Who is Vedanta Desika?

Who is Vedatha Desika?
[Sri Seva Swamy writes:]

Vedanthi among Vedanthins;
Vidwan among Vidwans;
Poet among poets;
Acharya among Acharyas
Devotee among devotees;
Rasika among Rasikas
Literary genius among writers
avathAra purusha among them;
A great Tamilian among Tamilians (who enjoyed every letter and spirit of
Alwars? 4000)
Saviour among saviours
Most detached among detached (Parama vairAghi and virakthar)
Equal to Rishis;
Equal to even Alwars- in terms of their anubhavams (and the only Acharya to
have had naayika bhAvam identical to Alwars]
Utthamar (most virtuous)
Sulabhar (easily accessible by one and all- even today in his archA avathar)
Saanthar
A MAHAAN..

How can we end this search for the answer for who is Desika?
To refer to books?
To meditate and ask ourselves and find out from our intellect and jnAnam?
To get flabbergasted from his enormous works and sit in front of awesome
granthas..
To keep talking about Swamy and to listen from others about our Acharya
saarvabhouman..

pEsuvaar ? those who talk- how long will they be able to sustain? Till their
ability.. but one can never complete their quest for an answer as HE IS
ineffable. pEsiRRE pEsalallaal perumai onRu uNaral aagaathu..

Swamy Desikan said.. [on his Tamil prabhandham]: aruLALarthaameninum
thamakkovvaarE.. We can read as ?Desikarthaameninum thamakkovaarE..

Look at the way Swamy crystal clear mentions the following:

(i) seyyathamizh maalaigaL theLiyavOdhi theLiyaadha maRainilangaL
theLiginROmE.. [By reciting the wonderful Tamil prabandhams of Alwars ? the
Tamil Vedas- we are able to get the [hidden- unclear] Vedic statements
clarified crystal clear]
(ii) maasil manantheLi munivar vagutthathellaam maalugantha Asiriyar
vaartthaikku ovvaa [The clear minded- pure hearted Sages words can never be
equal to those of [our Alwars and ] Acharyas blessed by the Lord Sriman
Narayanan. ? reason: Sages were also blessed by the Lord; but performed
Bhakti yOgam- with individual efforts; Our Acharyas and Alwars realised the
doctrine of Saranagathi and our best qualifications to perform the same with
our inabililities (not the Acharyas?) and hence compassionately for our
sake- practised and preached the same- the Prapatti maarga]
(iii) madhurakavi thOnRak kaattum tholvazhiyE nalvazhigaL
thuNivaargatkE..[The path paid by Madhurakavi Alwar- being at the feet of
Acharya and surrendering to the lotus feet of Acharya- with a steadfast
unconditional unflinching faith on one?s acharya and his Lord?s lotus feet-
declaring there is no Lord [that we know of] other than the Acharyan and
performing Prapatti at his feet. Take to this correct path realizing its
greatness ? the path laid out by Madhurakavi ]
(iv) Thamizhpalaandisaiyudan paaduvamE.. [Once we take the path as in (iii)
then, in Paramapadham Swamy Desikan says- we will sing ThiruppallaaNdu
enjoying the Parippoorna Brahmaanubhavam in its entirety]
(v) Ivainaalaayiramum aDiyOngaL vaazhvE.. {These 4000 of Alwars- are our
life itself]
(vi) nanRE varuvadhellAm namakku baram onRiladhE [after performance of
Saranagthi, all sins accrued so far for ages? are all burnt to ashes and we
get the kaimkarya Sri ? eternal servitude in this birth and thereafter at
Srivaikuntam- no more burden of any kind]
(vii) ALavandhar adiyOm padiyOm inialvazhakkE [having been blessed to be
servants ? disciples of Alavandhar- Bhagawath Yamunamuni- and being blessed
with unamibiguous works of his, we will never ever read any other stuff [of
other religions] any more?]
(viii) NaaraNanai naanmaRaiyaal thaan kaNdEnE.. [I have seen Lord Sriya:
Pathi Sriman Narayanan- SarvEshwaran- the Supreme Lordship- only based on
Vedas- and its affirmative declaration about His Parathvam and the way and
the goal being his Lotus Feet. [based on saasthra yOnithvaath- sUthram..]]
(ix) Thanthai ena ninRa thanith thirumaal thaaLil thalaivaitthOm SATAKOPAN
aruLinaalE.. [We are blessed to have the jnAnam and performed our
Saranagathi placing at our heads at the lotus feet of the ONE AND ONLY GOD
Sriman Narayanan ? and that jnAnam has come to us only due to the
unparalleled grace and dayA of SRI NAMMAZHWAR- Sri SatakOpan and his
unambiguous THIRUVAYMOZHI- the Dravida Veda Saagaram]
(x) pORRi ugapaathum pundhiyil koLvadhum pongupugazh saaRRi vaLarppathu
saRRallavO munnam peRRadhaRkE.. [praising him; enjoying and propagating his
glories; keeping in mind his greatness and his grace on us; spreading his
greatness to the whole world and glorifying his name- doing all that to
one?s Acharya is meagre nothing compared to what HE HAS DONE TO US by
initiating with the most esoteric mantras (Rahasya thrayam); and placing us
at the lotus feet of the Lord..

