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Vedanta Desika (1269 – 1370) was a Sri Vaishnava Guru. He was a poet, devotee, philosopher and master-teacher.

[edit] Life

Desikan was born in Thoopul, near Kanchipuram, (according to legend, on the order of Lord Srinivasa and Padmavathi Thayaar, the God and Goddess of the Tirumala Venkateswara Temple), as the son of Ananta Suri and Totaramba. He was named "Venkatanatha" and belonged to the Vishwamithra gothra (lineage). He was educated and trained by a scholarly maternal uncle of his, Kidambi Appullalar who was a direct disciple of Nadadoor Ammal (Grand Nephew of Ramanuja). Appullarlar also initiated Venkatanatha's Upanayanam (sacred thread ceremony) at the age of seven and made him master the Vedas, Divyaprabandam, Puranas and Sastras. By the age of twenty he was a great scholar without par in the history of Vaishnavism. He got married at the age of 21 to Tirumangai (also known as "Kanakavalli"). Vedanta Desikan rose to the status of an "Acharya" by the age of 27.

[edit] Works

His writings include devotional works on deities and Acharyas, treatises on Vishishtadvaita, commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, secret doctrines of Vaishnavism, original Tamil poems, epic poems and allegorical dramas in Sanskrit, dialectical works such as Satadushani directed against rival religious schools , treatises on daily life and several other miscellaneous treatises. His gloss on the meanings of the Vedas, reconciling the teachings of the Alvars and the Prasthanatrayi created history because it exposed the Divya Prabhandham of the Alvars to a much wider audience and elevated it to a status equivalent to that of the Vedas in the eyes of the Tamil Vaishnava people.

The poem "Sudarshnashtakam" on Lord Sudarshana the deity that represents the disc-shaped weapon that Vishnu carries in his right hand, and a similar poem "Hayagriva Stotram" on Hayagriva are his most famous works^{[citation needed]}. He composed close to fifty other Stotrams (sacred prayer poems similar to psalms) on different Vaishnava gods on various occasions^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] The eight-lettered mantra

In talking about the eight-lettered mantra of Narayana, he mentioned several things which can also have an eightfold classification^{[citation needed]}, like eight kinds of devotion, eight siddhis, eight functions of the intellect and so on. In the same strain he described eight flowers for the worship of God; these are: non-violence; sense-control; universal compassion; infinite patience; wisdom; austerity; meditation; and truth^{[citation needed]}. He composed three hymns exclusively on Lord Ranganatha of Srirangam^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] The Hamsa-Sandesha

Hamsa-Sandesha (IAST Haṃsasandeśa) or "The Message of the Swan" – is a medieval love poem set in southern India. Lovesick Rama, the epic hero, petitions a swan to carry a message to his beloved Sita, who has been abducted by the demon king, Ravana. As the swan's route winds through South India, it honours the land which Rama and Sita made sacred, whose beautiful landscape and peoples it describes in full. The Swan shoots like an arrow across the ocean to the island of Lanka and there he sustains the pining and near-suicidal Sita with his message. But more than this, the poet also pays deep homage to Kalidasa's 'Cloud Messenger'. This work is four things: an fine poem in its own right; a suggestive retelling of the Ramayana; a pilgrim's guide to the holy sites of South India; and a work that develops the poetics of Kalidasa's Meghaduta and gives them a devotional and heroic twist.

[edit] Paaduka Sahasram

Paaduka Sahasram or "1000 Verses on the Sandals of the Lord" is considered to be Desikan's Magnum Opus. The whole work is a monument for supreme devotion and superb poetry, all in one night’s intuition, - an overnight miracle of one thousand verses! It was done by him just as a fulfillment of a competition committed to as a challenge by his disciples who were provoked by members of the Tenkalai school. All this was composed by Desika (as he puts it, by the Grace of the paduka of the Divine) in just one quarter of the night, actually the third quarter. The earlier two quarters were devoted by him, as soon as he accepted the commitment, to yoga and yoga-nidra (=sleep induced by yoga and resulting in intuition). The opposite school kept awake the whole night and brought forth 300 of the 1000 promised, on the lotus feet of the Lord.

[edit] Additional reading

Sri Vedanta Desika: Makers of Indian Literature by M.Narasimhachary, Sahitya Academy, 2004.

[edit] External links

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