swadi's talent from many paodits iocluding

Our Swami's Mimamsa guru. Btahmasri Cbif,'naswamy Sastriar, who wss at that time the

Principal of tbe College ; and that the Deva6-

tanam wi l l bave !o obiect ion in Our Swamipublisbing as many books as he watrts, otr his

ov,/n. Orr Swami could not but agr€e to that

advice and tad to refuse the request of his

disciPles aBd finally published his own look

seperately.

THE POET:

In between his duties as a Professor iD thecollege, whenever he had time. Ofi Swa6iwasdevoting tbe spare houts to 'triting a

KAVYAM called VENKATESA KALYANACHARITAM. Bven e;jle stayitrg io Madu'rantakam, as a 5tlrdent, Our 8Yr'ami had a tastefor sriting poems. He wrote a Stotra Gr4nthacalled JANAKI SATAKAM on JanakavalliThayar anC also t!!o cbaPters as a'! KalpanaKavyam." Tbe then SupBrvisor of tbe Pala'sala, Sr iman R. V. Kr isboarnachariar Swasi.very much apreciated O|rI Swami's Poetic

GeDius. Normally, as a babit, Our swami

used to go on composing Poems but trever

used to preserve them. As a student at TIru'

vaiyaru, he had to study two Shastras at tho

saBe t ime and he ne\er bad mucb .pare t ime

for his " Poem-writiDg-Avocatio! " and

hobby. He used lo write Poeros during holi-days Rith avidity, mostly of his family deity,

Lord TirDteDgadamudaiyan. As he wrote his

FiDal Siromani ExamiBation, after worship at

Lord Aravamudan Sannidhi, at Kumbakonamin vrhich he passed as Presidetrcy First, he

waoied to shov bis gmtitude to Sli KomalavalliThalat for TIe. blessings. He th€n wrote aStoIa called KOMALAVALLI PANCHASAT.Manuscripts of many of tbe Poems ate not

available now but they seNed tbe purpose al'rigbt as thar*s-giling to th€ variou! deiti€s onwbom the poems were composed at appropdatetim€s. Wbat r€mained today' from lhe lot$ ofPoems ivrittetr at his early age are the Poomsrvriltm or Lord TiNveogdaoudayatr and tho

Tayara! Tltuchaoua etc. Most of thesc pocmr

w€re published by the Devastaram by its Dire'ctor Sn Kr:shna$achariar Swami, itr the book

calted VENKATESA KAVYA KALAPA, and

hence sayed from misplacedeot and loss of

of the manuscripts Our Ssamit taleet as aa

Ou!"taDdits POEf cao be Yery easi ly applecia-

ted if one;oes through tbe earioss Vcl--es at

the Opening alrd Closing of cbaPt€rs of all hi!

sranthas alrd also in the middle' whenever thc

ieed arises to make some poiBts easily re'de6'

bered. His bcok will be abunda with sucb

Poems in various VRITIAS and as Karik&e

in Anushtup. Esp.cially, iq his med olh publi'

cation, PARAMARTHA BIIOOSIIANAM(wbicb. we are told, is u(ed a' a tcxt book ra

ieki is Unirers ' tv for aalvdnced study of

Vedanta) and PARAMARTI{A PRAKASIKA,

we can fild o1aoy Slokas plegoant wltb

meaning and if all of them are gathered and

Dublished in a book foro, ii will itself become

; big grantha worih preserviog Even during

ordinary colrespondence to his scholdr'friends

aad to his father also, O[r, Swaoi usod to

write only in a poem fortrl. Once ai Pudagra-

haram. he v,/as ask€d by his Revefed Acharyato sefld a message to Sri U. Ve. Sfivatsanga_charyr, a 'Li lg hid to come over to Pudagra'haram at once. Our Swami wrote a PoeIBconveying the message. When Sri U. Ve. Sri'vatsaDgacharya came to Pudagraharam he saidthat the poem wis so good thal he could trolhave stayed back withort comidg as he wanledto come io person to coDgratulate Olr Se/amiand to share his pleasure of rerdiog the poem,

with others at Pldagraha.am. O|rI Swami'.