WHERE else can one get such most clear, crisp statements as above? Who else
can give us such wonderful unambiguous statements! It can be only Thooppul
Kula maNi- Thoppul ThiruvEnkadamudaiyaan. Even one sloka (or one prabandham)
of Thoopul Thiruvenkadamudaiyaan is enough for us to take us to the
SrivaikuNtam- says PillailOkacharya.

The Lord?s sankalpam for protecting us- must have been completely fulfilled
by this avatar of His in the name of Vedantha Desikan. jnAnam, bhalam,
aishwaryam, veeryam, sakthi and thEjas are the six opulent qualities for the
Lord- Bhagawaan. That asserts his Parathvam.

Sarvagnathvam- omniscience- is known by Tattvamukthakalapam and thereby
jnAnam; in one night and in one jaamam (three hours)- 1008 gems in the name
of Padhuka sahasram- thereby Shakthi; bhalam by demolishing the other
religious (non vedic and avaidhik) doctrines with SatadhUshaNi, Paramatha
bhangam, etc.. ; veeryam in Vishesha vitparishadheshu natha
Vidhaktha khoshti samaranganeshu JigheeshathO mE Kavitarkikendran... and
thEjas in vEnkatESAhvayam maha: - Thus we enjoy the Bhagawathvam in Swamy
Vedantha Desikan.

Swamy Desikan says: Achaarya should be worshipped as God if not better and
none else should be considered equal to Acharyan.

Adhyaaseethuranga vakthravilasath jihvaagrasimhaasanaath
Achaaryaamiva dhEvathAm samadhikaam anyaam na manyaamahE..

Why should we feel shy to call our Swamy Bhagawath Nigamantha Desikan. Our
Acharya saarabhouman is the Lord Thiruvenkatamudaiyaan himself who appeared
as the Thuppul Thiruvenkatanathan.. why should we not call him Bhagawadh
Nigamantha Desikan. He is verily Bhagawaan?s avatar.

svAmi deSikan concludes the nyAsa vimsathi stotra with a gist of how he was
led to prapatti, and how he lives his life as a prapanna after performing
prapatti. This concluding Slokam is included as part of the
nitya-anushandhAnam at the end of the nyAsa daSakam which is recited during
the nitya bhagavad-ArAdhanam.

samSArAvarta vega praSamana Subha-dr*k deSika prekshito'ham
samtyakto'nyairupAyair-anucita cariteshvadya SAntAbhisabshih |
niS-Sankhah tatvat-dr*shtyA niravadhika dayam prArthya samrakshakam
tvAm nysya tat-pAda padme varada nija-bharam nir-bharo nir-bhayo'smi ||

