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[sv-poetry] Posting on vairagya panchakam by SrI Narayanan Veeraraghavan.

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Narayanan Veeraraghavan • Thu Nov 28 2002 - 09:02:19 PST 


From: Narayanan Veeraraghavan  
Date: Thu Nov 28, 2002 7:41am 
Subject: Re: desikan's vairagya panchakam  


Respected Smt. Raji Sridhar,

Swamy Desikan's Vairahghya Panchakam is a wonder
masterpice to show swamy's enormous vairaaghyam
towards ignoring materialistic pleasures that was
offerred to Swamy by the then king Krishnadevaraya. 

Swamy Desikan's well known friend or who studied with
swamy desikan named Vidyaranyar, felt so worried about
Swamy's poverty and at the same time was very much
impressed about Swamy's wealth in knowledge. He wanted
Swamy Desikan to join Krishnadevaraya's palace where
there were eminent scholars already. He wanted Swamy
also to join the group to make the palace filled with
scholars of vedanta, sankrit and litreature. So he
went to Krishnadevaraya and told that Swamy Desikan
can make the palace great by his presence. Hence the
king sent an invitation to Swamy Desikan.

Reading this Invitation Swamy thought for a while. He
thought if he accepts this then he should be indebted
to the king and vidyaranyar. The king might ask swamy
to sing the praise of himself. Swamy thought that he
will have materialistic wealth but not peace of mind
because the enitre peace for him was there in Sri
Hasthishailam which Kachipuram where Devaathirajana
stands. Hence Swamy gave an apt reply to the king
through 5 slokams which was "Vairaaghaya Panchakam". 

In these 5 slokams Swamy expresses his vairaaghyam
towards the Materialistic wealth and post offerred by
the King.

Adiyen will give only the summary of meanign of each
verse. Please refer o the verses from the Stothram
Book. I hope you have one. If not you could get it
from the LIFCO Press at Chennai in T.Nagar.

Verse 1:-

Any king cannot rule the entire world. He just rules a
portion of the earth. Proably one 100th of the earth
is what he rules But the amount of ego the king has is
huge. It is so dengerous that it burns like huge fire.
It also spoils their budhi. Soem poets or scholars
even sing the praise of such kings. They depend on him
and work for the king. They consider themselevs that
they are gifted to work for him and sing the praise of
him. But my path is different. I dont sing the praise
of any king other than the king of the hill Hasthi who
is Devaathi Rajan who can give both lowkeeka wealth
and wealth of himself and his kainkaryam both here and
also life after death. Long bak Kuchela who was so
poor offerred a small quantity of Aval (Poha in Hindi)
(pardon me for not using appropriate word for aval)
which Kannapiraan considered it as a great and
delicious food and had it. He then offerrred a great
wealth for each handful of Aval he took. So I have
decided that I will worship and depend on such
emperumaan and I will not even expect such a
materialistic wealth from him.


Verse 2:-

Scholars in order to run their family happily with
materialistic wealth, praise the king with all theie
poetic lines and they hide and spoil their actual
aathma swaroopam which should be that every jeevaathma
should be indebted and sing the praise of only
Bhagavan and no one else. To end the pain of Hunger it
is more than enough that we eat the grains that are
found in our fields, to quench our thirst, it is
enough that we take the water in a pushkarini or tank,
a small pice of cloth to hide our body is enough. Then
why should we praise the King for our food, water,
cloths  and shelter ? Oh.!! what a pity that these
scholars sing the praise of such a king.


Verse 3:-

In the midst of the ocean there is an fire with the
face of a horse which swallows all the excess water
raises in the ocean because of which the excess water
doesnt flow out of its boundaries and destroy our
earth. Similarly our stomcah has a fire called 
"Jataragni" which swallows all the food that we eat
out of hunger and disgests the food.  The more this
Jataragni burns, our hunger increases. No matter how
much ever this agni increases our hunger, I wont sing
the praise of any ordinary king to get materialistic
wealth. My poetic talent is nto ordinary. Its like the
the jsmine which has blosomed inthe evening which
fills the surroundings with its fragrance. This
fragrance is usually offered to emperumaan only first
and hence my poetic talent will also be offerred to
emperumaan only and no one else.

Here we should not mistake Swamy's saathwika
ahankaaram for ego. Here swamy even shows his ego, his
poetic talent was offered to emperumaan only and no
one else. Hence Saathvika Ahankaaram or the ahankaaram
which is done has bhagavadh arpanam can quite happen
and we can see this with many of our ahzhwaars and
aachaaryaas.

Verse 4

When I have the greatest wealth who is "Partha
Sarathy" who lead the chariout for Arjuna in the war
of Mahabharatham, who was shining as a glittering gold
as a Sarathy, why shoud I ever think any other wealth
? Why should I ever go to King's palace who has only a
lots of materialistic wealth which can be destroyes
very soon ?Why should I ever be indebted to an
ordinary king expecting his grace at his doorsteps ? I
pray that this situtaion should never come fo rme. I
worship this situation such thatit doesn't come to me
ever in my life.

Verse 5 :-

Hwo much ever wealth we earn, it is destroyable and it
is only to reduce our hunger, to quench our thirst and
to experiecne materialistic pleasures. All these
wealth is to quench the fire of Jataraagni inour
stomach. Till our death we keep praising of ordinary
people or kings and earn wealth for our family. Why
should we ever suffer like this and expect the grace
of such ordinary kings ? Instead we have greatest
wealth which lead the chariot for Arjuna in the battle
of mahabharatha, which saved the people at ayarpaadi
by lifting the Govardhana hill, give boundless
happiness for those who worship him with their heart,
the one who cannot be destroyed or he himsel fis the
wealth which cannot be destroyed, then why should be
ever expect any other wealth and sing the praise of
ordinary king and people ?

Verse 6 :- (Last)

I dont have any wealth which was earned by my father .
I odnt have any wealth earned by myself. But I have
one limitless wealth which was earned by my forefather
or grandfather who is Brahma, which stands over the
Hasthi Hill. This wealth was earned by my grandfather
Brahma by performing a Aswamedha Yaganm, and its name
if Perarulaanan (Varadan). When I have such a
limitless wealth why should I ever seek any other
materialistic wealth ?


So thus Swamy refuted the invitation offerred by the
King Krishnadevaraya. How great was swamy's
vairaaghyam towards this materialistic wealth. Hope
this explanation of verses was very useful to you Smt.
Raji Sridhar. Pardon me for any mistakes that adiyen
has committed in this. Learned scholars my also throw
some light on this and may find some mistakes too. I
request all learned scholaras or Bhaagavthaas to
accept my dandavath pranaamams if adiyen has made any
mistake in this.

Sarva Bhagavthaapachaaram Kshamaswa ..!!

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasan

Narayanan



References :- 

Word by Word meaningof Swami Desika Stothram by U.Ve.
Ramadesikaachaariaar Swamy, Oppiliappan Koil. LIFCO
Press, T.Nagar, Chennai.



--- RAJI SRIDHAR  wrote:
> Pranams
> 
> Can someone tell more about this "Vairagya
> panchakam"
> ? It seems swami wrote this five slokas in answer to
> Krishnadeva rayar. I would like to know each sloka
> and
> its meaning.
> 
> Pranams once again
> raji sridhar
> 
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