Revered Acharya, after going through thcPoems on Lord Tiruvengadamudayan praised

saying thdt t5e po.ms are jun in the style ofancieot Acharyas and siLl be a good t.€at forthose who watr! to read a good poem ln oncsuch sioilar mood, Our Swamr staited writing

a Full Kavyam on Lord ofthe Seveo lllls atrdabout four cbapters were coBpleted staftingfrom the Avatara of Tayal et firuchugatrur,her joioing Lord ThiruveagadaDudaya{ and

I 16 I

Hk rbarriagc to Princess PaddBvathi Devi.(This was al,o published later). But anotberimportant work caD1e in between which pr€-eented Oor Swami frod devoiing ary timefor wriliog more on this subject and thervotk was temporar;ly suspend€d ; (but Alas !was lev€r taken up fo. completion). ThisiEport.Dt work that intedered was the com-mand of his Revered Acharya to writ€ aKandaDa crantha fot the book calledADVAITHAMODA written by one VasudevaAbhyankara SarEa, a famous pandit fromPoona. at th4t time. He was tbe same Dersonwho p.inted and publish€d our SRI BHASHYAwilh Plamans Akaram from Poona earlicr,This book Advailbamodx was a kandana6 fotih€ Advaita mata critjcism in JICNASAADHIKARANAM of Sri Bhashyam. Theabov. book was b.ought to Kancbipuram byonc S.i Diksbi.aji, the Head of tbe SriVallabhacbarya Sampradaya, asd haDdedoverio Sri Koliralad Swami wirh a request th6t ifanybody could come forward to whs aKaBdana grantha for the book Advaithamoda,bo would bear the entite cost, The sa6e day,iD the eveni g, OuI gwami accideDtally caoelo KauchipunB fro6 Tirupati to pay bisbomage to his Revered Acbarya and Sri Koliyalam Swami handed over the book to OurSwami and explained to him how he cam€ tobave the book, He lhen ordered Our swamilo undertake the work as he felt that thecoincideDce of Our Swaml's arrival ou thesame day as the book shows that it is tLe reishof Lord Varadaraja Perumal that o y OurSwani should do the work. Eventhough OurSwami was at that time busy with the printingand publishing hjs book, lhe Commentary onNyaya Kusumanjali, Our S\aami vrote theKandam Grantha call€d PARAMARTHAPRAKASIKA, in reply 10 the ksndanamfound in Advaithamodam, within two molth5,at Tirupati. Our Swami was waiting for thgarrival ofhis Revered Acharya to Tirupati, toshos his coEpleted book, In the !0eanwhile,Our SwaBi casually discusled certaitl topics in

the book, Paramartha Prakasika. with saiGosbtipuram Swami, xnd he congmtulatedhid for ihe quick work done. Later on wh€nSri Koliyalam Swami was going through thebook aftei arfival at Ti.upathi, Sd Goshti-puram S'raEri also came tbere accidentally, SriKoliyalatrl Swami mentioned to him about thisbook and remarked thaf Our Swami hadwritten a Kandanam not only for the bookAdvaithamodaE but also for other books orthe same subject. He opined that though theobjections are all answered very well, the bookis very cotrcbe and shon probably becouse,Our Swami had iu his mitrd the cost th:rt maybo requirid fot a delailed graniha. The replywhjch Sri Goshtipuram Swami gave to theabove remark was as follows, it seems I ,,'lue

book writtan by Sci Viraraghavacbarya Swamiwill not contain even onr unnecossary word ;oDly a pe$on who goes thfough the book atlgisuro can apreoiate this. You will rememboathat wh€n the request caDde from AnnamalaiViswa Vidyalaya, for scruliirising the bookNYAYAKULISAM of Sri Appul lar, we 6Dis.hod oDly two arguemeots oD tho subj€ct whenboth of us hid to patt coEpany or1 Sancbaraofroo Perudral Koil. We entrusted the fu(hsrwork on the book only to Sri Vifaraghava.clrary4. You also can remembot that SriViraraghavach ya codi8ed the chapters andalso suggested portions to be added to thegrantha wherevet it was missing in theoriginal; and he finished the work we entrustedto bim i{r a !ery worth} aod creditable maooEr.The sugg€stio s given by bim on the missingportions were very satisfactory and clearlyshowed his geniu3. I had already, on a pre.vious occasion, noted his g€trjus, when I cameacross how he corrected one or tlvo mistakesin the t€xt of Sfi Desika's IsavasyopanishadBhashyam, which crept in during publicarion.So io my opinio!, this Gmnrha, ParamarthaPrakasika is fit for publication at oncei' (This.conversation was natated to Out SwaEi bySri Koliyalam swaBi himseif at a l4ter date),Later on wilh the foaocial help froB Sri

t t? l

Dikshitji of Bombay tbe book was ptintedand published at Bombay and the book wasvery well received by all in the Nofih.