"I chose a good AcArya who could instruct me on how to get out of the whirl
of samsAra, and had his divya kaTAksha. Because of the AcArya's teachings,
I obtained the knowledge that could help me analyze and understand the
difficulty of bhakti yoga and the realization that prapatti is the only
recourse open to me, which I could perform easily, and attain the desired
moksham by performing it once and only once. I learnt the facts about
prapatti and so had no doubt whatsoever about its efficacy. I sought refuge
of peraruLALan with pirATTi as the sole refuge who could protect me. I
surrendered all responsibility for my protection at the feet of peraruLALan
and performed prapatti at His feet. Since I am now living the life of a
prapanna, I feel completely relieved of all responsibility for my self from
that point. Since all my acts from that point on have been directed to only
kaimkaryam for bhagavAn, there is nothing more to fear about any
accumulation of karma. So I continue to lead a life of nishkAmya kaimkaryam
to bhagavAn while spending the rest of my life in this world, and deriving
infinite happiness from it". [translation by Sri N Krishnamachari]

It may please be noted that though there are two sects (namely Vadakalai and
thenkalai) in srivaishnavam, they are only different on very few subtle
issues and both follow strictly AchArya YathirAjar- Bhagavath Ramanuja
sampradayam in all respects with fullest sincerity. In fact, in as much as
Sri Bhashyakarar is the common Acharya for both kalais, Swamy Desikan is the
common Sri Bhashya Acharya for both kalais as well and he comes under
Acharya linage under Sribhashya Guruparamparai.

It is our duty to talk in praise of and contemplate on the glories and
greatness of our Acharya. Let us continue to do so every day and every
minute.

Swamy Desikan ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam
Regards
Namo narayana
dAsan




There are four stages in learning:
1. Learning from the teacher [Acharyan]
2. Whatever learnt- one practices and attempts to retain
3. Then pass on to others by teaching them [what has been learned]
4. Making use of this learning, teaching process, write for future
generations to refer and use

Sri Pathanjali has enlisted them as:
Chathurbhischa prakAri: vidhyA upayukthA bhavathi-
aagamakaalEna, SwAdhyAyakAlEna, PravaChanakAlEna, vyavahArakAlEna?.

Thus all these four stages of learning are completed for our Swami Desikan

It may be noted that Swami Desikan appeared on the first Thirunakshathram of
first AzhwAr namely Poigai AzhwAr [in ThiruvONam] and ascended to Paramapadam
on the Thirunakshathram of the last AzhwAr, Thirumangai AzhwAr in Karttigai.

Sri U.Ve. Madhavakannan Swamy




Prathishtaapitha Vedantha: Prathishiptha bahirmatha: |
Bhooyaa: Thraividhyamaanya: Thvam Purikalyanabhajanam ||
Swami Sri Desikan was thus blessed by Sri Nadadur Ammal (Vatsya
Varada Guru) the nephew of Sri Ramanujar, when Swami Sri Desikan was
five years old.
A free translation of this is
"You will establish Vedanta on a firm basis and refute the doctrine
of its opponents. May scholars well versed in the Vedas hold you in
great esteem. May you be the recipient in a great measure of all that
is auspicious." (Note: A mural depicting this incident can be seen on
the ceilings of Sri Varadaraja Swami Temple in Kanchipuram even
today).

Swami fulfilled the blessings of his pracharya (acharya's acharya) and
went on to establish himself as KAVITARKIKASIMHAM (the lion among
poets and logicians); VEDANTHACHARYA (foremost in exponent of
Vedanthic teachings) and SARVA THANTRA SWATANTHRA (full independence
in all sciences) Swami Sri Desikan's greatness in the field of
Vedanthic literature has no parallel. Swami has composed over 127
works in various languages including Sanskrit (67), Tamil (24),
Manipravalam (35), and Prakrit, a simple form of Sanskrit (1).

Swami Sri Desikan was a devout follower and systematic exponent of
Sri Ramanuja Siddhantham. It is in the works of Swami Sri Desikan
that the system of Sri Ramanuja Siddhantham shines in its
philosophical glory and ethical excellence.