QUES ANSW DIVINE 2022-17 Dearfriends,
Theseare information posted by members compiled as QA by me in 1998’s-2004’s andstored in my computer. At this date I have no information of the membersposted. Fromthis posting onwards thenumber of questions are reduced to about 15. This avoids a lot ofstrain on me for converting the QA prepared using colour letters and background to black and white and highlight. BEING COMPILATION THERE MAY BE ERRORS. Sincerely, R. Gopalakrishnan, 78, Former ITS ( AGM TelecomTrivandrum) dated 16-01-2022 Q1 Everybody specially from Tamilnaduknows about Appayya deekshithar.What arehis important attributes? A1 Appayya Dikshitar is considered as an Avatar of Lord Siva. Whenhe went to the Tirupathi temple in South India, the Vaishnavas refused him admission. The nextmorning they found the VishnuMurti in the temple changed into Siva Murti.The Mahant was much astonished and startled, and he asked pardon ofAppayya Dikshitar and prayed to him to change the idol again intoVishnu Murti. After Sri Sankara, the world has not seen a genius—a Yogi, Bhakta andscholar—like Sri Appayya. AppayyaDikshitar composed this famous workwhen he was the court poet of King Chinnabomma. AppayyaDikshitar held an impartial view on otherreligions and philosophies. A study of his book Chaturmata Sara Samgraha shows clearly that he was free from all prejudicetowards the other schools of thought, viz., the Dvaita,the Visishtadvaita and the Suddha Advaita schools. Appayya Dikshitarhad no prejudice against any Devata either. Noone has expounded Sri Sankara’s philosophy so correctly and with the same force and emphasis as Sri Appayya has done. Sri Appayya has fullyconveyed to the readers the thoughts of Sri Sankara in his inexhaustiblecommentaries on the Brahma Sutras and other Advaitic texts SriSankaracharya, himself an incarnation ofLord Siva, entered the fourth order of life, viz., Sannyasa, in his early years and taught the people theglory and importance of that order. Soalso, Srimad AppayyaDikshitar, an Amsa vatara of Lord Siva, entered the second order, viz.,Grihasthashrama, and taught the people of the world the method of salvation in and through thatGrihasthashrama AppayyaDikshitar is the reputed author of morethan a hundred and four works, representative of all branches of knowledge in the Sanskrit lan guage and literature. He attained hisgreat fame mainly by his works on VedantaOf his Vedanta works, the Chaturmata Sara Samgraha is justly famousfor the even-handed justice with which it has expounded the tenets of the fourgreat schools Dvaita, Visishta dvaita, Sivadvaita and Advaita .AppayyaDikshitar’s poems in praise of Siva aregreat favourites among the worshippers of Siva. Q2 What was the end of Appayyadeekshithar? A2Appayya went to Chidambaramand stayed there for some~ time.He said that his grandson Nilakanta would become minister to the Pandyanking at Madurai and establish Sivadvaita. Onthe Chaitra Purnima day of the Margasirsha month, inhis seventy-second year, Appayya attained oneness with Nataraja of Chidambaram. Q3 What is the miracle shown byAppayya at kanchipuram in the Pasubandha sacrifice? A3 Appayyaperformed the Pasubandhasacrifice in Kancheepuram. At that time a miracle happened in Kancheepuram. All the Pitambaras (yellow garments) and other ornaments whichwere sacrificed in the sacred fire were seen on the Murti of Varadaraja. The fire in the sacrificial Kund rose up in the sky and proclaimed the glory of Appayya. It presented toAppayya all the Pitambaras which had been sacrificed by him.Narasimha, the King of Thanjavur, and several others witnessed this scene. Q4 Did Appayya showed his realswaroopa to his wife once? A4Yes . Once Appayya’swife, admirers and pupils requested himto show his real Svarupa. Appayya agreed. He sat on Siddhasana and entered into Samadhi suddenly.A lustrous Purusha, Lord Siva Himself, rose from the body of Appayya. He was adorned withRudraksha and Vibhuti and borevarious divine weapons. Q 5 Who was Thathacharya? A5Thathacharya was theminister with king