Side by side the work on the book NYAYAKUSUMANJALI, sith the comnentaly, wasalso published aad was well rcceived by thecollegq authorities, teachers atrd students, aslbis book h€lped the students to pa{s lhe Si.o.maoi examiratioD without ady more dimculty.It s6ems that after going throughthis book, SriU. V. Asoori Peria RaoaDujachariar Su,adi'the famous scholar from Sriperudbudurcollege reBarked that the author of this bookshould have had the inlutiotr from LoldHayegriva atrd certainly he is not an ordif,arypatrdit lik€ us all. sri Koliyalam Srvadi alsoremarked that thisbookalode is quite suficientto fetch full fame to his Sishya, Our Swaml.He also opined that the style and languageused in the commenla.y are so unique aldgood that the most tough portiotrs are e;plai_fled ina very easy and understandable matrnereven by a dull studeot; and thatthis shows theg€nius of the author.

ONE MORE TRIP TO NORTH INDIA-TO CONQUER :

At Sholapur, schola.s trom oth€r sidhanlasstarted a propoganda that Sri Vaishnava Sid'hanta of Sri Radanuja is Avaidika, that is, it

does rot reflecl the true meaning of Vedas and

Uoanishads. Lacking proper persons to coun_

teiact the above propaganda against S.i Vaish'

navism, the looal varshnavites €ame to OurSwdDi on a dep.rtal ioo ao I iDv;ted Our S,,vami

to visit Sholapu. Our Swami went there and

satbered all important schblats and spoke fot

;hr€e da)s aod explained to IheE tbat the SriVaishnava Sidhanta is tbe only ode that

reflects the entire beaning of tbe Upanishadgaral the Vedas ; atrd not even 4 word from the

V€das are rejected as unnecessaly wheleas

oth€r Sidhartas rejectetl major podions of

Upanishads as unBecessary. QuotatioB from

the Upaoishads $/ere profusely suppli€d by Our

Swa6i that the audietrce was stunoed at thcrgide tnowledge of Our Sevami add themasterly way he engaged in driving hone toth€ audience, his point ofview. Eve.y queryfrold the scbolarly audiesce was answeredsatisfactorily atrd the pandits present, includingthe oppo!1eots. agreed that the mistake wastheirs orly as they did rot go through all thePradanas in detail and acted rather in a hastein cr i t ic is iog the Srdhaota of Sn Raroanuja.They finally apologised Ior their mistake analthaoked Our Swami for the brilliant lecturefor three days. Finally Our Swami had toexplaio to th.m tbar Sri Ramaouja Sidbatrta isthe only one which does not depend onYUKTMDA and goes ooly on Pram}oas.

Oo that memorable day, OuI Swami fealisedthst the cause for t\e above misunderstandinglie3 otrly {,ith us, in not publishiog books onour Sidbanta in Devaoaga.i Script so that thescholars in North India a'ld th.oughout the\'orld could not get a chatce to study ourSidhanta a d compare. This mistake could beeliminated only by a wide, roammoth aDdelaborate publicatioo campaign of ourSidhanta. That rcalisation culminated on OurSwami, making a Sa*alpam with Satvikatya-gami to co c€ntrale on publishi.g a chain ofGranthas rnde. the baotrer of " UbhayaVedanta Graoth4 Mala," We will discussabout th€ stafi:ng of the organisatiotr UbhayaV€da{ta Granthamala a! a later stage. Today,oD.he aqspicirus day of r'ne SATABHISEE-KAM of Ouf Swatoi n e Vrsishtadvaithins analespecially ofsri Desika Sampradaya, tookingback, are io a happy positiotr that the rtram-floih task has been achieved to a gfeat extentshich tro single hunan beiig would evenveotu.e. We are thorougbly convitced thai nodoubt Sri Desika had defroitely taken arrAbhiiava Avatara to establish the superiorityof our Sidhanta and Sampradaya, and tbatrhis Sidhanta is the One atrd Orly Ore whicb

- is fuly VAIDIKA. As Sd vyasa Maharishi

D it qr6tq ve {rgrfbl, FqTq s gr: gn:

