Śrī Venkatanātha, the
most important thinker of the Viśstādvaita
School of Philosophy after Śrī Rāmānuja, was
born at Tūppal, a suburb of Kanchi (modern
conjeevaram), in the Tamil month of
Purattāśi of the year Vibhuva corresponding
to the 17th September 1268 A.D.
As Śrī Venkatanātha was born under the
asterism Sravana, the asterism of Śrī
Venkatesa of the famous Tirumalai shrine, he
was named after him. Tradition has it that
Śrī Venkatanath’s father Ananta Suri and
mother Totaramma visited the shrine some
time before their illustrious son was born
to them, and that one night they dreamt that
the Lord of the shrine sent his bell to
incarnate as their son. The story is
testified to by Śrī Venkatanātha himself in
his drama Sankalpasuryodaya.
Śrī
Venkatanātha had a heritage suited to his
genius. He was a lineal descendant of a
personal disciple of Śrī Rāmānuja through
his father. Through his mother he was
related to Śrī Rāmānuja’s personal disciple
and nephew Pranatārtihara, otherwise known
as the Vedānta Udayanacarya. Pranatatihara
had a grandson and grand daughter, the
former was the famous author of Nyāya Kulisa,
Rāmānuja, and the latter was the mother of
Śrī Venkatanātha. Thus from his infancy, he
grew up in the midst of the tradition of Śrī
Rāmānuja’s philosophy.
Śrī
Venkatanātha was brought up by his uncle,
Atreya Rāmānuja familiarly known as
Appullār. Śrī Venkatanātha manifested signs
of being a genius. His memory was very keen
and he required no second reading. His
extraordinary retentive powers in this
respect were displayed, it seems, on more
than one occasion. Whey very young and yet a
child, his remarkable memory was manifested
when he assisted in giving the cue to the
Great Nadādūr Vātsya Varadacarya in one of
his discourses. The manner he seems to have
done this was still more remarkable, as he
seems to have done this was still more
remarkable, as he seems to have done this
without violating the injunction of the
scriptures not to repeat the scriptural text
without proper instruction from a Guru. When
he reached the appropriate age he was
initiated into spiritual life by his uncle
and he continued to study everything under
him. He completed all his studies by his
twentieth year. His knowledge was
encyclopaedic and this fundamental equipment
of his studies is displayed in his very
early works too.
He
married about his twentieth year. His
married life seems to have been very
fortunate. He shows none of those conflicts
that so much marred the life of Śrī
Rāmānuja. On the contrary he was excellently
married, and his life as a householder was
in ideal one. Happy nations s a rule have no
history to leave behind them, so too happy
couples. When Śrī Venkatanātha pleads for
the life of a householder as more befitting
to man than the more arduous sanyāsin’s, one
can infer that married life is a life of
responsibility to oneself and to one’s
community and race, which, provided it is
lived properly, will yield the highest bliss
possible to the human being on this planet.
We cannot say exactly how long it lasted or
how long his wife lived. We only know that
he was father of a son about his
forty-seventh year of life, nearly twenty
eight years after his marriage (1316 A.D.).
Soon
after his marriage Śrī Venkatanātha went to
Tiruvahindrapuram (near modern Cuddalore,
Sough Arcot district), a beautiful hamlet
situated on the banks of the river Garuda
(Gadilam). This was the period of perfect
preparation and meditation and penance. He
attained in the course of his first two
years thee miraculous powers form Śrī
Hayagriva (Śrī Visnu of the form of
Jayagriva) and also from Garuda. Perhaps it
is through their blessings he turned to
melodious versification and produced hymns
in praise of Devanayaka and Hayagriva. It
was also during this period he began his
discourses on the Śrī Bhasya, Bhagavad –
Gītā and on the secret doctrines of the
Viśstādvaita. He also became a master of
arts and crafts, and attained such
proficiency s to be called
Sarvatantra-svatantra.1
His life
at Tiruvahindrapuram seems to have lasted
about twenty years. He exemplified I himself
the profoundest wisdom of the Upanisads and
Prabandham. For him, ordinary life regulated
and governed by total surrender to the Lord
is no menace to spiritual communion and
development. All actions prescribed by the
scripture have to be performed, for there is
no way open to man other than service of the
Divine. A life of renunciation (vairagy)
can go along with the human conditions of
love and possession of children. He seems
to have
__________
1A well
that Śrī Venkatanātha constructed can even
now be seen at Tiruvahindrapuram, as also
the image cast of him by himself.
