750 th years birthday gift to Desikan.at Varadarajar temple at kanchipuram.

Vardaraja Peruaml, and His consortsSri Devi, Bhu Devi andPerundevi thaayaar at Kanchi puram Vardarajar Temple

Vedanta Desikan at Thiruvalur Veera Ragahava Temple

Vedantha Desikan , the highly revered acharya of Sri Vaishnavaites , 750 th birth anniversary was celebrated with great pomp and show as well as with deep devotion and gratitude,whole of this year with celebrations peeking in last September on 21st ,the actual date of his birthday as per Tamil calender.

Toopul in Kanchipuraum is the birth place of this acharya .The house in which he was born is near Deepa prakashar or Villakoli perumal koil, which is a divya desam .Between this house and the temple is  a sannidhi enshrining Desikan's idol .
I try to visit the temple and Desikan's sannidhi at least once a year.When i first visited Desikan's sannidhi  and its  hall 11 years back , it was quite ordinary  like the one we come across in newly built temples of average size in Tamil nadu.A low key affair bespeaking of lack of funds .But the trustees some how managed to distribute pongal and curd rice every day to any one visiting Desikan's sannidhi around 11 am.
Eleven years back when i visited Desikan's sannidhi at toopul after paying my obseince to Sri Vardharajar perumal who is 1-2 kms away , i was very tired .So i sat on the floor of the hall glancing at the portraits depicting annecdotes from Desikan's life lining the circumbulatory passage and also gazing at the acharya's idol hoping to draw sustenance from his calm countenance in a world that had suddenly gone haywire for me.

My spirits were drooping and i was feeling wretched when the priest of the temple an old kindly man handed me two leaf cups [dhonnai]of pongal and curd rice and asked me to partake the prasadam .It was only two handfuls but it tasted like amurthum and it revived me. .

The priest is a simple and dedicated man who would tell the story --sthala puranum  of Deepa prakashar  temple as well as  information about other temples to every devotee  who visits it.It was from few other persons in the temple i learnt that my grand father M.A.Ayenagar  who was  the speaker of lok sabha [second loksabha]had on a appeal  from followers of Desikan ,blocked the move to rename Toopul and ensured that the name that existed at Desikan's time continued to do so.They were very grateful to him for preserving Sri Vaishnavaites historical traditions , when it was being demolished all around.

I visited Desikan's sannidhi at Tupul this year in September in the evening.There was a amazing transformation.The walls and doors of his sannidhi was plated with gleaming white silver Desikan [both moolavar and processional deity]glittered in innumerable gold and stone ornaments .and preparation were on to place the utsvar on a palanquin  and secure him on it. The palanquin would take Desikan to his favourite deity Sri Vardharajar and later bring him back from that temple.This is a annual weekly event during his birthday.This time it was special because he would 750 years old  .The bearers of the palanquin were wearing new T shirts with the logo '750th year of Sri Desikan'!
It seems that the  followers of Desikan  have poured money and materials to uplift his sannidhi and for this event.They are expressing their  devotion and gratitude to this acharya .The generosity of the followers of Desikan is breath taking.
It is quite ironical, since Desikan though a great scholar, poet [to many  he is a poet at par with Kalidasa] and philosopher  lead a very simple hand to mouth life.He insisted that he  and his family should subsist only on the alms [food or food grains]given to him in his daily rounds and that not  a single grain should be hoarded in his house. When a  neighbour , who could not bear the poverty that Desikan's principles  induced, hid a gold coin in the food grains she offered .When Deiskan came to know of it he asked his wife to throw that coin likening it to a stone in rice.He had also turned down the offer of a good job at king's court as he did not want to serve any one else but   Sriman Narayan/Vishnu bearing his consort Lakshmi on his right chest ,in his archa form as Varadharajar at Kanchipurum .Such was his austerity.

