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SRIRAMAJAYAM

V
SRI VEDANTA DESIKAS EYE ON ARCHAVATARA
It becomes God itself and not merely a body of God. Only then uninformed and ill informed
will think and talk about idols as a mere symbol or an aid to contemplation and no more. It is
only if one obtains the grace of the Alwars who are the chief, if not the primary protagonists
of the cults of image worship, one can realize that Gods idols are real and living persons.
The great Srivaishnava Acharyas who followed in the wake of Alwars such as Sri Ramanujar
Sri Kurattalwan() and Sri Parasara Battar have by their precept and example
shown to us that Gods in temples are as true valid and potent as Paramapadanatha himself in
Srivaikunta. Alwars divyaprabandhas which are in Tamil and Stotras or Sanskrit hymns of
the Acharyas bear eloquent testimony to their inordinate love if not infatuation towards
Archamoorthis. Sri Vedanta Desika , the chief exponent of Ubhaya Vedanta system who
takes in the Tamil and Sanskrit classics have given to us the cream of thought in respect of
greatness and sublimity of Archavatara in his several works in Sanskrit, Prakrit , Tamil and
Manipravala in the form of Stotras, Pasurams, etc. This Acharya never touched anything
which he did not gild refine. Some of the numerous ways adopted by him to impress on us
the qualities on Archavatara are mentioned below as illustrating the extent of his
Archanubhava +Sx
In the Rahasyatrayasara Sri Desika postulate the several excellences of the divyamangala
vigraha in general. In one place he says paravarasukagrahyampremabodhaprasavakam
svarupath svamino rupamupadeyatamam vidu:

{ JO |v |E I {i#x {{ni n:
The use of superlative in updeyatama is enough to convince us about the great partiality of
Desika towards the Lords divyamangalavigraha that is known to all the five rupas. To us
who are in the middle of Kali Yuga special stress and emphasis have to be laid on the
potency of Archavatara. The Para and Vyuha rupas are far above the world inhabited by us
.The Antaryami rupa +xi { is inside us it is true. But how many of us have learnt to
introvert over thoughts and contemplate upon the hardh rupa n { and visualize him? One
Upanishad states that only one in a million is able to do so and refers to him as Dhira: v:
Coming to the vibhava rupa today we can see Rama and Krishna and other Avataras only in
Itihasas and Puranas . They are not with us today. But the Archavatar is very much with us.
Neither time nor space divides us from it. It is like the water in a reservoir nearby with which
we can quench our thirst and not like streams above stratosphere or within the bowels of the
earth or stream that have dried up long time. In a variety of ways most of them poetical,
Desika brings to us greater efficacy of the Archarupa and shows us the way to love the
Archa and be loved by Archa to enjoy mokshanand Ixxn in this world itself.

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The beauty of Krishna is almost proverbial. It is the enchanting beauty which ravished the
hearts of one and all. Desika refers it as abhilasha karma dura mabhirupyam
+Gn{ beauty beyond words. But about Varadarajas beauty
asprushtachintamabirupyam(+|]Sxi{n{) beauty that the mind cannot touch. If
vibhavatara baffles description, Archavatara beauty is beyond thought. The Upanishad talks
of the speech and the mind returning hand in hand without reaching the Lord . Desika nicely
puts Vibhavavatara above speech and Archavatara above thought.
This is not all. The beauty of Archavatara is depicted to us in the words Desika in the words
of Vibava Avatara Sri Rama , HamsaSandesam nis poem which brings to us
exquisite poetry and intense devotion a master piece of art on the part of Desika and is
deliberately intended to extol the glory of Archavatara in the words of Vibhavavatara,Sri
Rama of enchanting and ethereal beauty ativa priyadarsanam as Valmiki will have it,
loses his heart over the beauty of several Archa emberumans. In the First Aswasa of this
Kavya Desika makes Sri Rama dilate upon the excellence of several kshetras and describes
in great detail all the beauty of the Lords that reside there.
The enjoyment of the beauty of Lord Ranganatha by Rama is a beauty spot in this work of
beauty. One sloka deserves to be set out here in full:

k n ni: i v: |Mi V Ei Vx inxi: !

Si vi ={i V M x nP{M Vvix Vi nt !!
The sleeping beauty (now at Srirangam) known as Ranganatha was then at Ayodya and gets
enraptured at the mental vision of beauty and freshness. The words by which Rama is made
to describe Ranganatha here can well be the words of an Alwar. Ranganathas(Archavataras)
beauty captivates and enslaves the mind of Vibhavavatara. That is the excellent tribute that
Desika pays to the beauty of Archavatara not in his own words but in the words of Rama
himself.(there is nothing to be surprised in this if we remember Avatararahasya of Swami
Desika. It is well known that Desika is an Avatara of Lord Srinivasa, Lord Srinivasa himself
being an Archavatara. Desika is an Avatara of Archavatara. No wonder therefore Desika
knows what other people cannot know about the secrets of Archavatara itself giving rise to
other Avataras or Incarnation of the Lord.)
VI
In Paduka Sahasra in several places Desika asserts that Ranganatha incarnated as Rama
Dasarata tanaya: san ranganatha: nl ix: x Mxl:Ranganatha it was that again
incarnation as SriKrishna. This sentiment is found in a Tamil verse in Paramapadasopanam
This is an idea not given expression to by
any Alwar or Acharya except Desika. This furnishes a clue to the importance that Desika
attaches to Archavatara. An Avatara(descent) may be from SriVaikuntam or Ksheerabdhi. It
may also be a descent from an Archa. That is Desikas siddhanta

