Nyasa Tilakam

Sri D. Ramaswamy Ayyangar

This and the following two stotras deal with nyaasa or saranagati and are supplementary and complementary to Saranagati Dipika ante. Nyasa Tilakam, the name given by the author to it shows the importance that he himself attached to this work. (Tilakam — prominent jewel or other article beautifying a person.) It consists of 32 slokas couched in various metres from anushtup with eight syllables in a quarter to sragdhara (twenty-one to a quarter).

The Deity in whose praise this Stotra has been sung is Lord Ranganatha of Srirangam at whose feet Acharya Ramanuja performed prapatti in Saranagati Gadyam. Slokas 3 and 4 refer to Sri-prapatti which comes first. Sloka 22 makes pointed reference to the special assurances given by Lord Ranganatha to Ramanuja about the certainty of protection to saranagata-s. For these and other reasons this stotra has been taken to be an elucidation of that Gadya in addition to its being an embellishment thereof in padya (poetry).

Several doubts that are likely to assail us about the efficacy and potency of Prapatti are mentioned, and at once dispelled by cogent and irrefutable data. Sloka 19 deals with the obstacles to Mahavisvasa and how to remove them. In 14 a very intricate problem is very successfully tackled, viz., hopes of a glorious life in future held out to one wallowing in misery here. Slokas 20 and 21 stress the value of the blessing of an acharya as the only panacea for wavering minds, and how an acharya can procure to us benefits beyond us.

Towards the end, this stotra contains more than the usual measure of personal touches and introspective exclaims. The poet addresses his fickle and vacillating mind in sloka 24 and in sloka 26 informs his speech, body and mind that Venkatesa Kavi is now a prapanna at the lovely feet of Lord Ranganatha and asks them not to play their old pranks with him any longer. The stotra winds up with a prayer to be made the recipient of the highly coveted title of “Servant of the Lord and His Sri.”

The importance of Nyaasa Tilakam can also be gathered from another fact. This is the only stotra for which Swami Desika’s son and disciple, Kumara Varadacharya, has furnished a commentary in Sanskrit.

Srirangam