I i8 1

ALODDYA SARVA SHASTRANI. VICHA.,RYA CIIA PUNAHPUNAHA. etc. Ou.Abhinava Desika Swami'e books are tbe,culmination of his masterly 6tudy of all the:graDthas so far written on this Sidhanta by allthe Acharyas befo.e him. The Original SriSuklis, especially of Sri Desika, bave beenwell and thoroughly scrutioised; all theroistakes in the Dublications corrected andcorrect version of the originals have b€enpublished by hin. Also the most inportart,comnentades of our anci€nt Acharyas havebeen reprinted with suitable foot noles where'€ver necessary: and whenever such commenta-des are not available. new comm€nlaries rn:tamil ard Sanskrit have been added andpublished so that the objectiors raised so iar,and likely to be raised at a latet dateilave b€enfully met at suitable places. Today, we can6nd before us tbe EDTFICE of Sri BhagavadRamanuja Sidhanta as propoBnded by SriNigamanta Curu statrdrtrg on a rol id foundat ioDin the form of "Granth:s of Sri AbhinavaDesika." All we have to do is to possess andsafegrafd th€se books and spr€ad them to the{our corDers ot our country and of lhe flo.ld.The scholars in other languages especiallyEnelish, HiBdi, Kannada and Telugu shouldcome forward just lo translate thgse booksaod spread OLrr Sampradaya. If this is done,searc quite sure, SliDesika will be thoroughly6arisfied that ahe purpose of his AbhinavaAvaiara is fuuy aciieved. There are still quit€a fes/ boots sbichneeds Our Swaori's scrurinyand on this happy occasiod, let us pray tol-ord Srimatr Narayana to give Our StiAbhiDava Desika Swami th€ full life span ofHundred and odd years (as that of sri Desikabi8self) and continu€d good h€alth and6ttength to continue the sacred task of GranthaNifmana.

To Contitru€ Our Swaoi's carrer, fromSblspur, after ttre 'Visit of Coaquer " hercdl to Bodbay to yisit tb€ sfi vaishDava Pat-4 Sri DiLshitji Gos$aEi of Sri Vailsbhr

sampradaya, who fnanccd the publioation ofParamartha Prakasika. There hc was taketr tothe Upadyasam of BrahDrasri Mahamahopadh.yaya AnaotstrishDa sastriar. BeiDgan admirerof Our slvami, he was very happy to welcomeOllI swami, and for that, he stopped hisUpanyasad h the middle aBd spoke for 15minutes, about Our swami's geoius, and althe end ofhis Upanyasam, he even asked OurSwadi to speak to the audieDce for a fes/minures. Bfahmasri Anantakrishna Sastriar isdot new to Our Ss/ami. On a previogs occas_sion, in Madras, in one of the Semina.s con-docted by Samtana Dharma Slhapana MahaSabha, which was attended by scholats fromall Saopradayas from all over India incluc-ing the Kasi B.ahmasri Lakshmana Sastrar,Brahmagri Andnla"ri:htra Sastrrar wa8 presi-ding. The subject taken up for discussion was" A few objections from Paniniya vyakaranaSutras and some seotences from DhatmaShastras which needed clarificatiotr." MaDyscholars spoke on these subjects but could nolconvince tle leamed audience of scbolars andpatrdits. Finally O|lI Swami was invited togive his views. O|r. Swami spoke is Sansktitvery elaborately and atrsw€red all the doubhraised by the audierce. The audietrce with abig applause acktrowledged Our Swami's argu-meats and felt fully convinced. The Pr€sidentthen invited Oua Swami to speak on lhe booL,Sankha-Likhita DharEashastra Grantha,rghich cotrtaiqs the argumetrts on tbe saEesubject, Eveo though OI1! Swami did oot gothrough that book, he guessed the codtents bya casual glance and once agaio stood up lotalk, this time ir a more elaborate nay otr lhe$ame points, The Seminar etrded ith a happynote and praises for Our Swami's geDius andthorough knowledge ofall Sbastras. It wa$ tro\roodcl that Brahmasri Aiaotakrishna Sastriar,vho was lhe Pr€sident of thal Seditrar, spokeso bigh about Our Swami at Bombay. Duritrgthis trip io Bombay, on a requ€st from thcMadhwa Sidhatrta Scholar, Sri Gop4lach4r,Our Swami did Upaoyasam for one week on

t l t l

sri Ramrnuja SidhaoLa, the occasion being tbe Koliyatam swami' .to 6od out says and mestre

rayanti orsri Rama,ui n. :Xrliffii""l""dll.lJT;jT,":ln'jT.u"i1After coming back to Tirupathi' Our Swami i**a to- nit all the facilitits. for fudhet:

** l"tiiJiy's.i."" Nrtayana-Jeer, f'olo a publications Every one pr€seDt at tbe roecttng

;;;;;;; ilj";;;;*o io.tooa"* s,ut"Jo ielt that.tb€-oapacitv of o,rr swami was 'csllv't."."a"