VII
Nammalwar in his has dealt with the greatness and glory of Lords
divyamangalavigraha in 3 .Desika in his dramidopanishadsara and
Dramidopanishad tatparya ratnavali pb{xn & pb{xn ii{
ix has named the topic of 3 as subhasubhagatanu: Mix:. In his

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Dayasataka Desika deals with this topic in the third dasaka. The second sloka there(22nd)
depicts
the
three
nature
of
Archavatara
kalasodadhisampado
bhavatyaa:amruthaamsamavaimidivyadehamEnv{n
i:.....+i nn. The Archa Rupa of the Lord is here said to be the
quintessence of his Daya. Daya is the milk ocean and by churning that ocean we get nector in
the form of Divyadeha nn. of Srinivasa an upalakshana for all Archavatara in
general.
Daya itself is the essence of Srinivasa as described in Dayasataka,but for it no quality of the
Lord will be kalyanaguna (sloka10).Daya is guneswari (101) and makes him
samastakalyanamrutodadhi: iEhMhMhinv: as Alavandar puts it. Next
the divya-vigraha is positioned as the nector that is obtained by churning of Daya. In other
words the Lords vigraha is the essence of Daya. Thus it is the quintessence of Lords
essential nature. This is how Desika presents to us the essential nature (svarupa of Lords
rupa0 In Varadaraja panchasat it was said that all the avataras are due to his Daya
bhavatovataran ..dayaparavasan. But in Dayasataka the Archavatara is specially referred to
as the quintessence of Daya.
Desika being the promulgator, if not the propounded of the Saranagathi Sastra has stressed
the importance of the Emberumans in Temples as also from the point of view of saranya
present before our eyes willing and anxious to relieve us of our load of sins the moment we
surrender to him. It is true that prapathi can be done even before saligram one of the
numerous forms of Archa that Lord assumes but the satisfaction that we are doing prapathi
before a person who indicates that he receives it by the His benign glances attended by a
lovely smile can be fully derived when prapathi is performed before an Archa. In
Hamsasandesa n Desika touches upon this aspect, he asks the Rajahamsa to go and
pay its obeisance to Lord Varada of Kanchi and points out to the Hamsa how the Lord will
receive its obeisance.
Angikuryaath..(that Lord who is referred to in the first half of the sloka as chakshushaam
bhaagadeyam the good fortune of eyes will bestow on you O Hamsa, when you prostate
yourself before Him, his benevolent glances signifying his pleasure and satisfaction and also
confer on you all the benefits desired, because the glances are the essence of nector itself). In
other places also Lord Varada has been referred as a merciful Lord who takes on himself all
your burdens even when you realize by the grae of Acharyas that he alone is your refuge.
Ondre pugalondru ( )

Similar sentiments have been given expression to by Desika in respect of Ranganatha,

srinivasa, Devanatha and Dehaleesa. Thus the importance if Archa in the absence of the
performance of prapathi |{k is also prominently brought to light in the several works of
Desika.
IX
If we read the Stotras and Prabandhas of Desika with the background furnished by the
foregoing points of excellance about the Archavatara brought out from his works, we can

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understand the great love that Desika has towards Archavatara and understand the
apporopriateness of one of 108 names Archasowndarya saktadhi: +Sxn Ev:
. This love grows to such huge proportion that Desika declares that here and mokshanand has
been vouchsafed to him and as far as he is concerned he has no desire even for the pleasure
of Paramapada. Stotra after stotra voices this sentiment. He prays to Lord Ranganatha in his
Stotra 20 of Abhitistava+ii to confer on him the bliss of the celestials here itself. In
Stotra 100 of Dayasataka niE he prays to Dayadevi to see to it that the Lord of Seven
Hill blesses him with the enjoyment of celestials even here. Addressing Lord Varadaraja he
tells him on his oath that he has no desire even for a place in Paramapada if only he is blessed
to enjoy Lord Varadaraja here itself- Nirantharam nirvisatha: xxi xi: this is the
extent of Desikas Archanubhava
It is well known that Desika lived for the full Vedic span satamanam of 100 years. He in
fact prayed that he should live 100 years! why? Padukasahasram {nE262 furnishes
the answer saradasadamn: i Paduka Devi answers our prayer.
Desika lived for full 100 years and therefore blesses innumerable disciples, followers and
admirers to pray appropriately and with meaning and significance innumoru nutrandirum
( )
May we on this occasion do so.
Some of the Divyadesams shown by Desika in Hamsasandesa
Hamsa sandesa II 9-23 description of site
I 21-22 Tiruvenkatam
25-35 Kanchi
38-41 Tiruvellarai
42-46 Srirangam
49
Malirunjolai alagar

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