumental work , Swamy Desikan acknowledges that 
it is really Lord RanganAthA ( thru His HayagrIvAvathAram ),
who sang the AdhikaraNa SaarAvaLi using him (Desikan) as
an instrument just as He uses His Paanchajanyam to raise 
PraNava naadham (Uccha dhvani) :

padhyErathai: svahrudhyai: 
praNava Mahimavath PaanchajanyakramENa
svAdhmAtam RanganAtha: svayamithi
mukharikruthya sammOdhatE sma
--Adhikarana SaarAvaLi: SlOkam 561:Utthara Paadham

Swamy Desikna's son , Sri KumAra VaradAchAr
wrote the commentary for his father/AchAryan's
AdhikaraNa SaarAvaLi and observes the Lord
using Swamy Desikan like His Divine conch:

" Paanchajanyasthu BhagavadhAdhmAnEna SabdhAyathE.
  ahamapi BhagavathA prEritha yEvaithAni padhyAni 
  vyararacham . tEna svEnaiva prEritham mAmAsthEnEshu
  mukharIkruthya sammOdhatE sma = santhushyathi
  smEthyartha:, atha:" Paanchajanyam HrushIkEsa:"
  ithivath Para paksha PrathikshEpa rUpEshu 
  samara mukhEshu maam muhurapi mukharayAncchakAra
  ithyartha: "

(meaning): Paanchajnayam sounds with the Lord's
own breath filling it.AdiyEn also was commanded
by the Lord RanganathA to compose this metrical
work on Sri BhAshyam (adhikaraNa SaarAvaLi).
It is the Lord Himself , who sang the SaarAvaLi
using me just as He uses His divine conch in
the battle field .He takes delight in this leelA
of His using me as His Panchajanyam.

The famous DayA sathaka SlOkam containing
the SaathvIka ThyAgam is housed in the 104th SlOkam:

"VedAntha Desika padhE vinivEsya Baalam 
   dEvO dayaa sathakam yEthath avadhAyan maam
VaihArikENa vidhinA samayE gruhitham
   VEENAA VISESHAM IVA VENKATASAILA NAATHA:"

Swamy Desikan states here that Lord VenkatanAthan
lifted a small boy like him to sit on a great sthAnam 
known as " VedAnthAchAryan ".To qualify for this 
sthAnam (status) , He (the Lord) composed the slOkmas 
of DayA sathakam through me as part of His
leelai.He used me as an instrument to accomplish
His goal. It is Like the Lord of the Universe 
playing on a VeeNA to amuse Himself with
the sweet naadham of the Veenai. It is not
the VeenA that raises the MangaLa naadham ,
but it is the skills of the Player that
is behind the sweet sounds.All the glories
in the composition of the DayA sathakam goes
to the Lord and Lord alone , who used me
as His preferred instrument.

In the last slOkam of AdhikaraNa SaarAvaLi ,
Swamy Desikan pays direct tribute to Lord
HayagrIvan as the One composing this Sri Sookthi
using him as the instrument . A portion of
Swamy KumAra VaradAcchAr's commentary on this 
slOkam is as follows:

" SvAchArya roopa visishtEna Sarva VidhyA-
pravarthakEna BhagavathA HayagrIvENa virachitham , 
--SrimAN HayagrIva yEva Tath VakthA.." 

This AdhikaraNa SaarAvaLi has been created by
the Master of all VidhyAs , Lord HayagrIvan ,
taking the form of the preeminent knowledge
represented by his own AchAryans .Thus , Swamy
Desikan performs Saathvika ThyAgam in the form
of Sri HayagrIvArpaNam befitting his role as one,
who performed prapatthi to Him (dayA nidhim dEha-
brudhAm SaraNyam , dEvam HayagrIvam aham prapdhyE ).

In the 29th slOkam of Sri HayagrIva SthOthram ,
Swamy clearly states that it is Lord HayagrIvan 
sitting on the tip of his tongue is the One ,
who would win in all the debates that he would 
enter into .

(PraNavam): Kimchith KarmAnukoolakAya Nama:
(   "    ): kArpaNyAya Nama:
(   "    ): Brahma-nishtAnugraha-kaarakAya Nama:
(   "    ): Daasa-hithaika-kruthi JaagarAya Nama:
(   "    ): Vaadha-vyAkhyA-sva-sidhdAntha rakshA 
            hethu sva-manthra-dhAya Nama:
(   "    ): Svbhaktha Sthuthi SamthushtAya Nama:
(   "    ): Saathvika ThyAga Sampanna Sathkarma -
            krutha athipriyAya Nama:
(   "    ): NishkAma VathsalAya Nama:

Srimath Azhagiya Singar ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam 
Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SatakOpan     
      
 
  

  

  

    
      


--------------------------------------------------------------
           - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
To Post a message, send it to:   bhakti-list@eGroups.com
Search archives at http://ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/index.html#SEARCH