followed
lincha-vriti the profession of begging
for rice for his daily needs, thus typifying
utter dependency for maintenance on God to
whose service he had consecrated himself.
It is
just possible that Śrī Venkatanātha became
conscious of his mission in life about this
time. It is one of those recurring facts of
psychological consciousness of a sect or
community, religious or secular, to seek to
endow its chief teacher or messiah, who had
brought unity and solace to that community,
with all the glory of a son of God.
Supernatural claims have always been made on
behalf of almost all great personalities. It
has great value and evangelical force during
the period of the mission. The Leaders
themselves because of their sincere and
abiding consciousness of their duty to their
God, accept the mantle of this great
responsibility. Śrī Venkatanātha was no
exception to this. The dream prophecy was
there. He had to accept the mantle that God
had destined him for. His abiding concern
seems to have been to dispel the darkness
and demoniac fury of unspiritual forces
encircling his community, whilst himself
increasing the spiritual light and power of
his own community. This twofold purpose of
destruction of anti-spiritual forces and
increasing of spiritual forces, or in the
words of the Isavasyopahisad, increasing the
birth-forces whilst destroying the death
forces seems to have been his main concern.
It is this consciousness, tri-polar as it
is, that pervades like the perfume eternal,
the entire conduct of Śrī Venkatanātha. In
all his works there is mastery an well as
complete surrender to the Divine: in all his
dealings there is the sacred presence of
divine humility. It is this that has made
him the most relentless opponent of all that
is trash and an admirer of all that is noble
and lofty and godly.
His life
of preparation for the great mission having
been over, he started on a pilgrimage tour
to the famous shrines sprinkled all over
India, this being one of the moat important
duties of every Hindu. He left for Kāńci,
and on the way, he visited the famous
Tirukoilur temple where he composed the
Dehalisa-stuti, on the Lord Dehalisa who
manifested Himself to the first three
Alvars, Poygai. Bhuta and Pey.
His stay
at Kāńci was short. Like the Alvars he
composed a hymn on the most important
shrines he visited in South India. He
composed a hymn at Kāńci on varadaraja—the
Varadaraja-pancasat. His next halt
was at Tirupati, where he composed the
magnificent Daya sataka on his patron
Deity. From Tirupati be seems to have
visited Śrīsaila, Ahobilam and other places.
He proceeded to the north visiting the
famous places of History of Rama and Śrī
Krsna and Badari and Jagannath Puri. On his
return journey he seems to have visited
Tirupati and then Kāńci. This Pilgrimage
seems to have lasted about five years. We
do not have any detailed account about this
itinerary. There are no compositions on or
praises of any deity in Northern India.
No sooner
than he returned to Kāńci, he was invited to
Śrīrangam to take part in a debate with an
advaitic scholr in the year 1310 A.D. The
leaders at Śrīrangam were unable to meet the
arguments advanced by the advaitic scholar,
and as Śrī. Venkatanātha inherited the
mantles of Śrī-Bhasya-simhasanadhipati and
Prabandha-simhasanadhipati after the demise
of his uncle Atreya Rāmānuja, he was invited
to refutsthose arguments. Śrī Venkatanātha
successfully refuted the arguments of the
advaitic teacher1 and thus won
for himself laurels and ecomium. He was
given the title of Vedāntacarya – the master
teacher or Vedānta2.
