“Sirumamanithar” as azhwar has sung in his
inimitable style. Short in “murthi” – stature and long in “kirthi” -fame.
Embar, Arulalaperumal Emperumanar, Kurathazhwan etc. belonged to the same
group. Does stature matter when a person can conjure up 1008 stanzas, in the
most delightful and profound usage of Sanskrit one can come across, in about
two to three hours on just getting out of bed after a sleep of maybe three
hours!? Sri Paaduka Sahasra alone is enough to classify Desika as a
superman.
This is what the dictionaries have to say about the word superman:
Superman: in the philosophy of Nietzsche, an ideal man who through integrity
and creativity would rise above good and evil and who represents the goal of
human evolution.
Superman:
1903, coined by George Bernard Shaw to translate Ger. Übermensch, “highly
evolved human being that transcends good and evil,” from “Thus Spake
Zarathustra” (1883-91), by Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). First used in
Ger. by Hermann Rab (1527), and also used by Herder and Goethe. Translated
as overman (1895) and beyond-man (1896) before Shaw got it right in his play
title “Man and Superman” (1903).
These western thinkers would have been totally out of their depths were they
to meet our “gnana vairagya bhushanam”. Though the first definition,
attributed to Nietzsche who is said to have been influenced by Goethe, may
come near, it is still as far as the milky way is from earth. They would
never have understood renunciation and humility.
Desika’s amazing composition on the footwear of Sri Ranganatha is equal to
1. Sri Nrisimha’s slaying of Hiranyakasipu in a muhurta’s time. 2. Sri
Rama’s extermination of 13,999 (He allowed Akampanan to escape!) rakshasas
at Janastana. 3. Sri Partasarathy’s discourse on the battle field,Sri
Bhagavad Geetha – 700 slokas in fast forward mode and 4. Sri Krishna and Sri
Balarama learning the 64 vidyas from Sandipani in as many days.
Please note that other than Desika all were purnavataras, complete
incarnations of our Lord.
Adiyen is totally incompetent to comment on Sri Desika’s Sanskrit usage. But
even an illiterate like adiyen cant help marvelling at his felicity in using
this difficullt tongue. In his hands this adamantine language is like
freshly kneaded atta, wheat flour. The gold simile has been used too often.
We of the Desika sampradaya are connected to Sri Ramanuja’s kitchen thorugh
Sri Kidambi Acchan, hence this allusion to “godhimai maavu”. Desika takes
this dough and makes savouries of myriad sizes,shapes and taste. He
surprises us often with unexpected additions and textures. Some times it is
softer than “panju mittai” cotton candy, and sometimes it is harder than
“urupadi” that is offered to Sri Ranganatha daily as food. He cooks up the
language in different colours. The serious ochres and browns of vedanta and
sometimes the gleeful pink colours of puns. The stanzas in the chitra
paddati of Sri Paduka Sahasra are testimony to his sense of fun. This aspect
of his writings is rarely highlighted. If any one other than Desika had
composed those lines he would have been labelled “non compos mentis” mad! He
is a “pundit” in more ways than one can imagine. His Hamsa Sandesa though
not as well known as Kalidasa’s Megha Sandesa is in no way inferior. His
Sankalpa Suryodaya an allegorical drama, is better than the Prabhoda
Chandrodaya of a mayavadi. His Yadavuhydaya is as captivating as the child
Krishna being caught red handed stealing butter. Adiyen cannot understand as
to why Desika’s Sanskrit works are not compulsory reading for all students
of the Devabasha?
He was a ployglot. Effortlessly, he wrote in Tamil, Manipravala, Sanskrit,
Prakrit etc. He stayed in Satyagala for a sufficient period to have picked
up Kannada. Adiyen wonders if there is any Kannada composition of his?
In human race mediocrity is the rule. Less than one percent of the populace
has that spark that signals uniqueness. Even these unique ones are commonly
good at one thing. Polymaths are the rarest of rare. Even among these
ploymaths there are very few who are good with their hands. Dexterity and
learning very rarely coexist. As a surgeon adiyen has seen this often. The
learned ones are clumsy with their hands and the dextrous ones are impatient
when it comes to learning.
None of the great Sri Vaishnava acharyas were adepts with their hands except
Sri Desika. At least there are no such accounts available to us about
others. Such episodes of even that supernal being Sri Ramanuja have not been
chronicled. Adiyen craves pardon for such a statement. The point is that
enough incidents have been recorded to show that Sri Desika was skilful not
just with language but also with his hands.
He built a perfect well, which can still be seen at Thiruahindrapuram, with
broken,misshapen and inadequate bricks.
He is supposed to have built and later on broken a wall that kept Periya
Perumal, Sri Ranganatha hidden from the marauders.
He built a perfect image of himself and corrected a sculptor who couldn’t
fashion a base for it. This lovely image can be seen at Thiruahindrapuram.
He must have been a great painter and artist. His skill in sculpture and the
word pictures in his various works attest to that. A pity there is no record
of all his skills.
