Swami Attains Parama Padam

Lord Devanatha is taken during festivals to several places in the outskirts
of Thiruvaheendrapuram for the worship of people living there. Sri Vedanta
Desika used to go occasionally to such places sanctified by the Lord as
though on pilgrimage. Once it so happened that he used to stay in one of
those places at night. As usual he worshipped his ArAdhana deity Lord
Hayagriva whom he always used to yELLa pannufy [carry] with him. The worship
was conducted at night and by chance there was nothing with him that he
could offer as NivEdana. With a sad heart he went to take rest.

At mid night, he was awakened by the farmer of the village and reported that
a milk white horse, which was new to their village- never seen before- was
grazing the green corps of the field and it must belong to the new comer-
i.e. Swamy Desikan. Swamy Desikan smiled and congratulated the farmer that
he has been blessed by Lord Hayagriva by setting foot on his fields. The
next morning the farmer was glad to see that the corps were fresh and green.
He fell at the feet of Swamy for having brought the Lord?s blessing to him
so unexpectedly.

Sri Vedantha Desika is popularly known as the author of treatise on house
building, silpa saasthra. But such a manuscript is not available now. At the
same tradition records that there is a well constructed by Swamy at
Thiruvaheendrapuram which exists even today and Lord Devanathan is taken
every year on a particular day to that place.

The well was constructed by Swamy Desikan in all perfection even though the
materials used were not up to the mark. The bricks were ill formed and clay
mixed with some kind of salt was the joining material since there was no
cement those days. A pilgrim to Thiruvaheendrapuram always goes to that
well and uses a handful of water with greatest respect. It seems he built
this well- when challenged by a builder as to his title on Sarvathanthra
swathanthrar and he was asked to prove by building a well with such ill
formed bricks and clay mixture. Swamy as usual won the challenge. There is
also a dhivya mangaLa vigraham of Swamy?s which was sculpted by Swamy
himself when challenged by someone else on a different occasion.

It is said that once Sri Vedantha Desika left Thiruvaheendrapuram to go to
Srirangam and other centres. After traveling for a day, he took rest in a
place for the night when Lord Devanatha appeared in his dream and asked him
to return. Swamy went back being blessed by the Lord with love and devotion.
Then he wrote several literary works there praising the Lord:
achuyhtasathakam, Devanatha panchaasath mummaNikkOvai, navamanimalai and
others . The Lord is his lover and he- His heroine. Lord is his saviour,
hero, deity for worship and the giver of all desirable things in this world
and in the Paramapadham as well.

The goal of life for Sri Desika was devotion and worship of the Supreme
Lord. He did not want to serve anyone to earn his livelihood. To lead his
daily life, he would go round the streets of the city singing hymns of
Alwars and sthOthras composed by acharyas and by him. He never asked anybody
to give him any material, but accepted raw rice offered with respect by
residents of the city. He prepared food from that rice and offered the food
to the Lord and then took as prasAddham.

When Swamy was at Kanchi, one day a bachelor came to him and requested him
to give some material in order to conduct his wedding. Swamy was moved by
his request and advised him to worship Goddess Sri PerundhEvi Thaayaar. Then
he led the Brahmachaari Boy to Her sannidhi and taught him the sthOthra Sri
Sthuthi. He went around the sannidhi reciting that sthOthra with the lotus
feet of divine consort in his mind. There was huge roar of shower of gold
coins. In fact wherever her glances fall, there is flood of desirable
wealth- says Swamy Desika. Such was Swamy?s power to amass wealth. But never
chose to earn that way? [as against our running amuck after wealth and only
that as the main objective? rest all is not all a priority.. Especially
Bhagavdh vishayam ? not now.. Only after retirement.. . vetkam? vetkam?
ashamed of even calling myself a Desika bhakthan..]

yasyaam yasyaam disi viharathE Devi dhrushta tvadheeya
tasyaam tashyaam AHAM AHAM ikaam thanvathE samadhOgaa:

Oh Goddess! In whichever directions Your glances fall, in all those places
leaps of wealth flow competing themselves to be the first to bless the
recipient of your mercy.

thEshaam bhoomeh dhanapathi grhaat ambaraat ambudhEr vaa
dhaaraa niryanti adhikam adhikam vanchithaanaam vasonaam

To those persons, who begin to meditate unpolluted in their minds there will
be flow of all desirable wealth before them immediately either from the
earth, or the place of Kubera or from the vast sky or from deep ocean

Such is the result of the worship of Periya PiraaTTi Sri Mahalakshmi.

The skill of Sri Vedanta Desika in the composition of literary works in
prose and poetry, epic and drama is equally miraculous. All this is done
without a desire for praise or for remuneration.

If Kalidasa had written Khandakava, Megha Sandhesa, Swamy Desika has
composed the Hamsa sandhEsa sent by Sri Rama to Sri Sita in Ashokavana in
Lanka.

Again, Yadhavaabhyudhaya in twenty four chapters written by Swamy Desika is
equal if not better in merit to Raghuvamsa of Kalidasa.

When PrabhOdha ChandrOdhaya was shown to Swamy Desika, he was inspired to
write Sankalpa suryodhaya, an allegorical drama. Viveka ? discretion- is the
hero; Sumathi- correct wisdom is the heroine. All the qualities, good and
bad, are the various characters in the drama. Viveka and Vishnu bhakthi come
together. A comparative study of this drama and abhignana Sakunthala of
Kalidasa will be really interesting and show the skill of Swamy Desika as a
dramatist.

Padhuka sahasra is yet another miracle performed by Swamy- one thousand
verses on Sandals of the Lord ? is said to have been composed by Swamy
Desika in the course of one night [that too for three hours] as against
padha kamalasahasra which was composed ? about 300 verses completed.. in one
night by the person who had challenged Swamy.

Then in the year Sowmya when the sun had reached the Vricchika month, on the
day of Kritthiga asterism, the best of Acharyas, Acharya Saarvabhouman Swamy
Nigamantha Mahadesikan gave up his body and attained Acharyan ThiruvaDi- the
eternal abode.

sreedhee yOgyE SakE ShuklE udhabhUth vEnkatEswara: |
labdhaprAyE SakE prAyAth sowmyE sa param padham ||

Acharya Sri Venkatesa appeared in this world in the year Sukla. After having
lived for hundred years, he attained the permanent abode- Sri Paramapadham-
in year Sowmya. It may be noted Swamy Desikan appeared in the star of
ThiruvONam- same as that of the first Azhwar- when Poigai AzhwAr appeared
and attained Acharya ThiruvaDi in the star of Kritthigai- the star when the
last AzhwAr Thirumangai AzhwAr appeared. Thus he is verify the
personification of 12 AzhwArs themselves- one may say.

Much more has to be written about Swamy Desikan the literary Giant, but we
stop here since we cannot complete the list of his works in one life time.
Let us enjoy his 28 sthOthras and then his other granthas in summary form
in subsequent days.

[From the Life and works of Sri Nigamantha Mahadesikan- by Prof Sri A
Srinivasaraghavan]