He was now the acknowledged leader of the
Philosophy of Vistadvaita. The two divisions
of the Śrī Vaisnava thought, the northern
and southern, which Śrī Rāmānuja had
unified on his person after Yamunacarya,
tended to fall asunder, as the seat of the
Chief of Śrī Vaisnavism had to be at two
capitals. Kāńci had always been the seat of
great literary activity not merely of
Viśstādvaita but also of all other schools
of thought. The literary fulcrum thus was at
Kāńci. Śrīrangam was the shrine of
Prabandha- literature-that is, its main
interest was in the devotional poetry of the
Alvars. The chiefs who followed Śrī Rāmānuja
seem to have followed the principle of
living in both capitals by turns. But when
old age overtook them they could not
undertake the task of moving between one
place and the other. Thus there grew up two
schools, one which was at Kāńci under the
difficult inspiration and presence of the
Chief, and another that found chiefs at
Śrīrangam itself to cater to the needs of
the devotees there. But this divergency
seems to have been overcome in the year 1310
when Śrī Venkatanātha who resided at
Tiruvhindrapuram, which is midway between
the two places, decided to spend his days at
Śrīrangam.
__________
1It
appears that the Advaitic teacher was one
Krsna Misra. We are not able to state
definitely whether this was the author of
the Prabodhacandrodaya. But it is
likely.
2
Adhikrana Saravali, opening verse.
It was
about this time he began writing his great
commentaries on the Śrī Bhasya, Gītā bhasya
and wrote down his rahsys. Śrī
Venktanatha was a synthetic thinker and a
provisional realist. His aim had been to
create the conditions of a renascent
Hinduism, which did not belittle anything of
the former heritage of the Vedas, Upanisads,
Smrtis, Purānas and the Mīmāmsā. His method
of interpretation always aimed at the
synthesis of the entire content of the
traditional knowledge and lore. It was not,
as he himself said, a new methodology, but
rather it was the rejuvenation of the
ancient methodology that marked the
Vedānta-sūtra-kara, Jaimini, Bodhayana,
Rāmānuja and his own teachers Nadādūr Ammal
and Atreya Ramanjuja. It is the perfecting
of this methodology that earned for him the
unique title of Desika or Acarya.
It is one
of the most important features of
Viśstādvaitic thought that it exemplified
the truth, that truth in whatever language
expressed is truth, provided it stands the
test of criticism. The great contribution
which Śrī Venkatanātha mde to Viśstādvaita
literature was to explain the unity of the
teaching of the alvars and the Upanisads,
Three steams of thought flowed into the
river of Viśstādvaita, the Vedas, Upanisads.
Including the smrti and itihasas and
purānas, and the tanytras represented by
the Pāńcarātra, and the Tamil compositions
of the Alvars. It is the confluence of these
three streams that culminated in the
writings of Śrī Venkatanātha who composed
with equal facility in both Sanskrit and
tamil, and stamped Viśstādvaita. With the
austers thought of Vedānta, the worship of
the worship of the Agama, and the beauty of
the Alvars wisdom, Viśstādvaita awaited the
arrival of a genius to do this task and it
got the seer to do it in Śrī Venkatanātha.
No surprise then that Śrī Venkatanātha was
ffectionately and admiringly called the
Acarya. To speak about Desik is to speak
about Viśstādvaita. The dream and with of
Yamuncarya got its fullest realization in
the person of Śrī Venkatanātha.
This was
the peak of his life. His mission was
started under excellent auspices. Everywhere
there was admiration for the master. In 1316
A.D. Śrī Venkatanātha was the proud father
of a boy who, it appears, possessed all the
great qualities of his illustrious father.
It was as if the life of completest
happiness was vouchsafed for Śrī
Venkatantha.
But the
life that promised promised such a luminous
future was assailed by petty jealousies.
The tendentious activities of rival schools
began to manifest uncomfortable forebodings
of a disruption. Unfortunately it began to
center round the person of Śrī Venkatanātha.