"t". in" SemiBat conducted ty

'sti utiq* in Grantha NirdaDa" .and

if proper

Vaishnava Maha Sabha. Our Swamr proc;eded facrhties a'e-not provid"g f'l,:l-'-:" *'*"

thgre aBal presicled oYer the somidat fot thr€€ rate otr the Nrrmata ooly' wrthout burdeoing

alays atr.l the scholars preseat ptai""c'Oui him with Snding foance for the printing add

ii".it-too"r.a*" oo utl tho liot Shariras publisting' the Asiikasof ,sri

D--csika saopru-

aDal tbe easrerly way he concucrcJ_itre oaya witite tletryiog thedselv€s.of thc gre€t

seminar. coEing back to Titupathl; o'ri opport'rnity provrded to thedfor the spr€ad of

i"l.i't"t "tfy

ipoke in tle looal Sabnas Sii Desika Saopradaya s/hich could be dooe

",i""n"a ," the 6"lfig" Uut also in orher ;hces onty by publishidg our swa^.mi's grenihas. sri

lii.tgl""i tn" co,ritry and his fame siarted U ve KootaodakuPpao sjdhadta Prachara

;;ffi;" ;;" i;;;;tners of tne oooniiv ,ci::'i"il'5;.,.131rtff:fflJ;; " ::liii#:l

Io the year 1942, the sashtiabdapoorti ofsri Rupees one Thousand to be treat€d as the

p-"Jul."tyuai icoriyalartr swami was cel€b_ frrsr iostalmenr' atrd insisted tbat from the

,ri"a io iiruinrou.. in contrecliotr with thal, Looks oo Kavya, Tarka, Mimamsa atrd

ii"t i""* ."i"tr"i*a the masuscripts of his y"6uo1' o1 6ur swami' already published' it is

n"""*a-a"n"ty"t g*ttha, " BHEDA sAM- very ciearly seeo that lbe provision of a per-

nalveu- uoa pitlrn"a the sade. This darlent fuod for furlher publicatiols' is very

;;; J;; *;;"'; "r

tho upatrisbads p,t imLportanr and necessary for our sidhanta sri

i"""tn"t. t" acce'le to the request of maoy Rao Bahadur' GLrdalore' G .Ratrgaswa6liri"r?r, o'. ;;;; ;.;i" ani pubtished

" iv"og"t, R€tired Polic€ onomiesioaer' volutr-

iooJit"' "o-."o,uty

called " Gootlaprakasa " teered to be it charge of colleotrog etrougn

oo s,i at"""ooo.'" siddhitraya, Y,/biclr is a fulds for the above purpose,. and a|so to oan.

, conecnAxrHero .ou rsampra . l aya .Thevasasmuchsuppor tasposs ib lE fo r th i l doveErantha had to be codified into poorva iaksla from th€ Astikas of Madras oity Sri Koh'

;;il;;;;"";;,"1v and after *pprl'"e v"r"t s*"'i as-tb€ PresrJent of the ocetirg'

p"ru""t *'il" "rig*"r

o,nion,""'" r"riiut ii inen asked our swami to Eiv€ the assembled

earlier publicatiods, ,0" "orotuo,".y

,nua itii asuras a" iaeaotthe g(atrdraq he proposod to

ten. As the fuads avaitalte were very rimired, ;ake up for publication' g* S":ti]-"!\: i:

ii"'u**lJit u" very concise (Later xhe follows: "The publicntiom prostaode rs

;".;;";t ;;t again;ubthb€d about which being started in the nam€. UBHAYA

we wili Bcntion at proper trme). VEDANTA GRANIEAMALA' So' flrst'

a the Upanishads have Io be published as'l

TgE BIRTII oF " UBIIAYA VEDANTA side by sid€ tbe publicatioo of Ndsyha Divya

GRANTEAMALA " as a . publishing Praba;dams with suitabie and novel oomoen-organisatiot :- iary based on Sri Desika saopradaya shouldbe

Itr ihe year PARTIBI{A, iq Kanchipuram taken up Theo',granthas of.Srr Bhashy'kaE

Ksiet;"r,'; ;portatrt meetiog"of itilr* u"a oll the sri suktis of sriDesika *ill b

;;;;;J J;; sIDHASRAMAM under ruken up' rhe basic. molrve behiod tle' the Presitlentship of Sri tatananamsctyaai puttiotione wltt ue to give to rhc Sri VaisblF