He is the one of the very few acharyas who was adept in tantra and proved it
often. His summoning of Sri Garuda to ward of the danger due to snakes is
well known. Thus was born the mellifluous Garuda Dandaka. The onomatopoeia
of this work makes you look up to see if a giant eagle is beating its huge
wings nearby. He neutralized the black magic that had filled his stomach
with water by scratching a nearby wooden pillar and letting the water out
from it. His sense of humour can be gauged by the fact that he thanked the
voodoo man for cleaning the streets of Kanci! He materialised a shower of
gold coins for an indigent brahmachari by composing the magnificent
SriSthuthi in front of Sri Perundevi Thayar’s sanctum. Without looking at
the gold coins he walked away.
The occidentals will never understand vairagya. There isn’t a proper word in
English for it. Austerity is a weak substitute. The western superman by
definition would know nothing of humility and austerity. This superman of
ours was allergic to pelf. He became angry when he was entreated to become a
court poet. Of this ire was born the superlative Vairagya Panchkam. Once he
was offered gold coins as alms. He wouldn’t touch it. With the sacred grass,
darba, he extricated the gold coins from rice and pushed them away. Till the
end he lived the life of a house holder, grihastha, subsisting on unchya
vrithi, alms. It is said that he wore clothes that showed scars of being
mended often.
A lifetime is not enough to read the works of Sri Vedanta Desika. His output
is truly marvelous. He is supposed to have written atleast 128 granthas,
many of which are now extinct, luptha. No lecturer on Ramanuja Darsana can
afford to ignore Desika’s work. They do it at their own peril. What he has
not written on the darsana, does not exist. That a single man has written so
comprehensively about a philosophy, systematically refuting objections, is
unheard of.
His work Sri Rahasyatrayasara is the end all of all that needs to be said of
Ramanuja’s Darsana. To have written so completely means that his
understanding of Visistadvaita was like sphatika, clear crystal. His mastery
of all the branches like tarka, mimamsa etc by the age of twenty must have
provided him with sufficent time to answer all arguments. His Paramatha
bhanga, Shatadushani etc. demonstrate his skill at debate.
When the seniors at Srirangam sent him a SOS to come and ward off the danger
due to mayavadis he came running. Later on when there was objections to
Azhwar’s Tamil hymns being used he proved that these bhakti laden songs were
in no way inferior to the stotras in Sanskrit. He argued that it was these
Dravida hymns that illuminated the way when one was lost in the dense
pathless forests of Vedas and Vedanthas. Nathamuni had reinstated the
singing of Nammazhwar’s hymns at Srirangam after the practice started by
Thirumangai Azhwar was given up. Ramanuja came and established the annual
“adyayanotsava” on a solid footing. Swami Desika steadied the foundation and
built impregnable ramparts around this tradition at the Srirangam temple.
Nammazhwar takes on the role of Parankusanayaki as does Tirumangai Azhwar as
Parakalanayaki when their bhakti reaches the zenith. Among acharyas it was
only Desika who became the love lorn Venkatanayaki. From the diamond like
hard arguments of Vedanta to the petal soft cries of a pining maiden our
Swami had mastered every nuance of human behaviour and could write it down
brilliantly.
His humility is the stuff of legends. He had composed Sri Paduka Sahasra in
an reluctant response to a challenge. The challenger could write just 300
slokas and he came and accepted defeat. At that time Desika was reported to
have said that your 300 is far better than my 1000. The fact remains that
nothing is known of that 300 and Sri Paduka Sahasra is almost a bible to
many in Desika Sampradaya.
It is most inexplicable that a person of the stature of Desika was
repeatedly challenged by all and sundry. Sri Ramanuja was confronted only by
vidwans, learned men of other sects. But Desika had to answer not only to
vidwans but also to unexpected antagonists like a snake charmer, a sculptor,
a mason, a tantri etc. Most of the second category were instigated by the
envious peers of Sri Desika. That such a gentle saint made people envious is
difficult to digest. The mediocrity that is humanity in numbers cannot
tolerate brillance. Instead of fully enjoying swamis’s multifaceted talents,
these people tried to belittle him. That they would fail abjectly was a
foregone conclusion but they kept trying and some still do, more is the
pity.
A sage, a man of immense learning, a polymath, a polyglot, a dextrous man, a
logician par excellence, a poet second to none, a magician in more ways than
one, an undefeated debater, a brilliant writer, a great philosopher, a most
austere and humble man, a most merciful man, a man who could empathise with
the troubled, a man totally immune to pelf and power, an unsurpassed leader,
a devotee on par with the azhwars…adiyen’s pen is exhausted.
He is said to be the incarnation of the bell in Sri Venkatachalapathi’s
sanctum. The crystal clear notes of his works subdued the inauspicious
noises of the other sects and established bhakti and especially saranagathi,
total surrender to our Lord, as the summum bonum of all human endeavours.
It will not be wrong to say that he was an avathara of Sri Hayagriva so
profound was his learning.
He was indeed the complete superman!
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