Personal insults slights and even severe
man-handling seem to have taken place. Began
to refuse co-operation to him in the
performance of oblations to his manes; a
row of sandals was hung at the door-step of
his residence so that it could strike him
when he came out. These trials on his
patience made him understand that despite
all that he could do to soothen the
embittered feelings, and despite his
willingness to treat them as of no serious
concern, and despite his general sense of
humour, he was not wanted at Śrīrangam. Thus
he left Śrīrangam about the year 1319 A D.
for Satyamangalam on the borders of Mysore
unwilling to be the cause of serious
cleavage in the community. It was perhaps
during this period between 1510 and 1319 AD.
He was challenged to compose in one night a
poem on the sandals of Śrī ranganatha by a
member of the rival community, which he did,
on the completion of which his superior
mastery in composition was acknowledged by
he grant of the title “Kavitar-kikasimha” to
him by the learned assembly of Judges. That
work is known as Paduka-Sahasram. It
is also probable that Śrī Venkatanātha
composed the Sankalpasuryodaya about this
time.
After a
few years, lasting about five years, he
seems to have been once again called upon to
refute another Advaitic scholar at
Śrīrangam. Śrī Venkatanātha returned to
Śrīrangam and defeated the opponent through
the offices of his disciple
Brahma-tantra-swami. It is presumably as
a result of these series of debates that Śrī
Venkatanātha composed the Satadusani
so s to be helpful to the students and
teachers of Viśstādvaita to refute the
opposing schools. It is also likely that the
Paramata-bhanga was composed with the same
intention.
It
appeared that after the cloud of mistrust
and jealousy that marred his life between
1319 AD. And 1325 A.D., there had come after
all the bright sunshine. But this was not to
be. Scarcely a year afterwards the invading
hordes of Malik Kafur were pressing
downwards into South India carrying with
them the flames of relentless persecution
and massacre and vandalism. Idol-worship or
rather Pratima-worhip, which is one of the
most important elements of Śrī Vaisnava
religion, was assailed. Idols of worship
were removed from the sanctuaries to
interior places for fear of desecreation and
spoliation and mutilation. Śrīrangam
underwent this fiery ordeal in 1326 A.D. Śrī
Vedānta Desika, Śrī Pillai Lokācārya and
other eminent leaders of Vaisnavism had to
flee. People numbering ten thousand staunch
devotees, were massacred in attempting to
stem the onslaught of ht Moslem leader,
whilst Śrī Vedānta Desika and Śrī Pillai
Lokācārya hurried away from the city in
possession of the Sruta-prakasika,
commentary on the Śrī-Bhasya and the Image
of Śrīranganatha. After some arduous journey
Śrī Venkatanātha went to Mysore. It is
likely that his son and wife were living at
Satyamangalam at this time or were sent to
that place just previous to the invasion
apprehending danger. So much so, there is no
mention of them in this escapade form
Śrīrangam.
After
some years spent in the old place of exile
of Śrī Rāmānuja, Tirunarayanapuram, he seems
to have returned to his old haunt
Satyamangalam in 1335 A.D. It is recounted
that during this period of exile, his old
friend Śrī Vidyaranya Swamin, the minister
of king Bukka I, the founder of the
Vijayanagar, the capital of the great empire
of Vijayanagar invited Śrī Venkatanātha to
reside at the Court of Vijayanagar,
obviously moved by the impecunious
circumstances of Śrī Venkatanātha. It
appears that though moved by this offer, Śrī
Venkatanātha courteously declined this
honour and help, with five verses breathing
rare beauty and humility. He was content to
enjoy the wrath that God had infinitely
given him, the wealth of knowledge. For him
there was no place for compromise in
religious life just as there was no
compromise with falsity1.
Śrī
Vedānta Desika continued to live a quiet and
peaceful life delivering lectures and
discourses on the many points of the
doctrine. He had already written innumerable
hymns, controversial works and commentaries,
and composed original kavyas. It was in
every sense a peaceful period. As usual his
disciples flocked to him at this new shrine
of power. There was only one dark cloud.