For a long time i was under the impression that Desikan was a Sanskrit scholar and poet  with great reverence only to Vedas.It surprised me when i read various articles on him by Sri Vaishnavaites who show cased his fluency in Tamil which is testified by nearly 20 prabhandas or verses in  Tamil  he has written  and the deep devotion  and reverence he held in all the 12 aazhwars or Tamil saints preceding him and the great respect he has for all the 4000 prabhandams written by them.

He was clearly following the dictum laid out by his preceding acharyas Ramanujar and Alavandhar and other Sri Vaishnavaite acharyas and aazhwars/ saints that a devotee of Sriman Narayana and only of Sriman Naryana to the exclusion of all other gods and deities of other sects and religion is more important than Narayana himself  ,irrespective of the caste or strata of society he belonged to  .because  Narayana Himself can never bear the humiliations meted out to His devotees.

In a recent edition of Ranganatha paduka a journal on Srivaishnavism i read about the fierce fight he put up with persons of other religions who objected to the importance given to aazhwars and their pasurums in Sri Vardharajar temple and at Srirangam temple .
Persons of other religions raised objections to the practise of reciting Tamil pasurums of aazhwars in Vardharajar's sannidhi during temple festivals.as being against the Shastras.and that only Sanskrit slokas can be recited in a deity's sannidhi.
Desikan who had mastered the study of Vedas, Upanishads and Shastras by age 20 itself , gave them a befitting reply by quoting extensively from Shastra to resolve the conflict once and for all by establishing that there was no such prohibition in reciting Tamil verses in the sanctum  and thus safeguarded the  practise of recital of Prabhandams in the temple.
Soon a dispute rose in Srirangam.Persons of other religions objected to housing the idols of aazhwars in Sri Rangam temple on the ground that many  belonged to lower castes and  of whom one was also a  out caste.and that enshrining such persons in the temple was against Shastras.They stopped the festivals associated with aazhwars and their processions .
The Sri Vaisnavaites in Srirangam  troubled by all this ,sent a S0S to Desikan who on receiving it left Kanchipurum for Sri Rangam post haste .
In the debate that followed Desikan who was so proficient in Shastras that he over rode all their objections by showing evidences from Shastras in support of his argument that shastras no where prohibited the enshrinement of idols of saints belonging to lower castes in temples .After Desikan won the  debate and all the idols of the aazhwars were duly enshrined within the temple and the practise of reciting their pasurums which was commissioned by aazhwars themselves in earlier times as well as taking their idols in processions was and other temple festivals associated with them were restored .

Thus Desikan was a saviour of Prabhandhams and was a knight in shining armour called devotion to aazhwars who defended the long dead saints legacy with all his might -called knowledge at his command.

If not for his deep love and devotion and gratitude towards the aazhwars we may not have seen prabhandha ghosti's reciting pasurums in Vardharajar temple at Kanchipurum  nor witness Num aazhwar's idol [ he belonged to the fourth caste ] be given so much importance which  is  his due , in the annual Vaikunta ekadesi festival at Sri Rangam temple .

It is unfortunate that after Desikan's times Sri Vaishnavaites split into two sub sects.

1.Vadagalais--The followers of Desikan 's philosophy  and his slokas and prabhandums and pasurums of aazhwars
2.Thengalais -=-The followers of manavallamuni's philosophy and his slokas and pasurums of azhwars .

The latter sect claims exclusive proprietorial rights over aazhwars pasurums /Tamil ,though Tamil is mother tongue of both sects and is  common for both.

 Though the differences  between the two sub sects are minor but they have been blown out of proportion over the ages as to result in skirmishes now and then to the delight of some of those belonging to other sects in Hinduism, atheists and other  religions.

