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Swamy Desikan-16- Paadhuka Sahasram-ThUppul MaNi maNdapam kaimkaryam appeal

From the Bhakti List Archives

Madhavakkannan V • October 12, 2001 


SrI:
SrImathe Ramanujaya namah:
SrImathe Nigamantha mahadesikaya namah:

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

May the glorious Sri Venkatanatha, the greatest of teachers of Vedanta, and 
the lion among poets and debaters, reside forever in my heart.

Dearest Srivaishnavas,

I am continuing on my appeal and posts on Swamy Desikan and appeal for 
Thuppul maNdapam kaimkaryam.
URL: http://www.geocities.com/lsriniva/thoopulappeal.html It is my humble 
request to please contribute your mite towards this kaimkaryam, as 
remembering Acharyan, and talking alone will not suffice. OUR SINCERE THANKS 
to MAGNANIMOUS HEARTS WHO HAVE LIBERALLY CONTRIBUTED AND PLEDGED.. FOR THOSE 
WHO HAVE NOT YET PLEDGED, PLEASE CONTRIBUTE YOUR MITE.

Let us continue to enjoy SwamyÂ’s GREAT works.

The samasyasahari is a work of the Acharya on completing a stanza when a 
part of it is given. One thousand samasyas were given here but this is now 
extant :-(

THE PADHUKA SAHASRAM is POEM written Swamy Vedantha Desikan on the sandals 
of Lord Sri Ranganatha of Srirangam. It contains 1008 slokas. As Sri 
Azhagiya Manavala perumAL Nayanar (younger brother of SrI Pillai lokAchArya) 
and Sri Vedantha Desikan were worshipping Lord SrI Ranganathan at Srirangam, 
both were enjoying the divine beauty of the Lord. The former was attracted 
by the beauty of the Lotus Feet of the Lord and wished to praise the same. 
Sri Vedantha Desikan wished to praise the Lord's pAdhukAs. It appears Swamy 
Desikan felt that the Lord of Srirangam was saying that it is not enough 
that the sarva tantra svathanthrar had composed BhU Sthuthi , Sri Sthuthi , 
YathirAja Sapthathi et al, but he has to compose a sthuthi on Swami 
NammAzhwAr , His paadhukhai. Thus arose the illustrious SatakOpa sthuthi 
known as " PaadhukhA Sahasram ". Sri Azhagiya Manavala PerumAL Nayanar was 
going to compose a grantham to be named " Padha Kamala Sahasram ". Swami 
Desikan went ahead and completed in record time, a sthuthi on the PaadhukhA 
of the Lord, Swami NammAzhwAr .

Swamy Desikan composed the 1008 slokAs on PadhukAs in just about 3 hours 
time (one yaamam) while it takes about 6 hours for us to recite the entire 
1008 slokAs. The Padhuka sahasram could be considered as a kaavyam only for 
the name; however it is better referred to as sthOthram. It is divided into 
32 divisions called paddhathis. The names of these paddhathis themselves are 
quite significant. PdhukA is called SrI Satajith SaTakOpa that is 
NammAzhwAr. PAdhukA is NammAzhwAr himself (sloka 23, 30)- says Swamy 
Desikan. As SrI Velukkudi Krishnan Swamy sued to say: it is not the four 
letter NA RA YA NA which is great; It is RA MA NU JA which is greater; It is 
SA TA KO PA which is greater..
Thus, AchArya is greater than the Lord.. as declared firmly and assertively 
by Swamy Desikan in Paadhuka Sahasram.

Swamy desikan has said elsewhere "AchAryAdhiha dEvathAm samadhikAm anyaama 
namanyAmahE.."

We are reminded here of the message from Mettu Azhagiyasinghar at Srirangam 
during Kambhan's inauguration of Kambha RaamAyaNam . Sri Lakshmi Nrusimhan 
stopped Kambhan and asked him first to compose SatakOpa AnthAdhi and then 
get on with his inauguration .  Such is the affection of our PerumAl for His 
Thiruvadi (SatAri Soori ).Just as Sriman NaarAyaNan's Paadhukai is Sri 
satAri (NammAzhwAr ), Kuruhoor Nampi's Paadhkhai is Madhura Kavi , 
RaamAnujA's paadhukai is MudaliyANdAn , Swami Desikan's Paadhukai is 
NayinArAchAryan , we are Paadhukais ( Thiruvadis ) of our respective 
AchAryAs.

At many places in paadhukhA sahasram , Swami Desikan celebrates the 
sambhandham of his grantham with that of Srimadh Vaalmiki RaamAyanam . The 
Upanishads describe 32 ways to worship Sriman NaarAyaNan . Swami Desikan has 
helped us with 32 ways (Paddhathis )to worship the Lord's Paadhukhais,Swami 
NammazhwAr. This is described in the PrabhAva paddhathi wher AdhisEshan, 
GarudA, the Gemset foot stool and PadhuKAs are said to be respected in the 
world. Yet, it is the PAdhukAs that are most respected by receiving them 
when placed on the head (slokA 58). In the SamarpaNa paddhathi, the pAdhukA 
is said to be more glorious than Rama Himself, as Bharatha wanted the 
pAdhukAs for administration of the Raajyam (78).

The Lord was able to measure the regions in a moment's time only by wearing 
PadhukA and thus he won the name  Urukrama (281 slokA). Fomration of 
pictorial designs is illustrated in various kinds in slokAs 911-970 in the 
30 th paddhathi called Chithra paddhathi. It is an excellent paddhathi and 
even one who does not sanskrit will relish the rhythmic slokAs; though the 
slokAs contain very deep, esoteric meanings. How ThUppul PiLLai wrote such 
GREAT slOkas in thousand in such short time!. After all, VishNu GaNTAvataar 
is He.. Unique powers of poetic imagery are revealed by Swamy Desikan in 
describing the gems set in the PadhukA and their jingling sounds produced 
when they move on. It is no exaggeration to admit that the AchArya had made 
full use of his poetic talents in this poem. AchArya's poetic genius shine 
with matchless skill.

(Sri Muralidhar Rangaswamy Swamin and Sri V Satakopan Swamin have been 
writing every day on each slokA of this PadhukA sahasram for our enjoyment).

You may browse at the excellent web site created by SrI Achutharaman Swamy 
on PAdhuka Sahasram.
URL: http://swamydesika.tripod.com/padhuka

(The above write up is from the extracts from Sri A. Srinivasaraghavachariar 
Swamy's book, SrI VN Vedantha Desikan Swamy's book and Sri Satakopan 
Swamin's write up. )

Please donate according to your shakthi. The money can be sent to "Thuppul 
Trust" and the address is:

Thuppul Trust
Old No.20, New No.24, Thiruvengadam Street
West Mambalam, Chennai-600033, India
Phone No: 91-44-4741559 / 91-44-3715771

Please contact Sri. V.K. Sudharshan at vksudarsh@vsnl.com or Sri Lakshmi N 
Srinivasa  lsriniva@hotmail.com (He can collect and send it as single amount 
in USA).

The address:

Lakshminarasimhan Srinivasa
3 Old Towne Road, #212
Ayer, MA-01432

For those in the South East Asia, please contact me at
srivaishnavan@hotmail.com . Please pass on this kaimkaryam to as many people 
as possible in order to complete the same.

kavi-tArkika-simhAya kalyANa-guNa-SAline |
Srimate venkateSAya vedAntagurave namaH ||

Salutations to Sri Venkatesa, in whom all perfection resides, who is the
teacher of Vedanta and the lion among poets and debaters!

Swamy Desikan ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam
Regards
Narayana Narayana
NarayaNa dAsan madhavakkannan

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