The cloud that darkened the sky of Hindu
Religion. It was only about thirty years
afterwards that the Hindu Empire founded at
Vijayanagar grew sufficiently powerful to
drive out the invaders. It is stated that
sorely grieved Śrī Venkatanātha composed the
Abhiti stava about this time.
Almost in response to this player of the
devotes, God seems to have, through the
instrumentality of one Gopanarya, a General
stationed at Gingee, driven out the last of
the invaders form Śrīrangam and installed
the Idol of Śrīranganatha who had been moved
from place to place during three thirty
years. This was in 1361 A.D. Knowing this
fact Śrī Venkatanātha returned to Śrīrangam
rejoicing in this answer to his prayers. The
two verses that he wrote praising the
services of Gopanarya are even today to be
seen incised on the wall t Śrīrangam.
Having
lived a full life o service (kainkarya) in
the cause of the philosophy of Śrī Rāmānuja,
Śrī Vedānta Desika passed away in the month
of Karthigai Saumya year1369 A.D. Thus came
to an end a great epoch in Visistaadvaita.
____________
1Cf. The
ideal of the Isa, 1 & cf. Janaka’s famous
couplet “Anantam bta me vittam.”
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ŚRĪ VENKATNATHA
The
philosophy of Śrī Venkatanātha cannot be
summarized within the short compassa of an
introduction. But certain general outlines
can be drawn. The Philosophy of Śrī
Venkatanātha is identical with that of Śrī
Rāmānuja, and it is considered that the
great merit of Śrī Venkatanātha’s writings
lies in the synthesis and correlation that
he has made between the several thinkers
who preceded him. He has referred to almost
all his predecessors and has criticized them
or supplemented their views with arguments
revealing wealth of understanding altogether
unsurpassed. His life was on the
philosophical side consecrated to unraveling
he intricate points of philosophical value
which might lead to a synthetic
understanding of the Vedic and Upanisadic
literature and Prabandhic thought. This of
course was necessitated by the tendency of
many followers of the central thought of
Śrī Rāmānuja to interpret one-sidedly. On
the other hand, the constant revival of
philosophical disputations between rival
sects or philosophies imposed on the
philosopher the obligation to substantiate
his subtle Organistic viewpoint. It is more
easy to accept a materialistic monism or
pluralism or a spiritualistic monism or
pluralism, but it is difficult to tread the
path of synthesis that orders all existence
or reality on the basis of a central
principle of Organic relationship. This
difficult and persistent attention to
details. It is usual for most philosophers
to take a very comprehensive view without
entering into the manifold details of the
scheme or order adumbrated. That satisfies
superficial souls or believers but that
cannot satisfy the carping critic who would
insist upon the manifold details being
filled in. this was the task imposed on the
leader, and Śrī Venkatanātha, the giant he
was, undertook the working out of the
innumerable details of the system not only
on its philosophical side, but also whether
the philosophical passed into praxis and
ethics, and all this without losing the
fundamental basis of spiritual consciousness
of the One All-abiding Divine. This radiant
man, spurning all pomp, and power and pelf,
tenacious and zealous in the cause of
promoting a better understanding of the
relation between God and man and the world,
confident about himself, trusting God, ever
at the service of truth, deeply learned I
the thought and knowledge of all the
literature, whether sanskritic or tamil or
prakrit, a venerable teacher and fierce
antagonist, compelling absolute obedience of
his disciples, a patient craftsman and
rigid follower of the sastraic injunctions,
- Śrī Venkatanātha- was the embodiment of
the spirit of Viśstādvaita. We find that his
main desire has been to show the good life,
the life that God has imposed or has ordered
in the world. The path of realization is not
through mere intellectual understanding nor
mere works, but through Devotion, Bhakti,
which includes the performance of works as
well as understanding. The cognitive and
conative faculties of man should be directed
by the power of devotion to the highest
reality, the self of all, and become the
Vision of integral Unity. This devotion can
be manifested fully and integrally through
the understanding of the integral or
organic unity of dependence on the Supreme
Being, the Lord, who is the final Object of
our life (parama purusartha). The
love of God, faith in His wisdom, in His
being our only means of salvation, faith in
His perfect love for man and His anxiety to
lead man to His own transcendent puissant
place, are real and urgently necessary for
man’s progress. The ideal of the
Īśāvāsyopanisad which is herein presented
in translation and the Bhagavad
Gītā-teaching mingle harmoniously with the
central meaning of the ecstasies of the
Alvars. It is no wonder therefore Śrī
Venkatanātha finding that a final and
absorbing synthesis of Upanisadic thought is
presented only in the Īśāvāsyopanisad,
commented on this Upanisad only.