In recent times it has culminated in person belonging to Thengalai sect to secure a stay order from Madras high court to stop forthwith the recital of Tamil verses written by Desikan in the sanctum of Sri Vardharajar It was sought to be put in force on 750th birth day of Desikan viz 21st September. Desikans verses or Tamil prabhandhams are recited at Vardharajars  sanctum during his birthday every year.
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What a birth day gift for a simple , scholastic,devout Sri Vaishnavaite who fought tooth and nail for the right to recite Tamil hymns in this very temple  braving  the barbs of  orthodoxy! If not for his mastery of Shastras and pasurums and his debating skills and his total devotion to acharyas and aazhwars of Srivaishnavism the petitioners sub  sect , who banned the recital of this great and humble man's  Tamil verses  would not be proudly reciting pasurums as a matter of birth right in both Varadharajars and Sri rangam temple's sanctum .                                                                                                                            Though this move was stalled by a follower of Desikan  by moving the court the reprieve was short .As per news paper reports a urgent hearing of the petition was heard in the house of the judge during puja holidays -viz saraswathi puja and stay order secured .That is it is illegal to recite Desikans prabhandhams in the sanctum of Sri Varadharajar here after!

Vardharajar temple has a huge hall right at front of the moolavar. where one can sit and recite slokas or meditate in full view of the tall , mesmerising and majestic form of Vardharajar. bearing shanku and chakram on his shoulders , holding a gadha in his left hand   smiling at all from his great height.I often sit in this hall and recite slokas drinking in the grandeur of His presence that permeates me with a inexplicable  security and .comfort.At times i recite  a stanza or two from Desikans's Tamil prabhandham known as adaikal pathu [ 10 stanzas]in which Desikan surrenders himself totally Vardharajar.The only one of its kind known to me on Vardharajar viz Tamil hymn making one surrender to Vardharajar, surrendering to the ultimate Brahman who is none other than Sriman Narayana/Vishnu,  being the most important tenet of Sri Vaishnavism.

It is as follows--

 Adai kal pathu
 10.  Thirumagalum thiruvadivum thiruvarullum thellarivu
          marumai yilaamai uravu allapariya vadiyarasum
        karrumazhippu palliamaippum kallakalmilla vagai nindra
        arul varadhar nillaiyillaki ambhena nan amizhindhene .
Meaning--
Varadharajar never separates from his consort Maha lakshmi even for a moment.He has a sacred  archa form that attracts all those who see Him.He is full of compassion towards those who take refuge in Him.He knows every thing.He is humble to those who are subservient to Him.He has  chetanas as  His body .He is ruling over the entire world since time immemorial.He creates , protects  and destroys every thing.This quality will not depart from Sri Vardharajar.I have immersed myself inseparably in  His sacred feet .

 If i visit this temple in near future and recite this verse which moves me with its compression of Visishta dwaita philosophy as well prapathi in such a way that it compels me to recite it  near His sanctum  unconsciously ,will i be put into Jail?

Azhwars and acharyas who are common to both sub sects have often impressed on the followers of Sri Vaishnavaite faith that a devotee of Sriman Narayana /Vishnu bearing his consort Lakshmi on His right chest at all times and 'only' of Sriman Narayana/Vishnu along with his consort Lakshmi residing permanently on His right chest and who has Mahavishvasam --viz absolute and immense faith in Sriman Narayana /Vishnu along with His consort Lakshmi who is  residing permanently on His right chest  and has  no  faith in any other gods either in Hindu pantheon or in other religions  must never be hurt, disrespected or humiliated in any manner .  Sri Vedanta Desikan was one of the greatest devotee of Sriman Narayana/Vishnu along with His consort Sri or Lakshmi residing permanently on His right chest, with absolute faith only in Sriman Narayana.His life and his literary works testify to this fact.

Isn't banning the recital of his hymns which overflow with his love and devotion to Sriman Narayana/Vishnu,a disrespect and disregard shown to a Sri Vaishnavaite?Isn't  a  true Sri Vaishnavaite being insulted by none other than another Sri Vaishnavaite?Isn't this  the bhagwatha abhacharam that was frowned upon by all aazhwars and acharyas?