of Vellore and had envy on Appayya. He tried all means to defeat and even to killAppayya and all were futile and finally he was defeated. He requested pardon to Appayya. AfterwardsThathacharya became a great friend of Appayya. All hisinimical thoughts vanished. Appayya asked Thathacharya to go to Pakshi Tirtha and worship the God there for forty-eight days. Thathacharyaacted accordingly. Hereconstructed the Pakshi theertham temple also. Q6 What was the miracleperformed by Appayya deekshithar in the somayanjasacrifice? A6Appayya, known also as Dikshitendra, performed Soma Yajna to propitiate Chandra mauleswara.He performed the Vajapeya sacrifice in Kancheepuram. Seventeen horses were sacrificed. Some scholars alleged that the sacrifice was anact of violence. But Appayyashowed to the audience that the chanting of Vedic hymns andMantras purified everything and gave salvation to the horses. Thespectators saw the horses leaving the gross bodies and ascending to heaven amidst praises bySiddhas, Charanas and Gandharvas. From the sky they praised Appayya and said,"On account of thy grace, we havebeen fortunate to enter heaven". The doubts of the scholars were removed now. Severalkings came to pay homage to Appayya and to receive his blessings, but Chinnabomma, Raja ofVellore, who was deluded by the evil counsel of his ministerThathacharya, did not come. He later on repented very much for not attending the grand Vajapeya Yajna. Chinnabommacame to know of the extraordinary merits and remarkable spiritual glory of Appayya. He wanted to bring Appayya to his State. He sentseveral scholars to invite Appayya. Appayya accepted the invitationand went to Vellore. Chinnabomma honoured Appayya Chinnabomma,Raja of Vellore, invited Appayya andAcchan Dikshitar to his capital after the death of Rangaraja, who was the Chief Pundit of the State. Srinivasa Thathachari, the Dewan, hadgreat dislike for the worshippers of Lord Siva. Hecensured the devotees of Lord Siva. Appayya praised the Siva Lilas and the glory of Lord Siva. Q7 We are told Appayya was a familyman.What are the details of his family?What are the details of his parentage? A7 Appayya married Mangalambika.He led the life of a householder. Hegave education to all the students who came to him from different parts of the land Appayya spread Sanskrit learning far and wide. Appayya had two daughters. Mangalamba, the younger daughter, was a great devotee of Lord Siva.Neelakanta was Appayya’s grandson. Appayya Dikshitar was born in Adayapalam, near Arni in the North Arcot district, in 1554 A.D., in theKrishna Paksha of the Kanya month of Pramateecha Varsha under the Uttara Proushthapada constellation. Hisfather’s name was Rangarajudhwari. Appaya had the name Vinayaka Subramanya whenNamakarana ceremony or christening took place.Acharya Dikshitar orAcchan Dikshitar was the younger brother of Appayya. Appayyastudied the holy scriptures under GuruRama Kavi. He completed the fourteen Vidyas while he was quite young Q8 What is the Dikshithar storyrelated to Kamakshi amman exactly similarto Abhirami bhattar story? A8Ratna Kheta Srinivasa Dikshitar, an erudite scholar in Sanskrit, a devotee ofKamakshi Devi, Kancheepuram, wasthe Chief Pundit of the Court in theChola kingdom. TheChola king asked the Pundit, "OPundit, what is the day today?" The Pundit replied, "Today is FullMoon day". But, really, it was New Moon day. Everybody laughed. SrinivasaDikshitar felt greatly mortified. He was a true devotee of Kamakshi Devi. Her grace was fully upon him. Srinivasa prayed to Her. The Devi appeared before Srinivasa, gave him one ofHer earrings and asked him to throw it in the sky.Srinivasa acted accordingly. The earring attained the form of a full moon and shone brilliantly. The king, the ministers and other people witnessed this marvellous scene and werestruck withamazement. The king made Srinivasa sit on the golden throne, adorned him with jewels andhonoured him highly. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/1956344992.406874.1642304767656%40mail.yahoo.com.