In all
the works that this master has written,
there is a unity of purpose, the central
purpose, of representing the system of
thought for which he stood, of which he was
the most important representative evangel
for nearly a century. He has written a
masterpiece of logic and dialectic such as
the Tattva-mukta-kalapa with his own
commentary Sarvarthasiddhi. This, in
his own words, stands as a testimony to his
omniscient understanding and grasp of all
systems of thought. His renovating efforts
in the sphere of logic are illustrated by
his Nyāya-Pariśuddhi, Nyāya-siddhanjanam
and Sesvaramimamsa. His controversial
works and commentraries are the
Satadusani and his Paramatabhinga,
and Vaditrayakhandana. His expository
works and commentaries are the Satadusani
and his Paramatabhanga, and
Vaditraya-khandana. His expository works
and commentaries are the Satadusani
and his Paramatabhanga, and
Vaditrayakhandana. His expository works
and commentaries are the Tattvatika
on the Śrī Bhasya, Tatparya-candrika
on the Gītā Bhasya, Adhikrana-saravali
on the Śrī Bhasya, Isavasyopanisad-bhasya
on the Upanisad, Pāńcarātra-raksa
and others. His poetic talent and mastery of
composition are displayed in his
Yadavabhyudaya (modeled on the
Raghuvamsa) Hamsasandesa modeled on
the Meghaduta, Sankalpa-suryodaya as
a counterblast to the Prabodha candrodaya,
and his Subhasitanivi modeled perhaps
on the Bhartrhari’s Satakas and the
Padukasahasra. In addition he has
composed 30 hymns on the several deities. He
has written extensively on the inner secret
doctrines of the Śrī Vaisnavas. On the whole
he seems to have composed 118 works, a
prodigious output of literary and
philosophical value. His works have been
acclaimed as of the highest quality by his
contemporaries as well as his successors.
The famous Appayya diksita has written the
commentary on his Yadavabhudaya
–which shows the high esteem in which that
famous Advaitic scholar held Śrī
Venkatanātha.
Despite
the fact that his logical and philosophical
thought had not been paid attention to as
much as it deserves by monistic idealists
such as Prof.S.N. Dasgupta1 and
others, he requires to be studied as a
careful thinker in logic who seeks to
supplant the mere ideological theories of
idealism by a more profound understanding of
the intuitive logic which corresponds most
closely to Organistic conception. The
instrument of thought must be of the same
order s the metaphysical system in which it
finds place. Logical theories cannot be
sundered apart form their metaphysical
bases. It is true that an inductive study of
thought will not be able to overstep its own
shadow or presuppositions. It must start
with the experience it finds, rather that
seek to transplant itself elsewhere. It is
this demand of realistic thought that
happens to be the safest level of
experience. Thought, building itself upon
such foundations, will finally construct its
edifice of knowledge on the surest bases of
science and human experience not excluding
_________
1History
of Indian Philosophy, Vol.III
any experience of
which the human being may be capable.
Religious and mystical consciousness and
even the realization of the Divine fall
within this scheme of understanding. It is
this that Śrī Venktanatha seeks to achieve
through his logical works. In organistic
hypothesis, thus, the foundations of thought
are well-laid and are capable of being
intuitive and intellectual, pragmatic and
ethical.
To have
laid the foundations of this kind of logic
is the greatest contribution of Śrī
Venkatanātha. It is unfortunately true
however that this great work has not been
continued after him as splendidly as my be
desired.
